June 24, 2025 • 39 mins
Dreaming of meandering through the Cotswolds countryside or cruising along Scotland's North Coast 500? Before you grab those keys, there's crucial information you need to know about driving in the UK that could make or break your road trip experience.
The romantic notion of spontaneously exploring Britain's charming villages and stunning landscapes can quickly turn stressful when faced with the reality of narrow country lanes, baffling roundabouts, and parking nightmares. Having driven thousands of miles across the UK and helped countless travellers plan their journeys, we've witnessed the same mistakes happening time and again.
In this practical guide, we reveal the 15 most common UK driving pitfalls and how to avoid them. From the shocking truth about journey times (that 50-mile drive could take twice as long as you think!) to the critical importance of booking an automatic car well in advance, we cover essential knowledge that guidebooks often miss. We'll explain why driving in London is a mistake most travellers regret, how to navigate the UK's unique parking systems, and why checking if your accommodation actually has parking facilities could save your holiday from disaster.
Whether you're used to driving on the left or not, the UK presents unique challenges that can catch even experienced international drivers off guard. We share insider advice on handling motorway driving, understanding road terminology, and preparing for the infamous British weather. Plus, we reveal the truth about rental car insurance and why paying extra for zero excess might be the best decision you make.
Our goal isn't to discourage you – a UK road trip can be truly magical when done right. With proper planning and realistic expectations, you'll be free to enjoy those winding coastal roads and picturesque villages without the stress. Listen now to transform your UK driving experience from potentially nerve-wracking to absolutely brilliant!
📝 Show Notes - Episode 155
🎧 Listen to next
- Episode 12 - Preparing to drive in the UK with Tripiamo
- Episode 112 - Driving in the UK like a local: Expert tips from Tripiamo's John Cortese
- Episode 79 - Planning your UK road trip (Expert Tips and Itinerary Ideas)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thinking about the UK road trip.
Before you hit the road, thereare a few things you really need
to know.
In this episode, we're sharing15 essential tips that will help
you avoid the most commonmistakes we see travellers make,
from parking problems and fuelconfusion to why you absolutely
shouldn't drive in London.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
Your host is the founder of theUK Travel Planning website,
tracy Collins.
In this podcast, tracy sharesdestination guides, travel tips
and itinerary ideas, as well asinterviews with a variety of
guests who share their knowledgeand experience of UK travel to
help you plan your perfect UKvacation.
(00:39):
Join us as we explore the UKfrom cosmopolitan cities to
quaint villages, from historiccastles to beautiful islands,
and from the picturesquecountryside to seaside towns.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Hi and welcome to this week's edition of the UK
Travel Planner Podcast.
So, this week, doug and I arehere, hello, to chat about all
things driving and road trips inthe UK.
So we've done plenty of them.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
We have, and we've made a few mistakes as well.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
We have.
So what we thought we'd do iswe would talk about some of the
common mistakes we see peoplemake when they're planning a
trip.
So now I don't want to put youoff, because a UK road trip can
be absolutely fantastic, butthere are some very specific
quirks to driving here thatcatch visitors out.
So we thought we would gothrough some 15 practical tips
(01:34):
to help you avoid those pitfallsand plan a smooth, safe and
stress-free journey.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, from driving on the left and booking the right
type of car to parking, theweather and ferry crossings,
we've got you covered.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah.
So whether you're just startingto plan your UK road trip or
you already have a written mind,this episode will help make
sure you're prepared for thereality of driving in the UK.
So I say we're going to talkthrough 15 tips to avoid common
mistakes on a UK road trip.
So we'll start with number one,and these are things that we
see people making when we doitinerary consults or when we
(02:12):
are in the Facebook group whowill present us with itineraries
?
So we just want to help bymaking some suggestions and
talking through why these thingscan be a mistake.
I mean, if you decide you wantto do any of these things,
that's fine, it's up to you, butwe're kind of saying these are
things that we would avoid doingif you can.
So the first one.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
The first one is don't underestimate the driving
times between places.
This has come up time and timeagain in the itinerary consults
we've done and also actuallywhen we've had feedback after
people's trips that said well,maybe we should have listened a
bit more yeah, because it'sreally easy to underestimate how
(02:52):
long it's going to drive.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
It take you to drive between two places in the uk so
you might think, oh, it's only50 miles, it's only 70
kilometers, it's not going totake me that long to do.
But actually it can take you alot longer for a lot of reasons.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
So there are a lot of reasons for that yeah, I mean
we'll start with the, the onepeople expect from the uk.
It's the weather.
Now, depending what the timeyou're driving time of the year
you're driving in the uk theweather can be dramatically
different throughout the day.
So you know, winter months it'sobviously cold, it gets dark
early and if it's maybe snowing,windy, and you know you can be
(03:27):
sat in traffic for a long, longtime yeah, absolutely, I think
that that really makes me kindof think of the just the sheer
volume of traffic that may bedifferent from where you happen
to live and drive at the moment?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
yeah, and I think we can.
We can kind of compare that toaustralia, where you know we
spend a lot of time, and drivingin australia is completely
different to driving in the ukyeah, frankly, it's easy here
yeah, it's much easier.
There's less traffic on theroads um, you know, there's not
the, I mean I can't talk withsome of the major cities but
however, generally the, theroads are a lot freer and not as
(04:01):
congested as you'd find in theuk.
There's a lot of cars on asmall island in the UK.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
That's right.
And some of the towns andcities, when the traffic builds
and backs up, it just seems likeyou're never going to get there
.
You know we've sat in trafficwhere a journey time from a
planner whatever journey planneryou use you know it will say
journey time expected 60 minutes, and you know we've done two or
three hours.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, well, that's it , because you don't know all
sorts of things, accidents andthings.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Lots of factors, reasons Not just the weather,
not just the traffic.
It's easy to forget the otherthings that you need to include,
things like toilet breaks,stopping off, just see something
nice to look at.
You think, well, I'll stop offand have a look at that.
You know, for some of thescenic drives are beautiful,
they're stunning oh, absolutelyso.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
When you think you're putting in, you know, from a to
b in your google planner.
Whatever planner you use and Ido prefers the- a route planner,
um in the uk, but you knowyou've got to think that that
might.
That's from a to b.
There's other things thatyou've got to take into
consideration.
One is actually getting in yourcar and driving out from
wherever the place is.
So if you're in a large city,that can take longer than you
(05:11):
expect.
Also, you can get lost alongthe way, and that's happened.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, there's lots of one-way systems in the UK.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah absolutely, and also I mean just thinking about
following a sat-nav.
I remember years ago driving atthe Derby.
I lived beside Derby, the cityof Derby in England, and I
followed the sat-nav and I wentround and round and round and
round about five times because Icouldn't figure out a way out
of the.
It just kept taking me aroundin this loop.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
And.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I ended up actually driving the wrong way up a
one-way street, which was ratherscary.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Well, it's easy, because we know we're all, we're
all guilty of this.
You put sometimes in a strangeplace.
You put too much emphasis onthe, the, the journey planner or
whatever you know softwareyou're using and you believe
everything it tells you.
And guess what it does?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
get it wrong now again yeah, well, also, you have
to stop off.
You know toilet break.
Like I said, you might need tofill up with petrol.
You might see something thatyou want to stop off and enjoy.
And also I'd say as well theunderestimate and how long it
will take you to park when youarrive in a destination.
We will talk about that in abit, but there's a lot more.
So I would say, when you'relooking at your distances, be
(06:19):
conservative.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, most definitely .
And I will point out, on alighter note, that you've also
got to include, on some countryroads.
I've had roads blocked by goats, chickens, cows, the chickens.
One was the most comical I saw.
I've never seen so many alldown the middle of a road.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I was just saying plan conservatively, but you're
not.
You need to actually planliberally.
You need to give yourself moretime, so don't plan
conservatively, because if youfollow what it says in its 60
minutes, you need to be a bitmore liberal with the amount of
time that you leave yourselfthat's for sure.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
In short, what I'm saying is keep your journey
timed realistic.
Don't try, and you know, for aneight hour drive, it's going to
take you 12 hours.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
A four hour drive, you'd be really lucky if you
stick to four hours yeah,absolutely, and also just
putting too much in a in a dayas well.
So yeah you know, if you could,you know you might decide that
you're gonna, you know, plan ajourney time from a to b, b to c
, c to d and a d, and you thinkthat you're going to fit all
that in and that might not workyeah, and it becomes stressful
(07:20):
yeah, and you know you want toenjoy it yeah, okay.
So that brings us to pointnumber two, which is don't
assume it'll feel familiar justbecause you drive on the left.
So obviously I guess we're kindof talking more to our
australian and new zealand andsingapore and all those
countries that drive on the leftall your listeners from there
is, honestly, don't just assumebecause you drive on the left
(07:42):
that it's going to be familiarto drive on in the uk, because
it's not.
It'll be a completely differentexperience.
Honestly, believe me when I saythat there are some very unique
quirks in the uk.
Definitely roundabouts, roadsigns, speed limits are in miles
, which if you're from thestates, you're going to be
familiar with that.
But if you live in um australia,new zealand everything's in
(08:04):
kilometers here.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah um, I've driven in other countries that also
drive on the left and I've seendifferences.
You know it's the roadpriorities.
When you're driving along theroad I mean australia, you know
lanes just suddenly disappearyeah you know, you travel on the
road and know two lanes becomeone, or three become two, and
you think, oh, okay, so it'sknowing the right signs,
(08:29):
spotting the right road signsfor what's coming up.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, and that's it.
