We just did this last year. Stayed in an adorable cottage in Bourton-on-the-Water. I attempted to drive, but kept veering off to the side because I couldn't get the hang of being on the other side of the car and the road. My husband, on the other hand, picked it up quite easily, even with the car being a stick-shift (everything involved with that is also opposite). We paid extra for the GPS in our car and felt it was definitely worth it. My husband was able to concentrate on the driving because he didn't have to worry about the directions. Maybe if you have a smart phone with you and can get directions from that; we didn't bring ours with us because of the cost. I'd say we used the GPS a lot during our stay!

I've driven all over Europe without a GPS, and there was a time when GPS did not exist. I can't imagine that the problems of driving have increased since the advent of GPS (with the possible exception of no drive zones in towns and cities).

I don;t believe in GPS - they are too stupid. A good navigator and reliable paper maps were much more useful - esp if you run into a detour due to accident, road construction, etc. Be sure to get a VERY detailed street map of any city you will enter - including notes on one-way streets (which GPS often seem to miss).

I rented a car (manual) in central London and drove to the Cotswalds and Wales without a GPS (before they readily available). My passengers - my kids and my college-aged niece - were not experienced map readers, but once they got the hang of navigating, all went well.

I agree w/ the above poster about the challenges of the shift in the "wrong" place, the "opposite" roads, and there's also jet lag. I had driven in Australia years before, but even with experience, you need to concentrate much more while driving.

Now I wouldn't hesitate to get the GPS.

We used a GPS on our drive - it was a Garmin we brought from home.
We thought it was valuable in the Cotswolds and particularly valuable in that it during the entire trip, knew the speed limits and where they changed along the same road giving a warning as they changed and also knew where the traffic cameras were located. Otherwise a map would have done just fine.

It would be advisable to have GPS for the reasons mentioned in the above post. It just takes the stress out of trying to drive and map read.

It just takes the stress out of trying to drive and map read.

I've been assuming that the driver and the map reader are two different persons.

We had GPS once in England and Scotland (we did not request it, but somehow through a snafu the car we rented had it - we were not charged though). We used it a lot. However, we returned to Scotland without it, and had no trouble using maps. Our most recent trip was in France and a GPS would have been extremely helpful, but that is partly because I was reading from a nearly 30-year-old map. I would say it depends on your comfort with map-reading - the GPS is a nice luxury but not an essential. (But one more plus for the GPS - my husband takes direction from a computer much more readily than from me!)

We used http://www.theaa.com/route-planner/index.jsp and printed out specific directions for everywhere we planned to drive. We put those directions in a binder and I navigated while Mr. Pickle drove.

Lee Ann

I'm an old M.A.P. user..never have driven with a GPS or anything like it. Having driven in every European mainland country except Russia and the former Baltic states. (Chile and Argentina, Morocco, Mexico, Canada,Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Israel also)..I usually copy map pages out of my Michelin road atlases and never felt the need for some annoying voice telling me where to turn. My co-pilot's voice was always decidedly sexier. And I got to sleep with her...

Oxford and Bath are not easy places in which to drive or park. For Oxford, you park on the outskirts and take a bus into the city. (Oxford is a small city.) Bath also has Park and Ride lots. In both places, check the closing hours and days of the lots.

If you could visit either town by bus or train, that's more convenient.

We've always rented an automatic transmission car in the UK. Just makes things a little simpler. We find whereas we adjust to driving on the other side of the road fairly quickly, it takes more concentration to drive in the UK. Non-freeway roads are narrower with no shoulders/verges. Instead there's a curb/kerb, hedge or rock wall right at the edge of the lane.

Where I've found GPS most useful is when you must drive into a city. But the GPS doesn't always know about the road repairs that force you into alternate routes.

My kids live in the UK and we are over there alot . We purchased a TOM TOM European GPS several years ago that we use in the Uk and all over the world on our vacations.

Personally, I wouldn't travel anywhere these days especially the UK without a GPS. Between massive roundabouts in places like Birmingham and London,traffic in Oxford (which is ridiculous!)and just being on the M and A interstates from Southampton to Manchester-it is alot easier and less stressful to have a GPS these days.I am a big map person but with constructions and the ability to find gas stations,restaurants and hignpoints-I wouldn't NOT travel without a GPS!

Everyone is giving their opinions (IMO it doesn't really matter one way or the other as long as you have a decent road atlas -- NOT a fold up paper map, but a proper road atlas)

But this immediately caught my eye >>To give you an idea, we'll be driving from London to Canterbury, then to Stratford-upon-Avon,<<

WHY? Canterbury from London is MUCH easier by train. And Canterbury to Stratford is a 4 hour drive if you are lucky. I'd limit the driving to those areas to the west of London -- Stratford/the Cotswolds/Oxford/Bath (use the park & Ride lots for Bath and Oxford.)

