Over the years, I’ve done all kinds of driving tasks that have challenged by abilities. I’ve done hot laps on the race track, gone off-roading on chunky trails, and even tackled the harrowing motorbike swarms of Vietnam. And yet, in all these years, I’d never driven on the wrong side of the road! This month, adventure demanded I learn how—and it was both easier and harder than I thought it would be.
This adventure was spawned thanks to the love I have for one of music’s more obscure and forgotten genres. This past month, I completed a lifelong dream and finally made it to Europe, heading over for a small tour that would see me perform at a grassroots chiptune festival named Wood Chip. Nestled deep in the Danish wilderness, I needed both transport and lodgings for my campsite. A campervan seemed the obvious solution.
This was all well and good, and I made my bookings with excitement. Only, come the big day… I realized I’d given myself quite the challenge. Not only would I be driving on the wrong side of the road, but I’d be doing so in a vehicle a full 90 inches wide. Oh, and it was a manual for good measure. Tally ho, then!
The camper I’d selected for our journey was a hefty beast. I’d initially hoped to find something small, compact, and modern. Perhaps along the lines of a nice VW ID.Buzz with a nice mattress in the back. However, Denmark is a small country, and there simply aren’t a lot of people renting out campers to weird obscure musicians. I had to take what was on offer.
What I wound up with was a full on motorhome. Based on a 2005 Fiat Ducato, this beast weighed a full 6340 pounds, while standing over 9 feet high and 23 feet long. The benefit was that it came with a shower and a functioning toilet, along with gas heating and beds for three. The drawback was that it was huge, hard to maneuver, and not exactly easy to see out of. I was in a small European country and it felt like I was being asked to drive a slightly smaller European country. Or some kind of embassy, at least.
My fears were manifold. I figured it was pretty likely I backed in to something or ran over a few mailboxes on our way to the show. I had concerns about keeping this behemoth in the lane lines on tight Danish roads. My biggest fear, though, concerned coordination. I worried whether I could teach my right hand to shift through the gears, when it was my left that usually handled those duties back home in Oz. If shifting gears wasn’t second nature, the rest of the driving task was going to be so much harder.
Still, needs must and all. I got behind the wheel, checked the mirrors, and got going.
Driving on the wrong side of the road for the first time. Oh, and I picked a motorhome.
Challenging?
Yes. Yes it was.
— Lewin S. Day (@rainbowdefault.bsky.social) June 23, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Right away, I was amazed at several things. For one, the Ducato’s clutch and shifter were a pleasure to operate. I’d expected to have a hell of a time trying to launch the heavy camper from a stop, but it was never a problem. Smooth on the third pedal, and the diesel torque ensured we were away without a fuss. My right hand, too, had no issue finding the shifter on the dash. It fell easily to hand and I had no problem walking the van up to second, third, and fourth.
However, I also learned that size does matter. The huge camper towered over everything on the tight suburban streets. I thanked the automotive gods I didn’t need to make any three-point turns as I gingerly inched past parked cars on either side of the road. Each turn was like threading a needle, until the relief of getting out onto the more open main roads. Of course, salvation was brief—I only had ten minutes to get my bearings before we had to peel this thing out on to the highway.
As we approached the on ramp, my strategy was clear. I’d use the best of my driving skills, honed on the aggressive roads of the east coast capitals. One must be clear of intention and decisive if one was to merge safely on to a fast road. I wound the Ducato past 3,000 rpm as I thrusted through the gears, keeping a stern eye on the traffic as I slid on to the highway. Once we’d made it on, my dedicated partner played navigator and spotter, regularly shouting “KERB!” every time I veered too far towards the gutter.
This part of the highway? No lane lines.
“Should we reduce the speed limit?”
“No, why would we do that?”— Lewin S. Day (@rainbowdefault.bsky.social) June 23, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Highway travel was surprisingly okay. My lane keeping was acceptable, and I managed to keep weaving to a socially-acceptable level. The Ducato could handle 100 km/h (60 mph) while the fastest traffic roared past closer to the limit of 130 km/h (80 mph). I even managed a couple of overtakes on curiously slow traffic without bringing the Danish road network to a halt. At one point, we came across a section of highway with no lane lines—and I like to think I managed it with aplomb!
