It’s more fun to self-drive!

The street was getting narrower and narrower. We contemplate if we should slowly ease our way back or bravely (and foolishly) venture forth.

We agree, we are too far in to back out now, we’ve made it this far! With no “One Way” sign in sight, we risk another car coming in from the other direction. Here goes.

The wing mirrors are folded in and calculations are made on how many millimetres we have on either side of our car to inch past the parked cars without causing any damage. Who allows street parking on such narrow streets anyway?

We’ve just travelled down the motorway from Madrid to Seville on our first self-drive adventure. We were jubilant to be told that we had been specially selected for an upgrade to a larger vehicle. We now see why the car hire attendant had that secretive smile on his face. “Nabbed these two novices”, he thought. We thought, this a brand new Mercedes, we can tour in comfort.

 Predicaments such as this make us wonder why we think of taking self-drive holidays. It doesn’t take long for us to remember…

I look across to our two teenage sons as we hurtle down the motorway from the Fiumicino Airport to our apartment in central Rome. They stare wide-eyed glancing between me and the speedometer as they watch the needle move over the 130km speed limit. Looks like all we’ve heard about crazy Italian driving is true. Our first experience on a European road.

Other vehicles on the motorway appear to be travelling at the same pace. Lorries laden with goods are racing along, as are the cute Fiat Puntos. Once we are over the initial shock, we sit back and watch the scenery feeling quite safe, our well-dressed Italian driver is ruling his piece of the road! We haven’t come across a road accident yet and are comfortable in the knowledge that we have no intention of driving ourselves. A few days of sightseeing on foot, a train ride to Naples before returning to Rome to join a tour to see the amazing country we’ve heard so much about on a coach tour.

The places we visited on our coach tour did not disappoint. We had had our first taste of Italy and would definitely be visiting again to see more of this country which had captured our hearts in such a short time.

Travelling along the vast stretches of motorway, we would pass by magnificent looking hilltop towns, farmhouse in amongst fields of sunflowers and olive groves wondering what it would be to stop and have a closer look and dream of staying with the locals as other adventurous travellers have done in the past.

It is the thought of realising this dream that continually encourages us now to take any opportunity we can to self-drive on holidays. We take a leisurely pace, not driving too many hours or too far in the day just to go from A to B. Instead, we stop regularly in planned places of interest or divert off the beaten track towards something that has caught our eye. We enjoy slow travel by arranging longer stays in towns so we can spend time exploring surrounding countryside and attractions, and experience the varying cultures and culinary experiences of smaller towns.

We have given away the faster motorways, or at least try to avoid them. European motorways are much easier to drive on. They may seem hectic and daunting at first but they are the best place to get used to driving on the right hand side of the road (if that is the wrong side for you). Drivers tend to stay in their lanes, trucks often have their own dedicated lanes, and once you are on the road you realise that there is method to this madness. There is more courtesy and respect with very little tailgating.

Often we will park our car on arrival and revert to exploring a town on foot.  However, it’s much more interesting to amble along back roads, take in the scenery and visit places off the tourist radar on the way to our destination.

Of course, things may not always go smoothly, like our Seville experience. We had another one just a few days ago, driving into London City. The city area has a “congestion charge” which we wanted to avoid by driving around the outskirts of the area when returning our hire car. Our GPS had other plans! Before we knew it we were driving along the River Thames on a perfect summer’s day taking in the spectacular sights of the London Eye and Westminster before us.

“Take a right turn here”, the GPS told said. Suddenly we were driving up The Mall towards Buckingham Palace, up Constitution Hill and through Marble Arch. Our sightseeing was complete before we had even checked into our accommodation.

The congestion charge was paid online – no harm done. We laughed off the experience and agreed it was an exquisite way to enter London City.

Self-drive will not always go to plan and provide you with lots of little surprises along the way. It will, however, let you see a lot more than you intended to.