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Countries where you've driven a rental car
So...many of my recent trips I've ended up renting cars because I wanted to get around on my own or go to certain remote places. Which has made me think about -- where have I driven a rental car before?
In some countries it's always interesting as I get acquainted with a new stick-shift / manual, as I drive an automatic at home. For awhile my policy was, only rent 5-speeds on islands with not much traffic. I've expanded that to include not just islands, but places where traffic is relatively light. I used to be scared of renting stick shifts, but that is no longer the case. Though I still have a little trepidation I must admit at this very moment. Driving your own car really forces you to learn a place in a different way than if you just go on a tour bus and get chauffered around. So..here's my list of countries where I've driven a rental car: -------------------------------------------------------------------- - USA (home) - Canada - multiple provinces - almost got stuck in a remote ice / water section in Churchill, until I figured out the 4WD had to be manually turned on! Yikes! - Australia (Left-side) - New Zealand (Left-side) - Qatar - Bahrain - Greece (mainland and Crete) - Brazil - Florianopolis only (Got stuck going up a hill one time and had to turn around to get speed! 5-speed) - Canary Islands, Spain - Germany (Rental Audi A2 could barely keep up on the Autobahn!) - 5-speed - Sweden - Portugal (mainland and Madeira) - 5-speed on 2 mainland locations - Iceland upcoming: Argentina - 5-speed (Not in major cities!) Chile maybe Uruguay so 15 or 16....of 75+ countries visited. Moped: -------- Penang, Malaysia few places in Thailand Colombian island others?? don't remember. Have rented bicycles in quite a few places...but that's not the same as the area is limited. you? On another note: the craziest places I've been IN a car are Sri Lanka, Bali, and India to a lesser degree. More close calls in Sri Lanka and Bali than anywhere else. When people talk about crazy drivers in the USA, I just have to chuckle a little bit. Having done a multi-month cross country in the USA, I speak from experience. USA crazy is a lot less crazy... India is only crazy in the rural areas, but in the cities there is too much traffic to get any sort of speed. Sri Lanka and Bali - maybe it has something to do with their religious beliefs? A special shout out to Egyptians (just taxi drivers?) who I found sometimes drive without headlights. As if it will save the battery or something! https://i.imgur.com/Efqi7KH.jpg Renault with a HUD in Algarve, Portugal (From Faro) https://i.imgur.com/OfwAHPn.jpg Driving along the coast of the Algarve https://i.imgur.com/0aMc8e8.jpg Iceland - rental SUV. Western region. https://i.imgur.com/fgtncYN.jpg Iceland - very next image, some colorful contrasts. Nice to see green in winter. |
Apart from my home in the USA, just Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Iceland, and South Africa for me.
When I entered Iceland, I hadn't driven a manual in a few years, and I wanted to spend some time in the parking lot getting used to it again. But the company brought me the car along with an exit ticket and said I had to leave within ten minutes. Oh, well! Seth |
Well, let me see — on the right side of the road:
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USA
Canada Mexico Antigua (L) Argentina Chile Fiji (L) New Zealand (L) Australia (L) Eire (L) UK (L) Finland Sweden Denmark Germany E. Germany Poland Russia Czech Republic Austria Switzerland Italy Turkey France Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg Monaco Gibraltar Spain Portugal Israel South Africa (L) Botswana (L) |
Owned a car when living there
Canada Bahamas New Zealand Rented a car USA Poland Canada UAE Japan Bahamas New Zealand Australia Panama Portugal South Africa Oman Bahrain Puerto Rico St. Marteen/St.Martin Cyprus Uruguay Costa Rica Iceland New Caledonia Aruba Curacao Grenada St.Lucia Tonga Coming soon Samoa American Samoa St. Kitts Croatia Seychelles |
US
Canada (NS, NB, ON, QC, NL) Mexico (QR, Yucatan) Argentina St. Maarten Germany France Great Britain Azores (Portugal) Portugal Sicily (Italy) Netherlands Tenerife (Spain) Jordan Oman Jeju (South Korea) On a side note, I've driven my own car in Germany, France, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Czech, Austria, and South Korea |
Mine is short: USA, Canada, and Belgium.
In Belgium I was going to one of the few places not convenient by train, and the buses didn't run late enough for the music festival I was attending. I was actually looking forward to driving a manual transmission again... then they brought around an automatic :( |
Koreans do the 'no headlamps on at night' thing too but they believe it saves battery and fuel.
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Not many and no countries where they drive on the 'other side' yet. Canada, Mexico, El Salvador, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and France.
By far the craziest place I have ever rented and driven a car was El Salvador. Hair pin turns along the Pacific Ocean were beautiful, but you saw some of the absolute craziest things. We literally screamed twice. Both involved trucks in our lane passing on curves with sheer cliffs. |
My big list..
