"Car rental is booming and people who book are Thailand's repeat visitors," said Alan Davidson, managing director of Budget Thailand who over five years has his holiday related car rentals quadruple.

"My guess is they visited Thailand on the typical bus tour and decided they would return and do a similar trip but with a rental car."

Three international car rental firms - Avis, Budget and National - have depots at 26 popular tourist destinations throughout the country and with very few exceptions the stations are doing a thriving business renting out cars to tourists.

In Phuket alone, the major players have an estimated 500 rental cars on the road every day, with another 350 vehicles, an assortment of jeeps and the four-wheel drive Suzuki, rented by street-side vendors.

Top car rental destinations are Phuket, Samui, Chiang Mai and Pattaya, but there other destinations that are catching up mainly in the northeast region noted for its fine highways and light traffic.

Contrary to the myths and tales, accidents involving tourists are few and far between. Budget's statistics show 70% of all the accident reports on rented cars come from lease contracts involving Thai drivers, not tourists. According to Budget, "Tourists are usually very cautious. Many of them are not accustomed to right hand drive and they are on holiday so they take their time."

There are some cautionary notes attached to a self-drive holiday in Thailand.

Car rental firms recommend you drive with the sun - start early at sunrise and end at sunset. Based on accident statistics, the advice is "Never drive at night. There are just too many surprises on Thai roads after dark. If you can't see don't drive."

Surprises come in all shapes and sizes. Motorcycles driven the wrong way without lights are one hazard but you are just as likely to encounter a drunken farmer meandering across a country highway in search of his home. Night is the domain of the long distance truck driver and right of way is determined by size, not the Highway Code.

"It's the only advice we give. If drivers follow that rule, the risk that the holiday will end with an accident diminish considerably," says Mr Davidson.

His confidence comes from statistics based on thousands of rentals most of them sourced from international tour operators in Europe who are always concerned that their customers return home happy and healthy.

Self-drive holidays in Thailand appear in all of the major tour operator brochures published in Europe that is viewed as a strong endorsement.

It's a bookable product as simple as reserving an airline seat or a hotel room. In most cases the sales staff in the retail travel agencies will flip through the tour catalogue and quickly fit the travel modules together calculating the accommodation deals - room and breakfast - into a package alongside the air fare and car rental with pick up at the destination's airport.

From airports anywhere in the country, with the exception of Bangkok, you are likely to have the highways almost to yourself.

Confidence to motor and explore Thailand is based on the country's excellent road network, English language road signs on all the trunk roads and the friendliness of villagers who the point the way when you are lost. But it is probably wise to double check using the comprehensive maps and guidebooks available in all major languages at bookstores. The Michelin maps and Lonely Planet guidebooks are indispensable for the serious traveller.

Cars are fully insured with the maximum liability a tourist would have to pay set at approximately US$125. Budget claims its mechanics run a 24-hour breakdown service with a guaranteed rescue times of two hours from any of its depots. If medical services are required, car rental comes with SOS International assistance that has multi lingual medical advice and doctors.

Thailand does not have breakdown services like those found in Europe or the US but the car rental firms station network staffed seven days a week and drivers are given toll free numbers before they depart on a trip. Cars are usually late models with less than 50,000 km on the clock.

Average rentals differ between the stations but most rentals in Phuket and Chiang Mai are four days while the much smaller Samui island tops at 2 days.

Born in rainy Manchester, an industrial city in northern England, Don Ross came to Thailand in 1969 on a journey that was supposed to take him to Australia. He felt so at home in Thailand he never left and eventually was adopted as a Thai citizen in 1998.

After teaching at Assumption Commercial College, he learned his skills in journalism at the Bangkok Post's proof room before turning his hand to tourism writing under the watchful eye of author Jack Reynolds who penned Woman of Bangkok in the early 70s.

During his stint with Allied Newspapers he edited the first travel publication to target overseas travel agents who specialised in Thailand tours and in 1978 established his own weekly publication Travel Trade Report that focuses on travel in Thailand and the Mekong region. He continues to write a weekly travel column for the Bangkok Post's Horizons travel section.