driving on the right.... yup that'll take a bit of getting used to
being on the wrong side of the car.... sure i'll get used to it quickly
automatic.... take seconds/minutes to get used to
but, i've been reading websites with advice on how to drive in california and they're making it seem like a mental place to drive... nobody using indicators, 'death cars', carjackings etc etc
will i die?
should i buy a USA sat nav before i go or try and pick one up when we get there? (cheaper to buy than rent for the 2 weeks)
Freeways at rush hour can be a bit exciting (people don't really give each other space and tend to switch lanes seemingly at random), but generally everyone drives fairly slow, and the road systems are very simple, so it's not very difficult if you've had a little time to get used to it imo.
Load of crap IME
I was lucky enough to get a few days in oregon before driving into san francisco.
Biggest problem I had was in oregon, driving in the country, getting too involved in the scenery and drifting back to the uk side of the road, then coming face to face with another one of those big 4*4 tanks they drive.
carjackings? never heard of them and never mentioned.
indicators? more popular with americans than with bmw drivers over here
as a mate of mine said - you don't get much road rage when there's a 50/50 chance the other guys got a gun in his glove compartment
its fine , just be assertive - they smell fear and loathe it
do not hire a compact compact compact would be my advice
a colleague thought it would be easier to drive round in a smaller car.
nope. Get something big with road presence - gas is cheap. - i had a gmc acacia 3.5 v6 MPV
ignore folks indicators.you need to mirror , indicate manuver - DO NOT wait .... people WILL speed up if you indicate and wait - they love to close gaps on folk.
following the advice when we booked the hire car we're picking it up straight from the airport in vegas, website suggesting worst thing you can do is try driving in america for the first time on city roads let alone vegas on a sat night lol
EDIT - chevvy impala 3.whatever v6
if you have a satnav thats all youll need
get a stack of dollar bills and coinage for the toll roads. or better still hire an ezi tag.
IIRc thre werent many toll roads to worry about though in california. i think i just had the grapevine to pay for from bakersfield to LA
You know Vegas is in Nevada not California right?
It's easy. The actual driving bit is way easier than UK cities. Getting your eye in for their style of road signage takes a little while. You could always drive on the right over here for a day or two before you go to help get acclimated. 🙂
Where in California? I've driven all the way up to napa valley from San Diego. (from NY) LA was the worst it's mental any time of day but in rush hour its insane. Just take it easy and make sure you're looking way ahead of the car in front of you. There's no real system just get in a lane and stay there until you have to.
And remember you can turn right on red. Also you as the driver should be in the middle of the road in respect to driving on the right. Just like here. Always makes it a little easier for me.
I bought a cheap sat nav at best buy. It was less then $100.
It's fine - I picked up a (big boat like) hire car in Vegas. Then took it to grand canyon/ palm springs/ Disneyland/ Hollywood/ Santa cruz/ San fran
I bought my own sat nav as it worked out cheaper than hiring one for that length of time
- freeways are busy around la, and the right hand lane frequently turns into a slip road without much warning so watch our for that
- you can turn right on a red light in California
- automatics start moving forward, even if you don't touch the accelerator. This was news to me!
It really was fine though. Nothing to worry about.
You will die (eventually, it comes to us all apparently 😥 ).
Orange County has a bit of a rep with people not stopping at red lights.
Apart from that easy peasy.
Go to an In Out Burgers just the best ever 😀 animal style 8)
It's easy, much easier than driving on the continent IMO. As above, the toughest thing to get used to is the signage. It's been a while but IIRC you don't get as much notice of turns as you do over here - easy to miss a junction on the motorway, sorry, freeway.
Just looked up the Chevy Impala, I think I've had those before. Pretty bog standard car, gutless but comfy - upgrade to a muscle car! Mustangs are fairly cheap to rent. Driving round Vegas with a throbbing 400 horse power underneath you, with your top down, OOH ERR MISSUS! Just don't try to corner too fast 🙂
As has been said driving in the US is very easy once you get used to the signage. People don't really speed, ever (or at least IME).