Australia |
1. US
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USA (also my own car, and rental moving trucks)
Canada (also my own car) South Africa Oman United Aran Emirates Bahrain Tried to rent a car in Panama, but the counter guy wanted me to sign a charge ticket without an amount filled in. NOT HAPPENING! So I just used Uber. Norway (never rented a car, but lived there and drove a van my employer provided - my regular wheels - as well as cars owned by friends; also drove a panel truck with four-on-the-floor to take my road test for my commercial license) Funny thing - I’ve visited 17 other European countries but not ever driven, much less rented a car, in any of them. |
United States — owned car
Canada - owned car France Germany Greece Albania Italy Switzerland Liechtenstein Scotland England Australia - Owned car New Zealand Portugal Spain Costa Rica Tasmania - they say they are their own country, so I guess it counts....... |
Right hand drive:
United States Canada Aruba Greece Spain France Germany Belgium Netherlands Switzerland Denmark And the left hand drive ones: Malta Mauritius Australia New Zealand |
Switzerland
Germany Liechtenstein Austria France Italy England Norway Sweden Finnland Slovenia Argentina Brazil Thailand New Zealand Australia India VAE USA Panama Colombia Venezuela Belgium Netherland Luxembourg Namibia Mozambique Uganda Rwanda South Africa Swaziland Morrocco Egypt Iceland Comming soon: Canada |
Australia, all states (home)
New Zealand United Kingdom (England and Wales) Japan United States |
Someone once told me that Mercedes often cannot be driven from France to Italy. Anyone who knows if this is actually true?
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USA
Canada Bahamas Aruba UK Ireland France Germany Austria Croatia Italy |
UK (home, also rented various 16-seater minibuses, tail-lift trucks, etc)
France (also minibuses and the auto'lib electric shared use system) Belgium (well, borrowed more than rented) Netherlands (although I'd rather be on a bike) - also Aruba Spain (also driven a French car into Spain) Portugal (scratched it up pretty badly but got away with it) Ireland Italy (driven there from France) Monaco (driven there from France and very glad I planned parking in advance) Morocco (that was 'interesting', especially the desert run and central Marrakech) Czech Republic Germany (drove there from Czech Republic, driver behaviour was interesting) USA (I'd say it's been more of a challenge the times I haven't, NYC excluded) Australia (all sorts of weird vehicles) New Zealand (good old "rent a wreck") Japan (filling up with petrol was an experience) |
Originally Posted by Jo.T
(Post 29054110)
Someone once told me that Mercedes often cannot be driven from France to Italy. Anyone who knows if this is actually true?
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Car
US Canada Aruba UK Germany Moped Bermuda Looking at some of the other lists, though, I feel so ... untraveled :( |
Originally Posted by Aventine
(Post 29052888)
Koreans do the 'no headlamps on at night' thing too but they believe it saves battery and fuel.
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Austria
Belgium Canada Czech Republic Estonia France Germany Gibraltar Italy Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Netherlands Slovakia Slovenia Spain Switzerland USA |
Originally Posted by Aventine
(Post 29052888)
Koreans do the 'no headlamps on at night' thing too but they believe it saves battery and fuel.
What was really annoying was in any city they would flash their lights at you so you would turn off your headlights. In those days, cities were not as bright as today but instead every block had a 60 watt bulb lighting the way.:D Standardization within the EU has gotten rid of much of this. |
Interesting concept...
Belgium Canada Estonia France French Polynesia Germany Luxembourg Mexico Spain USA |
Originally Posted by sethweinstein
(Post 29052702)
Apart from my home in the USA, just Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Iceland, and South Africa for me.
When I entered Iceland, I hadn't driven a manual in a few years, and I wanted to spend some time in the parking lot getting used to it again. But the company brought me the car along with an exit ticket and said I had to leave within ten minutes. Oh, well! Seth My first 5-speed in awhile (10 years I think) was out of Porto airport. For a minute or two it was a little embarassing as I was trying to get the car properly in gear without running over one of the many people around who were waiting for their cars or hitting another car. The roads in Northern Portugal are lightly traveled (I checked the terrain on Streetview before deciding to go with a 5-speed) ...so I got comfy with the 5-speed again (A cheap SEAT car). By the time I rented a 5-speed in Faro, I was alot better. Though I did stall for a minute at a traffic light after I left the airport. The Renault Megane had a very complicated all electronic dashboard and misinterpreted one of the messages. |
Originally Posted by BRITINJAPAN3
(Post 29054503)
150 times in Korea and I never saw this ever !
Originally Posted by wxman22
(Post 29054709)
Didn't see that so much in Korea, but did so in Italy in the 70's & 80's, as Italians believed the same.
