The Fastest Route To A Rental Car: Fill & Download for Free

That was just a year ago. Going from Switzerland to Stuttgart visiting my cousins. I had a nice rental car, a large Audi. On the German autobahn, between Singen near Lake Constance and after Villingen-Schwenningen, there are some nice open stretches of road with little traffic and no speed limit.I had it up for 220 km/h for maybe 5 minutes, going full throttle. That is some 135 mph. I had my wife and two daughters with me. It takes a lot more than that to scare them out! They are from Northern Mexico.No I was not young and stupid. More like 54 years old. There was not much traffic, as I said, and the road there is exceptionally well-made. You get into this heightened state of awareness and you pay attention to the slightest details. Check the rear mirror too, once in a while. Porsches and Lambs go faster still and they do not like getting slowed down! This is a well-known racing road for Swiss wishing to get their fast toys a workout. In Switzerland, speed limit is 120 km/h or 75 mph. And you are lucky to get that fast due to all the traffic, curves, bridges and tunnels.Last week, we were coming back from Stuttgart again over the same route, this time in my own car, a 1995 Citroen. I had it up to 175 km/h or 110 mph going down the hill towards Singen. Considering the old age of that car, this is pretty good, but there was no point at blowing the engine! But the old lady would breeze along at a good 140 km/h clip without effort. It still has this hydraulic suspension that makes the ride as smooth as if riding on a cloud.

The craziest rental car situation:I knew I wanted to explore America, and the world, at a very young age. Through decades of relentless road trips, I finally made it to every U.S. county. This was probably the most difficult of all my bizarre travel goals!The road trip rulesPurchasing the DeLorme software changed everything. The most efficient digital atlas I’ve ever seen provides every single road, no matter how remote or unpaved, in the entire United States. The GPS is so efficient it will track your vehicle in the most remote regions, and even worked when I sailed to Antarctica!Along the way, scouring every corner of America on my travels, I developed some rules to make it more interesting.Rental cars: I have to accept whatever rental car the company gives me, even when it’s not what I reserved.The loop: If I’m not embarking on a road trip from my hometown, I fly to an airport somewhere in America, rent a car, and drive in a minimum 3,000-mile loop, zigzagging throughout as many checkpoints as possible.Shortest path: I must set the DeLorme software path to “shortest” rather than “fastest” so that we’re forced to use some crazy backroads on the most direct route and really explore America with the element of a little danger.The storyIt was road trip #435 for me during the spring of 2006 when I flew with a friend to Salt Lake City, planning on an exhaustive search of everything relevant in Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, and the southeast corner of Oregon. These extraordinary itineraries are the only way to see as much as I’ve seen in a lifetime, and it is absolutely thrilling.This region has some magnificent mountains, and even in spring you’ll find snow and ice, plenty of mud, and some crazy off-roading for sure! I intentionally rented a four-wheel-drive vehicle to navigate the impending craziness, a full-size SUV advertised by Budget Rent a Car as a Chevy Tahoe or similar (below).When we landed at Salt Lake City and proceeded to the Budget counter, they informed me that the only car left was a Ford Mustang (below). I explained the types of roads we were going to be navigating and suggested they might not want me driving a convertible sports car on a dirt road in the ice and snow. I mentioned that I intentionally rented an SUV. They replied, “There’s nothing we can do about it. Just take the Mustang.” In the mountains? In the snow? You’ve got to be kidding me.I’ve had a lot of rental cars that weren’t what was promised on the Internet, but this was ridiculous! So, we drove that Mustang all over that part of America, even on a road for logging trucks where we slowly crept over boulders fit for a Jeep. And yes, we eventually got stuck on a muddy, snowy forest road many hours from civilization. Remarkably, it’s the only time I’ve ever been stuck on an American road trip, despite other close calls.But we made it out and lived to tell the tale.

Best?If you are asking which road is in the best condition and easiest to drive, I would suggest Saddle Road (aka Route 200 or Daniel K. Inouye Highway) which runs from Hilo to a point 11 miles south of Waimea. This is the fastest route from Hilo to Kailua Kona, and the only route to visit Mauna Kea and its observatories.For many years, the road was in disastrously poor condition and rental car companies would routinely prohibit it's use. (Saddle Road was the answer to the long-standing Big Island riddle: Why are there no roller coasters on the Big Island? None could match the drive.)Today, and thanks to Federal funding, Saddle Road is perhaps the best road on the Island -- safe, straight, well-marked).Of course, by "best" you may also mean "most enjoyable" or "most scenic." If that is your meaning, then I would recommend Kohala Mountain Road (Hwy 250) that runs from Hawi, at the north end of the Island, to Waimea. You'll spend between 45 minutes and an hour driving the full length of the road, will climb and then descend about 3,000 feet in elevation, and have some of the best views imaginable of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, the coastline and the sea towards Maui. The drive is a treat.But why choose? Combine both experiences and overwhelm your senses. Start in Hawi, take the Kohala Mountain Road to Waimea, drive 11 miles South from Waimea on Mamalahoa Hwy to Saddle Road and take Saddle Road to the Visitors Center for the Mauna Kea Observatories, where you will find the best view of the heavens available on earth. You will be amazed and might never go home. I didn't.