Thinking about a road trip around Europe

Thorbar

Myself and my girlfriend are considering doing a road trip around Europe this summer. We're both experience drivers, she's had her licence for 5 years and I've been driving for 5 and had my licence for 2. Also I've got a car, its a camry '96 2.2 ltr and in good condition. Her brother lives in Amsterdam which we were considering as a first stop and just playing it by year after that. The major thing that I'm worried about is driving on the wrong side of the road and my driving seat being on the wrong side of the seat.

I'm just wondering does anyone have any experience with switching from driving on the left hand side to driving on the right hand side? Also does anyone know if AA or the like offer an Europe wide service? Will driving a left hand car in a right hand system be a complete nightmare and am I better off looking into renting a car/camper van for a month or two?

I've posted this here and in the Travel forum if this isn't the right place for it please delete.

Phryxus

Is there any reason why you want to drive as opposed to get an interrail ticket? Maybe something to consider If you're planning to be travelling all the time.

Thorbar

Well the major reason for driving is that we would have a lot more flexability in the car, able to drive whenever we want and whereever. Also if we failed to find a spot to camp or a hostel we could always just kip in the car.

unkel

Thorbar wrote:

The major thing that I'm worried about is driving on the wrong side of the road

You'll be driving on the RIGHT side of the road

RHD on LHD roads is not that much of an issue provided you'll be good and tape your lights. You'll probably do mostly motorway travel so the single carriageway overtaking issue won't affect you much

IrishRover

When I first drove a LHD car I kept winding down the window when I wanted to reach for the gearstick! It took a while to "untrain" myself to drive a LHD car. Even though that was more than 10 years ago, I still feel a little out of place at the controls of a left hand drive car. It just feels much more natural to have the gear stick on my left. However, I find that because I am driving an LHD car, I am concious of that fact so I don't have much of a tendancy to drift to the left hand side of the road.

If you drive your RHD car on the continent, for the most part you will be fine as you will be doing motorway driving alot of the time where it really doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference and you will be just as comfortable driving your car as you are at home. However, it is because of this that you need to watch out when you leave the motorway. Because you are driving your RHD car, you will have a greater tendancy to drift back to driving on the left hand side of the road so you need to remind your self of this every time you leave the motorway to stick to the right hand side of the road. Get your girlfrirnd to watch out for this too. You'll need to take extra care at junctions and overtaking on normal roads you will probably need to rely on your girlfriend's eyes to say whether it is safe to overtake or not.

I'm sure all the breakdown companies do Europe wide cover by the way.

Borzoi

Thorbar wrote:

Also does anyone know if AA or the like offer an Europe wide service? .

Yes, they certainly do, at a premium over the standard rates though.

Just watch your insurance - most only cover for 30days europe/UK so you'll have to extend, though I doubt it will cost much