Are we being too ambitious?

[scosm]

I will tell you that I have made the reverse adjustment many times without a problem.

I agree with that statement, having done this in reverse a few years ago when I went to South Africa. I don't know what it would be like to go from driving manual transmission to automatic, but I can't imagine it would be that hard of an adjustment, as AZBuck says. The "driving on the other side of the road" issue shouldn't be too big of a deal either. Once you get adjusted, it's fairly natural. You just have to remember that everything is reversed (exit on the right instead of on the left, left turns cross traffic instead of right turns, etc.). Also, be vigilant when you are turning onto roads where there is no traffic -- that is where you could easily revert into UK mode and start driving on the left side of the road again.

My one suggestion would be that on your first night in the USA -- instead of picking up your rental car at the airport -- get a taxi to your hotel and then pick up the car the next morning. Dealing with driving in a foreign land will be much easier after a good night of sleep. Also, try to avoid too much city driving in the first few days.

[Sheila]

Thank you very much for your advice - I will takeit all on board and do a bit more research on the car! To be honest, I had not even thought about my UK car insurance or credit card. In fact, we have previously had problems with my UK credit card being refused in USA simply because it is not a US issued card, so I had assumed that if the card issuer did offer insurance, the US authorities wouldn't recognise it. Anyway, I will dig a bit deeper and see what I can find out.

As for getting to grips with the differences in driving - I think I am just scared of doing something wrong or dangerous and getting pulled up by the police. My biggest fear is having no cars in front of me to copy/follow, but I think that's just a natural fear. I suspect that after a couple of months driving in the US, I will have an equal but reverse culture shock coming back to the UK to my comparitvley small, manual transmission car, and our comparitvley narrow roads. We are also planning a 10 day trip to USA this time next year, so I thought we could have a trial run, and hire a car for a day and do a quick 100 mile loop just to get the feel of it.

But, for now, we will stick to the fun bits of planning, research and maps, and the reality of saving every penny we can spare. Thanks again gor the advice.....