What was really annoying was in any city they would flash their lights at you so you would turn off your headlights. In those days, cities were not as bright as today but instead every block had a 60 watt bulb lighting the way.:D Standardization within the EU has gotten rid of much of this. |
European Driving
Drove in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Iceland back in 2014. In 2015 we drove from the US to Canada. Our most recent rental was in Ireland (2017) where they drive on the opposite side of the road. It took me a couple of hours to get used to driving on the opposite side. It was fun driving in Ireland but you need to be careful when you drive on the smaller roads because of the many rock walls.
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USA
Canada Australia Germany to Austria to Italy and back Hungary UK Israel Driven (but not a rental) Fiji New Zealand India Been to 58 countries. . . . |
Left side:
Australia New Zealand Got used to driving on the left quickly, but backing out of a parking space seemed to be a challenge. Right side: U.S. (home) Canada Mexico Austria Slovakia Poland Croatia Romania Hungary My own cars in the U.S. have always been standard shift, so borrowed/rental cars in other countries were not of a problem. I have been to several countries where I did not drive, but based on what I saw when observing the traffic, especially how people drive, I would not attempt to. |
Wildest place: Kyrgyzstan - from Bishkek to Song Kul (remote lake up in the mountains) then round Issyk Kul - much larger lake close'ish to Chinese border. Driven my own car in Syria - drove there through Eastern Europe and Turkey back in 2008, great trip. Slightly less wild would be Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Kenya, Mexico, Japan, Bali, Latvia, Estonia, then the not-wild-at-all, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, other bits of Europe. Oh - and Cuba, that was wild, more because of the vehicle than anything else!
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Originally Posted by EqualOpp
(Post 29052638)
...A special shout out to Egyptians (just taxi drivers?) who I found sometimes drive without headlights. As if it will save the battery or something!...
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First and last left-side rental was Australia. Pretty surprising when the windshield wipers come on and you think you pushed the turn signal stick. My wife constantly got in on the right side thinking it was the passenger door, but quickly escaped when asked if she was driving.
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Australia (home)
New Zealand USA Canada Puerto Rico Fiji Samoa Nuie (wonderful place - want to visit again) Not many, really. Quite sad. |
USA (home)
Canada Bulgaria England Scotland Ireland Wales Australia Costa Rica Croatia Slovenia France Hungary Jersey Kazakhstan (driven, not rented) Russia (driven, not rented) Namibia Oman Panama South Africa Spain UAE Yemen (driven, not rented) By far the hairiest driving was in Costa Rica, due to the fact that I was driving through torrential rain in a tropical storm, at night, on a highway with potholes so big you could have fit a rowboat into them. Worst traffic: Moscow. Most pleasantly surprising: Namibia. |
Sweden (home)
Denmark Norway Finland Iceland Faroe Islands Latvia United Kingdom (L) France Spain Portugal Greece United States Canada Australia (L) New Zealand (L) Brazil In New Zealand, me and my friends rented a campervan and were driving around. Just as @rxgeek notes, the windshield wipers came on more often than expected. We all had a good laugh each time and even counted how many times each of us made the mistake :) Craziest driving: Brazil and Crete (Greece) Loved the one-lane tunnels on the Faroe Islands, often described by the locals as chicken race! |
US
UK (England, Wales, & Scotland) Ireland Australia Belgium really not difficult adapting to left hand driving.....biggest problem I have in the UK is the width of the roads......one lane wide with two way traffic and parking on both sides....lol.......Wales can be tricky especially the back roads and coming out of Beddgelert in Snowdonia......very narrow tight winding steep road with lorries and buses coming at you and no where to go.....you learn very quickly to fold the mirrors in.....lol |
USA
Mexico Canada UK Ireland France Germany Italy Austria Slovenia Croatia I'm mildly amused whenever an airline sends me rental car offers associated with trips to places like Lima, Cairo, or various cities in India. :D Places where it would be INSANE for a foreigner to attempt to drive, or places where it's simply not permitted to begin with. |
Surprised no one has mentioned China. :)
My list is: Canada England France (all over) Germany (lived there) Switzerland Italy Spain Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg Netherlands Denmark Sweden Austria Hungary Slovakia South Africa First time left side of the road was England about 10 years ago. Reserved a small automatic. Rental company "upgraded" me to a minivan. No way. Then they said they had an Audi diesel with a stick - the only thing smaller. Took it and had spouse chanting "stay left". Shifting with my left hand led to a few gear grinds, but wasn't bad at all. Overall I got used to the differences within a few miles. After a few more trips, it's pretty automatic when I switch sides. |
For me, four wheels only, automatic only, and almost always with AC:
USA Canada England Portugal Spain Andorra France Monaco Italy San Remo Switzerland Germany (West, East, and Reunified) Belgium (Dutch and French speaking areas, plus Brussels) Holland England (only--never Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or Ireland) Liechtenstein Norway Denmark Sweden Greece (Rhodes only) My only experience with driving on the wrong side of the road was in England, several times, but never in London. |
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