It was only on the last stretch of our journey that I was faced with my most hellish challenge. We had to wind down some country lanes that were surely less than two lanes wide as we made our way to the festival spot. The huge girth of the Ducato proved problematic, as I gingerly eased it over crest after crest. Thankfully, we didn’t come to grief, and the handful of other motorists gave us a wide berth when we passed. It was only one particularly hurried bus driver that nearly spent my security deposit when he narrowly avoided clipping the rear end.
All in all, my first experience driving on the wrong side of the road was a harrowing one. It was 55 minutes of white-knuckle action, forever flipping between checking my six for incoming bogies and then flipping back to make sure I was actually staying in a lane. Still, we made it to our destination, and I learned plenty in the process. I then proceeded to set up camp, have some dinner, and played an incredibly fun set in the depths of the Danish night. Couldn’t have done it if I didn’t get there in one piece!
There were parts I found easier than expected. I thought it would be a struggle shifting a manual transmission with my hands swapped around but it was not a problem in the slightest. I had it right in seconds and didn’t make any mistakes. At the same time, there were things I found harder than expected, too. Mostly the positioning of the vehicle in the lane. To be honest, though, I suspect a great deal of that was because the campervan was simply so large. A smaller vehicle would have been far more comfortable, particularly given the size of the lanes in Denmark.
My advice would be simple. If it’s your first time driving on the wrong side of the road, consider being kind to yourself by picking something small and simple. Still, if you’re a masochist, go and get the biggest motorhome you can find and throw yourself to the fire and flames. Hopefully, like me, you’ll make it through unscathed.
Image credits: Lewin Day
My first time driving on the “other” side of the road (“wrong side” is so judgmental), was in Dublin. The rental car was a Ford Focus and picking it up, I was surprised to see so many returns with the left side rearview mirror dangling by its wires. Glad that we had bought the insurance we headed out and once we got off the motorway and onto stone-lined secondary roads in the country and encountered oncoming full-size trucks, I understood the mirror thing.
My wife wanted to drive one day, just to say she had, and as we encountered her first RHD roundabout, she was looking the wrong (ok, call me judgy) way and I had to yell STOP! before she pulled in front of a delivery van coming from the unfamiliar direction.
I rented a car in Australia 15 years later and it was more comfortable because most lanes are so much wider than they were in Ireland.
One thing I realized is that with the steering wheel opposite of where you are used to, generally you know that you should be on the other side of the road from what you are used to. On a motorcycle, that cue is absent and it seems like it would be easier to make a bad mistake on a two-lane secondary road.
My intro to driving on the right side was in England last fall. Luckily, I’d had a fair bit of practice driving a RHD car as we already have a Japanese market RX7 in the herd. I woke up, had my little hotel breakfast, steeled my nerves with a quick cigarette and hopped into my freshly purchased Fiat Marea before heading out on a three hour drive. I’d strategically picked a hotel on the outskirts of Cambridge so I could just hop on the motorway and avoid driving in town, which worked out nicely, but I failed to remember that British speed limits are significantly lower than what I was used to. mildly terrified, I shot onto the motorway before discovering everyone was going significantly slower than me. Driving through tiny town streets was a bit harrowing, but I did not die or hit anything, so that was a significant win. I did *think* I was going to die on the Coventry ring road though. I was glad to hand driving duties over to our lovely Goth Uncle Adrian, who cruised us into London and did reverse entry in a parking garage spot like it was absolutely nothing.
I’ve driven in Dublin and the surrounding area 4 or 5 times as a US driver. The ‘great’ thing about Dublin is that there’s always traffic so you are not going fast and there’s always someone to follow. Helpfully, I encountered no road rage either, despite once holding up a line of traffic at a toll booth for several minutes. Not even a honk of a horn.
My only problem is that I never manage to get my head to naturally accept the view out the window as correct so I have to concentrate more than normal, which can be a little draining. After 2 or 3 days, I even walk up to the correct side of the car. Usually.
