Annaandlulu

Hi,

I'm going to be renting a car at LHR in a few weeks, and renting a cottage in the Cotswolds, doing day trips from there.

I've never driven anywhere except the U.S. and Canada, and just wondering, how easy is it to navigate the roads with no GPS (paper maps and Google map printouts only)?

To give you an idea, we'll be driving from London to Canterbury, then to Stratford-upon-Avon, then doing day trips to Oxford, Bath, and others from our cottage in Devizes (Wiltshire, I think). Any thoughts or advice are really appreciated! Particularly from other Americans who've done the same thing.

BarbaraMH

We just did this last year. Stayed in an adorable cottage in Bourton-on-the-Water. I attempted to drive, but kept veering off to the side because I couldn't get the hang of being on the other side of the car and the road. My husband, on the other hand, picked it up quite easily, even with the car being a stick-shift (everything involved with that is also opposite). We paid extra for the GPS in our car and felt it was definitely worth it. My husband was able to concentrate on the driving because he didn't have to worry about the directions. Maybe if you have a smart phone with you and can get directions from that; we didn't bring ours with us because of the cost. I'd say we used the GPS a lot during our stay!

Michael

I've driven all over Europe without a GPS, and there was a time when GPS did not exist. I can't imagine that the problems of driving have increased since the advent of GPS (with the possible exception of no drive zones in towns and cities).

nytraveler

I don;t believe in GPS - they are too stupid. A good navigator and reliable paper maps were much more useful - esp if you run into a detour due to accident, road construction, etc. Be sure to get a VERY detailed street map of any city you will enter - including notes on one-way streets (which GPS often seem to miss).

crosscheck

I rented a car (manual) in central London and drove to the Cotswalds and Wales without a GPS (before they readily available). My passengers - my kids and my college-aged niece - were not experienced map readers, but once they got the hang of navigating, all went well.

I agree w/ the above poster about the challenges of the shift in the "wrong" place, the "opposite" roads, and there's also jet lag. I had driven in Australia years before, but even with experience, you need to concentrate much more while driving.

Now I wouldn't hesitate to get the GPS.

basingstoke2

We used a GPS on our drive - it was a Garmin we brought from home.
We thought it was valuable in the Cotswolds and particularly valuable in that it during the entire trip, knew the speed limits and where they changed along the same road giving a warning as they changed and also knew where the traffic cameras were located. Otherwise a map would have done just fine.

Odin

It would be advisable to have GPS for the reasons mentioned in the above post. It just takes the stress out of trying to drive and map read.

Michael

<i>It just takes the stress out of trying to drive and map read.</i>

I've been assuming that the driver and the map reader are two different persons.

Barbara_in_FL

We had GPS once in England and Scotland (we did not request it, but somehow through a snafu the car we rented had it - we were not charged though). We used it a lot. However, we returned to Scotland without it, and had no trouble using maps. Our most recent trip was in France and a GPS would have been extremely helpful, but that is partly because I was reading from a nearly 30-year-old map. I would say it depends on your comfort with map-reading - the GPS is a nice luxury but not an essential. (But one more plus for the GPS - my husband takes direction from a computer much more readily than from me!)

ElendilPickle

We used http://www.theaa.com/route-planner/index.jsp and printed out specific directions for everywhere we planned to drive. We put those directions in a binder and I navigated while Mr. Pickle drove.

Lee Ann

tower

I'm an old M.A.P. user..never have driven with a GPS or anything like it. Having driven in every European mainland country except Russia and the former Baltic states. (Chile and Argentina, Morocco, Mexico, Canada,Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Israel also)..I usually copy map pages out of my Michelin road atlases and never felt the need for some annoying voice telling me where to turn. My co-pilot's voice was always decidedly sexier. And I got to sleep with her...

Mimar

Oxford and Bath are not easy places in which to drive or park. For Oxford, you park on the outskirts and take a bus into the city. (Oxford is a small city.) Bath also has Park and Ride lots. In both places, check the closing hours and days of the lots.

If you could visit either town by bus or train, that's more convenient.

We've always rented an automatic transmission car in the UK. Just makes things a little simpler. We find whereas we adjust to driving on the other side of the road fairly quickly, it takes more concentration to drive in the UK. Non-freeway roads are narrower with no shoulders/verges. Instead there's a curb/kerb, hedge or rock wall right at the edge of the lane.

Where I've found GPS most useful is when you must drive into a city. But the GPS doesn't always know about the road repairs that force you into alternate routes.

dutyfree

My kids live in the UK and we are over there alot . We purchased a TOM TOM European GPS several years ago that we use in the Uk and all over the world on our vacations.

