Two weeks after taking a job at a tech company in 2000, I was sent to Australia with my boss, Peter, and a colleague, Holly, to meet with some photographers who were going to help us launch a website in time for the Olympics.
Two weeks into a job is not a long time to get to know your traveling companions but we were all genial folks and ready for an adventure. We were just cresting the tech bubble and used to the wild ride of those days.
Peter wanted to rent a car so we could get around a bit. But never having driven on the “wrong” side of the road before, he was, well, a bit out of sorts.
After pulling out of the rental car parking lot, we nicked the rear view mirror of a car parked on the right side of the road. Peter hadn’t gotten the hang of staying to the left yet. We all pretended we didn’t see what happened and kept going. After all, we had all just met weeks prior and who wanted to admit that the boss had just swiped a car and then, if we really want to be honest, drove off. (In reality there was likely little if any damage to that rear view mirror but it was just embarrassing, the whole situation. We soon forgot it when Peter ended up slipping on some rocks at Bondi Beach and we had to take him to the hospital for stitches to his head – but that’s a story for another post about how not to hit your head on rocks in a foreign country).
Anyhoo…
There have been other countries where I’ve done the driving on the left side of the road. And quite nicely, I might add. I drove a combi-van up the east coast of Australia and, more recently, my dear friend and Bhutanese sister, Chuki, let me drive her car in Bhutan. That was probably the most challenging driving I’ve done as any time you pass someone, you’re forced to drive with half the car off the road because the roads are so narrow. Quite unnerving when you’re driving on the left. I handed the wheel back over when we arrived in Paro, one of the country’s city’s of any size.
So, what does a North American do when you want to rent a car in a foreign country where they drive on the left? Here are a few tips for driving on the wrong side of the road:
1. Learn to drive a stick shift well in advance as many other countries only offer manual shift cars – particularly in Europe.
2. Before you leave home, find out from your car insurance company if they cover rentals abroad. If not, consider taking the rental agency’s coverage. Though it can be expensive, it’ll be a minor amount compared to what the cost of an accident might cost you.
3. Learn a bit of the language if you don’t already know it. At least enough to read some road signs.
4. Just as you would do with a rental at home, before you drive out of the lot, check the car thoroughly for any damage that might already exist on the car and note it on the paperwork. Also make sure the gas tank is full.
5. Practice driving on the left before you get yourself into any kind of major traffic or get into city traffic. After leaving the rental agency, drive around side streets where there’s less traffic and a lower speed limit. Don’t head out info speeding traffic until you’re good and comfortable.
6. If at all possible, stay away from major cities. True, you’ll likely rent the car at the airport which will be near a major city, but then get out of dodge as quickly as possible. Navigating in a big city is enough to make one a bit queasy.
7. Get a good map from the rental agency and map out some semblance of where you want to go before you even put the key in the ignition.
8. Once in the car, take some time to get used to where all the controls are — particularly the brake and gas peddle. But become familiar with the windshield wipers and headlights as well. That way you won’t be scrambling to find them when you need them most.
9. It’s easy to succumb to peer pressure when you’re driving on the highway where everyone is easily doing 120 kilometers an hour. While it might be legal, it may not be the safest for you, a newbie driver in that country. Stay at a speed that’s comfortable for you but not so slow that it will cause an accident.
If your destination is Europe, Enterprise just launched a website specializing in rentals in Europe including Spain, France, the UK, Germany, Italy and Ireland.
Travel Well,
Beth
*****
This post was done in partnership with Wanderlust and Lipstick and Enterprise Rent-a-Car but they had no input on the content.
Photo credits:
Central London Traffic: oatsy40 via Flickr
Holland Traffic Smileys: Michiel Jelijs via Flickr
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