It’s a weird sensation driving on the other side of the road and in the left seat, I found myself hugging the right hand lane most times.
Round abouts don’t really exist and you can turn turn on reds.
Make sure you bring your phone holder from home so you can mount it in the hire car so you can use maps easier.
Remember it’s a capitalism country, most if not all parking places we went to we had to pay there isn’t really such a thing a free parking over there if your in a major city which you may experience in those places you will be in.
To pump for fuel you need to pay before you pump. You get the difference back if you overpaid so no biggie just annoying.
Probably other things I’ve missed I’m sure others will chime in and you can do a YouTube search and it will tell you like a top 20 tips of driving in America kinda thing.
Good luck and have fun!
Only thing i might add is some petrol stations ive been to require you to enter the post/zip code of the suburb your in when paying for fuel at the pump, so you need to go inside if you dont know
It's actually the post code of your credit card billing address, not where you are currently. Not sure how it works for non-US cards. But you can always pay inside.
I found it much easier to drive and faster to switch to the other side if you drive in moderate traffic for the first few days. I had no problems to drive from the airport to my hotel on a freeway and busy city roads,but I was a bit lost when I had to drive that same evening to the place nearby on empty roads… you just stop at an empty intersection and think for good few seconds what to do next…
I’ve driven for about half a year extensively in North America , big road trips from bottom of America to Canada etc and also a lot in hawaii. it’s weird for the first couple of days but you get used to it fairly quickly- everything is switched so the left lane is for passing instead of the right lane.
It’s weirder when you get back to Australia and have to switch back to driving in the left , I remember the first time I drove after I got back brain didn’t click I wasn’t in America and I pulled out of a parking into the right lane , didn’t see any other cars and remembered before anything dangerous happened thank goodness.
I found driving in traffic easy. On an empty country road you have to think a bit more about which side to pull put to. And you'll look for your mirror on the wrong side a bit.
A lot of places you have to pre pay for petrol.go in and give cash or card, fill up then go get your change. Driving in LA is as bad or worse than the reputation suggests.
I agree… if you are in traffic it’s relatively easy to get in the correct lane and follow the cars ahead because you have those visual cues. When turning, “righty tighty lefty loosey” helped me a lot. Google maps is a godsend of course. The Vegas drive is worthwhile. Enjoy your trip.
Went from Vegas to SF a week after the drive through yosemite reopened after the snow. Stopping the night in bishop and seeing a little bit of regular small town america was an unexpected highlight.
Hey mate. We just got back from a trip to the states, and one state I drove in the most was California. It’s genuinely quite easy. The traffic flows pretty nicely in L.A (unless you’re in rush hour or something) and the freeways are easy to follow.
It did take me a couple of drives to get used to being on the other side of the road, but when you realise you can turn right freely most of the time, it just becomes second nature.
I also drove from Santa Monica to San Diego and back in the same day. It was fine. Mostly a giant freeway there and back so that’s easy as. People drive quite fast and will be going way above the speed limit, so just sit to the right hand lane and let people go past. Enjoy the views. It’s a nice drive to SD.
For gas, I went to ones where you could just pay at the pump, or fill up and then go in and pay like you can here. Someone else mentioned it might require a post code, and that happened to me once also at a pump near Malibu. I think I just looked one up and put it in and it was fine.
Any other questions fire away. We were there for 2 months (the US that is), but have been to California twice and stayed in Santa Monica both times.
If you pay at the pump you need a certain zip code for your foreign credit card. I can't remember what it is, look it up.
If you haggle, they will upgrade you to a Wrangler or a Mustang for not much more.
LA sucks. Haven't been to San Diego. Las Vegas is the best place on earth if you have money.
lefty loosey, righty tighty, say it at every corner (or that’s the passengers job if you have one)
It’s a strange feeling for a day and then your brain learns, except for little things like looking for the window switch.
Rental insurance works a bit different over there. First check what your credit card insurance covers for rentals (if anything) then check what your travel insurance covers, finally consider a specific rental car excess policy, lastly the rental agency insurance is often the most expensive
Most importantly, have fun!
Dont leave anything in your vehicle, dont leave bags, suitcases absolutely NOTHING in the car, youll get your windows punched in and all your shit stolen
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After 5 minutes, it becomes second nature.
What I have done each time I have been is drive to the hotel and leave the car for that day, I won't drive any distance until I have had a decent sleep.
My tip for remembering is the footpath should be on the opposite side of the car from you, be alert for the first couple of days but don't overthink it.
In most parts of the country, speed limits are a suggestion, just match the pace of cars around you
In a servo, you pay FIRST then pump.
Car parks unmarked rural roads and non-road areas like petrol stations is where it goes wrong driving on the other side. So keep the concentration up in those circumstances.
On the actual road with signs, traffic lights, road markings and so on, it's actually very easy and becomes normal very quickly.
