Q // I’d like to mark my 20th birthday with a European road trip. Do any car hire companies rent to under-21s?

A road trip is filled with endless possibilities, but for the under-21s it can appear to be a dead end. However, some of the bigger car hire companies — Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz and Six — will rent you economy- or compact-class vehicles in Iceland, Croatia, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy Poland, Switzerland and Germany, for example.

For the majority of these, though, you need to have held a full valid licence for at least a year, if not two — be sure to check.

Unfortunately, you should forget a road trip in the UK, Turkey, Malta, Greece and Cyprus as you need to be 21 to hire a car there. For Ireland, that age is 25. If you want to go further afield for a later trip, under-21s can consider the US, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.

Most rental companies will tack a Young Driver Surcharge on to the car rental price if you’re under 25, and the fees vary from around £5 per day to £36 a day or more. This daily fee tends to be charged for a maximum of 10 days.

Young drivers may also have to accept higher excesses. Shop around for good value car hire excess insurance before your trip. It’s much more expensive to get this when you get to the arrivals desk.