I have booked a trip to the UK where I intend to go hiking in the Lake District and Snowdonia. My itinerary is as follows:>day 1: arrive in Manchester, go to Lake District and hike Helvellyn>day 2: hike Scafell Pike>day 3: day trip to the Isle of Man from Liverpool airport, go to Wales in the evening>day 4: hike Snowdon>day 5: depart from Manchester in the evening, not sure if I should spend the day hiking more or exploring the cityObviously the easiest way to get around is by car. Just at a glance, public transport to these places is possible, but only at weird hours and it takes twice or three times as long as just driving there. If I'm wrong here, please enlighten me. Now, I've had my driver's license for five years and I'd say I'm a good driver. I've driven abroad in a rental car twice without problems. However, I've never driven in a country with left hand traffic. This trip involves a fair bit of driving, and I'm obviously a bit apprehensive about renting a car and setting off on the wrong side of the road in a country with over 40 million drivers (by far the most populated country I will have ever driven in).Does anyone have experience with renting a car and driving in a country that drives on the opposite side that you're used to? How was it?
>>2875711It's pretty intuitive. The main mind bender is trying to drive a rhd on a lhd country and vice versa.
>>2875711I recommend springing for the automatic even if you're comfortable with a manual
>main dangerturning left onto a road without traffic and defaulting into the right lane>main challengegetting used to the mirrored geometry while maneuvring>main annoyancewindshield wipers when you wanted to indicate and vice versaAlso:>not visiting the Isle of Man on a motorcycle or as a foamerHow much will you get from a couple hours there?
>>2875712I can imagine, I wouldn't dare drive my own car over there, luckily that's not a problem with a rental.>>2875714Oh absolutely, I'm shit with a manual even at the best of times lol>>2875715>turning left onto a road without traffic and defaulting into the right laneThis is what I fear the most. Especially in the countryside with narrow, twisty roads and fewer cars. Any tips how to reduce the risk?>How much will you get from a couple hours there?It's not ideal, but it fits my itinerary pretty perfectly so I just went for it. I'll land there at 9am and leave at 6.30pm, so I'll have the whole day. Motorcycles and races doesn't interest me in the slightest, so I figure I'll spend my time hiking if the weather's nice and walking around Douglas and checking out the city. I'd love to have two weeks to spend in every location I visit, but I'm limited in both time and money, so when an opportunity arises to tick an obscure territory off the list, I take it.
Be careful in the Lake District anon, there are a few mountain passes there that are a little fucked if you're not used to driving steep gradients (Hardknott for example has a 33% grade)Your itinerary seems a little tight too, honestly I would cut the Isle of Man from it and throw more time into either the Lakes or Snowdonia
>>2875721It sounds autistic but if you're alone then point & call does the trick.Try to go up Snaefell if the weather's good.
>>2875722Looking at it on Google Maps now and holy shit that's scary. I'm not unfamiliar with driving on shit forest roads, but going at it in a rental and risk losing thousands if I get a scratch, oh boy. I'll avoid that if I can lol, thanks for the heads up.>Your itinerary seems a little tight too, honestly I would cut the Isle of ManFlights are already booked. Like I said it's not perfect, and if I could spend more time in each place I would, but I only have five days. I want to cram as much as I can into those five days because my next opportunity to visit IOM might not come soon you know.>>2875723I've thought about putting post-it notes on the dashboard that says "LEFT!!" with arrows pointing, I'll drive alone so autistic tricks are absolutely on the table. Snaefell in good weather would be lovely, fingers crossed for that!
You get used to it pretty quickly. You will naturally drift away from the center line so just pay attention.
>>2875711i'm from the uk and i have spent quite a lot of time working in the usa with rental cars each time i was therethe driving itself is not actually that difficult. everything is basically a mirror image (the pedals also reversed) so i just spent a few minutes doing a few laps around the car park to get acclimatised before heading out onto the roadi found it more challenging getting used to the different rules of the road. for example the rule that it's ok to turn right if you are at a red traffic light always felt a bit strangealso remember that some things about driving in the uk are just a bit weird. distances on road signs are in miles, but we buy fuel in liters, that kind of thingeven so, you are doing the right thing. getting around some of those places by public transport would just be a pain
>>2875747Thanks for the advice. Doing a few practice laps before setting off sounds like a good idea. I think I'd handle the different rules of the road pretty well (I think!), the only thing that would be weird are speed limits in miles, since I'm so used to kilometers. But the speedometer will be in miles anyway so I should adapt quickly. I hope, lol.>even so, you are doing the right thing. getting around some of those places by public transport would just be a painThanks for that, knowing public transport is off the table makes it an easier decision. A calm sea never made a skilled sailor I suppose.
>>2875711I drove in Japan a month after getting my license in europeGot used to it near instantly except for the blinker/wiper sticks being swapped
>>2875711i am british and drove Pacific Coast Highway in California in an opposite side drive car, also an automatic. you get used to it quickly, it isn't a big deal.although on these rural roads in the lake district etc, where there sometimes is not a lot of traffic and you have a car full of people talking, foriegners often lose concentration and drift back onto the wrong side of the road. i live in the highlands of scotland and every year there are multiple deadly crashes caused by foreigners driving on the wrong side of the road.as long as you concentrate you will be fine.
