<< Picture trying to stay on the left side of the road, change gears with your right hand >>

The gear box is on your left side. You must have been trying to shift with the door handle, that's why you had problems!!!

Keep in mind they drive "British style" in Malta, challenging enough in an automatic, but most rental cars are manual transmission. Picture trying to stay on the left side of the road, change gears with your right hand, and enter rotaries to the left not the right.>>

like adrienne says, in a RH drive car, the steering wheel is on the right, and the gear box is to the LEFT of the driver's seat, not the right. But do remember that millions of people [me included] drive that way every day with no difficulty. And we manage to drive LH drive cars when we go to the US or Europe. We even manage to drive our own RH drive cars in europe on the wrong side of the road.

We rented a car in Malta and didn't find the traffic difficult to deal with, but we also used public transport and found it very easy to cope with. Valetta was fun as was Gozo.

Have a good trip, Astein!

Thanks for the warning... I've actually driven in South Africa, Kenya, Scotland, Ireland, England and New Zealand and am pretty comfortable with it (I actually feel a little out of sorts when I get back to the US). My one concession is that I do rent a car with an automatic.

I grew up driving in New Jersey (and New York City) in the US and have managed my way through places like London, Paris and lots of Italy (and Instanbul) in a car, so a bit of chaos doesn't bother me a whole lot.

Thanks again for the heads up!