Tell Me Something............Anything!

[Macca]

agreed. its a hire car, with driver and often a guide. a great way to see a place. but expensive in most countries, also you dont know who and carrying what, or depositing what, has been in there before you.
.

True but that applies equally to the hire car. And the seat on the aeroplane, the cabin in the boat, chair in the restaurant, or the hotel room they stay in for that matter. If anyone's really bothered about that sort of thing then they are probably best just staying at home.

[Roy S]

Defo different strokes. The taxi thing wouldn't appeal either, as that would still tie us down to relying on public transport, plus I'd love the sense of adventure/thrill of driving a car in a country I'd never been to before, and going off the beaten track! Exploring, for us, is essential.

We like to mix with the locals, and go into small towns/villages and get a REAL feel for the country and its people - especially the food! I'd be wanting to find some little restaurant, tucked down a side street, full of locals, serving the most amazing traditional Caribbean dishes, and most likely for buttons...

Rarely, when we're anywhere (apart from on city breaks for a long weekend) do we do the tourist thing, or for that matter go full board in hotels - always just B&B, so we can choose where we want to eat for our main meals, often somewhere we've discovered whilst out in the car.

Wherever tourists are, especially Brits [as the type you meet abroad tend to be nightmares], we'll go in the opposite direction!!

Enjoy Barbados, when it comes, mate. I'm sure you'll have a great time

Marco.

Cheers Marco, looking forward to sampling the rum punch again.

As far as driving over there is concerned some of the roads I've travelled on can best be described as 'challenging' & not in an enjoyable way (when we visited Grenada I sometimes wondered if what we were on was actually a road).

There are steep hills with single-lane roads that are only partially paved, some of it reminded me of the Top Gear special when they travelled on the 'Death Road' in Bolivia, I can do without those kind of worries when I'm on what's supposed to be a relaxing holiday.

[Marco]

I still don't get the public transport thing. It's a private hire and it is exclusively yours for the day (or the week if you want). If you hire a car then that's transported other people in the past too but you wouldn't call it 'public transport'.

Lol - the main point is, you're not in a private space (like you would be in your own car), but in the company and car of an unknown individual in a strange country. How do you know you can trust them? You're used to travelling alone, but I've got my wife to consider, and she wouldn't be comfortable with that.

And would the taxi (and driver) truly be at our beck and call 24/7?

We like doing things spontaneously, so if at, say, 9pm one evening, we suddenly decided to go out for a meal, in a restaurant in a town 10 miles away, how quickly would the driver be available to take us, and would he or she also be willing to sit there for hours, outside of wherever we were, until we were ready to return to the hotel? We wouldn't be interested in hanging around waiting for someone to come and collect us, and that includes during the day.

Also, you can't truly relax and be yourself when you're sat in a stranger's car.

Del and I like to have good laugh/chat together about all sorts of stuff, and we prefer doing that in private. Plus, only one person can sit in the front seat of a taxi, so the other is left alone on the back seat, where the view's not as good, and you're being bumped around more, and in those circumstances it would be awkward chatting with Del. None of that is a consideration when we're sat together in our own car.

It's just not something we're into mate, or would consider. When on holiday, we like being in control and as self-sufficient as possible. The taxi thing obviously works for you though, so that's cool

Marco.

[Marco]

Cheers Marco, looking forward to sampling the rum punch again.

As far as driving over there is concerned some of the roads I've travelled on can best be described as 'challenging' & not in an enjoyable way (when we visited Grenada I sometimes wondered if what we were on was actually a road).

There are steep hills with single-lane roads that are only partially paved, some of it reminded me of the Top Gear special when they travelled on the 'Death Road' in Bolivia, I can do without those kind of worries when I'm on what's supposed to be a relaxing holiday.

Yup, I totally get that. For us though (me in particular), those "worries" are all part of the fun and adventure - and sometimes you can have some wonderful experiences in the process, by being willing to wander!

Marco.

[Roy S]

There are other reasons I don’t drive over there

Cape Verde



Grenada

[Marco]

Ha - love it!

We're not big into boozing, though. Our alcohol intake acts pretty much as an accompaniment of food, and is consumed strictly in moderation. Occasionally, we'll have a 'night cap' in the hotel bar, before going to bed, but that's it. If we were different, having a car would be no use!

Marco.

[Roy S]

I'm still not sure what it was I drank in Cape Verde, I asked for a glass of what the locals drink and the lady produced a labelless plastic bottle from a cupboard. I've never tasted it but I'm guessing it was their version of potcheen, it was quite powerful & I was soppy as a sack for a few hours after drinking it.

[Oddball]

Today I wanted to get my old cassette player up and running after I fitted a new set of belts about 9 months ago.
This was to record a few cassettes for the cassette radio I fixed into my work tractor because the radio /cd in it was goosed !!

I am not usually in the habit of going backwards but as I had the unit sat on my workshop shelf ,I thought it would be fun!

So a couple of hrs later and I have recorded a C 90 cassette ( a new one ) with War of the Worlds

Feeling like the cat that got etc ,I inserted said cassette in player for it to not drive/function (probably a drive belt again Lol)

Well ,at least I have a good functioning radio for my Highway Radio to work correctly !! Planet Rock rules
and a cassette thats works !! I just need to use the thing now !

[Pigmy Pony]

I still don't get the public transport thing. It's a private hire and it is exclusively yours for the day (or the week if you want). If you hire a car then that's transported other people in the past too but you wouldn't call it 'public transport'.

Completely agree. If your driver kept stopping to pick up and drop off other fares, I would call it "public".

[Macca]

Lol - the main point is, you're not in a private space (like you would be in your own car), but in the company and car of an unknown individual in a strange country. How do you know you can trust them? You're used to travelling alone, but I've got my wife to consider, and she wouldn't be comfortable with that.

And would the taxi (and driver) truly be at our beck and call 24/7?

We like doing things spontaneously, so if at, say, 9pm one evening, we suddenly decided that we wanted to drive out somewhere for a meal, how quickly would the driver be available to take us, and would he or she also be willing to sit there for hours, outside wherever we were, until we were ready to go back? We don't want to be hanging around waiting for someone to come and collect us, and that includes during the day.

.

Yes you can do all that, walk out the hotel entrance and you've got a bloke right there at your disposal, day or night. They might be strangers to begin with but not after a while. As long as you treat them like a human being and not a servant of course. They're not into that at all for obvious reasons.

I don't know about the French islands, they can be quite dangerous I'm told but go to one of them that used to be British you'll have no problems. Maybe not Jamaica though, not been there.