>>renting a cottage in the Cotswolds, doing day trips from there. <<

>>from our cottage in Devizes <<

BTW - Devizes is a fairly long drive from those all those areas. Almost 2 hours to Oxford; about 2.5 hours to Stratford; 2 - 2.5 hours to Chipping Campden; 1 hr 45 mins to Burford.

Since satnavs became commonplace, road traffic in Britain has actually declined, and sensible road engineering has reduced congestion still further.

There's not a scrap of evidence of any significant problem in the days before satnavs of road accidents or mental stress among foreign drivers - and decent national road atlases are on sale at every garage from £2.99. Road signing in Britain is universally drastically superior to that in North America.

So it's clearly perfectly possible to navigate round Britain without GPS, and tens of millions of us do it every single day of the year. Whether some drivers have become so habituated to the gadgets that they are now illiterate when faced with a real map is a whole nuther story: only you know whether you're in that group or not.

Satnavs, BTW, are useless when there are roadworks - and generally unreliable for urban driving (their timekeeping just isn't dependable when there are lots of buildings and lots of turnings very close to each other). We also find ourselves intermittently losing the signal in undulating countryside - SE England knows no other kind - and satnavs can often suggest routes that are plain daft, and sometimes impossible. Every inhabitant of a city or village with narrow roads (again: England has no other kind) has a horror story of traffic blindly following Miss Satnav up a blind alley near their house.

Though for some journeys (especially those in SE England's massively sprawling suburbia) satnavs can help ease stress, travelling without a paper map in my experience is infinitely more stressful, and 100% reliance on the toys will sap your common sense and appreciation of how countryside and streets are laid out.

The Park & Rides outside Bath and Oxford are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The last bus to most of them leaves Bath city centre at 2130 on weekdays and Oxford city centre at 2330. On Sundays, and to Lansdown in Bath, they leave earlier, though most also have conventional bus routes stopping nearby which leave the centre rather later. If you miss the bus, taxis can easily be hailed on the streets of both cities throughout the night. The P&Rs are typically about 2 miles (=~£10-£15 cabfare) from the centre, though several are easily and safely walkable to at any time.

I know there are plenty of old-schoolers who think paper maps where fine back in the day so they are fine now. However, we found having a GPS very helpful when we moved here two years ago. The signage is different so it's just one more thing to worry about. Sure, it can be done, but it's easier with a GPS.

Not having one also puts more emphasis/stress on the map reader. I think it is stressful enough without it.

If you have a GPS already, look into purchasing maps for it so you can keep them for later. Probably the same or less than the rental fee.

As you say that you've not driven in the UK before, I would recommend looking through the appropriate sections on the Highway Code as you will find quite a few things different to North America/Canada.

https://www.gov.uk/browse/driving/highway-code

We are deeply devoted to our SatNav but the RAC website http://www.rac.co.uk/
Has a route planner http://www.rac.co.uk/route-planner/
You can plan your route and print it out. I used it a lot in the pre satnav days

Take/purchase both. The GPS device can be your "default" and you can use it as much as you want/can. It will generally relieve some stress and will generally be accurate, if loaded with up to date info. However, have good accurate current paper maps, too. I like to have the paper ones in my lap while DH is looking at the GPS (and listening to it usually too!). I think it's easier to get the overview and the general idea of the day's itinerary by looking at the paper map. DH will program our routes into the GPS, and I will cross check that with paper ones and follow along. And a paper map is so helpful (necessary!) for the unexpected road works/traffic problems.

And know, whatever navigation tools you decide on, you are going to get lost/confused/frustrated and just don't be surprised by that!

And double the times suggested by any pre-planning device for travel in the areas you are going to be in. It took us an average of 1.5 times whatever googlemaps and/or our GPS said ahead of time, so by planning for travel to take twice as long, we never missed anything really important to us.

Re: signage in the UK. In Europe in general I find the signage different than in the US. You see a sign; it says your destination is this way; you follow it. There are no more signs until it's time to deviate from the indicated direction. In the meantime, you spend a long time wondering if you're still going the right way, if you somehow missed a turn. (And once or twice we have.)

In Germany the signs just point to the next small town. At the intersection, an immediate decision must be made. The navigator spends a lot of time finding that town in tiny print on the map or flipping madly through the book of maps trying to find the right page for that town.

In both these cases a GPS would be a great help. Caveat: we like driving on smaller, more scenic roads. You don't have these problems on freeways.

Thank you for all the responses!