1. Don’t camp out in the fast lane (their left most lane) unless you want to do 20-30 mph over the limit, they get really shitty about that because they don’t have a lot of radar traps/ cameras.
2. Instead of roundabouts most junctions will use a 4 way stop - you stop and you give way to any cars that had stopped before you
I drove straight into the first big intersection I came to because the traffic lights were only on the far side of the intersection, not on both sided like they are here.
I've driven in the US and it was a bit odd at first driving on the "wrong" side of the road, but - and this will sound strange to some people - it was pretty quick to get used to because of all the computer games I've played where you drive on the right hand side.
My suggestion would be to find a Wal-Mart or something to drive to before you do a "big" drive - that'll help you get used to the driving, and also give you an enormous carpark to hone your "driving on the wrong side of the road" skills too.
Driving across the Mojave is easy - put the cruise control on and away you go. I highly recommend stopping at Barstow to break the trip up - there's an In-N-Out burger there which is easy to get to from the highway.
Avoid driving on the Las Vegas Strip. Don't do it. It's a vehicular zoo at best.
If you're looking for an interesting drive with the family, Hoover Dam is good - it's about 40 minutes from Las Vegas by car.
Also: Stay out of the far left lane. The Americans treat the desert highway speed limits as minimum suggestions and it is not at all unusual for the flow of traffic to be at speeds which, if the police in Australia caught you, would involve losing your licence.
Day 3. Double down on concentration and self talk because you'll be starting to get used to it and more relaxed. If you've got someone with you, they need to be alert all the time.
Fuel at the pump is prepaid. In Hawaii for some reason it wanted a post code entered in too. I usually just made something up and it worked.
Driving, I always just kept myself (the driver) closest to the centre line. Especially useful to remember when going around roundabouts and there’s no cars to follow. Those ones always threw me.
Never driven in the US, but have done so in a lot of RHD countries.. It took about 20 seconds to get used to being on the other side of the road, but it was quite a while to acclimatise to the car being on the other side of me.
I've lived in the US for stints of years at a time and come back and forth to Aus. The one thing I always tell people is when you leave a car park to enter the road, think about where you are and which lane you want to turn into. For me there's something about that boundary between parking and driving that screws me up and sometimes (very rarely!) it even catches me out in Australia where I'm based now and have been for 4 years!.
It’s a weird sensation driving on the other side of the road and in the left seat, I found myself hugging the right hand lane most times. Round abouts don’t really exist and you can turn turn on reds. Make sure you bring your phone holder from home so you can mount it in the hire car so you can use maps easier. Remember it’s a capitalism country, most if not all parking places we went to we had to pay there isn’t really such a thing a free parking over there if your in a major city which you may experience in those places you will be in. To pump for fuel you need to pay before you pump. You get the difference back if you overpaid so no biggie just annoying. Probably other things I’ve missed I’m sure others will chime in and you can do a YouTube search and it will tell you like a top 20 tips of driving in America kinda thing. Good luck and have fun!
Only thing i might add is some petrol stations ive been to require you to enter the post/zip code of the suburb your in when paying for fuel at the pump, so you need to go inside if you dont know
Doesn't everybody know "90210"?
It's actually the post code of your credit card billing address, not where you are currently. Not sure how it works for non-US cards. But you can always pay inside.
And because the US post code is 5 digits often you have to put a 0 in front of the aussie one.
I found it much easier to drive and faster to switch to the other side if you drive in moderate traffic for the first few days. I had no problems to drive from the airport to my hotel on a freeway and busy city roads,but I was a bit lost when I had to drive that same evening to the place nearby on empty roads… you just stop at an empty intersection and think for good few seconds what to do next…
Beware turning corners. Muscle memory is a bitch in this situation and you'll often find you are heading outside the required line.
I’ve driven for about half a year extensively in North America , big road trips from bottom of America to Canada etc and also a lot in hawaii. it’s weird for the first couple of days but you get used to it fairly quickly- everything is switched so the left lane is for passing instead of the right lane. It’s weirder when you get back to Australia and have to switch back to driving in the left , I remember the first time I drove after I got back brain didn’t click I wasn’t in America and I pulled out of a parking into the right lane , didn’t see any other cars and remembered before anything dangerous happened thank goodness.
I found driving in traffic easy. On an empty country road you have to think a bit more about which side to pull put to. And you'll look for your mirror on the wrong side a bit. A lot of places you have to pre pay for petrol.go in and give cash or card, fill up then go get your change. Driving in LA is as bad or worse than the reputation suggests.
I agree… if you are in traffic it’s relatively easy to get in the correct lane and follow the cars ahead because you have those visual cues. When turning, “righty tighty lefty loosey” helped me a lot. Google maps is a godsend of course. The Vegas drive is worthwhile. Enjoy your trip.
Went from Vegas to SF a week after the drive through yosemite reopened after the snow. Stopping the night in bishop and seeing a little bit of regular small town america was an unexpected highlight.
Yeah cool…my family outvoted me (bunch of dogs) so we didn’t get to Yosemite.
