Driving in United Kingdom

• Check whether you need a UK Electronic Travel Authorisation. Most non-British and non-Irish visitors do, and carriers check it before they let you board the ferry, shuttle, Eurostar or flight. You may be turned away without it.
• Bring a passport. EU, EEA and Swiss identity cards are generally not accepted.
• Set up your parking, navigation and EV charging apps at home. Your European apps may not work here.
• Check whether your route enters a charging city, and whether any crossing on it charges by camera.
• If you are hiring a motorhome, join one of the two clubs before you travel. See links below.
• Print the UK glovebox sheet and put it in the car.

This is when nearly everything goes wrong. Not on a mountain road. In the first ten minutes, in a car park, at the first roundabout.

Off the ferry or the shuttle

Dover, Newhaven, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Harwich, Hull, or the shuttle at Folkestone. Dover is the sharp end of it. The port exit puts you almost immediately onto the A20 with fast traffic, gradients and freight, and there is very little settling-in distance.

Britain drives on the left. Roundabouts go clockwise. On a roundabout you give way to the right.

Out of the rental lot

Same problem with jet lag added. Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester all put you onto a fast dual carriageway within minutes.

Before you move

• Say out loud which side you are driving on. KEEP LEFT.
• Give the passenger a job: call "keep left" at every junction for the first hour.
• Load the route before you drive away.
• Know your first two junctions without looking.
• Find the indicators, wipers, fuel cap side and fuel type while stationary. In a right-hand-drive car the stalks are usually the mirror image of what you are used to.

The first hour

• Every junction, every roundabout, every fuel stop. Pulling out of an empty forecourt is where instinct takes over. Say out loud, GIVE WAY to the LEFT.
• Overtaking is on the right, and your mirrors are on the wrong side for it. Wait and go steady.
• Keep the first day short. Dover to Scotland off an overnight crossing is the same mistake as Calais to Provence in the other direction. A very long tiring drive.
• Speeds and distances are in MILES. A hire car reads mph with a small km/h scale. A car you brought over is the reverse. Know which you are reading.

Roundabouts, and a great many of them

Britain uses roundabouts where much of Europe uses traffic lights, including multi-lane roundabouts and roundabouts made of smaller roundabouts.

• Give way to the right. Traffic already on the roundabout has priority.
• Choose your lane on the approach, not on the roundabout. Lane discipline matters more than speed.
• Signal left as you pass the exit before yours.
• Mini-roundabouts still count. Drive around the painted circle, not over it.

Priority is not always marked

There is no British equivalent of priorite a droite. If there are no markings and no sign, do not assume you have priority, but equally do not expect an unmarked convention to be operating. Priority here comes from one of three things: the roundabout rule, the markings and signs, or negotiation when there are none.

Merge in turn

Two correct behaviours, depending on speed, and the Highway Code distinguishes them.

• Slow or stopped traffic, at roadworks or an incident: use BOTH lanes right up to the merge point, then alternate, one vehicle from each. This is the zip merge and it is what the Highway Code recommends.
• Free-flowing traffic at speed: move over early, picking a safe gap. Merging in turn is expressly not recommended at high speed.

Indicate every time, merging or changing lanes

• There is a persistent belief that merging does not need an indicator. It does. Nothing in the Highway Code exempts a merge from signalling.
• The confusion comes from where the rules sit. The rule on changing lanes tells you plainly to signal your intentions. The rules on joining a motorway and on merging in turn talk about priority and matching speed and say nothing about signals, and people read that silence as permission. It is not. Signalling is covered by the general rules and applies throughout.
• Indicate early, while you are still on the slip road or well before the merge point, not as you cross the line. A late indicator reads as "I am already coming in", and that is what starts arguments. Cancel it once you are across.
• What actually differs between merging and changing lanes is who gives way, not whether you signal. Some countries, Australia in particular, have separate give-way rules depending on whether the painted line between the lanes continues or stops. The indicator requirement does not change either way.

Pedestrians come first

The Highway Code puts pedestrians at the top of a hierarchy of road users, and two rules surprise visitors:

• Give way to people waiting to cross at a junction you are turning into.
• Give way at zebra crossings to people waiting, not only to people already crossing.

Red X means the lane is closed

On a motorway gantry, a red X over a lane means do not drive in it, and it is enforced by camera. This is a rule.