I think it's that it's justassuming that, not making this
assumption that it's going to bethe same, because it's not.
So what we recommend and weeven recommend that this for
those of you who are used todriving on the left-hand side is
take the Trippiamo course.
We work with Trippiamo.
It's such an excellent courseand even confident drivers will
(08:54):
learn something useful and,honestly, you will arrive better
prepared.
So if you listened intoepisodes 12 and 112, I have John
Cortese from Trippiamo whotalks all about their guides and
how they will help you prepareto drive in the uk.
So you drive like a local and,honestly, we've had great
reviews from those who havetaken it and it's not expensive.
(09:15):
Um, I would ask please, ifyou're going to check it out, is
that you go through the link inthe show notes?
That's our affiliate link.
Won't cost you anything else,but it just helps support us and
help us provide all thisinformation in the podcast and
and all our resources.
Um, but honestly, the ukdriving conditions you know they
can be daunting and stressful.
Um, you know, if you're goingonto unfamiliar roads, you're
(09:37):
not sure about the priorityjunction roundabouts.
I mean, some of the roundaboutsin the uk are.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I think they're just there to torture people yeah,
that's right, particularly uh,I'm thinking of leicester here,
you know massive traffic.
Islands got traffic lights on.
Yes, that is confusing, youknow.
You're thinking I need tochange lanes, I need to get over
, but you can't because it's asolid white line and there's
traffic lights.
Yeah, so it's not unusual tosee people in the uk.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
You can always tell somebody's not used to an area
because they'll be drivingaround around an island yeah,
that's true, and also I'm justgoing to mention that some of
the road road rules aredifferent in the uk to what they
are that you may be used to in,you know, in new zealand,
australia, etc.
It's just going to be different, so you need to familiarize
yourself with that, definitelyso, uh.
(10:22):
So tip number three, or mistakenumber three that we see, is
people not booking an automaticin advance that's right.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I mean we have a our driver license, we can drive
both and driving in the uk.
For many years we drove reallyjust with an uh manual for many
many years.
So when I started travelingmore and more, it was more
experienced with an automatic.
Now I can flip between the twovery easily, but if you're
booking a car in the uk, it isstill predominantly manual yeah,
(10:51):
it is.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Manual cars are far more common in the uk, so if you
want an automatic, book well inadvance, especially during the
summer months where there'll bemore demand for hire cars and
you will also have to pay more.
Unfortunately, they do chargemore for automatics um and I
know we we really can't stressthis enough because we do not
(11:13):
want you to have disappointmentin your holiday, because we have
actually witnessed this.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
We did we did in edinburgh we're waiting in the
queue for our hiker another veryenglish thing.
We were queuing up very nicely,um, but we witnessed, uh, two
travelers to the uk who hadn'tbooked a, an automatic, and they
were unable to drive a manualno, they tried to say they could
.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
And I think the guy was like can you drive?
A manual and you really, andthey were like well, no, but
we'll be fine, we'll drive.
And he went we're not lettingyou have a manual.
You can't, you're.
You haven't got a drivinglicense to drive a manual.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah.
So I mean we felt for the guybecause you know his entire
travel plan was now impactedbecause he couldn't get a car.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah, and they was with his girlfriend and their
suitcases and it was really.
It was awful, awful and I don'tknow if they managed.
It was in peak season, sotrying to get an automatic, and
another guy at the highestcenter said we have not got any
automatics, they're all so sothey didn't get a car.
So just really, we want you tobe aware of that so you don't
make a mistake, um, which bringsme to number four, which is
(12:16):
another, which is anothermistake.
And um, and I've actually had, Iremember, um, we, we chatted to
a few people about this afterthe event who said we should
have listened.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
We should not have driven in.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
London.
So that is number four.
Please don't drive in London.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Please don't drive in London.
I'm just reiterating that.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
You don't need to, really really don't need to.
There's congestion charges,there's no parking, there's
traffic chaos, there's lowemission zones, you know.
Pick up your car after.
So go and pick it up at anairport, pick it up from
Heathrow, pick it up from Coward, get a train to your next
(12:54):
destination and pick up your carthere.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Yeah, I was just going to say you don't need to
drive in London.
No, you don't.
The public transport system iswell-coordinated, has great
coverage and, quite frankly, isreasonably priced.
You know the underground andthe buses.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Well, if you're going to try and drive a car in
London, you're going to spendeither most of your time stuck
in traffic, but also you do notknow the rules of the road for a
start-off and you won't getparking.
You will not get parking,honestly.
I used to have to drive inLondon for my job and never,
ever again would I do that.
It's honestly not recommended.
You can get taxis in London.
There's Uber in London.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
They're the experts.
The taxi drivers are theexperts.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Absolutely.
And the black cabs they can go.
I mean, I've spoken with Olliewhen we discovered a real London
black cab tour.
They will drive around Londonand because they're in a black
cab they can drive down buslanes and do all sorts of things
that regular cars and taxiscan't I mean, if you're
concerned about managing theunderground get a transfer to
your accommodation from theairport?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
It makes life so much easier.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Absolutely, of transfer to your accommodation
from the airport.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
it makes life so much easier absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yep, so we just say just avoid it completely.
So number five is overlookingthings like tolls and, like we
mentioned, the ultra lowemission zone charges which are
not just in london and clean airzones, and we we actually had
this last time when we weretraveling that we went through
the tine tunnel, which is innorth well, the northeast, yeah,
um which goes underneath thetine river, and we had to pay
(14:20):
that within 24 hours.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Yeah, I can't remember exactly length of time,
but it was certainly a matterof hours, I think.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah, yeah and we did that um, online um, and so
you've got to think that someplaces you're going to be
expected to pay tools are younow, when you you use a route
plan you can put into avoidtolls?
Speaker 3 (14:36):
You can yeah, you can avoid toll roads and set up
your own routes.
You can avoid motorways, etcetera.
So you're in charge, you canchoose that.
But I will point out and I willstress this if you incur a fine
and you're in a hire car, youare responsible for that fine
yeah, and they will, yeah, theywill.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
The hire company will find you afterwards to sort of
now I will say there aren't alot of toll roads in the uk and
that there's toll bridges andtoll tunnels.
But you can do your researchbefore you do your trip yeah,
there's some some newer roadsaround.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Birmingham has a relief road which is a toll road
, but you don't have to use itso that is number five.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
So just be aware of those.
Number six is assuming youraccommodation has parking.
This is a biggie guys.
This is huge.
Um, really, really really 100.
You need to check that whereyou are.
Um, but you're booking youraccommodation, whether it's a
b&b, whether it's a hotel,whether it's an airbnb, whatever
it is that you're booking youraccommodation, whether it's a
B&B, whether it's a hotel,whether it's an Airbnb, whatever
(15:35):
it is that you're booking, thatit comes with parking.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Yeah, this is one thing that gets missed.
We're all very attuned tolooking at reviews and word of
mouth as regards hotels orwhatever the accommodation is
about, the actual accommodationitself.
And car parking gets missed,gets forgotten.
How many times have we answeredquestions in the facebook group
or consults and have done alltheir research and we point out
(16:00):
has it got parking?
Speaker 1 (16:01):
yeah, hasn't got parking and you've got to think
some, especially if you'restaying in some of the cities so
, for example, in york andedinburgh and bath really you're
going to struggle to getparking.
So you need to do your researchand make sure that your
accommodation offers that.
Now I would also check that thatis accommodation that for the
(16:21):
hotel or for the b&b, becausequite often and this happened to
us- in york, just gonna say itwas actually it was on road
parking and we ended up beingquite far away from the hotel
yeah, and whitby as well, and wereally struggled and you know,
and you've got to think you'vegot all your luggage and then
when you go out for the day,yeah, and just imagine the
scenario you get to youraccommodation, you know, later
(16:43):
on in the afternoon, evening, itcould be dark, it could be
raining.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
It's not what you want.
It's not.
You know.
It's not ideal, is it?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
no.
So I really would recommendthat you do check um and, as I
say, some of those, some of thecities.
It's not as easy to findparking, especially the like
more older cities where you'reinside like new ork, when you're
inside the walls of ork bath,particularly edinburgh.
Um, there's lots of citieswhere it's just not easy.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
It's not easy.
I'll also add on to that is someplaces say they have parking,
but only a limited amount yeahand that you know, you need to
know that there's adequateparking for all the guests,
because you don't want to begetting there at four or five
o'clock in the afternoon orlater and find, yes, they say
they have parking, but there'sonly a few spaces, and we found
(17:28):
that in the cotswolds once.
Um, yeah, and so you're leftwith the choice you've got to
drop all the bags off and thenyou've got to go and find
somewhere to park yeah, soabsolutely do your research on
that.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
And also it's worth mentioning as well that it's
obviously a bit of a securityrisk if your car is parked
further away.
Yeah, so you know, you can'tkeep an eye on it and it's uh.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
So just something to think about but don't leave any
luggage or any valuables in thecar overnight yeah, so number
seven is being caught out byparking rules.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yes, uh, now, parking in the uk actually it's a bit
of a nightmare.
I always think it's a nightmarehow it's because it's all paid.
Yeah, you have to pay and youknow, we live in australia, like
I say, most of the time, andyou don't have to pay for
parking so it's a bit of a.
Um, most of the time you don'thave to pay for parking, so it's
a bit of a.
I don't know, it's a bit of a.
Most of the time you don't haveto pay for parking, so it's a
bit of a.
I don't know.
It's a bit of a thing in the UKthat you always have to pay for
(18:17):
your parking and it's differenthow you pay for parking as well
.
