There’s also a bunch of countries (Costa Rica) that don’t accept right-hand drive, which makes it a pain if you have to ship around them. All countries accept left-hand drive.
I used to live in the Virgin Islands which is left hand drive but drive on the left side. It wasn’t that hard to adjust.
For me driving a right-hand drive in Ireland was a nightmare. I had no feel for how close I was to the wall on the left, or other cars on the right.
Yeah but no one’s selling Toyotas as cheap overlander vehicles. Those are all Econoline vans and stuff.
The roundabouts in Ireland were the worst. I went the wrong way twice. One time no cars. One time in Limerick - lots of cars - not pretty, but no wreck.
This is exactly how I would die. I will remind myself constantly not to do this in the Outback.
I don’t know if this is true or not, but I once read that the one of the most dangerous places to drive were the roads surrounding Heathrow Airport–ostensibly due to tourists who had just picked up their rental cars.
Getting my rental in and out of Dublin at rush hour was terrifying. I can’t imagine London.
I’ve always found the hardest/most unnatural part of opposite-side driving to be centering yourself in the lane (assuming right-side driver).
Cities are a little more stressful but easier in some ways because there’s a bunch of other cars around who generally know what they’re doing so you go with the flow.
Yeah exactly this.
The worst was driving out to the Cliffs of Moher. Rock walls on the left, big trucks (by Euro standards) coming on the right, and we were in the biggest rental we could get - about the size of a Saab, The road just kept getting narrower and narrower and I had no feel for where the car should be.
Also shifting with my left hand the whole time because Europe hates automatics for some reason.
Out of all of the busy and chaotic cities in which I’ve been a pedestrian, by far the place where I felt the most afraid while crossing the street was Dublin.
Haha, yeah, that same drive probably left the most scratches I’ve ever had in a rental car. I don’t remember rock walls but I recalls constantly brushing up against hedges on the narrow roads.
Yeah same. And then the rock walls came (driving from Adare) after I had already scraped on the hedges. I was a nervous wreck that I would seriously damage the car.
International car rentals are the one time I say “Yes, give me all the insurance”.
it’s been so long since I’ve driven a manual I think I would probably die instantly if I had to shift with the left hand
Well, you would need to get out of the lot first.
Yeah driving on the left was no big deal in automatics, but I got stuck with a stick in Ireland recently and I never got used to it even after a week of use. It was a brand new car and I’m sure I burnt that clutch to a crisp.
the car would explode in a nuclear fireball before I got that far
I basically had a work minivan when I was in England. Those hedges on the side of the back roads are no joke. Think I broke leaves/limbs on about 500 of them with my side mirror while riding the center line.
I drive a manual now, but there’s no way I’d ever rent an opposite side stick.
Is there any reason that one of these flights might be better than the other two? Is flying Japan Airlines better than a US carrier?!
After some flight misadventures on my Europe trip I resolved to book directly with the operating airline from now on, which appears to be JAL here. Codesharing caused me some headaches, as did using a 3rd party service, in my case Orbitz.