Speed limits

In miles per hour. The national limits, unless a sign says otherwise:

Alcohol

Scotland has a lower limit than England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Given you may cross a border without noticing, treat the answer as none. You are a tourist, be safe.

What to carry

• Britain does not legally require a car to carry a hi-vis vest or a warning triangle. That is the opposite of most of Europe and it surprises visitors.
• Carry them anyway, and carry a vest per person. Many motorway sections have no permanent hard shoulder, so the requirement is to get everyone out and behind the barrier.
• Do NOT use a warning triangle on a motorway. This is a specific UK rule that runs against continental instinct.
• Bringing a left-hand-drive car: you need the correct headlight beam adjustments, so your dipped beam does not point into oncoming eyes. Research before you come.

Sign colours tell you the road type

The label shape on the nozzle and the pump is the reliable guide. Handle colours vary between brands, so do not trust colour alone.

Circle means petrol. Square means diesel.

• Plugs are the same as most of Europe. Type 2 for AC charging, CCS for rapid DC. Some older cars use CHAdeMO, which is being phased out but is still around. No adapter needed if you are coming from France or most of the EU.
• Contactless bank card payment is now required on new rapid chargers and on the larger existing ones, so you should not need an account to charge on a motorway. Older and slower units are a different story and many still want an app or an RFID card, so do not arrive at one on an empty battery assuming you can tap.
• Bring one roaming app rather than downloading eight network apps at the roadside. Zapmap is the UK equivalent of Chargemap and is the one most people use for finding chargers. Octopus Electroverse and Bonnet are the common roaming payment options. Plugshare works in UK, France and Australia.
• Every motorway service area has rapid charging, and there are dedicated charging forecourts on several major routes. Coverage on motorways is good. Coverage on rural single carriageways in Wales, the Highlands and the far south west is thinner, so plan those legs with more margin than you would need in France.
• Tesla Superchargers are open to non-Tesla cars at many UK sites, through the Tesla app.
• Public charging costs several times what home charging costs, partly because public charging is taxed at the full rate. Budget for it as fuel, not as a rounding error.
• Scotland runs its own public network, historically requiring a card rather than contactless. If you are heading north, check what your route uses before you go.
• Charge point reliability is the real variable. Use an app that shows recent user check-ins rather than one that only shows what exists on paper.
• Choose the return empty option for a hire car if possible, for approx. $25 it can make life much easier. Money well spent for less stress.

Britain has very few toll barriers. Instead, cameras read your number plate and you pay online, usually by a deadline. Miss it and a penalty follows, which on a hire car arrives later via the rental company with an administration fee on top. Check your route every night you have been driving and pay online accordingly.

The Dartford Crossing

The Dartford Crossing is east of London, where the M25 crosses the Thames. Two tunnels northbound, a bridge southbound. There are no toll booths and you cannot pay at the crossing.

This is the single most common way a visitor picks up a penalty in Britain without noticing.

• The charge is called Dart Charge and is paid online or by phone, by a deadline the day after you cross. Pay it the same evening rather than leaving it to the end of the trip.
• If it is a hire car, ask at pickup whether the vehicle is registered to an account. Some are, most are not.
• Note that a round trip on the M25 crosses it twice, so that is two charges.
• The northbound tunnels have height and load restrictions the southbound bridge does not, and some fuels and loads including LPG are handled separately. If you are in a motorhome, a high van or an LPG vehicle, check before you reach the approach, because there is nowhere to change your mind.

• Dart Charge

Other charging crossings

The Tyne Tunnel at Newcastle, the Mersey tunnels at Liverpool, and the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels in east London all charge. Some use barriers, some are free-flow like Dartford, and the systems have changed more than once.

The general rule to follow: in Britain, assume a large river crossing may be charged and may have no booth. Check the name of the crossing on your route before you drive it.

City charges

London's Congestion Charge and its emission zone, and clean air zones in several other cities, work exactly like Dartford. Cameras, no booths, pay online, penalty if you miss it. A hire car is not automatically registered.

A good habit: before you drive into any British city, check whether it charges. There is an official vehicle checker that tells you whether your specific vehicle pays.