You'll be fine. Just be mindful of where you position yourself relative to the center line / edge of the road. Make sure you know how roundabouts work too.
Actually I think non-brits are better drivers while in Britain because we're so nervous about doing the wrong thing we pay 3x more attention at any given moment. It's great if you have a wingman in the passenger seat who can shout at you if needed. That being said, you'll get used to it pretty quick, it's like in a video game where the controls are reversed, your brain "resets" and then you're fine. I do recommend watching some videos on roundabout etiquette. >Narrow, twisty roadsLake District and Wales have the narrowest country roads I've seen in my life. When another car approaches you just...figure it out, and hopefully neither of you was speeding (though if the other guy is local he probably was). I rented a bigass SUV last time and boy was that a mistake.
The main thing you will struggle with is gauging the distance between your "passenger side" and the kerb. You will probably be hitting the kerb a lot if you aren't careful. Also roundabouts. Some smaller roundabouts in the UK don't have a separator island with a blue arrow clearly indicating which side you need to be on so it's an easy mistake to try and circle it anti clockwise. That's not a problem in the bigger roundabouts though because they have the islands and massive black and white chevrons indicating the direction of traffic. I don't know what country you're from or which countries you've visited, but one thing to keep in mind is British roads are old. Even by European standards because most European countries went through large road redesign and rebuilding projects in the 60s and 70s. NIMBYism won in the UK and cars got faster, so you there's roads with very high speed limits but still following the same gradients, angles and cambers of when they were built for horses. And this isn't a feature of country roads only. There are major routes thousands of people use to commute every day where large vehicles still have to negotiate when passing each other. Having said that British drivers are generally polite and patient. They are used to stopping every 200m if they're stuck behind a bus and there's not enough room to overtake, so instances of road rage are relatively low compared to most other countries. If you want to let everyone know you're anxious, you can search for a green "P" sign, I think they're called new drivers sign, and they're used by drivers who recently passed their driving test to indicate they're inexperienced lol. You can put one of those on your car regardless of how long you held your license for and it might let other drivers know to be extra patient around you.
>>2876154>>2876258>>2876282>>2876322Thanks for the answers guys, I appreciate you trying to calm my nerves. Just focus and I'll be fine. Looking at a map it seems I'll be able to get around on major roads and avoid the dirt tracks altogether, which helps a lot. >roundaboutsIf I get to a double mini roundabout I'll straight up turn on my hazards and just inch through it lol. Those things fucking scare me.>I don't know what country you're from or which countries you've visitedI'm from Norway and have driven here and in Sweden and Denmark with my own car as well as in Portugal and Latvia with a rental. Roads here can be single-lane with passing places every few hundred meters, so at least I'm familiar with the concept. >Having said that British drivers are generally polite and patient.That's comforting to hear. Better than here then lol. I've ordered one of those green P plates on Temu and fingers crossed it'll arrive before I leave. Do people really respect it? If you drive with a red L here people just become more impatient around you.
>>2876541If you want to be extra reassured, the UK driving test is one of the hardest in the world... so people are usually more understanding and polite when driving with drivers that might not be as well-versed like learners with L or P plates. Mini roundabouts are easy, just make sure no-one is approaching from the right.
>>2876874Thanks mate, and thanks everyone ITT for reassuring me. If this thread is still up in two weeks time I'll update everyone on how it went.
>>2877305>If this thread is still up in two weeks time I'll update everyone on how it went.Bumping for an update.
OP here, I'm home again now. Sorry for not updating you guys, I was constantly on the move and I hate phoneposting, so when I saw someone had bumped the thread I just decided to wait until I was home and could write on my PC again. It went about as you guys predicted, it was surprisingly easy and I adjusted to the opposite driving pattern within a minute. I positioned myself in the "wrong lane" on parking lots all the time, but other than that I had almost no issues. >roundaboutsEasiest thing I've ever done. I was very surprised how easy my brain adjusted to going around it the wrong way. Using the opposite indicators were strange though lol.>mixing up the blinkers and wipersDidn't happen once, another thing my brain just had no issues with>staying in my laneThis one I did find difficult. I found myself drifting over to the left quite often, I'd check my mirrors and see that my left wheel was almost on the white line. Meeting other cars on a narrow road was quite uncomfortable for that reason, I had no sense of how large my car was or where in the lane I was positioned. >t-junctionsMy brain computed the roundabouts fine, but struggled massively when I approached a T-junction and the cars were coming from opposite sides than what I'm used to. I almost got murked once because I was going right, looked left and saw no one, started rolling into the road, and slammed on the brakes because a car was coming full speed from the right in the lane I was about to cross. That was quite scary and I took my sweet time in those situations after that.>green PMy green P plate arrived from Temu before I left and I used to the entire time. Impossible to say if it made any difference, no one honked at me or anything at least. I generally found Brits to be good drivers, I think they'd benefit from learning to keep a greater distance to the car in front, but other than that, no problems. Thanks everyone again for the advice I got here.