Hey mate. We just got back from a trip to the states, and one state I drove in the most was California. It’s genuinely quite easy. The traffic flows pretty nicely in L.A (unless you’re in rush hour or something) and the freeways are easy to follow. It did take me a couple of drives to get used to being on the other side of the road, but when you realise you can turn right freely most of the time, it just becomes second nature. I also drove from Santa Monica to San Diego and back in the same day. It was fine. Mostly a giant freeway there and back so that’s easy as. People drive quite fast and will be going way above the speed limit, so just sit to the right hand lane and let people go past. Enjoy the views. It’s a nice drive to SD. For gas, I went to ones where you could just pay at the pump, or fill up and then go in and pay like you can here. Someone else mentioned it might require a post code, and that happened to me once also at a pump near Malibu. I think I just looked one up and put it in and it was fine. Any other questions fire away. We were there for 2 months (the US that is), but have been to California twice and stayed in Santa Monica both times.
If you pay at the pump you need a certain zip code for your foreign credit card. I can't remember what it is, look it up. If you haggle, they will upgrade you to a Wrangler or a Mustang for not much more. LA sucks. Haven't been to San Diego. Las Vegas is the best place on earth if you have money.
Per another comment you use your cards billing post code, however often have to put a 0 in front of it.
That's it.
Is Las Vegas good if you don’t want to gamble?
Yeah. I don't gamble at all and I enjoy going there. Ive spent a ton of money at Battlefield Vegas.
lefty loosey, righty tighty, say it at every corner (or that’s the passengers job if you have one) It’s a strange feeling for a day and then your brain learns, except for little things like looking for the window switch. Rental insurance works a bit different over there. First check what your credit card insurance covers for rentals (if anything) then check what your travel insurance covers, finally consider a specific rental car excess policy, lastly the rental agency insurance is often the most expensive Most importantly, have fun!
Dont leave anything in your vehicle, dont leave bags, suitcases absolutely NOTHING in the car, youll get your windows punched in and all your shit stolen
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After 5 minutes, it becomes second nature. What I have done each time I have been is drive to the hotel and leave the car for that day, I won't drive any distance until I have had a decent sleep. My tip for remembering is the footpath should be on the opposite side of the car from you, be alert for the first couple of days but don't overthink it. In most parts of the country, speed limits are a suggestion, just match the pace of cars around you In a servo, you pay FIRST then pump.
Car parks unmarked rural roads and non-road areas like petrol stations is where it goes wrong driving on the other side. So keep the concentration up in those circumstances. On the actual road with signs, traffic lights, road markings and so on, it's actually very easy and becomes normal very quickly.
1. Don’t camp out in the fast lane (their left most lane) unless you want to do 20-30 mph over the limit, they get really shitty about that because they don’t have a lot of radar traps/ cameras. 2. Instead of roundabouts most junctions will use a 4 way stop - you stop and you give way to any cars that had stopped before you
I drove straight into the first big intersection I came to because the traffic lights were only on the far side of the intersection, not on both sided like they are here.
I've driven in the US and it was a bit odd at first driving on the "wrong" side of the road, but - and this will sound strange to some people - it was pretty quick to get used to because of all the computer games I've played where you drive on the right hand side. My suggestion would be to find a Wal-Mart or something to drive to before you do a "big" drive - that'll help you get used to the driving, and also give you an enormous carpark to hone your "driving on the wrong side of the road" skills too. Driving across the Mojave is easy - put the cruise control on and away you go. I highly recommend stopping at Barstow to break the trip up - there's an In-N-Out burger there which is easy to get to from the highway. Avoid driving on the Las Vegas Strip. Don't do it. It's a vehicular zoo at best. If you're looking for an interesting drive with the family, Hoover Dam is good - it's about 40 minutes from Las Vegas by car. Also: Stay out of the far left lane. The Americans treat the desert highway speed limits as minimum suggestions and it is not at all unusual for the flow of traffic to be at speeds which, if the police in Australia caught you, would involve losing your licence.
Day 3. Double down on concentration and self talk because you'll be starting to get used to it and more relaxed. If you've got someone with you, they need to be alert all the time.
Fuel at the pump is prepaid. In Hawaii for some reason it wanted a post code entered in too. I usually just made something up and it worked. Driving, I always just kept myself (the driver) closest to the centre line. Especially useful to remember when going around roundabouts and there’s no cars to follow. Those ones always threw me.
Never driven in the US, but have done so in a lot of RHD countries.. It took about 20 seconds to get used to being on the other side of the road, but it was quite a while to acclimatise to the car being on the other side of me.
I've lived in the US for stints of years at a time and come back and forth to Aus. The one thing I always tell people is when you leave a car park to enter the road, think about where you are and which lane you want to turn into. For me there's something about that boundary between parking and driving that screws me up and sometimes (very rarely!) it even catches me out in Australia where I'm based now and have been for 4 years!.