• Check a vehicle for clean air and emission zones

On street

• Read the sign at the bay, not just the lines. Times, permit rules and maximum stay are on the sign.
• Most on-street parking is paid by app. RingGo is the most common.
• Your European parking app will not work here. EasyPark and PayByPhone do not cover the UK the way they cover France.
• Never park on zig-zag lines, in a bus lane during its hours, or across a dropped kerb.

Disc zones

Common in Scotland and in parts of northern England. Free parking, time limited, and you must display a disc showing your arrival time.

Car parks

• Private car parks use cameras. Overstay and a charge follows you home, via the hire company if it is a hire car.

Britain has no Alpine tunnels. The tunnels here are mostly urban river crossings, and the payment trap above is the main event. The driving habits are the same as anywhere:

• Dipped headlights on before the portal. Sunglasses off first.
• No stopping, no reversing, no U-turns.
• Keep your distance. Do not close up.
• Keep the radio on. Long tunnels radio messages may break in over whatever you are listening to.
• If you break down, use an emergency phone rather than your mobile, because it tells the control room exactly where you are.

What Britain has instead is a network of small private members' sites, a couple of schemes, and a legally grey area around roadside parking.

The two clubs

Small sites, typically capped at five vans, on farms, in gardens and behind pubs. Thousands of them, and the closest thing to an aire in character: cheap, small, rural, often lovely. They are members-only, and the two clubs have confusingly similar names.

The Caravan and Motorhome Club

Formerly The Caravan Club. Its small sites are called Certificated Locations, or CLs.

• Join
• Browse Certificated Locations

The Camping and Caravanning Club

A separate organisation. Its small sites are called Certificated Sites, or CSs, capped at five caravans or motorhomes plus ten tents, and inspected annually.

• Join
• Browse Certificated Sites

Other options

• Britstops

Pubs, farm shops and breweries offering a free overnight stop for self-contained motorhomes, on the understanding that you will probably buy something. The closest thing Britain has to France Passion. Requires buying the current guide.

• Commercial campsites. Plentiful, more expensive than French aires, and in summer often booked out well ahead, particularly in Cornwall, the Lake District and the Highlands. Booking ahead is genuinely necessary here in a way it is not in France.
• Motorway services. Unlike France, overnight parking at British motorway services is normal, permitted and charged for. Not scenic, but it is a legitimate fallback. Note the inversion: in France the same behaviour is specifically discouraged.
• Pub car parks. Ask. Many will say yes if you eat there. This is a conversation, not a right.

Wild camping, and the Scotland misunderstanding

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, sleeping in a vehicle on a public road or in a car park is not a general right. Some places tolerate it, many councils have specific bans with signage, and coastal and beauty-spot car parks increasingly have height barriers and overnight restrictions.

In Scotland, the Land Reform legislation gives a broad right of responsible access, but it applies to access on foot, by bike and similar. It does not give motorhomes a right to park and stay overnight.

This is very widely misunderstood by visitors, and the misunderstanding has caused enough friction in popular areas that several have introduced permit schemes or restrictions. Treat overnight stopping outside a site as something you seek permission for, not something you are entitled to, and check the local authority's current position for wherever you are heading.

Towing and driving something big

• Towing lowers your speed limits on every road type. Look up the current figures for your vehicle and trailer weight combination before you travel.
• When towing you may not use the outside lane of a motorway with three or more lanes. The outside lane is the one nearest the central reservation, so the right-hand lane.
• Extension mirrors are a legal requirement when towing something wider than the towing vehicle.
• Low bridges. Britain has a great many and they are hit regularly. Know your height in metres AND in feet and inches, because signs use both. Stick both on the dashboard.
• Single-track roads with passing places are common in Scotland, Wales, the West Country and the Lake District. Passing places are for passing and for letting faster traffic by, not for parking and not for lunch. If the passing place is on your right, wait opposite it rather than crossing into it.

Apps

• Park4Night

Works in Britain but is far thinner than in France, and listings are more likely to be tolerated spots than official ones. Read the reviews carefully. Searchforsites and the two club apps are the UK-specific alternatives.

The United Kingdom is not one rulebook. Most of the road rules are shared, but enough differ that a visitor should know the differences exist.

