Within North America, driving can be a pleasure. You should consider joining an automobile club such as AAA, planning the routes you will take and where you might like to stop. You can go online to find out major sites you would like to see en route. And, of course, buying a Frommer's guide will help you before, during and even after a trip. Also remember to go to the destination you want on this Web site for complete information on what you would like to do and see.
Our advice is to avoid the major interstates and other fast motorways and try the back roads. You will have a vacation en route to your vacation if you do so, as the small towns and countryside of North America are replete with marvelous places to stop and see what's going on. The real life of rural America is available out there, if you but take the time to find it.
Driving in Europe can be a splendid opportunity, too. Again, take the back roads, visit those charming little towns with their quaint restaurants and inns, their sleepy squares, the cobble-stoned streets. Get lost, have a picnic, rest after lunch (take your shoes off and walk in the grass, wade in the stream, maybe even pick some flowers).
Driving in Australia and New Zealand can be as pleasant as it is in Ireland, and less crowded. But remember to stay to the left, and to watch out for animals at all times, even in the deserts of Oz.
On some Caribbean islands, it's pleasant to rent a car and drive around to different beaches or villages. But be careful, drive slowly at all times, and remain alert for livestock, other sleepy drivers like you, and lack of signs and nighttime illumination.
We do not recommend renting a car and driving in ANY other part of the world, INCLUDING the Asian part of Turkey and any part of Mexico or the rest of Latin America. The reasons are myriad, but include bad roads, banditry, lack of appropriate signs, poor law enforcement, corruption of some law authorities, and lack of available legal representation--not to mention insurance problems. In many developing countries, you can hire a car with driver for about the same as it might cost to rent a car in developed countries. In some nations such as Japan, you would be completely safe driving around, but there are not enough signs in English or even town names in roman letters, so you would easily get lost. You would probably not even know how to navigate the toll booths.