Re sat nav, if you would use a sat nav in the UK going to a new city, then its a good idea. Have you looked at how easy it would be to buy one in Las Vegas when you arrive, i.e. found a website for a store that will be open when you are there? A map would be fine driving between Vegas and the San Fran area but for the cities, I can imagine a sat nav is useful.
Re the carjackings, unless you are going into Los Angeles and get lost, crime really isn't that bad, just follow the same common sense you would going into any city anywhere in the world.
I bought a sat nav from a staples in new York - but that was before I had the car
It was handy to help me get from the car hire place to the hotel
Thinking about it I still have it - you can buy it from me if you like. Few years old but very little use
timbod1975 At Googlemail Dot Com
i got off the plane in san fran and drove 10 mins down the freeway without my lights on :$ I'd not slept and didnt feel at all safe!
Got used to it after a couple of days commuting but it was time to come home by the time i'd got my head around it.
I was definitely happier on the train 😀
yeah vegas isn't cali, but once we've gone from vegas to the grand canyon we're driving into cali and spending most of the 2 weeks driving all over the place 🙂
with regards to the car... comfy is priority! will be spending most of our holiday in it after all 🙂
the plan at the moment is fly into vegas, get out of there and half way to the hoover dam as i'm not paying sat night rates for a hotel in vegas when we're going to be too sleepy to care, back into vegas for the night on sunday - grand canyon, amboy via route 66, calico, LA, up the coast to Cambria, over to the kings canyon nationa park to see general sherman, back over to monteray bay/carmel on sea, over to the jelly belly factory then back into san fran to end the holiday
Last time I was in San Francisco I was told there's a law in California about not sticking stuff to windscreens, i.e. sat navs, so theres no obstructions to your view.
Don't know if this was true but I'd ask the hire car people, they should be able to confirm or deny it.
Driving over there is fine. It's when you drive out of Heathrow that's the problem.
If you have a smartphone, you can often get a USA nav app cheaply - I got Copilot USA for £2.99 last time I was there. Download the maps and everything first (that one was 1.2GB), and make sure you take a car charger.
As said, pretty easy. I find driving on the "wrong" side much easier when you're in a matching car. Just get familiar with the specific laws in states you'll be visiting (turn on red, 4-way stop, etc).
I always rent the cheapest thing via Easycar, and take out their "cover everything" insurance. They'll ask you if you want to upgrade, take out extra cover, etc - just refuse it all. Very few hire companies actually stock the lowest couple of grades, so you end up with a reasonable compact (Focus, Civic, etc sized).
Don't fret about it - Americans are able to do it easy enough, so why not you? Just be assertive, go for a bigger car than you think reasonable, and have a laugh; who cares you get a few things wrong now and then? As for driving on the right, I've been driving on the left all my life, yet for some reason the right comes more naturally to me and is easier. Just be aware that when entering rural freeway's or dual carriageways that the entrance you want may appear like an entirely separate road some way off in the distance as it is not uncommon to have half a mile between carriageways. As for sat nav - hate it. Buy a map! Have fun my friend.
Driving in America is fine. You're mostly at risk from one of those absent minded lane repositioning where you're in danger of having a head-on with another car or have half the car wiped out by a bollard or something.
You don't need to be any more assertive than you do in the UK. The only thing to remember is the right turn on red as commented on before. Unless the sign says it's prohibited. Treat it like driving at home and you'll be okay.
Driven all over California, no different/worse to anywhere else I've driven?
Certainly safer than Southall high street
following the advice when we booked the hire car we're picking it up straight from the airport in vegas,
You'll need to get the shuttle bus to the car rental hall, it's too far to walk
That'll be the first time someone will be looking for a $1 tip - and you're not yet out of the airport 🙂
The guys at the rental desks will try to sell you all sorts of upgrades and addons, make sure you know what you have before you leave here and refuse everything
Much easier than driving in europe IMO. Scariest thing was the steepness of roads in sanfran and the weirdness of the four-way stops - might is right.
That's scaremongering b*llocks, it's a doddle.
Hard? No, not as such.
