Coming Out Of The Pandemic
The “Roaring 20s” start in 2022! Wasn’t that a pile of bullshit? Coming seemingly out of nowhere in March 2020 (we were turned back from the Andorra border with a…
Everything Else
Can you drive in Europe? Of course you can, dummy! It’s safe and easy and the other-side-of-the-road thing is a piece of cake.
There’s nothing quite as liberating as a self-driven holiday. You don’t travel along the established travel routes, being beholden to the itineraries of transport companies that only go where the most people want to go. What’s intrepid about that? Where’s the adventure?
With your own wheels you’re only limited by infrastructure. You get off the highways and explore the villages via the national roads. You can take the long way between towns and wind up to dizzying heights as you make mountain passes. You can take farmers’ roads and dirt tracks to be utterly and completely lost.
But there are a few things you need to know before you get behind the wheel.
When are you going to drive?
We’re big advocates of open-plan rough itineraries that utilise a wide variety of transport options. There will be some legs of your journey that will call for flying, others that will see you on a train or bus, and then, when you want to get to parts of Europe that aren’t serviced by commercial transport and/or when you want to roll entirely at your own pace. Think of driving in Europe as an integral part of a well-balanced transport diet.
What are you going to drive?
Your options are to either hire, buy or borrow. If you know somebody who lives in Europe who has a car and who will also loan it to you, then gee whizz congratulations to you. If you’re a normal person, however, you’re probably going to hire a car. Buying brings with it a raft of complications that any hedonistic backpacker probably doesn’t have time for – from insurance, to inevitable breakdowns, to reselling. That said, if you see a good deal, it could be one heck of an adventure…
What will you need to drive in Europe
A full license as well as an international drivers license. The international license is issued at home and it basically provides a multi-language translation for your driving license. You will need some extra paperwork to hire a car, but we have a whole article on that. If you’re driving on the European continent you’ll be driving on the RIGHT SIDE of the road, which is something you will get used to really quickly – just jump behind the wheel and give it a go. You’ll also need data on your phone so you can use Google Maps, or alternatively load it up when you have wifi and use offline.
What are European roads like?
Amazing! There’s plenty of infrastructure here and major highways link most cities, often with three lanes going each way. Here are some points that we’ve noticed on the road:
Stokie Says:
“There are waaaaaay less police on the roads then i’ve seen at home in Australia or in the States. You can quite easily cruise 10 kms over the limit and never have to worry about getting caught. Not that I’d recommend that! Also, we used to use cancelled, or maxed-out credit cards at the toll booths. There was some lag between scanning the card and seeing if it actually worked. Got out of some pretty big tolls, €30+, using that little scam. Wonder if you can still do it…” – Leon, 35, Tent Maintenance