So some will use an app.
Generally it's pay and display.
Some you can tap, so it'scashless.
Some you will need cash for.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
That's right.
But pay and display means yougo to a ticket machine, you buy
a little ticket and then youhave to show that on your
dashboard inside the windscreen,so anybody checking tickets can
actually see it.
So that's just termed pay anddisplay.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Yeah, and then some of those that have cameras so
they're keeping an eye andmaking sure that you've paid
your part and you don't go overthe number of hours that you've
got to park.
I remember, in fact, we were in, I think we were saying Ives in
Cornwall, and we ended uphaving to give up because we
couldn't park and we couldn'tactually download the app
because the app was notavailable in the app store that
we had on our phones.
So we couldn't actuallydownload the app anyway to pay
(19:03):
and we didn't have any cash, sowe ended up having to drive away
.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
That's right.
So you know, we get it wrong aswell sometimes, yeah exactly
times, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
So there's another what you can do as well to avoid
the problems of parking,especially in in main cities,
though this can be an issue insmaller villages I'm thinking of
the cottswolds, where you'renot going to get parking, um, so
you just might have to drive onbecause, you know, in the
summer somewhere, that placelike byrory, it's impossible
castle coon.
We couldn't castle coon, evenjust getting driving through
castle coon can get really busy,but what the larger cities have
(19:32):
are park and ride.
So you want to explore?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
yeah, a park and ride is.
There's usually more than onearound a city or a town, um, so,
depending whichever directionyou're driving in from, it's
usually what it means is a bigcar park.
Yeah, basically, in essenceit's a big car park and then
buses run from that car parkinto a town or city center, and
they're pretty frequent duringthere, particularly in summer
months.
Now these parking lights canwork in different ways, so you
(19:59):
can either pay for the a pay anddisplay ticket and then
everybody gets on the bus who'straveling with you and taken
away, or the ones you paid by aperson within for the ticket for
the bus on the bus.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, so you're not paying for the actual parking.
You're paying for the bus Onthe bus.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Yeah, so you're not paying for the actual parking.
You're paying for the bus tripin.
Yeah, there's differentspecific ways it works.
Yeah, for each one.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
So some example of places where you'll find park
and ride Winchester, oxford,durham, oxford, edinburgh.
I mean there's lots of park andride.
So if you're planning to go tovisit a city, for example Bath
or York, and you're not takingthe train you've got a car,
you've got a higher car thenlook at maybe a park and ride
outside the city, get the bus inand then the bus will take you
(20:42):
back at the end of the day andyou can pick up your car.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
That's it, and just add on to this one me being a
train person, some of the largertowns and cities that don't
have a park and ride look to seeif there's a parkway station
nearby so you can park your carthere much cheaper, much easier
and quicker than just take atrain in for the last 10, 15
minutes.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, that's true.
There's some places that youcan do that?
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Yeah, we've done that before.
It makes life a lot easier.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
But generally you'll have to pay for the parking in
there in the train station.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
You will, you will, but it's sometimes easier to
park yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Well, we've done that in cornwall, to be honest to go
to st ives because we gave upeven trying to park in st ives,
didn't we?
Yeah, that's why we've donethat a couple of times we went
to st earth and then parked thecar and then took the train in,
which was lovely that's abeautiful train journey, yeah,
so yeah, that's another optionas well, um.
Number eight that people makethe mistake of not considering
is planning for the weather andseasonal conditions.
(21:34):
I've touched on this earlier,but honestly, the uk weather is
so unpredictable, um, but youknow, in the winter generally,
you're going to get you couldhave a mix of fog, rain, ice,
wind, and also you've got theshort daylight hours on top of
that as well.
Especially further north youget, the darker it will be um,
and so you've got to make surethat you adjust your drive times
and your route based on theseason most definitely and
(21:57):
obviously summer or winteryou've got rush hour traffic as
well, morning and afternoon.
Sometimes it's best to try andavoid that if you're not
familiar with an area yeah,that's true, and obviously in
the summer if you're driving insome of the most popular places
like cornwall uh, you know thenorth coast 500 route like
that's busy and wales, walesyeah, um, you know some of those
places cotswolds will be busywith traffic.
(22:18):
Yeah, um, and I know.
I remember my mom saying howshe went to down to cornwall a
few years ago and they gave up.
I can't remember where they'regoing between.
They actually gave up trying toget into the town because the
traffic was so heavy and we'veactually had that where we've
given up now.
Where was it in yorkshire?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
we went we were trying to get to robin hood's
bay that's right, uh which is onthe on the yorkshire coastline,
there south of whitby, and wewanted to visit this beautiful
village, but you have to park atthe top of the hill.
The car parks there and we justgave up.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, we just couldn, couldn't get part.
It's happened a few times, uh,and actually I think not next
the last time as well.
We couldn't get parked in thevisitor place so yeah there's a
few places.
Sometimes you just go and youjust can't get parked.
Yeah, um, and also giveyourself time to sit in traffic.
Think about your petrol, youknow.
Make sure you've got enoughpetrol.
Have uh, drinks, food on handin case you are delayed because
(23:09):
of seasonal issues or maybethere's roadworks or all sorts
of it might be fog, foggy day.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
It's just anything.
It's the UK.
Yeah, you've just got to kindof things.
Just one thing to temper withthat is in the summer months
you've got longer daylight hours, so plan your day as much as
you.
You know you've got more timein late light evenings.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
So you don't have to rush Plan your day.
We've done it on the crossroads.
We've gone to places likeBybury late on summer evenings,
haven't we, yeah, managed to getparked.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yeah, absolutely Okay , so we've got some.
Number nine is relying on yourmobile signal for navigation, so
don't assume that you're goingto have a signal on the
countryside.
Assume that you're going tohave a signal on the countryside
.
So you either need a sat nav ordownload offline maps,
especially for some of theremoter areas in scotland, wales
and cornwall.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
That's it.
And if you're hiring a car,which you quite possibly are,
make sure you specify that youwant a car with sat nav.
You might have to pay.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Pay extra, it's worth it but it really is worth it
absolutely and don't use yourmobile phone when you're driving
.
So um you if you attempt to getyour passenger to look at a map
?
If you need some help withnavigating, don't, because
that's against the law or pullover.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, make sure you do that.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
So another thing people forget to do is actually
budget for fuel, for the petrolfor the car.
So it's called petrol.
It's not called gas.
It's petrol.
In the UK it's sold in liters,not in gallons.
Make sure that you understandwhich type of fuel goes into
your car.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
That's right, you don't want that expense.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, because, well, I have done that before.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
I'm glad you said that I was going to say that.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, I have made that mistake before.
And not put petrol in, I putdiesel in a petrol car.
Actually, we had friends whocame to the UK from Canada and
they did exactly the same thingin the hire car.
So be absolutely 100% sureabout what petrol you're putting
in your car.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Yeah, any doubts.
And again, when you pick thehire car up, ask these questions
.
Be sure and clear in your mindexactly what sort of car you've
got.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Before you drive away .
Speaker 1 (25:09):
And also, don't let your petrol tank get low
especially if you're in ruralareas because there'll be less
petrol stations available.
So make sure that you plan.
I mean we always say if peopleare going over to the Isle of
Skye to fill up with petrolbeforehand, and if you're going
over via Malag, across by theferry, we say do that at Fort
William because, sometimes inMalag there is no petrol and
(25:30):
they do run out.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah, we're told that in fort william over there.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah uh, number 11 is not checking the rental terms
and conditions for drivingoutside of britain.
Now we know, because we'reasked quite often, that a lot of
you think, oh, let's take thecar over at northern ireland,
over the republic of ireland.
You need to get permission, youneed to check with your hire
company that you can actually dothat.
You may need extra insurance,you need to check the
(25:53):
documentation that you mightneed.
So you always must check thatbefore booking.
If you're planning to take itacross to Republic of Ireland,
northern Ireland, or even ifyou're taking us from the
Scottish Islands, we've justchecked and said is it okay,
we're taking it over on theferry to?
I'm trying to think where we'vebeen.
We went to the Orkneys and wejust mentioned we're taking it
over on the ferry to.
Uh, trying to think where we'vebeen.
We went to the auguries and wejust mentioned we're taking it
over to the auguries, just, andit was absolutely fine.
(26:14):
Um, and I know when you bookthe ferry they ask you for the
car registration that's right onthe cow mount fairies going
across the sky.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Uh, that fills up and you need to put that well in
advance and obviously you don'tknow the registration number of
your high car.
But there is a gap on there tosay you know, don't know
registration, and then you canstill make your booking and then
number 12 is not understandinguk road lingo the different
words that use.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Now they're going to be different words than you may
use in your own country.
So you may not use the wordlay-by or slip road or b road,
um.
So again, there may bedifferent terminology that
you're not used to and it canthrow you off if you're not sure
.
So again we say learn thebasics ahead of time.
Trip your armor is your go-toto this to prepare yourself for
(27:00):
you.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Know the different words, the different signs that
you might see most definitelybecause you know if you're
driving through cornwall and youknow you're heading on to a b
road.
Now the B roads are small lanes, back lanes and sometimes
little or no road markings.
There can be blind corners,blind bends, not to mention
you'll be following tractors andbikes and everything else.
(27:22):
So when you do say, like the AAroute planner which I could go
back, that's my favorite youkind of say what sort of road
you want to avoid.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
You want to stick to main roads, and the main roads
are basically a roads yeah, soit's worth you know, doing the
research and understanding thedifferent terms that are used.
And 13 is being unprepared formotorway driving.
