If you normally drive on the right and find yourself hiring a car and driving in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Japan, South Africa, Thailand, or one of the roughly 75 other countries and territories that drive on the left, the adjustment is smaller than it feels in the rental car park. Most visitors settle into it within the first hour, with junctions and roundabouts being the moments that need the most conscious thought. A little preparation before you pull out of the depot makes the first drive far less stressful.
The core mental habit
The single most useful trick is a simple one: keep the centre line, or the kerb on quiet roads, on your right-hand side as the driver. If you're driving on the left, your side of the road is closer to the pavement or verge, and oncoming traffic passes on your right. Repeating this to yourself — "kerb on my left, wheel-side to the middle" — before you start moving, and again after every stop, catches most of the errors before they happen.
The moments of highest risk are not motorway driving, which is intuitive once you're moving with traffic, but the first few seconds after a stop: pulling out of a petrol station, leaving a car park, or setting off after a quiet junction with no other traffic to follow. Without a car ahead to copy, it's easy to drift back onto the "wrong" side out of habit. Pause and consciously check your position before accelerating.
Roundabouts
Roundabouts are where left-hand driving trips people up most, because the direction of travel around them reverses too. In left-driving countries, traffic goes clockwise around a roundabout, and you give way to traffic already on the roundabout coming from your right, not your left. Indicate left just before your exit, as you would on any roundabout, and enter in the left-hand lane unless you know you need to be further right for a later exit. Our guide on how European roundabouts work covers lane discipline and priority in more detail, and while that guide focuses on right-hand-drive countries on the Continent, the underlying logic — give way to the direction traffic already on the roundabout is coming from — is the same principle simply mirrored.
Junctions and turning
At a junction, the "easy" turn is the one that keeps you on the left — turning left is broadly equivalent to a right turn in a right-driving country, in that it doesn't cross oncoming traffic. The turn that requires more care is turning right, since it means crossing the path of oncoming vehicles to get to the correct side of the road. Take these turns slowly and double-check your lane position as you complete them; this is the second most common place, after roundabouts, for a driver to end up briefly on the wrong side.
Gear changes are also worth a mention if you're hiring a manual car in a left-hand-drive-into-left-driving switch (for example, a UK or Australian hire car): the gearstick will be to your left hand instead of your right, which some drivers find takes longer to adjust to than the road positioning itself.
Motorways and dual carriageways
Once on a motorway, left-hand driving is genuinely easy — you follow the flow of traffic, and the physical layout does the thinking for you. The main things to remember: the slow lane is the leftmost lane (the opposite of many right-driving countries, where the left lane is typically for overtaking), and you overtake on the right. Motorway signage in most left-driving countries is broadly similar in logic to what you're used to, just mirrored, so route-following is rarely the issue.
Parking and manoeuvring
Reversing into a parking space, three-point turns, and pulling out of angled parking all take a little longer to feel natural, simply because your spatial sense of "my side" and "their side" is inverted. Take manoeuvres slowly in the first day, particularly in car parks with pedestrians and other vehicles moving in all directions — this is low-stakes practice for the road proper.
First-day advice: if possible, do your first drive in daylight, on a quiet road, without a tight schedule. Avoid a rush-hour city drive straight out of the airport hire desk if you can help it — a short, unpressured stretch to build confidence is worth far more than saving twenty minutes.
Passengers can help
A passenger who isn't driving can be genuinely useful in the first day: a quiet reminder of "keep left" after a stop, or a second pair of eyes at a roundabout, catches mistakes before they become a problem. Many long-married couples have a long-running joke about this exact conversation — there's a reason for it.
Where you'll encounter left-hand driving
Left-hand driving is the norm across the British Isles, most of the former British Empire (Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and much of eastern and southern Africa), Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, and a scattering of Caribbean islands — see our full rundown of which countries drive on the left for the complete list. If you're planning a trip to one of these, our country-specific guides — including driving in the UK, driving in South Africa, driving in Japan, and driving in Thailand — cover local rules, hazards and hire-car practicalities in more depth than general left-hand-driving tips can.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to adjust to driving on the left?
Most visitors feel reasonably comfortable within the first hour of driving, and fully natural within a day or two. Roundabouts and turning right at junctions typically take the longest to feel automatic.
Is it harder to drive on the left if my home car is left-hand drive?
It adds a layer, yes — you're adjusting to both a mirrored road position and a mirrored driver's seat and gearstick position if you hire a right-hand-drive car. Most drivers still adapt within the first day; take the first drive slowly and in daylight.
Which countries drive on the left?
Around a quarter of the world's countries, including the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, India, Thailand, Indonesia and most of southern and eastern Africa. Always confirm the convention for your specific destination before travel, as neighbouring countries do not always match.
What's the most common mistake left-hand-driving visitors make?
Drifting onto the right-hand side of the road after pulling away from a stop with no traffic to follow, such as leaving a petrol station or quiet car park. Consciously checking your lane position every time you set off from a stop largely eliminates this.
Sources and further reading:
- AA — driving abroad advice and left-hand-driving guidance for UK motorists.
- RAC — international driving tips and hazard awareness.
- Your government's travel advice for road safety in your specific destination country.