• Scotland has a lower drink-drive limit than England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Wales has a 20 mph default in most built-up areas rather than 30.
• Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each run their own trunk road authorities, so the breakdown number for England does not cover them.
• Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland, where the rules, the speed units and the currency all change. Speed limits in the Republic are in km/h.

You can cross from England into Wales or Scotland without noticing. The signs change, but there is no border control and it is easy to carry the wrong assumption across.

Timing matters as much as place.

• The first day after a long-haul flight, straight onto a fast dual carriageway, is the highest-risk drive of the trip.
• Stacking is the real danger. First time on the left is fine. At night is fine. In rain is fine. On a narrow unlit rural road is fine. Stack three or four of these and it stops being fine.
• Central London is not worth driving in for a newbie. Charges, cameras, bus lanes, and public transport is genuinely better and more stress free.
• Single-track Highland and Cornish lanes in high season, in a wide vehicle, are a demanding drive rather than a scenic one.

Build up your confidence in order: quiet rural roads and small towns, then motorways, then regional cities, then dense centres, and treat single-track lanes in a large vehicle as a separate skill.

Emergency numbers

Give your location first: road number, direction of travel, last junction number, nearest marker post.

Breaking down

• Pull as far LEFT as you can. Get out through the LEFT-hand doors, away from traffic.
• Everyone behind the barrier and up the bank, not in the car.
• Many motorways have no permanent hard shoulder. Reach an emergency area, marked in orange, if you can.
• Do NOT put out a warning triangle on a motorway.
• Use an orange SOS phone if there is one. It tells the control room exactly where you are.
• National Highways covers England on 0300 123 5000. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own operators.

After a crash

• Stop. You must stop by law, however minor it looks.
• Anyone injured, the road blocked, or a dispute: call 999.
• There is NO standard accident form in the UK. This is the opposite of France, and a French visitor will look for one and not find it.
• Exchange details yourself: name, address, vehicle registration and the insurer.
• If you cannot exchange details at the scene, report it to the police as soon as you can and within twenty four hours.
• Photograph both vehicles, the damage, the wider scene and the road layout.
• Tell your rental company the same day.

Set these up on wifi at home, while you still have your usual phone number for verification codes.

For UK residents driving their own car out of the country. If you are visiting Britain, skip this section.

Since September 2021 the UK's international identifier is UK, not GB.

• No sticker needed if your number plate already carries UK with the Union flag.
• A sticker IS needed if your plate shows GB, a Euro band, an English, Scottish or Welsh flag, or plain letters and numbers with no identifier.
• An ENG or SCO plate is not a valid international distinguishing sign.
• Any existing GB sticker must be covered or removed before driving abroad.

Where to buy

• Halfords, Amazon and online retailers, for a few pounds.
• AA and RAC shops, including the one at the Folkestone terminal, useful as a last-minute catch.
• Ferry terminals, at a premium.
• Magnetic badges, if you would rather not glue anything to the paintwork.
• A replacement DVLA-standard plate carrying the identifier, which is the tidy answer for regular travellers.

• Displaying number plates and identifiers

• A passport is required. National identity cards from EU, EEA and Swiss countries are generally not accepted, with only narrow exceptions. This catches out travellers used to moving around Europe on an ID card.
• An Electronic Travel Authorisation is required in advance for many visitors who do not need a visa, including EU, EEA and Swiss citizens. It is linked to your passport and carriers check it before boarding. Without one you can be refused boarding.
• Every traveller needs their own, including children and infants.
• British and Irish citizens are exempt, as are people with UK immigration status.

Fees, validity and the list of who needs one have all changed since the scheme began. Apply well before travel, not at the port, and check the current requirement on the official page.

• Apply for an ETA

So many of the differences are mirror images that they are easier to learn as pairs than as separate facts. If you are driving both countries on one trip, this is the table to read twice.

A one-page sheet for the glovebox. Emergency numbers, what to do after a crash or a breakdown, fuel labels, and a space to write in your own hire car details. Designed to work with no phone signal at all.

And when you want to Really destress your holiday, actually learn the signs and the road markings rather than look them up, that is what the Fargeaux app is for, to make your holiday better.

Sources: UK government sources including GOV.UK and the Highway Code, National Highways, and the two caravan clubs. This guide is original writing by Fargeaux and is general guidance, not legal advice. Rules differ in places between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and they change: always check the official source before you travel.