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driving safely abroad
Hi Guy’s, driving a car in a different country could be tricky and even scary sometimes, I’ve been lucky to experience driving in places like Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, France, USA and Czech Republic. On a Trips like this there’s a few pluses and minuses:
Big Plus – you get to see a lot in a few days!
Big minus – you drive a lot (like really a lot, some days i was behind the wheel for about 6-7 hours) which really makes you too tired to enjoy the place you just got to.
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My 6 super easy advices for those who interested in a car trip :
History behind
1. plan your trip wisely – make sure you have enough days for the places that interest you the most, at least 2 night ,because remember, the first arriving day you’ll like to take it easy after few hours of driving most of the people cant travel intensive after first arrival.
you also wouldn’t like to leave the location so quickly after the morning check out.
“don’t forget, every road has an end.”
2. Check the weather
In every place you plan to be while planing the trip from home, you don’t want your trip to be ruined because of snow, rain, fog and more…
some roads could be closed on winter time or because of heavy snow, you also don’t want to get to one of the most beautiful places in the world and being able to see only 1-3 Km because of heavy fog.
3. Phone
charger, phone holder device, good internet package and GPS app (like waze/google maps)- make sure you’ll have everything ready before you get to your destination, so when you’ll get to the rental car everything will be simple for an easier drive.
4. Prepare yourself to be spontaneous
On the road everything could change in minutes, road constructions, traffic jams, or even an accidents, sometimes the waze app aren’t aware of small roads that are closed or changed.
I can definitely testify from my own experience in two different occasions, i found myself waiting 3-4 hours in a huge traffics in the middle of “nowhere” because of an accident inside of a tunnel, or something a like… make sure you’ve learned a bit about the area from a map before you get to your way, you never know when you’ll need to change directions and find a nearby place!
5. Night Parking
Make sure the hotel you’ve booked have real parking conditions. And by this I mean that some hotels written in their sites that they have parking, but when you get there you realize that the parking place is 20 minuets walk from the hotel and it’ll cost you 20-30 euro a day.
Some of the hotels are located inside of an old city or a narrow street that your car can’t get in, which means you won’t be able to move your luggage easily! If you’re not sure about parking, or the hotel is not clear about the info, contact them before you make the booking.
6. the very very tiny roads
So… you find a great hotel on top of a mountain with a spectacular lake view, you book the place but you don’t realized that you’ll have a 30 minutes ride on a very narrow and a steep road that could fit only one car at the time! What will happen if someone will come in front of you?
This happened to me so many times, especially in Italy and Switzerland, the navigation apps don’t always notify you about what kink of a road you going to drive to, and when you’re already there, going back is not always an option.
Most important in this situation is to be focus and stay calm, be alert when a car comes in front and drive slowly , some roads have a wider spots every few meters , remember, drivers in front of you are locals that deal with this roads every day, the second option is that they are tourist as you, so don’t feel frightened or embarrassed. and don’t forget, every road has an end
THANK YOU AND DRIVE SAFE!