In the UK you get more aggressive driving, people trying to go fast in a hurry. In general, in the US, people are more relaxed. However the flip side to that coin is that to drive aggressively you at least have to be concentrating. US drivers overall are concentrating far less. So you get a raft of 6 lanes of traffic all barrelling along at 80mph 4ft from the car in front and they are texting, reading stuff, eating, staring vacantly etc. On all sides, since no-one keeps right ever.
Then HGVs have the same speed limits as cars, so they are doing the same thing.
However that's only around cities really, and you can stay out of it by chilling out and sticking wherever there's space.
Best advice I can offer is make damn sure you look in both mirrors before changing lanes 🙂
cheers guys... feeling much less daunted now!
What others have said
Highway 17 from Santa Cruz to San Jose is a beast, mind, and deserves utmost respect. Fast swooping mountain dual carriageway.
To be honest Phil if you are out in the countryside as you should be, there'll be no issue at all. It's really only cities that are busy, and if you are on holiday you can avoid the rush hour.
You may want to revise the plan about flying in, then finding somewhere to stay. We tried that quite a few times, and it works provided there's nowt on in town and the Americans themselves have decided to stay at home. Problem being that some Americans get very little holiday entitlement so make most of their weekends by going places, Vegas being one of them. New York one year the place was full, and we ended up 150 miles out of town before we found anywhere to stay, and Seattle one year we ended up in Portland! That's a lot of stress after a big flight. On the plus side, we lucked in several times, getting places right in the heart of some big cities dirt cheap. Take some luck with you.
Always ask for a deal in each hotel, never pay the asking rate for a room. Walk away if they don't haggle a bit. On your journey out of Vegas motels etc. will be easy to find, especially mid week.
You don't need a map of Vegas or the drive out to the coast. Vegas isn't that big and even a moron can find the strip. As for the coast, unless you're Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber, West is all you need to know.
Get a car with cruise control. Take CD's as American Pie on the radio for the 95th time that day grates. Unless you like the Eagles or Don McLain that is?
Man why go small with the car? In Boston we had arranged a 5 litre JEEP, thinking that was big. They offered us a 7.4 litre monster and it was brilliant. It's a holiday, treat yourself a little on the car - by the sound of it you're going to do some miles so why not. You can claw the money back negotiating with motels.
Bacon for breakfast is expensive but worth it, especially with pancakes.
Jack Reacher type events exist in books and CSI type crap only. In all events you will not die 😉 You will come back exactly one stone heavier.
Whatever. Just enjoy the trip.
Phil
Me and a mate did a similar loop a good few years ago , starting in LA.
- You need a first night address to get through customs. We queued for about an hour , to be turned back and 'booked' a nearby motel . Which we then didnt go to and carried on as original plan .
- Ensure you know how to turn head lights and main beam on , and off before leaving the car park . Being screamed at by unhappy Americans on the freeway , at night , in a hire car is not fun.
- The distances between everywhere are much bigger than they look on the map, we did about 2500miles in 2 weeks . Too much really.
- Grand Canyon is weird weather wise, Cold and snowy when we went in late October IIRC.
- Do not test out the ABS and off road capabilty of your hire car in Death Valley .
- Do not test the V-max of your hire car when any traffic is nearby . The Police have head on radars and helicopters and enjoy putting people in jail overnight for speeding in National parks . Alledgedly.
- You might have to pre pay for fuel at night in a city petrol station.
Have fun.
rob
Big miles hence cruise control 😉
Very easy compared to UK, you get used to the laid back driving on the freeway then back to the M4. Only found LA a bit iffy in traffic. SatNav is a must though, made that mistake first time.
Risky? More likely to die of boredom on drive from Nevada/Arizona to CF, oh look more desert....
Drove round California/Nevada/Arizona/Utah inc Vegas and LA when I was 17 and had only been driving for a couple of months. Scariest part was the dodgy insurance place we had to go to in LA. And that was in a 1.3 Chevy Metro, you don't [i]need[/i] a big car.
Make use of the car pool lane!