Well, I have to say I dislikeintensely driving on the
motorways in the uk.
They are fast, busy and theyare full of lorries.
(27:51):
And I think that oftensurprises people.
Actually about the lorries,because you can have the lorries
go so fast and I know we haveroad trains here in Australia
but honestly, the lorriesthere's just so many of them.
So number 13 is being unpreparedfor motorway driving.
Well, I have to say I do notlike driving on the motorways in
the uk.
They are fast, busy and theyare full of lorries.
So you generally find thatthere are three lanes.
(28:13):
So the general rule of thumb isto stay in the left lane unless
you're overtaken.
But just be aware that there'llbe a lot of lorries,
particularly monday to friday,so you just have to have your
wits about you on the motorwaysdon't you do it, and it's
actually very loud as well yeah,it is so.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
If you're hiring a car and you lack a little bit of
confidence, don't have thesmallest car possible.
Have a little car that's alittle bit bigger.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, I was actually going to talk about that and a
bit actually about the size ofthe car.
When you hire it.
I would say don't go for thebiggest car, because you're
going to struggle to get itway.
In the UK we generally go forkind of a medium-sized SUV,
don't we?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
We do yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
And we find that works really really well.
The other thing to know, ifyou're on the motorways as well,
is to know when servicestations are coming up so that
you can maybe plan to have arest at that point and also
check out for what exits.
So you need to look at thesignage for exits, emergency
lanes, um.
So really, when you're on amotorway, you will probably need
(29:14):
somebody to help you tonavigate most definitely and be
aware, on motorways as well.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
There's lots of um electronic displays about speed
changes, roadworks coming up,congestion, etc I mean it's the
quickest way to get aroundgenerally.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I would say some of the motorways I'd avoid, like
the M25 around London.
It's kind of classed as a giantcar park.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Car park, yeah, it's like a British joke, yeah.
But one thing I will point outthere the petrol prices and food
prices on the service stationsand motorways is a little bit
pricey at times.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Yeah, they can be exorbitant, especially food
prices, that's for sure.
Number 14 is skipping the smallprint on insurance.
Now, if you I know many peoplethink that they're covered by
the credit card, but you may notbe so I would always check what
the excess is, check roadsidecover and what counts as damage,
so that could include for tiresand windscreen cover.
(30:04):
Now what we do and we've donethis forever because I just
can't deal with the stress of itis we just pay when we pick up
the car.
We just pay whatever it is toreduce the excess to zero.
So it's generally a certainamount per day and I just always
pay it.
So I kind of budget that in ona trip knowing that I might have
to pay X amount to have zeroexcess on the car, and that's
(30:26):
what we prefer to do.
It's just something that worksfor us.
I know there are other ways youcan potentially do that, but
that is what we do and we wouldrecommend that you make sure
that you you know if you can'tafford the excess, because some
of these excesses can be 2,000,3,000 pounds.
One thing we always do, evenwith that, is we take
photographs and a video of thecar when we pick it up.
(30:48):
That's definitely definitely,and one example I will just
mention actually about makingsure that you've got extra cover
if you need it is our daughterwas travelling around Scotland
with her partner a couple ofyears ago and when they picked
up the car they were asked ifthey wanted extra to pay cover
for tyres.
And my daughter said she lookedat her partner, he looked at
her and she went, yes, okay,let's get it.
(31:08):
And a few hours outside ofGlasgow they got a flat tyre.
So because they had the cover,they had to wait.
They still had to wait an houror so to get the people to come
out, break down, come and sortthem out.
But then they were towed back toGlasgow sorted, given another
car.
So it was all covered.
I just thought I would havehate to have thought what would
have happened if she hadn't hadthat car?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Oh, most definitely.
Yeah, so and then number 15,this sounds obvious, but you
know it's easily done.
It's leaving valuables visiblein your car.
Not a good idea Now, when wepick high cars and not just in
the UK, around the world.
It doesn't happen all the time.
Sometimes there's no parcelshelf or back shelf inside the
(31:50):
back of the car.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Is it trunk?
Yeah, In America in the boot.
Do we call it the boot?
Speaker 3 (31:54):
in the UK, yeah the trunk, the shelf that covers the
boot space or the trunk space,and I won't take the car.
I'll say I want a cover.
I usually go back in and say Ineed a cover on the back of that
.
Usually, uh, could be a solidcover or a blind type cover,
yeah, and yeah, they've alwayshad one there somewhere, but
(32:16):
they seem to take them out thecar yeah, I don't know why?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
I mean not that we leave valuables in the car, but
I don't want them on view anywayyeah, and you know, sometimes
you're driving and you might notarrive at your destination, but
you you know you want to stopoff at the service station to go
and get a snack, or you need touse a restroom or whatever
reason, or you stop off in avillage on the way and you're
going to leave your car.
So, even if you're leaving itfor a few minutes, I would make
(32:41):
sure that everything's covered.
So you want a parcel shelf inthere to make sure that things
are covered up, because youmight not take you know, take
all your suitcases out of thecar in that case.
But what we would say?
Honestly, if you take yourvaluables out of your car, make
sure you don't leave any moneyor your passport or anything
electronic or anything that canbe stolen.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
That's it.
I mean what we've already said.
If you're accommodation parkingfor whatever reason, you know
you've not parked close and youcan't take everything in one go.
You know, obviously you'll takeyour valuables first but you
might have to leave some stufffor a second journey to take
stuff back to the accommodation.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, well, that's it , that's exactly right.
And I mean just thinking abouta couple of instances.
Actually, with a mum andstepdad driving in France not
the UK, but again just worthbearing in mind and they went
into the service station have adrink, have a meal.
They came out, opened theirboot and half the things had
been stolen.
It was all recovered, but itwas a real problem on their
holiday and interrupted withthings, and again my stepbrother
(33:40):
was in I think it was in Sweden, stockholm, and a bag was
stolen out of his car with hispassport in it, which caused all
sorts of havoc for him havingto sort all those things out.
So again, do not leavevaluables.
Make sure that you lock yourcar.
That's another thing, because Iknow it's very easy when you
get out and be distracted, notto make sure you lock it.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
And an unfamiliar car as well.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah, exactly If your accommodation.
Let's say, if you haven'tmanaged to get parking so close
to your accommodation, then yourcar might be down a road and a
bit of a way away.
So so yeah, make sure that youcheck that.
So those are kind of our 15 or15 tips, 15 kind of ideas,
mistakes, that we see thatpeople or pointers advice can
(34:21):
make, so we're just trying to,um, to kind of cover those and
explain why we would kind of,you know, say not to do these
things, or try to avoid some ofthese common mistakes, if you
can, when you're planning yourroad trip.
As I say, the uk is a fantasticuh destination for road trips
and we've done some amazing onesoh, we have some fantastic
trips.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
I mean, as much as I love train travel, trains don't,
unfortunately go everywhere, soyou know, quite often we've had
to do a road trip as well as atrain trip.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Yeah, well, that's it and I can't wait to do.
We were just talking about ournext road trip, so probably
around scotland again and we arehoping to do a bit of the the
south coast of the england southcoast of england um, so that
would be really good.
So I mean, if you're planning aroad trip, get in touch via
speakpipe.
Let us know where you're going.
Um, we're always interested toknow what you're up to, what
part of the UK you're planningto do a road trip along.
(35:10):
Anyway, as always, we end theepisode with the one tip that we
would share relevant to thetopic.
So for this week, obviously,this is about driving in the UK
and having the best road trippossible.
So what would be your one tipfor somebody planning a road
trip in the UK, doug?
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Well, on top of everything we've said, I think
it's the one about accommodationand parking.
You don't really don't want tohave the stress, the anxiety and
the grief of not have been ableto park when you've had a long
day.
Maybe you come straight fromthe airport with your high car.
Then you can't find somewhereto park your accommodation.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
That's a good one.
Well, I'm going to say don'tunderestimate the driving and
putting in too much in a day sothat basically all you're doing
is driving from A to B to C to Dto E, to F to G and actually
not seeing anything.
So try not to overpack it withtoo many things.
That's the best way to do it,honestly, because enjoy it, take
it slow, enjoy the countryside,be able to stop often and see
(36:06):
places and, and ultimately, Iknow we've given you one tip
each, but we have our top tipfrom both of us and that is to
do the tripiamo.
Course, it's not expensive.
It will prepare you to drive inthe uk.
Honestly, it will.
Honestly, it's the best thingthat you can do, whether you
used to drive it on the lefthand side or not, whether you
drive live in australia, whetheryou live in new zealand or you
(36:27):
live in Japan or Singapore orthe US.
Wherever it's the best thing todo.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Most definitely, and I would also add on to that it's
also worth doing the TrippieArmo course if you're actually
not driving but you're going tobe navigating and supporting a
driver.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Oh yeah, and actually we've had some really excellent
feedback from that where bothof them have done that, even
though one person wasn'tplanning to do any of the
driving, it helped them with thenavigation as well and
understanding the road, becausethe resources they have are
absolutely fantastic.
So do take a look.
I will put a link in the shownotes to this episode, so
(37:01):
they'll be at uktravelplanetcom.
Forward slash episode 155.
So check out that.
Check out the Trippiamo link.
Leave us a message on SpeakPipe.
We love to hear from you guys.
We do it honestly makes our weekwhen we get a message and you
might get a shout-out in nextweek's episode or comment
episode.
Also, I just want to say aswell, if you've enjoyed
(37:23):
listening to this podcast, ifyou found any of our resources
helpful for you whether that'sjoining our Facebook group,
whether it's any of the episodesof the podcast, whether it's
our websites I would ask, please, could you support us?