My first time driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road was in a 105-series Land Cruiser in Zambia/Zimbabwe/Botswana six years ago. I found that adjusting to driving on the other side, and shifting with the other hand, took very little acclimatization, but on that and subsequent trips in southern Africa (all in Toyotas), I have never stopped regularly turning the wipers on when I want to use my turn signals.
Camper vans and music festivals? Why, you’re a regular Camper Van Beethoven!
Maybe he takes the skinheads bowling…
In the Navy in the late 80s, I had a chance to visit a few foreign countries and take a couple bus tours and ride in taxis. More than once I watched the traffic thinking to myself “yep, would have messed that up. Yep, would turned into the wrong lane there. Yep, I’d likely be dead on that one there.”
Oh, my dear Lewin. If you thought that coach was big, you’ll have to take a spin in my bus. GVWR of 39,999 pounds and 102 inches wide, baybee!
And then take a road trip in said bus to the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, TN and ask them to let you all take their 1959 LARC LX for a spin. It’s big enough that you could probably just drive the bus into its cargo bay, lol
https://franklin.thefuntimesguide.com/files/1959-LARC-LX-lane-motor-museum-jpg.webp
As per the Lane’s website it has not one, not two, not three, but *four* Detroit Diesel engines and the tires are some 9 feet tall; despite its gargantun size its turning radius is a remarkably compact 75 feet thanks to its four-wheel steering. The bus is indeed wide at 102 inches but this is some 312 inches wide!!
https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/larc-lx-1959/
There is no left/right when you take up the entire road!
Do that then drive the LARC LX into the bed of a BelAZ 75710, then drive the BelAZ 75710 onto the back of the NASA Crawler-Transporter, then I dunno, onto an aircraft carrier?
I’m halfway willing to bet that even for an Aussie the size and scale of the US Interstate Highway System would be awe inspiring.
My brother-in-law is a native of Sydney and insists that Mad Max: Fury Road is a documentary of Sydney rush hour traffic. Knowing that, I had full confidence in you, Lewin!
We’ll be going from the US to Oz next year, and looking at driving around the country a bit. I’ve been just a little concerned about the whole driving-on-the-left-side thing, but between the article and the comments here, I think I know what to do. Plus, my wife will need no practice nor encouragement to yell, “WRONG SIDE!!!”
This – an engaged copilot would help ’till muscle memory develops. I know my errors are pointed out daily.
I drove in England for the first time last year, and was admittedly fairly nervous about that part. My wife had suggested (aka forced) me to rent an automatic so I wouldn’t have to worry about shifting “wrongly” either, which I agreed with.
The driving part? No big deal whatsoever. I didn’t get mixed up or confused one single time while driving…I even managed to sit in the correct seat each time, although I would then try to grab an imaginary seatbelt behind my left shoulder.
The challenging part was the rental car – we’d ended up with an upgrade to a M-B A180 since our VW Golf hadn’t returned in time. It was the only other auto available, and it was very annoying. I told my wife I’d take my chances with a manual next time.
Obviously I’m not everybody, but you might surprise yourself.
You’ll be fine. My first time driving on the other side was in Paris, in rush hour, from the central Gare du Nord station heading out of the city. In a manual. It was easy.
I’ve logged a few thousand miles on British roads, and it really is fairly easy as long as you are at least somewhat intelligent.
Don’t be afraid of starting with a manual if you are an experienced manual driver. It takes about 5 minutes before shifting with your left hand becomes natural. The pedal layout is the same, so it’s just a hand swap.
Key safety point: ALWAYS LOOK RIGHT before pulling out onto any road. I found that once I adapted to driving on the left on two-way roads, turns became somewhat second nature. But other Americans I was with seemed to occasionally forget to look right before pulling out.
My personal biggest obstacle was parking lots. For some reason, once I started looking for open spots I drifted over to the right of the lane. On more than one occasion, I had a not-too-happy driver in front of me honking before I bumped his car head-on.
Many rental cars here have stickers on the dash saying “Drive on the Left” to help!
Imagine the chaos if our Northern Neighbors had adopted RHD as did the rest of the Commonwealth.
I’m sure the Québécois would have had something to say about that.
I’ve only visited a RHD/LHT country once in my life, Jamaica. I didn’t really have any need to rent a car, but I did for one day just to see what it was like. For extra challenge, I rented a car with a stick.
