Driving in Europe

[Randell Floyd]

I have just returned from a lovely trip in Slovinia, and my parents and close family will all be returning there come Spe/Oct.

The roads in Italy, Slovinia and Austria are simply awsome! And I would love to drive them one day.

I am now considering setting off a day or two before the rest of the family and driving there ( 1200 miles ) with a friend.


So I'm looking for peoples thoughts and views on doing so. How many people have driven in Europe? I don't see driving on the other side being a massive problem, the major factor will be the unknown driving elements like their give ways etc ( noticed Slovinia in particular have pretty weird traffic systems ).

Would renting a left hand drive be a good idea? Or will my own car sufice? Sat Nav is 100% must in any car to travel Europe though!


Just the though of a open top for 1000 miles of driving gives me goose bumps!

 

[mattpc]

I don't think that you will have much of an issue driving your own car in Europe. Proceed with caution and you should be ok. Hell, even my mum didnt kill us driving in France when we were kids and she forgot on multiple occasions that she should be driving on the RIGHT hand side of the road!!!

 

[[TW]Fox]

Sat Nav is 100% must in any car to travel Europe though!

Yup, infact its only in the last 3 years with the widespread availability of satnav that people have begun to travel the barren wilderness of Europe - those that did so before were brave, heroeic adventures using nothing but a car and.... an actual map!

 

[mattpc]

rofl but you have to admit Fox that sat nav increases most peoples confidence about driving into the unknown be it Wales or France!!

 

[Dr House]

Remember to take a First Aid kit, warning triangle, GB sticker and a fire extinguisher and your car documents. I always have problems at the Austrian border. Oh and don’t speed in Austria

I have driven from London to Prague (1000 miles) a couple of times without any problems.

 

[rG-tom]

Yup, infact its only in the last 3 years with the widespread availability of satnav that people have begun to travel the barren wilderness of Europe - those that did so before were brave, heroeic adventures using nothing but a car and.... an actual map!

without GPS or superhuman map reading skills, you WILL get lost though

Tom.

 

[Zip]

Remember to take a First Aid kit, warning triangle, GB sticker and a fire extinguisher and your car documents. I always have problems at the Austrian border. Oh and don’t speed in Austria

I have driven from London to Prague (1000 miles) a couple of times without any problems.

What happens if you speed in Austria

 

[Ed]

without GPS or superhuman map reading skills, you WILL get lost though

That's half the fun of travelling. GPS is boring. I would rent a car with left hand drive. It's not the gears you'll have fun with, it's the handbrake, windows etc as you forever bang your hand against the door trying to find things. If only the pedals were reversed, now that would be fun.

 

[Dr House]

What happens if you speed in Austria

Well I drive down to Vienna regularly I do around 100 to 120 upto the Czech Austrian border after that I stick to the speed limit. I was just told by everyone here that they are very strict on speeders and want to be paid on the spot.

 

[Banny]

I drove a VW camper all the way to Greece
my route
Calais to Paris, then down to the Alps which are amazing to drive through even in a campervan. then out of the Alps to Monaco via Lyon and Nice.
The crossed the border into Italy, I stayed on the west coast down to Pisa, then across Tuscuny to the coastal road on the west side, In tuscuny I see all the devastation that the volcano of a few years ago left.
I then drove right down to the bottom to a play called otranto, to get a ferry that had stopped running, so had to drive back up to Brindisi to get ferry to Pireous in Greece.
Then drove from there to Athens, took in Olympia on way, then from athens to sounion and stayed in area for a couple of weeks.
come back on ferry to Ancona, then motorwayed it back to reims, where the fanbelt broke and had to be recovered.
Was a great trip though and yes the roads are superb, well apart from Greece which are like our backroads.

 

[eidolon]

Well I'll be driving up the Sierra Nevada next month when I'm off skiing again. We've hired a car from Malaga and will drive up to Granada where we're staying before hitting the slopes every day. I'm not too worried about the driving but I'll have to figure out how to put snow chains on!

 

[Luke15]

Im from Germany, and have driven all over Europe, hire me as your driver

 

[[DOD]Asprilla]

Sat Nav - Overrated.

Just get a mapbook and explore rather than following instructions that can be vague at best. I took my Sat Nav to Sicily in the summer and it was pointless since the medieval towns we were driving round weren't mapped and it wasn't a big fan of their multiple entry, multiple exit, multiple fly-over junctions.

Sat Nav nearly had to find it's own way home but certainly got turned off when I got told to turn around for the tenth time.

 

[rG-tom]

Sat Nav - Overrated.

Just get a mapbook and explore rather than following instructions that can be vague at best. I took my Sat Nav to Sicily in the summer and it was pointless since the medieval towns we were driving round weren't mapped and it wasn't a big fan of their multiple entry, multiple exit, multiple fly-over junctions.

Sat Nav nearly had to find it's own way home but certainly got turned off when I got told to turn around for the tenth time.

It's invaluable when you don't know where you are though. Turn of the directions and just use a map to explore if you like, but if you don't actually know where you are all the maps in the world dont help That's where gps comes in handy.

Tom.