Personally, I wouldn't travel anywhere these days especially the UK without a GPS. Between massive roundabouts in places like Birmingham and London,traffic in Oxford (which is ridiculous!)and just being on the M and A interstates from Southampton to Manchester-it is alot easier and less stressful to have a GPS these days.I am a big map person but with constructions and the ability to find gas stations,restaurants and hignpoints-I wouldn't NOT travel without a GPS!

janisj

Everyone is giving their opinions (IMO it doesn't really matter one way or the other as long as you have a decent road atlas -- NOT a fold up paper map, but a proper road atlas)

But this immediately caught my eye >><i>To give you an idea, we'll be driving from London to Canterbury, then to Stratford-upon-Avon,</i><<

WHY? Canterbury from London is MUCH easier by train. And Canterbury to Stratford is a 4 hour drive if you are lucky. I'd limit the driving to those areas to the west of London -- Stratford/the Cotswolds/Oxford/Bath (use the park & Ride lots for Bath and Oxford.)

>><i>renting a cottage in the Cotswolds, doing day trips from there. </i><<

>><i>from our cottage in Devizes </i><<

BTW - Devizes is a fairly long drive from those all those areas. Almost 2 hours to Oxford; about 2.5 hours to Stratford; 2 - 2.5 hours to Chipping Campden; 1 hr 45 mins to Burford.

flanneruk

Since satnavs became commonplace, road traffic in Britain has actually declined, and sensible road engineering has reduced congestion still further.

There's not a scrap of evidence of any significant problem in the days before satnavs of road accidents or mental stress among foreign drivers - and decent national road atlases are on sale at every garage from £2.99. Road signing in Britain is universally drastically superior to that in North America.

So it's clearly perfectly possible to navigate round Britain without GPS, and tens of millions of us do it every single day of the year. Whether some drivers have become so habituated to the gadgets that they are now illiterate when faced with a real map is a whole nuther story: only you know whether you're in that group or not.

Satnavs, BTW, are useless when there are roadworks - and generally unreliable for urban driving (their timekeeping just isn't dependable when there are lots of buildings and lots of turnings very close to each other). We also find ourselves intermittently losing the signal in undulating countryside - SE England knows no other kind - and satnavs can often suggest routes that are plain daft, and sometimes impossible. Every inhabitant of a city or village with narrow roads (again: England has no other kind) has a horror story of traffic blindly following Miss Satnav up a blind alley near their house.

Though for some journeys (especially those in SE England's massively sprawling suburbia) satnavs can help ease stress, travelling without a paper map in my experience is infinitely more stressful, and 100% reliance on the toys will sap your common sense and appreciation of how countryside and streets are laid out.

The Park & Rides outside Bath and Oxford are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The last bus to most of them leaves Bath city centre at 2130 on weekdays and Oxford city centre at 2330. On Sundays, and to Lansdown in Bath, they leave earlier, though most also have conventional bus routes stopping nearby which leave the centre rather later. If you miss the bus, taxis can easily be hailed on the streets of both cities throughout the night. The P&Rs are typically about 2 miles (=~£10-£15 cabfare) from the centre, though several are easily and safely walkable to at any time.

indy_dad

I know there are plenty of old-schoolers who think paper maps where fine back in the day so they are fine now. However, we found having a GPS very helpful when we moved here two years ago. The signage is different so it's just one more thing to worry about. Sure, it can be done, but it's easier with a GPS.

Not having one also puts more emphasis/stress on the map reader. I think it is stressful enough without it.

If you have a GPS already, look into purchasing maps for it so you can keep them for later. Probably the same or less than the rental fee.

Hooameye

As you say that you've not driven in the UK before, I would recommend looking through the appropriate sections on the Highway Code as you will find quite a few things different to North America/Canada.

https://www.gov.uk/browse/driving/highway-code

MissPrism

We are deeply devoted to our SatNav but the RAC website http://www.rac.co.uk/
Has a route planner http://www.rac.co.uk/route-planner/
You can plan your route and print it out. I used it a lot in the pre satnav days

texasbookworm

Take/purchase both. The GPS device can be your "default" and you can use it as much as you want/can. It will generally relieve some stress and will generally be accurate, if loaded with up to date info. However, have good accurate current paper maps, too. I like to have the paper ones in my lap while DH is looking at the GPS (and listening to it usually too!). I think it's easier to get the overview and the general idea of the day's itinerary by looking at the paper map. DH will program our routes into the GPS, and I will cross check that with paper ones and follow along. And a paper map is so helpful (necessary!) for the unexpected road works/traffic problems.

And know, whatever navigation tools you decide on, you are going to get lost/confused/frustrated and just don't be surprised by that!

And double the times suggested by any pre-planning device for travel in the areas you are going to be in. It took us an average of 1.5 times whatever googlemaps and/or our GPS said ahead of time, so by planning for travel to take twice as long, we never missed anything really important to us.

Mimar

Re: signage in the UK. In Europe in general I find the signage different than in the US. You see a sign; it says your destination is this way; you follow it. There are no more signs until it's time to deviate from the indicated direction. In the meantime, you spend a long time wondering if you're still going the right way, if you somehow missed a turn. (And once or twice we have.)

In Germany the signs just point to the next small town. At the intersection, an immediate decision must be made. The navigator spends a lot of time finding that town in tiny print on the map or flipping madly through the book of maps trying to find the right page for that town.

In both these cases a GPS would be a great help. Caveat: we like driving on smaller, more scenic roads. You don't have these problems on freeways.