Really, we do appreciate it andyou can support us via, again,
a link in the show notes,whether that is using the tip,
your guide link, or whetherthat's sponsoring the podcast,
(37:46):
and that can be from as littleas three US dollars a month,
which is less than a cup ofcoffee a week.
Um, we really appreciate that.
We will do, um, so that reallyhelps us honestly provide all
this amazing stuff for you tohelp you have the best trip in
the uk.
Anyway.
That just leaves us to say untilnext week, happy uk travel
planning thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the
(38:10):
UK Travel Planning Podcast.
As always, show notes can befound at uktravelplanningcom.
If you've enjoyed the show, whynot leave us feedback via text
or a review on your favouritepodcast app?
We love to hear from you andyou never know.
You may receive a shout out ina future episode, but, as always
, that just leaves me to sayuntil next week.
(38:31):
Happy UK travel planning.
Thinking about the UK road trip.
Before you hit the road, thereare a few things you really need
to know.
In this episode, we're sharing15 essential tips that will help
you avoid the most commonmistakes we see travellers make,
from parking problems and fuelconfusion to why you absolutely
shouldn't drive in London.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
Your host is the founder of theUK Travel Planning website,
tracy Collins.
In this podcast, tracy sharesdestination guides, travel tips
and itinerary ideas, as well asinterviews with a variety of
guests who share their knowledgeand experience of UK travel to
help you plan your perfect UKvacation.
(00:39):
Join us as we explore the UKfrom cosmopolitan cities to
quaint villages, from historiccastles to beautiful islands,
and from the picturesquecountryside to seaside towns.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Hi and welcome to this week's edition of the UK
Travel Planner Podcast.
So, this week, doug and I arehere, hello, to chat about all
things driving and road trips inthe UK.
So we've done plenty of them.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
We have, and we've made a few mistakes as well.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
We have.
So what we thought we'd do iswe would talk about some of the
common mistakes we see peoplemake when they're planning a
trip.
So now I don't want to put youoff, because a UK road trip can
be absolutely fantastic, butthere are some very specific
quirks to driving here thatcatch visitors out.
So we thought we would gothrough some 15 practical tips
(01:34):
to help you avoid those pitfallsand plan a smooth, safe and
stress-free journey.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, from driving on the left and booking the right
type of car to parking, theweather and ferry crossings,
we've got you covered.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah.
So whether you're just startingto plan your UK road trip or
you already have a written mind,this episode will help make
sure you're prepared for thereality of driving in the UK.
So I say we're going to talkthrough 15 tips to avoid common
mistakes on a UK road trip.
So we'll start with number one,and these are things that we
see people making when we doitinerary consults or when we
(02:12):
are in the Facebook group whowill present us with itineraries
?
So we just want to help bymaking some suggestions and
talking through why these thingscan be a mistake.
I mean, if you decide you wantto do any of these things,
that's fine, it's up to you, butwe're kind of saying these are
things that we would avoid doingif you can.
So the first one.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
The first one is don't underestimate the driving
times between places.
This has come up time and timeagain in the itinerary consults
we've done and also actuallywhen we've had feedback after
people's trips that said well,maybe we should have listened a
bit more yeah, because it'sreally easy to underestimate how
(02:52):
long it's going to drive.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
It take you to drive between two places in the uk so
you might think, oh, it's only50 miles, it's only 70
kilometers, it's not going totake me that long to do.
But actually it can take you alot longer for a lot of reasons.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
So there are a lot of reasons for that yeah, I mean
we'll start with the, the onepeople expect from the uk.
It's the weather.
Now, depending what the timeyou're driving time of the year
you're driving in the uk theweather can be dramatically
different throughout the day.
So you know, winter months it'sobviously cold, it gets dark
early and if it's maybe snowing,windy, and you know you can be
(03:27):
sat in traffic for a long, longtime yeah, absolutely, I think
that that really makes me kindof think of the just the sheer
volume of traffic that may bedifferent from where you happen
to live and drive at the moment?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
yeah, and I think we can.
We can kind of compare that toaustralia, where you know we
spend a lot of time, and drivingin australia is completely
different to driving in the ukyeah, frankly, it's easy here
yeah, it's much easier.
There's less traffic on theroads um, you know, there's not
the, I mean I can't talk withsome of the major cities but
however, generally the, theroads are a lot freer and not as
(04:01):
congested as you'd find in theuk.
There's a lot of cars on asmall island in the UK.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
That's right.
And some of the towns andcities, when the traffic builds
and backs up, it just seems likeyou're never going to get there
.
You know we've sat in trafficwhere a journey time from a
planner whatever journey planneryou use you know it will say
journey time expected 60 minutes, and you know we've done two or
three hours.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, well, that's it , because you don't know all
sorts of things, accidents andthings.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Lots of factors, reasons Not just the weather,
not just the traffic.
It's easy to forget the otherthings that you need to include,
things like toilet breaks,stopping off, just see something
nice to look at.
You think, well, I'll stop offand have a look at that.
You know, for some of thescenic drives are beautiful,
they're stunning oh, absolutelyso.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
When you think you're putting in, you know, from a to
b in your google planner.
Whatever planner you use and Ido prefers the- a route planner,
um in the uk, but you knowyou've got to think that that
might.
That's from a to b.
There's other things thatyou've got to take into
consideration.
One is actually getting in yourcar and driving out from
wherever the place is.
So if you're in a large city,that can take longer than you
(05:11):
expect.
Also, you can get lost alongthe way, and that's happened.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, there's lots of one-way systems in the UK.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah absolutely, and also I mean just thinking about
following a sat-nav.
I remember years ago driving atthe Derby.
I lived beside Derby, the cityof Derby in England, and I
followed the sat-nav and I wentround and round and round and
round about five times because Icouldn't figure out a way out
of the.
It just kept taking me aroundin this loop.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
And.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I ended up actually driving the wrong way up a
one-way street, which was ratherscary.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Well, it's easy, because we know we're all, we're
all guilty of this.
You put sometimes in a strangeplace.
You put too much emphasis onthe, the, the journey planner or
whatever you know softwareyou're using and you believe
everything it tells you.
And guess what it does?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
get it wrong now again yeah, well, also, you have
to stop off.
You know toilet break.
Like I said, you might need tofill up with petrol.
You might see something thatyou want to stop off and enjoy.
And also I'd say as well theunderestimate and how long it
will take you to park when youarrive in a destination.
We will talk about that in abit, but there's a lot more.
So I would say, when you'relooking at your distances, be
(06:19):
conservative.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, most definitely .
And I will point out, on alighter note, that you've also
got to include, on some countryroads.
I've had roads blocked by goats, chickens, cows, the chickens.
One was the most comical I saw.
I've never seen so many alldown the middle of a road.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I was just saying plan conservatively, but you're
not.
You need to actually planliberally.
You need to give yourself moretime, so don't plan
conservatively, because if youfollow what it says in its 60
minutes, you need to be a bitmore liberal with the amount of
time that you leave yourselfthat's for sure.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
In short, what I'm saying is keep your journey
timed realistic.
Don't try, and you know, for aneight hour drive, it's going to
take you 12 hours.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
A four hour drive, you'd be really lucky if you
stick to four hours yeah,absolutely, and also just
putting too much in a in a dayas well.
So yeah you know, if you could,you know you might decide that
you're gonna, you know, plan ajourney time from a to b, b to c
, c to d and a d, and you thinkthat you're going to fit all
that in and that might not workyeah, and it becomes stressful
(07:20):
yeah, and you know you want toenjoy it yeah, okay.
So that brings us to pointnumber two, which is don't
assume it'll feel familiar justbecause you drive on the left.
So obviously I guess we're kindof talking more to our
australian and new zealand andsingapore and all those
countries that drive on the leftall your listeners from there
is, honestly, don't just assumebecause you drive on the left
(07:42):
that it's going to be familiarto drive on in the uk, because
it's not.
It'll be a completely differentexperience.
Honestly, believe me when I saythat there are some very unique
quirks in the uk.
Definitely roundabouts, roadsigns, speed limits are in miles
, which if you're from thestates, you're going to be
familiar with that.
But if you live in um australia,new zealand everything's in
(08:04):
kilometers here.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah um, I've driven in other countries that also
drive on the left and I've seendifferences.
You know it's the roadpriorities.
When you're driving along theroad I mean australia, you know
lanes just suddenly disappearyeah you know, you travel on the
road and know two lanes becomeone, or three become two, and
you think, oh, okay, so it'sknowing the right signs,
(08:29):
spotting the right road signsfor what's coming up.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, and that's it.
I think it's that it's justassuming that, not making this
assumption that it's going to bethe same, because it's not.
So what we recommend and weeven recommend that this for
those of you who are used todriving on the left-hand side is
take the Trippiamo course.
We work with Trippiamo.
It's such an excellent courseand even confident drivers will
(08:54):
learn something useful and,honestly, you will arrive better
prepared.
So if you listened intoepisodes 12 and 112, I have John
Cortese from Trippiamo whotalks all about their guides and
how they will help you prepareto drive in the uk.
So you drive like a local and,honestly, we've had great
reviews from those who havetaken it and it's not expensive.
(09:15):
Um, I would ask please, ifyou're going to check it out, is
that you go through the link inthe show notes?
That's our affiliate link.
Won't cost you anything else,but it just helps support us and
help us provide all thisinformation in the podcast and
and all our resources.
Um, but honestly, the ukdriving conditions you know they
can be daunting and stressful.
