Driving on the ‘Other’ side of the road

Thanks! I do think that I will give it a go in May. I’ll come back and let folks know how it goes.

I have never ever noticed that arrow before!!! And we’ve driven hundreds of rental cars! Thanks for that tip!:rofl:

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We just got back from England, and I must say driving, or being the passenger is a bit of a harrowing experience! We can drive a stick shift but we choose an automatic. We also have driven in many areas of the world, and we are originally from the USA, we have been living in Portugal now for over three years, and we are used to the narrow roads. However the roads in England felt way more narrow, my husband did hit a curb and blew out a tire. Nice thing about renting in England everything is included. My husband finally got the hang of it, but he was struggling to not hug the curb, he said he felt like he was going to hit a car head on. The best thing to remember is you feel like you are sitting in the middle of the road. Hope this helps. The markings on the road are well laid out, reminding you of what side of the road you need to be on. The tricky parts are the roundabouts. Hope you have a great trip, and hope some of this helps.

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Thought I would update on my experience on this topic. In May, I rented a car (automatic) in the town of Marlow in Buckinghamshire. My thought was, fairly rural, should be a good, safe place to learn how to drive on the other side. Well…… It was a pretty costly lesson and failure. I picked up the car and within an hour, hit something on the left with the tire and got a bad flat. Like, tire off the rim flat.

Called the rental company and they came and picked me up with a new car. We needed to drive back to their office to fill out new paperwork, I asked to drive back and the young man said sure. It was less than 5 miles.

At least 10 times on the way back he encourage me to go more to the middle. When we got back, I asked his opinion. He said ‘ honestly, I’m not sure’. I decided to NOT rent the car as I felt too fearful. It constantly felt to me like I was going to run into the on-coming cars.

They were nice enough to give me a 50% refund on my week rental. But, it still cost me about $800 (500 pounds for the insurance deductible and half the weekly rental).

The next time I come to the UK (and there will be a next time), I’ll buy a couple hours of driving lessons before I even consider driving. I think that would be affordable, and, get me to the comfort level I need to be to drive there.

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@Cleeflang well darn . I too would like to master the skill of driving on the other side.
(I’m a USA driver) I would also like to get comfort with a manual car again.

I grew up in Ireland and now live in the US. I drive a car in Ireland at least once a year, but still feel like I’m driving down the center line when I’m on the left side of the road. Luckily I’m not a nervous driver (though my passengers might feel anxious!). On my last visit, the car had lane sensing warning signals, and they were very helpful.