Roundabout etiquette .... Give way to the cars in the circle. There is often a yield sign on the app

seeking your advice whether to drive or not to drive in right-side drive england. we are 3 adults, none of us had ever driven in the right side. however, we have driven to many continental europe countries in our previous vacations. we truly enjoy the independence and flexibility of independent, self touring, driving our own car type of vacation.
we will be going to england in early oct and will be touring tom cruise in risky business the countryside - cotswolds and bath specifically. we were originally resigned to taking a bus tour out of london on the days we want to head out to the countryside. but we are now considering the possibility of driving. any helpful tips/advice how to do this to avoid unpleasant incidents? i read in one of my guidebooks that we can buy a P ( or an R, cant remember exactly what letter ) sign from a gas station to put in our car's window to warn other drivers that we are provisional or novice right side drivers. ( this is a great idea, IMO ). other than this, all the advice i have been given as a pedestrian in a right hand drive area is to look to the right first, then left, then right again when crossing the street.
Depending upon the drivers' physical dexterity, it won't take a long time to make the adjustment. As you mention above, however, people used to driving on the other side, don't look in the correct directions automatically so proceed with caution. The novice driver sticker makes a great deal of sense.
I drove in Ireland, and while it never became "automatic", eventually did kind of get used to it. Maybe you designzate one person (or two) to be the drivers, so they acclimiatize faster. While it may be more expensive, an automatic car would take away one worry.
If you were just heading out for one day from London it is probably best to either pick destinations that are easily reached by public transport, or take a day tour. The hassle factor of renting/driving/returning the car would eat up a fair amount of your day.
For that a car is easiest and probably cheapest for the three of you. It is easy if any of you are competent tom cruise in risky business drivers at home. Not so much if you are inexperienced or nervous drivers on your home turf.
Not in some town -- Driving in towns large enough to have national rental agencies is not the way to learn your way around the controls/signs/feel of the process. Getting used to the car on a major motorway from the airport tom cruise in risky business is much easier w/ a lot fewer distractions to worry about.
You don't want to start out from Bath or Oxford. One exception is the Hertz depot in Oxford -- but it isn't in central Oxford but in a suburb that is very easy to get out of on your way to Woodstock or the Cotswolds. But you'd have to take a cab from the train station.
Definitely get an automatic even if you normally tom cruise in risky business drive stick. tom cruise in risky business We are experienced stick shift drivers and did find the "wrong position" tom cruise in risky business of the stick confusing. Other than that it was fine. You just need to be more alert than you normally are.
Depends on where you are from, agree that driving thru circles may be challenging if you're not familiar with that. Our rule of thumb is if we miss the exit, just keep going and come back later. afterall, it's a circle
I've driven in Britain and it worked out fine as long as I avoided congested areas and night driving. One person should do all the driving to become acclimated. On highways remember the left lane is the slow lane.
Roundabout etiquette is the same in Britain as it is in the US, France, Portugal, Czech Republic, etc. Give way to the cars in the circle. There is often a yield sign on the approach to the circle to remind you. You drive clockwise around circles in Britain. Stay on the inside lane until you are close to your turn off and then move to the outside lane while signalling your intention.
It is when you first collect your car or are exiting from a carpark that you are most likely to forget that you are driving on the "wrong" side of the road. We always designate the frontseat passenger to be the Reminder in these situations.
wow, thanks all for your feedback. tdudette, that's exactly the mental image i have of driving in england : screaming passengers, hair standing on its ends ala albert einstein. ha-ha-ha. azzure, stone walls whizzing by 6 inches tom cruise in risky business from our faces, that wasnt helpful :/ ( funny though. i'm imagining a scene from some slapstick comedy, a car with screaming, frantic passengers )
i read in one of my guidebooks that we can buy a P ( or an R, cant remember exactly what letter ) sign from a gas station tom cruise in risky business to put in our car's window to warn other drivers that we are provisional or novice right side drivers. ( this is a great idea, IMO ).
Drivers in Britain MAY attach a green "P" plate for the first year after passing their test. Its use is voluntary, and its significance ("I've got limited driving experience") scarcely understood. Those who do understand it certainly won't think the driver carrying the plate is a foreigner.