Um, you know, if you're goingonto unfamiliar roads, you're
(09:37):
not sure about the priorityjunction roundabouts.
I mean, some of the roundaboutsin the uk are.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I think they're just there to torture people yeah,
that's right, particularly uh,I'm thinking of leicester here,
you know massive traffic.
Islands got traffic lights on.
Yes, that is confusing, youknow.
You're thinking I need tochange lanes, I need to get over
, but you can't because it's asolid white line and there's
traffic lights.
Yeah, so it's not unusual tosee people in the uk.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
You can always tell somebody's not used to an area
because they'll be drivingaround around an island yeah,
that's true, and also I'm justgoing to mention that some of
the road road rules aredifferent in the uk to what they
are that you may be used to in,you know, in new zealand,
australia, etc.
It's just going to be different, so you need to familiarize
yourself with that, definitelyso, uh.
(10:22):
So tip number three, or mistakenumber three that we see, is
people not booking an automaticin advance that's right.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I mean we have a our driver license, we can drive
both and driving in the uk.
For many years we drove reallyjust with an uh manual for many
many years.
So when I started travelingmore and more, it was more
experienced with an automatic.
Now I can flip between the twovery easily, but if you're
booking a car in the uk, it isstill predominantly manual yeah,
(10:51):
it is.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Manual cars are far more common in the uk, so if you
want an automatic, book well inadvance, especially during the
summer months where there'll bemore demand for hire cars and
you will also have to pay more.
Unfortunately, they do chargemore for automatics um and I
know we we really can't stressthis enough because we do not
(11:13):
want you to have disappointmentin your holiday, because we have
actually witnessed this.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
We did we did in edinburgh we're waiting in the
queue for our hiker another veryenglish thing.
We were queuing up very nicely,um, but we witnessed, uh, two
travelers to the uk who hadn'tbooked a, an automatic, and they
were unable to drive a manualno, they tried to say they could
.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
And I think the guy was like can you drive?
A manual and you really, andthey were like well, no, but
we'll be fine, we'll drive.
And he went we're not lettingyou have a manual.
You can't, you're.
You haven't got a drivinglicense to drive a manual.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah.
So I mean we felt for the guybecause you know his entire
travel plan was now impactedbecause he couldn't get a car.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah, and they was with his girlfriend and their
suitcases and it was really.
It was awful, awful and I don'tknow if they managed.
It was in peak season, sotrying to get an automatic, and
another guy at the highestcenter said we have not got any
automatics, they're all so sothey didn't get a car.
So just really, we want you tobe aware of that so you don't
make a mistake, um, which bringsme to number four, which is
(12:16):
another, which is anothermistake.
And um, and I've actually had, Iremember, um, we, we chatted to
a few people about this afterthe event who said we should
have listened.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
We should not have driven in.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
London.
So that is number four.
Please don't drive in London.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Please don't drive in London.
I'm just reiterating that.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
You don't need to, really really don't need to.
There's congestion charges,there's no parking, there's
traffic chaos, there's lowemission zones, you know.
Pick up your car after.
So go and pick it up at anairport, pick it up from
Heathrow, pick it up from Coward, get a train to your next
(12:54):
destination and pick up your carthere.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Yeah, I was just going to say you don't need to
drive in London.
No, you don't.
The public transport system iswell-coordinated, has great
coverage and, quite frankly, isreasonably priced.
You know the underground andthe buses.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Well, if you're going to try and drive a car in
London, you're going to spendeither most of your time stuck
in traffic, but also you do notknow the rules of the road for a
start-off and you won't getparking.
You will not get parking,honestly.
I used to have to drive inLondon for my job and never,
ever again would I do that.
It's honestly not recommended.
You can get taxis in London.
There's Uber in London.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
They're the experts.
The taxi drivers are theexperts.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Absolutely.
And the black cabs they can go.
I mean, I've spoken with Olliewhen we discovered a real London
black cab tour.
They will drive around Londonand because they're in a black
cab they can drive down buslanes and do all sorts of things
that regular cars and taxiscan't I mean, if you're
concerned about managing theunderground get a transfer to
your accommodation from theairport?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
It makes life so much easier.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Absolutely, of transfer to your accommodation
from the airport.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
it makes life so much easier absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yep, so we just say just avoid it completely.
So number five is overlookingthings like tolls and, like we
mentioned, the ultra lowemission zone charges which are
not just in london and clean airzones, and we we actually had
this last time when we weretraveling that we went through
the tine tunnel, which is innorth well, the northeast, yeah,
um which goes underneath thetine river, and we had to pay
(14:20):
that within 24 hours.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Yeah, I can't remember exactly length of time,
but it was certainly a matterof hours, I think.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah, yeah and we did that um, online um, and so
you've got to think that someplaces you're going to be
expected to pay tools are younow, when you you use a route
plan you can put into avoidtolls?
Speaker 3 (14:36):
You can yeah, you can avoid toll roads and set up
your own routes.
You can avoid motorways, etcetera.
So you're in charge, you canchoose that.
But I will point out and I willstress this if you incur a fine
and you're in a hire car, youare responsible for that fine
yeah, and they will, yeah, theywill.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
The hire company will find you afterwards to sort of
now I will say there aren't alot of toll roads in the uk and
that there's toll bridges andtoll tunnels.
But you can do your researchbefore you do your trip yeah,
there's some some newer roadsaround.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Birmingham has a relief road which is a toll road
, but you don't have to use itso that is number five.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
So just be aware of those.
Number six is assuming youraccommodation has parking.
This is a biggie guys.
This is huge.
Um, really, really really 100.
You need to check that whereyou are.
Um, but you're booking youraccommodation, whether it's a
b&b, whether it's a hotel,whether it's an airbnb, whatever
it is that you're booking youraccommodation, whether it's a
B&B, whether it's a hotel,whether it's an Airbnb, whatever
(15:35):
it is that you're booking, thatit comes with parking.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Yeah, this is one thing that gets missed.
We're all very attuned tolooking at reviews and word of
mouth as regards hotels orwhatever the accommodation is
about, the actual accommodationitself.
And car parking gets missed,gets forgotten.
How many times have we answeredquestions in the facebook group
or consults and have done alltheir research and we point out
(16:00):
has it got parking?
Speaker 1 (16:01):
yeah, hasn't got parking and you've got to think
some, especially if you'restaying in some of the cities so
, for example, in york andedinburgh and bath really you're
going to struggle to getparking.
So you need to do your researchand make sure that your
accommodation offers that.
Now I would also check that thatis accommodation that for the
(16:21):
hotel or for the b&b, becausequite often and this happened to
us- in york, just gonna say itwas actually it was on road
parking and we ended up beingquite far away from the hotel
yeah, and whitby as well, and wereally struggled and you know,
and you've got to think you'vegot all your luggage and then
when you go out for the day,yeah, and just imagine the
scenario you get to youraccommodation, you know, later
(16:43):
on in the afternoon, evening, itcould be dark, it could be
raining.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
It's not what you want.
It's not.
You know.
It's not ideal, is it?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
no.
So I really would recommendthat you do check um and, as I
say, some of those, some of thecities.
It's not as easy to findparking, especially the like
more older cities where you'reinside like new ork, when you're
inside the walls of ork bath,particularly edinburgh.
Um, there's lots of citieswhere it's just not easy.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
It's not easy.
I'll also add on to that is someplaces say they have parking,
but only a limited amount yeahand that you know, you need to
know that there's adequateparking for all the guests,
because you don't want to begetting there at four or five
o'clock in the afternoon orlater and find, yes, they say
they have parking, but there'sonly a few spaces, and we found
(17:28):
that in the cotswolds once.
Um, yeah, and so you're leftwith the choice you've got to
drop all the bags off and thenyou've got to go and find
somewhere to park yeah, soabsolutely do your research on
that.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
And also it's worth mentioning as well that it's
obviously a bit of a securityrisk if your car is parked
further away.
Yeah, so you know, you can'tkeep an eye on it and it's uh.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
So just something to think about but don't leave any
luggage or any valuables in thecar overnight yeah, so number
seven is being caught out byparking rules.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yes, uh, now, parking in the uk actually it's a bit
of a nightmare.
I always think it's a nightmarehow it's because it's all paid.
Yeah, you have to pay and youknow, we live in australia, like
I say, most of the time, andyou don't have to pay for
parking so it's a bit of a.
Um, most of the time you don'thave to pay for parking, so it's
a bit of a.
I don't know, it's a bit of a.
Most of the time you don't haveto pay for parking, so it's a
bit of a.
I don't know.
It's a bit of a thing in the UKthat you always have to pay for
(18:17):
your parking and it's differenthow you pay for parking as well
.
So some will use an app.
Generally it's pay and display.
Some you can tap, so it'scashless.
Some you will need cash for.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
That's right.
But pay and display means yougo to a ticket machine, you buy
a little ticket and then youhave to show that on your
dashboard inside the windscreen,so anybody checking tickets can
actually see it.
So that's just termed pay anddisplay.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Yeah, and then some of those that have cameras so
they're keeping an eye andmaking sure that you've paid
your part and you don't go overthe number of hours that you've
got to park.
I remember, in fact, we were in, I think we were saying Ives in
Cornwall, and we ended uphaving to give up because we
couldn't park and we couldn'tactually download the app
because the app was notavailable in the app store that
we had on our phones.
So we couldn't actuallydownload the app anyway to pay
(19:03):
and we didn't have any cash, sowe ended up having to drive away
.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
That's right.