Rob, you forgot how to put on the handbrake and work the locks.
Kev, yeah, but we dropped off the Freeway and used local roads when uber bored. Found some odd places that way.
We hired a rav 4 for going san francisco-napa-yosemite-monterey-san fransico and it was a piece of piss. Used mu Mum n Dad's sat nav that had USA roads downloaded. Didn't know my Dad had programmed the sat nav to avoid freeways/highways whenever possible (whn they go out they prefer to hit smaller towns and stuff) till we got home! And to be honest it was great.
following the advice when we booked the hire car we're picking it up straight from the airport in vegas, website suggesting worst thing you can do is try driving in america for the first time on city roads let alone vegas on a sat night lol
Arrived at LAX somewhere after 7pm, had to pick up the hire car out near South Central, about a month after the Rodney King police trial, had to work out where all the controls were, then had to ask how you opened the filler cap! (Stupid little lever on the floor by the side of the seat in a Buick Skylark). Then had to drive up to the hotel off Lankershim Blvd, just the other side of Ventura. That was fun, at 8pm, in the dark, in a totally unfamiliar car!
Fortunately I had a mate who was using my Rand Macnally map, so we got there relatively unscathed.
It is, as others have said, pretty easy driving around LA, easier than Bristol, the roads are much wider for a start. Used to drive down to Sunset every evening to eat at Toi, a Thai-American restaurant just over the road from the Mesa Boogie amplifier store, all very rock'n'roll. It's still there, and I can recommend it highly. Just go very careful with the hot'n'sour soup... 😳
Took us two days to work out how to lock a Pontiac. Key only, opened the doors by turning it either way. Turned out you had to turn it clockwise to a second click. As for handbrakes...... Can be anywhere.
If you haven't already, you might want to check with the hire company about insurance if you want to take the car outside the state, i.e. from nevada into california. There may be a premium to do that. I seem to remember something along those lines when I hired a car in california and wanted to drive to Vegas - but that was about 18 years ago so a little hazy.
A few years ago I spent four weeks driving around California and Nevada. In the cities you had to have your whits about you but thats no different to driving in a UK city. The freeways were fine. Expansive and not overly crowded. The two hour drive home from Manchester airport (weekday afternoon) was one of the most unpleasant journeys I've ever had. I realised how impatient and uncourteous UK drivers can be.
You'll be fine.
For Sat Nav - there are a few people on Ebay renting USA Sat Navs. Delivered to your house. Two weeks is £20-30
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=usa+sat+nav+hire&_sacat=0
If you have a decent smartphone, CoPilot Standard USA is £2.49, and the HD version is £12.99. That's in the App Store, not sure about Android, but likely to be about the same. A steal, at that price, and you still have it if you go back.
Oh yeah and don't expect clear road markings telling you where to be or go. The lines tend to stop and restart on the other side leaving a big void.
Just back from a 2 week 2600 mile trip, booked a tiny car but got given an almost freelander sized thing but 2wd. Driving not a problem, cruise control was a blessing on the days we did big miles. The only thing we struggled with was filling up the car with fuel as you either guess how much you are going to need and pre-pay or use your credit card at the pump lots of which require a zip code which you won't have with a UK card. Oh and in the parts of US we were in (Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona) green pump is diesel and black is petrol, that nearly caught me out the first time when I was stressing with payment hassles.
It's not too bad. I've just passed my CA driving test.
A few things to do.
Turning right on a red (unless there is a sign saying don't or a red arrow). Stop before the white line, then edge forward before turning if it's clear. Watch out for pedestrians crossing as they will have green man and right of way.
4-Way stop - first car at the junction goes first, or the one on the right if you both arrive at the same time.
Freeway - easy - but don't expect much information on the junctions - know the name or the number of the road you want - you don't always get junction numbers, or signs to towns that you might be expecting, just a road name "Blah Blah Avenue".
Satnav - we bought the USA map for our UK one, and updated it. You can pick up a cheap garmin for about $70.
If you look up CA DMV on youtube you can get some handy driving tips aimed at people taking their tests.