The idea IS batty, though in this case. Other drivers will still assume basic common sense (like instinctively driving tom cruise in risky business on the proper side), and its use may delude a foreign driver carrying the plate others will make allowances that they just won't.
The words "mountain" and "molehill" apply here. We all happily drive in foreign countries where they don't only drive on the wrong side: they speak funny foreign languages and use weird foreign measurements. NONE of us kick up the song and dance 99.9% of Americans, if this board is typical, seem to think they're entitled to about following local driving laws. And when did anyone last see a post here from a Frenchman or German about this?
Janisj's absolutely right about not collecting cars in "small towns". Airports or really suburban depots give you the chance to practice the car in a big open space before encountering traffic in earnest. No city-centre collection depot (including city-centre depots operated by hire companies collecting you from a station or airport) ever has enough space to allow this.
London drivers, BTW, are more disciplined and organised than elsewhere in Britain: ignore the nonsense tom cruise in risky business about "crazy London traffic" (it's actually slower than elsewhere as well). The problem with London, though, is route-finding. But, once someone's got their LEFT-HAND DRIVE eye in (it will help this poster to remember what size we drive), then driving in London can be fine with GPS. It's very rarely a good idea for American novices without.
P plates are for novice drivers who have just passed their test. However, this does not mean that other drivers will be more patient, considerate and tolerant. What it does mean is that white-van-men, cocky youths and numerous tom cruise in risky business other small-minded idiots will see the P plate as an invitation to cut you up, tailgate you, and generally wind you up with much hooting - both of the car horn and their own laughter. Don't do it.
I live in England, and learnt to drive here. However when I travel to the US, or mainland tom cruise in risky business Europe (which I often do) I have to drive on the other side - the wrong side for me. Sometimes I rent a car, sometimes I drive my own car over on the ferry.
While I always feel slightly nervous beforehand, I have found that once I am behind the wheel and have familiarised myself with the controls, it only takes me a couple of miles or a few minutes to feel relatively comfortable, and a little longer to be totally at home on the 'wrong side'!
Yes, I may find myself looking for the mirror on the other side, reach for the handbrake/gearstick with the other hand, occasionally try to get in the other side! But that's normal, and you soon get used to it.
As Flanner has stated, it is even worse for us when we drive in Europe (I bruised the knuckles of my left hand by banging them against the drivers door as I forgot about the gear lever ), but after a surprisingly short time, you get used to it.
The other thing - SatNavs - although they can be infuriating, can really help as they often show you which lane to be in, the route around a roundabout etc. The cheapest can be picked up for 50 with UK maps.
There is no such thing as a "slow lane". If you are on a multiple carriageway road you keep to the left most lane unless overtaking. You cannot sit in the outside tom cruise in risky business lane thinking that as you are doing 70mph that that is OK because it's the "fast lane".
The first time we drove in the UK we picked up the car at Gatwick Airport and they directed tom cruise in risky business us to the freeway, even though we were just going to Rye. It was easier to start out on a freeway, no cross traffic, tom cruise in risky business no traffic circles, nice wide lane. I think you get used to the other side pretty quickly -- except for the occasional lapse into automatic driving. If you turn out of a driveway when there's other traffic, that'll remind you to drive on the correct side. If there's tom cruise in risky business no traffic, you may forget but there's nobody to hit you. This is when a navigator comes in handy.
The real difficulty in driving tom cruise in risky business in Britain is the narrow country roads, roads with no nice wide shoulders/verges like we have in the US. Driving requires more concentration when there is a curb or a hedge or a rock wall right at the edge of your narrow tom cruise in risky business lane. We've always gotten tom cruise in risky business an automatic in the UK even though we drive a standard transmission in other countries.
great suggestions so far. thanks tom cruise in risky business and keep the tips coming. i am now leaning towards driving vs joining a tour. it's starting to really tom cruise in risky business look exciting-to drive on the "wrong side" for the first time AND live to tell about it. sounds like a great adventure, tom cruise in risky business besides the trip itself, of course.
Roundabout etiquette .... Give way to the cars in the circle. There is often a yield sign on the approach to the circle to remind you. You drive clockwise around circles in Britain. Stay on the inside lane until you are close to your turn off and then move to the outside lane while signalling your intention.
It's important to position yourself in the correct lane for multi-lane roundabouts. Left/left, right/right, straight is usually oka