So you know, we get it wrong aswell sometimes, yeah exactly
times, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
So there's another what you can do as well to avoid
the problems of parking,especially in in main cities,
though this can be an issue insmaller villages I'm thinking of
the cottswolds, where you'renot going to get parking, um, so
you just might have to drive onbecause, you know, in the
summer somewhere, that placelike byrory, it's impossible
castle coon.
We couldn't castle coon, evenjust getting driving through
castle coon can get really busy,but what the larger cities have
(19:32):
are park and ride.
So you want to explore?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
yeah, a park and ride is.
There's usually more than onearound a city or a town, um, so,
depending whichever directionyou're driving in from, it's
usually what it means is a bigcar park.
Yeah, basically, in essenceit's a big car park and then
buses run from that car parkinto a town or city center, and
they're pretty frequent duringthere, particularly in summer
months.
Now these parking lights canwork in different ways, so you
(19:59):
can either pay for the a pay anddisplay ticket and then
everybody gets on the bus who'straveling with you and taken
away, or the ones you paid by aperson within for the ticket for
the bus on the bus.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, so you're not paying for the actual parking.
You're paying for the bus Onthe bus.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Yeah, so you're not paying for the actual parking.
You're paying for the bus tripin.
Yeah, there's differentspecific ways it works.
Yeah, for each one.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
So some example of places where you'll find park
and ride Winchester, oxford,durham, oxford, edinburgh.
I mean there's lots of park andride.
So if you're planning to go tovisit a city, for example Bath
or York, and you're not takingthe train you've got a car,
you've got a higher car thenlook at maybe a park and ride
outside the city, get the bus inand then the bus will take you
(20:42):
back at the end of the day andyou can pick up your car.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
That's it, and just add on to this one me being a
train person, some of the largertowns and cities that don't
have a park and ride look to seeif there's a parkway station
nearby so you can park your carthere much cheaper, much easier
and quicker than just take atrain in for the last 10, 15
minutes.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, that's true.
There's some places that youcan do that?
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Yeah, we've done that before.
It makes life a lot easier.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
But generally you'll have to pay for the parking in
there in the train station.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
You will, you will, but it's sometimes easier to
park yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Well, we've done that in cornwall, to be honest to go
to st ives because we gave upeven trying to park in st ives,
didn't we?
Yeah, that's why we've donethat a couple of times we went
to st earth and then parked thecar and then took the train in,
which was lovely that's abeautiful train journey, yeah,
so yeah, that's another optionas well, um.
Number eight that people makethe mistake of not considering
is planning for the weather andseasonal conditions.
(21:34):
I've touched on this earlier,but honestly, the uk weather is
so unpredictable, um, but youknow, in the winter generally,
you're going to get you couldhave a mix of fog, rain, ice,
wind, and also you've got theshort daylight hours on top of
that as well.
Especially further north youget, the darker it will be um,
and so you've got to make surethat you adjust your drive times
and your route based on theseason most definitely and
(21:57):
obviously summer or winteryou've got rush hour traffic as
well, morning and afternoon.
Sometimes it's best to try andavoid that if you're not
familiar with an area yeah,that's true, and obviously in
the summer if you're driving insome of the most popular places
like cornwall uh, you know thenorth coast 500 route like
that's busy and wales, walesyeah, um, you know some of those
places cotswolds will be busywith traffic.
(22:18):
Yeah, um, and I know.
I remember my mom saying howshe went to down to cornwall a
few years ago and they gave up.
I can't remember where they'regoing between.
They actually gave up trying toget into the town because the
traffic was so heavy and we'veactually had that where we've
given up now.
Where was it in yorkshire?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
we went we were trying to get to robin hood's
bay that's right, uh which is onthe on the yorkshire coastline,
there south of whitby, and wewanted to visit this beautiful
village, but you have to park atthe top of the hill.
The car parks there and we justgave up.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, we just couldn, couldn't get part.
It's happened a few times, uh,and actually I think not next
the last time as well.
We couldn't get parked in thevisitor place so yeah there's a
few places.
Sometimes you just go and youjust can't get parked.
Yeah, um, and also giveyourself time to sit in traffic.
Think about your petrol, youknow.
Make sure you've got enoughpetrol.
Have uh, drinks, food on handin case you are delayed because
(23:09):
of seasonal issues or maybethere's roadworks or all sorts
of it might be fog, foggy day.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
It's just anything.
It's the UK.
Yeah, you've just got to kindof things.
Just one thing to temper withthat is in the summer months
you've got longer daylight hours, so plan your day as much as
you.
You know you've got more timein late light evenings.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
So you don't have to rush Plan your day.
We've done it on the crossroads.
We've gone to places likeBybury late on summer evenings,
haven't we, yeah, managed to getparked.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yeah, absolutely Okay , so we've got some.
Number nine is relying on yourmobile signal for navigation, so
don't assume that you're goingto have a signal on the
countryside.
Assume that you're going tohave a signal on the countryside
.
So you either need a sat nav ordownload offline maps,
especially for some of theremoter areas in scotland, wales
and cornwall.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
That's it.
And if you're hiring a car,which you quite possibly are,
make sure you specify that youwant a car with sat nav.
You might have to pay.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Pay extra, it's worth it but it really is worth it
absolutely and don't use yourmobile phone when you're driving
.
So um you if you attempt to getyour passenger to look at a map
?
If you need some help withnavigating, don't, because
that's against the law or pullover.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, make sure you do that.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
So another thing people forget to do is actually
budget for fuel, for the petrolfor the car.
So it's called petrol.
It's not called gas.
It's petrol.
In the UK it's sold in liters,not in gallons.
Make sure that you understandwhich type of fuel goes into
your car.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
That's right, you don't want that expense.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, because, well, I have done that before.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
I'm glad you said that I was going to say that.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, I have made that mistake before.
And not put petrol in, I putdiesel in a petrol car.
Actually, we had friends whocame to the UK from Canada and
they did exactly the same thingin the hire car.
So be absolutely 100% sureabout what petrol you're putting
in your car.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Yeah, any doubts.
And again, when you pick thehire car up, ask these questions
.
Be sure and clear in your mindexactly what sort of car you've
got.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Before you drive away .
Speaker 1 (25:09):
And also, don't let your petrol tank get low
especially if you're in ruralareas because there'll be less
petrol stations available.
So make sure that you plan.
I mean we always say if peopleare going over to the Isle of
Skye to fill up with petrolbeforehand, and if you're going
over via Malag, across by theferry, we say do that at Fort
William because, sometimes inMalag there is no petrol and
(25:30):
they do run out.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah, we're told that in fort william over there.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah uh, number 11 is not checking the rental terms
and conditions for drivingoutside of britain.
Now we know, because we'reasked quite often, that a lot of
you think, oh, let's take thecar over at northern ireland,
over the republic of ireland.
You need to get permission, youneed to check with your hire
company that you can actually dothat.
You may need extra insurance,you need to check the
(25:53):
documentation that you mightneed.
So you always must check thatbefore booking.
If you're planning to take itacross to Republic of Ireland,
northern Ireland, or even ifyou're taking us from the
Scottish Islands, we've justchecked and said is it okay,
we're taking it over on theferry to?
I'm trying to think where we'vebeen.
We went to the Orkneys and wejust mentioned we're taking it
over on the ferry to.
Uh, trying to think where we'vebeen.
We went to the auguries and wejust mentioned we're taking it
over to the auguries, just, andit was absolutely fine.
(26:14):
Um, and I know when you bookthe ferry they ask you for the
car registration that's right onthe cow mount fairies going
across the sky.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Uh, that fills up and you need to put that well in
advance and obviously you don'tknow the registration number of
your high car.
But there is a gap on there tosay you know, don't know
registration, and then you canstill make your booking and then
number 12 is not understandinguk road lingo the different
words that use.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Now they're going to be different words than you may
use in your own country.
So you may not use the wordlay-by or slip road or b road,
um.
So again, there may bedifferent terminology that
you're not used to and it canthrow you off if you're not sure
.
So again we say learn thebasics ahead of time.
Trip your armor is your go-toto this to prepare yourself for
(27:00):
you.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Know the different words, the different signs that
you might see most definitelybecause you know if you're
driving through cornwall and youknow you're heading on to a b
road.
Now the B roads are small lanes, back lanes and sometimes
little or no road markings.
There can be blind corners,blind bends, not to mention
you'll be following tractors andbikes and everything else.
(27:22):
So when you do say, like the AAroute planner which I could go
back, that's my favorite youkind of say what sort of road
you want to avoid.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
You want to stick to main roads, and the main roads
are basically a roads yeah, soit's worth you know, doing the
research and understanding thedifferent terms that are used.
And 13 is being unprepared formotorway driving.
Well, I have to say I dislikeintensely driving on the
motorways in the uk.
They are fast, busy and theyare full of lorries.
(27:51):
And I think that oftensurprises people.
Actually about the lorries,because you can have the lorries
go so fast and I know we haveroad trains here in Australia
but honestly, the lorriesthere's just so many of them.
So number 13 is being unpreparedfor motorway driving.
Well, I have to say I do notlike driving on the motorways in
the uk.
They are fast, busy and theyare full of lorries.
So you generally find thatthere are three lanes.
(28:13):
So the general rule of thumb isto stay in the left lane unless
you're overtaken.
But just be aware that there'llbe a lot of lorries,
particularly monday to friday,so you just have to have your
wits about you on the motorwaysdon't you do it, and it's
actually very loud as well yeah,it is so.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
If you're hiring a car and you lack a little bit of
confidence, don't have thesmallest car possible.