I adapted to most everything in about 20 minutes. Except the shift pattern. In most LHD cars, 1st gear is closest to your knee and forward – and that’s what my brain was wired to do. Except in a RHD car, “closest to your knee and forward” causes you to try to proceed from a dead stop in 5th gear, which doesn’t really work well 🙂
As I understand it, Jamaica has a fun mix of RHD and LHD cars since they are all imported, and many (if not most) are LHD cars from the US. I’m also told that outside of the few bigger divided highways, its less “they drive on the left” and more “lanes don’t matter and we suggest you drive on the left”, but I haven’t confirmed that myself.
When I was down under, it wasn’t too bad adapting to a RHD. However, I almost broke my elbow on the side window backing up as reflex had me swing my right arm over the seat to look out the back.
I remember The Bishops’ (American) dad driving a UK-spec RHD Peugeot 504 on the LHD continent during a brief trip from where we were living in the UK. Luckily, the German drivers of the 1970s were very forgiving of a French car with UK plates (yeahhh….)
When I went to the UK and drove on the left / wrong size for a couple weeks, the hardest part was actually coming home. Specifically, when I was pulling out of the parking lot where I had left my car I nearly turned out on the left side of the exit / entrance (i.e. entrance side) and straight into tire shredders. I had to stop for a few seconds to reset my brain but then proceeded on the right side without any more issues or near misses.
The thing I’ve always hated most about renting an RV coming in from another country is that inevitably the first 20min of the trip will be the most demanding driving of the whole thing. You pick it up and have to invariably get through a big city with everyone cursing you for not knowing where you’re going, what you’re doing, or where anything is on the van you’re driving… I find once I’m out of town it all becomes much easier. Horse cart country roads not withstanding.
Rented a few large dual axle vans for moving, etc… The issue is not the highway miles, it is the tight urban quarters and 4 lane suburban thoroughfares. Same with towing a trailer.
But did you do any roundabouts? That was the most “interesting” for me when navigating Scotland. Especially the 4 lane ones where two major highways intersected. You are right – you need to commit and be confident. Any hesitation and chaos will ensue.
It’s a two-person operation: one to drive and one to shout “Wrong side! Wrong side!”
“YOU’RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!”
“How do they know where we’re going?”
This is spectacular and brilliant and I choose to believe you came up with it.
This! My wife and I…she’s driver and I’m nav…she’s real bad at nav, even with phone nav on.
Then, once you get the hang of it, you return back to U.S., have to make sure you revert back to correct side of road, especially, when turning left onto a divided road, so still yelling ‘wrong side, wrong side’ when back home.
We rented a Ford S-Max (wish we could get those in the US) on Guernsey for the day. We had one person driving and 5 yelling “left side! Left side!” During every turn. At least it was an auto.
Took my wife a bit not to keep curbing the left side of car. Our left drive spatial awareness is messed up going to right drive car. That and all those damn two-way horse cart width roads with zero visibility with the hedges/stone walls.
I’ve only driven on the wrong side once, on Grand Cayman Island. The Wife and I were on a cruise 15+ years ago that stopped there. Since she’s not the biggest fan of aquatic life, with all the excursions revolving around Stingray City in the middle of the bay, I hatched a plan to rent a car and drive around for a while.
We ended up with a LHD old ass Sebring convertible. To drive on the left side of the road. That was the fatal flaw of the whole day, because it was genuinely tough to remember the proper side if there weren’t other cars around. The Botanical Gardens had quite a long driveway to get there. After a right hand turn across oncoming traffic, I was feeling pretty good about myself. Until I looked in the mirror half a mile later and saw the other car coming into the gardens was on the other side of the road! Whoops.
The rest of the day was uneventful, luckily. A bunch of cool photos, exchanging $40 American for mediocre (at best) cafeteria-grade burgers, fries, and $2 and change Cayman, and a sunburn from insisting the convertible top stayed open were the key takeaways from the rest of the day.
The key to driving on the wrong side is to use a mirror and do all of your looking through it. Works great!
