Countries that drive on the left: all 54 listed

About one country in four drives on the left, and that includes many popular long-haul destinations. If you've grown up on the left in Britain, this list tells you where you can feel at home. If you learned to drive on the right, it tells you where you'll open the wrong door of the hire car. The page has two parts: the complete list, sorted by continent, and what really helps for your first drive. The list follows the country table in English Wikipedia, which counts 54 of the 195 UN-recognised countries. The driving advice comes from the tourism and road bodies of the countries themselves.

The list: all 54 countries

Territories without their own UN seat come on top: Hong Kong and Macau in China, the British overseas territories of Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands, plus Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. The US Virgin Islands also drive on the left, the only US jurisdiction to do so.

Two patterns are useful. Most countries on the list were once part of the British Empire. That's the quick mnemonic, though it isn't complete: Japan, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Indonesia and Mozambique drive on the left too, without having been British colonies. And former left-hand countries such as Sweden (1967) and Iceland (1968) have switched. The most recent change went the other way, with Samoa moving to the left in 2009.

The one rule to remember

Tourism Australia puts it most simply: the driver belongs towards the centre of the road. Driving on the left, you sit on the right, with the centre line on your driver's side. It always holds and is easier to check than "am I on the correct side?" If the kerb is next to you, something's wrong.

What changes and what doesn't:

• The pedals stay put. Accelerator, brake and clutch are where you expect. According to Tourism Australia, indicators and wipers may be on the other side of the wheel. Switching on the wipers when you want to turn happens to almost everyone and is harmless.
• Hire an automatic. Tourism Australia recommends one explicitly for anyone not used to driving on the left, since it gives you one less thing to get used to. With a manual you also shift with your left hand.
• Roundabouts run clockwise. You enter turning left and give way to traffic from the right. Take your first ones slowly: you look the opposite way from what you're used to.
• As a pedestrian, look right first. Tourism Australia says right, left, then right again. Hardly anybody thinks of it, and in your first hour in town it matters more than anything behind the wheel.

Planning your first drive

This is where you can prepare most, and a lot of it depends on the plan rather than on your driving.

Not straight after the flight. New Zealand's official Drive Safe site advises 24 to 48 hours' rest after arrival before you set off, and reminds you that jet lag can affect you even if you feel fine. So collect the car after your first night, in town, as How to avoid jet lag also recommends.

Short legs to begin with. Drive Safe suggests driving only one to two hours at a time, with regular breaks. So keep the first leg short and with no appointment at the end. How to divide up legs and breaks in general is in How to plan a road trip.

Enlist your passenger. Tourism Australia advises asking passengers to remind you of the side every time you set off and when turning at an intersection. It sounds excessive until you pull away after filling up, because the critical moments are those with little traffic: empty country roads, car parks, junctions. There's no car in front to follow.

Don't drive at night. In Australia, the tourism body warns against driving after dark in the outback, because animals like kangaroos are very hard to see. In the first few days, plan to arrive before sunset.

Check licence and units. Tourism Ireland asks for either a valid full national licence or an international driving permit. Northern Ireland uses miles and miles per hour, the Republic kilometres. It's the simplest mistake on a trip across both sides of the border. As our Ireland road trip shows, many western destinations are on narrow roads, so take your time. The rules for your destination are in your government's travel advice.

Hire cars: what changes on the left

For booking, only two things change on the left: pick an automatic and take a smaller car if you'll be on narrow roads. If you're used to the right, you sit on the unfamiliar side and misjudge the left edge of the car at first, which is exactly where the kerb and the wall are. Picking up in town rather than at the terminal also gives you a calmer start, where available. You can compare, for example, hire cars from Dublin^*, hire cars in South Africa or hire cars in New Zealand.

Borders between left and right do exist, for instance between Thailand and Laos. With a hire car it rarely comes up, but check the rental terms on crossing borders in advance.

Coming from Britain the other way around? All the same rules apply in mirror image: you'll want an automatic on the Continent too, and the first roundabout in France will feel just as wrong.

How YesTrip helps on a road trip

YesTrip plans several destinations and days with a map. You decide how long the legs are, and can deliberately keep the first driving day short. The good-to-know section for each destination covers things like plugs and emergency numbers, and the app links to your home country's official travel advice for that country. The app won't warn you when you're on the wrong side; you book hire cars with the provider, and YesTrip never books anything itself.

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