Have a little car that's alittle bit bigger.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, I was actually going to talk about that and a
bit actually about the size ofthe car.
When you hire it.
I would say don't go for thebiggest car, because you're
going to struggle to get itway.
In the UK we generally go forkind of a medium-sized SUV,
don't we?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
We do yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
And we find that works really really well.
The other thing to know, ifyou're on the motorways as well,
is to know when servicestations are coming up so that
you can maybe plan to have arest at that point and also
check out for what exits.
So you need to look at thesignage for exits, emergency
lanes, um.
So really, when you're on amotorway, you will probably need
(29:14):
somebody to help you tonavigate most definitely and be
aware, on motorways as well.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
There's lots of um electronic displays about speed
changes, roadworks coming up,congestion, etc I mean it's the
quickest way to get aroundgenerally.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I would say some of the motorways I'd avoid, like
the M25 around London.
It's kind of classed as a giantcar park.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Car park, yeah, it's like a British joke, yeah.
But one thing I will point outthere the petrol prices and food
prices on the service stationsand motorways is a little bit
pricey at times.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Yeah, they can be exorbitant, especially food
prices, that's for sure.
Number 14 is skipping the smallprint on insurance.
Now, if you I know many peoplethink that they're covered by
the credit card, but you may notbe so I would always check what
the excess is, check roadsidecover and what counts as damage,
so that could include for tiresand windscreen cover.
(30:04):
Now what we do and we've donethis forever because I just
can't deal with the stress of itis we just pay when we pick up
the car.
We just pay whatever it is toreduce the excess to zero.
So it's generally a certainamount per day and I just always
pay it.
So I kind of budget that in ona trip knowing that I might have
to pay X amount to have zeroexcess on the car, and that's
(30:26):
what we prefer to do.
It's just something that worksfor us.
I know there are other ways youcan potentially do that, but
that is what we do and we wouldrecommend that you make sure
that you you know if you can'tafford the excess, because some
of these excesses can be 2,000,3,000 pounds.
One thing we always do, evenwith that, is we take
photographs and a video of thecar when we pick it up.
(30:48):
That's definitely definitely,and one example I will just
mention actually about makingsure that you've got extra cover
if you need it is our daughterwas travelling around Scotland
with her partner a couple ofyears ago and when they picked
up the car they were asked ifthey wanted extra to pay cover
for tyres.
And my daughter said she lookedat her partner, he looked at
her and she went, yes, okay,let's get it.
(31:08):
And a few hours outside ofGlasgow they got a flat tyre.
So because they had the cover,they had to wait.
They still had to wait an houror so to get the people to come
out, break down, come and sortthem out.
But then they were towed back toGlasgow sorted, given another
car.
So it was all covered.
I just thought I would havehate to have thought what would
have happened if she hadn't hadthat car?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Oh, most definitely.
Yeah, so and then number 15,this sounds obvious, but you
know it's easily done.
It's leaving valuables visiblein your car.
Not a good idea Now, when wepick high cars and not just in
the UK, around the world.
It doesn't happen all the time.
Sometimes there's no parcelshelf or back shelf inside the
(31:50):
back of the car.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Is it trunk?
Yeah, In America in the boot.
Do we call it the boot?
Speaker 3 (31:54):
in the UK, yeah the trunk, the shelf that covers the
boot space or the trunk space,and I won't take the car.
I'll say I want a cover.
I usually go back in and say Ineed a cover on the back of that
.
Usually, uh, could be a solidcover or a blind type cover,
yeah, and yeah, they've alwayshad one there somewhere, but
(32:16):
they seem to take them out thecar yeah, I don't know why?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
I mean not that we leave valuables in the car, but
I don't want them on view anywayyeah, and you know, sometimes
you're driving and you might notarrive at your destination, but
you you know you want to stopoff at the service station to go
and get a snack, or you need touse a restroom or whatever
reason, or you stop off in avillage on the way and you're
going to leave your car.
So, even if you're leaving itfor a few minutes, I would make
(32:41):
sure that everything's covered.
So you want a parcel shelf inthere to make sure that things
are covered up, because youmight not take you know, take
all your suitcases out of thecar in that case.
But what we would say?
Honestly, if you take yourvaluables out of your car, make
sure you don't leave any moneyor your passport or anything
electronic or anything that canbe stolen.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
That's it.
I mean what we've already said.
If you're accommodation parkingfor whatever reason, you know
you've not parked close and youcan't take everything in one go.
You know, obviously you'll takeyour valuables first but you
might have to leave some stufffor a second journey to take
stuff back to the accommodation.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, well, that's it , that's exactly right.
And I mean just thinking abouta couple of instances.
Actually, with a mum andstepdad driving in France not
the UK, but again just worthbearing in mind and they went
into the service station have adrink, have a meal.
They came out, opened theirboot and half the things had
been stolen.
It was all recovered, but itwas a real problem on their
holiday and interrupted withthings, and again my stepbrother
(33:40):
was in I think it was in Sweden, stockholm, and a bag was
stolen out of his car with hispassport in it, which caused all
sorts of havoc for him havingto sort all those things out.
So again, do not leavevaluables.
Make sure that you lock yourcar.
That's another thing, because Iknow it's very easy when you
get out and be distracted, notto make sure you lock it.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
And an unfamiliar car as well.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah, exactly If your accommodation.
Let's say, if you haven'tmanaged to get parking so close
to your accommodation, then yourcar might be down a road and a
bit of a way away.
So so yeah, make sure that youcheck that.
So those are kind of our 15 or15 tips, 15 kind of ideas,
mistakes, that we see thatpeople or pointers advice can
(34:21):
make, so we're just trying to,um, to kind of cover those and
explain why we would kind of,you know, say not to do these
things, or try to avoid some ofthese common mistakes, if you
can, when you're planning yourroad trip.
As I say, the uk is a fantasticuh destination for road trips
and we've done some amazing onesoh, we have some fantastic
trips.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
I mean, as much as I love train travel, trains don't,
unfortunately go everywhere, soyou know, quite often we've had
to do a road trip as well as atrain trip.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Yeah, well, that's it and I can't wait to do.
We were just talking about ournext road trip, so probably
around scotland again and we arehoping to do a bit of the the
south coast of the england southcoast of england um, so that
would be really good.
So I mean, if you're planning aroad trip, get in touch via
speakpipe.
Let us know where you're going.
Um, we're always interested toknow what you're up to, what
part of the UK you're planningto do a road trip along.
(35:10):
Anyway, as always, we end theepisode with the one tip that we
would share relevant to thetopic.
So for this week, obviously,this is about driving in the UK
and having the best road trippossible.
So what would be your one tipfor somebody planning a road
trip in the UK, doug?
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Well, on top of everything we've said, I think
it's the one about accommodationand parking.
You don't really don't want tohave the stress, the anxiety and
the grief of not have been ableto park when you've had a long
day.
Maybe you come straight fromthe airport with your high car.
Then you can't find somewhereto park your accommodation.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
That's a good one.
Well, I'm going to say don'tunderestimate the driving and
putting in too much in a day sothat basically all you're doing
is driving from A to B to C to Dto E, to F to G and actually
not seeing anything.
So try not to overpack it withtoo many things.
That's the best way to do it,honestly, because enjoy it, take
it slow, enjoy the countryside,be able to stop often and see
(36:06):
places and, and ultimately, Iknow we've given you one tip
each, but we have our top tipfrom both of us and that is to
do the tripiamo.
Course, it's not expensive.
It will prepare you to drive inthe uk.
Honestly, it will.
Honestly, it's the best thingthat you can do, whether you
used to drive it on the lefthand side or not, whether you
drive live in australia, whetheryou live in new zealand or you
(36:27):
live in Japan or Singapore orthe US.
Wherever it's the best thing todo.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Most definitely, and I would also add on to that it's
also worth doing the TrippieArmo course if you're actually
not driving but you're going tobe navigating and supporting a
driver.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Oh yeah, and actually we've had some really excellent
feedback from that where bothof them have done that, even
though one person wasn'tplanning to do any of the
driving, it helped them with thenavigation as well and
understanding the road, becausethe resources they have are
absolutely fantastic.
So do take a look.
I will put a link in the shownotes to this episode, so
(37:01):
they'll be at uktravelplanetcom.
Forward slash episode 155.
So check out that.
Check out the Trippiamo link.
Leave us a message on SpeakPipe.
We love to hear from you guys.
We do it honestly makes our weekwhen we get a message and you
might get a shout-out in nextweek's episode or comment
episode.
Also, I just want to say aswell, if you've enjoyed
(37:23):
listening to this podcast, ifyou found any of our resources
helpful for you whether that'sjoining our Facebook group,
whether it's any of the episodesof the podcast, whether it's
our websites I would ask, please, could you support us?
Really, we do appreciate it andyou can support us via, again,
a link in the show notes,whether that is using the tip,
your guide link, or whetherthat's sponsoring the podcast,
(37:46):
and that can be from as littleas three US dollars a month,
which is less than a cup ofcoffee a week.
Um, we really appreciate that.
We will do, um, so that reallyhelps us honestly provide all
this amazing stuff for you tohelp you have the best trip in
the uk.
Anyway.
That just leaves us to say untilnext week, happy uk travel
planning thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the
(38:10):
UK Travel Planning Podcast.
As always, show notes can befound at uktravelplanningcom.
If you've enjoyed the show, whynot leave us feedback via text
or a review on your favouritepodcast app?
We love to hear from you andyou never know.
You may receive a shout out ina future episode, but, as always
, that just leaves me to sayuntil next week.
(38:31):
Happy UK travel planning.
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