Have always thought going from LHD to RHD would be the tougher one (even trying to be unbiased) simply because most people are right handed and most of the important stuff is done with the hand toward the center of the car.
Trying to figure out how to change the radio station with my left hand, let alone shifting a manual transmission, seems like a challenge I’m not eager to try.
I’ve done trips to the UK and NZ for work, it’s really not too bad. The H pattern is the same and you get used to it pretty quickly. Staying in the lane is hard, for me the harder thing was just looking at the right direction for oncoming traffic (both as a driver and pedestrian)
Funny you say that, I had more trouble as a pedestrian than a driver. I’d just look both ways about 48973 times before crossing a street.
This is important. I moved to the UK in my twenties (never lived abroad before). And one day I was walking with my headphones in, and even though I’d been there for a few months my brain forgot which way to look first. Stepped off the curb and a london double decker bus basically kissed the side of my face. No injuries… but I think I turned back around to change my underwear.
What’s funny is that driving on highways or rural two lanes is something you get used to very easily, and the manual transmission thing as a righty also was not as bad as I thought to get used to as well.
What’s more difficult is driving in urban environments. Also, I wasn’t aware of it until I drove in South Africa… but some OEMs keep the blinker stalk where it is for RHD. (i.e. you drive an Audi that is RHD and the blinker stalk is on the left side of the wheel.) However…Japanese brands (maybe more) move the blinker to the other side.. it made driving the Hilux a bit more difficult than the other rental we had haha.
This, oh my god this. We were in NZ last year and had a Rav4 as a rental and I kept turning on the wipers when I meant to signal.
Shifting isn’t that bad (if the pedals were reversed too, that would be a different story), and if you have a passenger, you can just have them shift for you. I did that for my mom years ago in England when I was still in high school and couldn’t drive the rental car- the driver operates the clutch, asks for the next gear, and the passenger shifts. It’s kind of fun.
What is tricky for going either way is driving dirt roads, and whenever a car is coming the other way automatically defaulting to veering to the side that seems normal, wondering why the oncoming car is on your side about to cause a head on collision, then remembering things are backwards and quickly swerving back to the other side. I’m sure we scared lots of locals in South Africa doing that.
I’ve never driven a RHD car in a RHD country and imagine I would struggle with it a lot, but I have driven a LHD car in a RHD country and an RHD car here in the US. It took a short while to get used to driving on the left side of the road but all you had to do was remember to plan ahead at every intersection. Oddly enough I really struggled driving a RHD car here though. I had a hard time staying centered in the lane, and I think had a 30% success rate of activating the turn signal without turning on the wipers first. Surprisingly shifting was completely not an issue.
This is what I always thought too, my left hand isn’t as strong or as coordinated as my right hand, so I think shifting with it would be awkward at least for a while.
Write a large note saying Drive on the Right! and put it on the dash in line of sight.
And be very careful at intersections, it is turning into another road where I nearly came to grief facing traffic head on, twice. Both times not fully concentrating.
Now after years in France, I have to do the reverse in the UK.
Intersections are the killer. The first problem I get when I arrive in a wrong-side country is what side to get in. The subtle killers are intersections: you were trained to look either right-left-right or left-right-left. If you don’t reverse that, it could be bad. And I’ve known people for whom it was bad, and they couldn’t explain how it happened, until I asked.
The other is the extension of the car around you. Try not to sideswipe anything on the passenger side.
Cool, it’s about the size of an economy car in America.
So that’s what bluesky looks like…cool, I guess.
Anyway, fun article! I was waiting for you to get passed by a guy on a moped with a dog wearing googles, lol.
The general consensus in my friend group is that the first day driving on the unaccustomed side is stressful, but your brain rewires itself pretty quickly. As for the size of the RV, all the US readers are thinking “Thats the tiniest RV I’ve ever seen, and it only weighs 6000lbs?” My favorite, and sketchiest “wrong side” adventure was riding a rented Ducati Super Sport around the Isle of Man the day I arrived right before the roads closed for TT practice sessions on 3 hours of sleep and with some epic jet lag.
75% of the world drives on the right side of the road.
I’d say your home country, as part of the other 25%, is actually driving on the “wrong side” of the road lol
Just what I came to say.