I will be the driver and my mom will be navigating.

It looks like the best option is to have a GPS but also have the atlas open to loosely follow along/reroute if necessary. I have a feeling my mom would insist on using the paper map anyway.

I have a Tom Tom already and can download Britain onto it for $50, so I figure if it saves even a little time/petrol or arguments with my mom, it might be worth it!

Thanks also for the links Hooameye!

Please tell us you are not driving from LHR to Canterbury and then back across the country???

The plan was to drive from LHR to Canterbury, staying a night there, then up to Birmingham (my sister has her heart set on seeing some Tolkien things there), then staying the night near Stratford-upon-Avon. We'll do Stratford the next day, and then drive to the cottage in Devizes that evening. I would totally skip Birmingham, but it's the one request my sister has made for the trip. If there is a more efficient way to do all these thing, I would be open to it, since we haven't booked the rental car yet.

just being on the M and A interstates from Southampton to Manchester>>

???? oh, I get it - Motorway and A roads. well, I've never heard/seen them referred to as that before.

please don't stress about everything being the wrong way round - the steering wheel will still be next to the middle of the road which is much easier than when we take our own car to "the continent" [by which I mean mainland europe] and have to drive with the steering wheel in the gutter! but I agree that a GPS will be a good idea, if nothing else than to cut down the no of arguments between yourself and your navigator.

but your plan of driving to Canterbury, then Birmingham, then Stratford really makes no sense.

if you were starting off in London and spending a few days there, you could do Canterbury as a day trip by train, then you could get the train to B'ham, do whatever it is your sister wants to do, then get a train to Stratford, and pick up the car there.

as that doesn't seem to be the case, it would be much better to go straight from LHR to Devises [though it's not a particularly convenient spot to be touring the cotswolds from] then going to Stratford, returning the car, getting the train to B'ham, and then back to London. LHR - Canterbury - B'ham is [pardon me] crackers.

and decent national road atlases are on sale at every garage from £2.99.

Home Bargains have a decent 2013 atlas for 99p.

For most purposes Sat-Nav is a waste of money due to the (over)provision of road signs. Where it would be useful - in towns - it swiftly gets out of date.

What are useful though are decent up to date Smartphone maps like Google Maps for getting round town and finding exact postcodes.

I would totally skip Birmingham, but it's the one request my sister has made for the trip.

Why, it's not that far from Stratford-upon-Avon.

The best thing to do would be to do Canterbury as a day trip from London, then travel up to Birmingham by train. Depending on whether a car is needed for the Tolkein Trail you hire the car before or afterwards before heading to SoA then onto the Cotswolds.

But as others have mentioned Devizes is not in the Cotswolds, if I was there I would be visiting Bath, Bristol, Wells, Marlborough, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Avebury all if which are infinitely more interesting than the Cotswolds.

The reason we chose Devizes was because although it's far from Oxford (it will be our longest day trip), we also wanted to visit Salisbury, Shaftesbury, Lacock, Castle Combe, Bath... I didn't actually realize Devizes wasn't technically the Cotswolds since our cottage marketed itself as being in the Cotswolds...oops.

Thanks again for the advice. We are considering doing a train to Canterbury at least.

Actually, Birmingham has wonderful parts to it especially around the renovated canal areas where you will find delightful tea rooms,restaurants and shops. The area from the Mailbox up to Brindley Place along the canals reminds me of San Antonio with the riverwalk area done now.

Thanks again for the advice. We are considering doing a train to Canterbury at least.>>

good idea. sorry if some of the advice seemed a bit harsh but your original plan would have made no sense - and sometimes posters don't get it unless you spell it out.

Do you have some time in London at the end of your trip or are you spending your whole holiday in Devizes?

Sorry, but when we stayed in the Cotswolds I only wanted ONE "challenge" and that time it was driving on the left.

We had a GPS which knew EVERY back road and we ended up on plenty of them and loved it.

Having the GPS made our trip MUCH more enjoyable than having to look at maps all the time (and yes we had them with us).

To each their own.

Road singe and markings in UK are second-to-none.

road maps to are the best in the world.
If you like maps, get the Ordnance Survey for your areas....they come in some huge and highly detailed scale options.....literally down o a park bench. You will find footpaths and bridle-paths marked as well as roads..

Day to day there are good "route planners available on service stations on motorways and if it's to your taste your can buy roads atlases and city street plans. (A to Z)

I have drive all over UK using the maps available and the road signs with no problem, however I do love my sat-nav.

If you have a phone or tablet I would thoroughly recommend Google maps on Andriod. Get a 3G SIM for the UK and away you go - no need to pay the car hire company any extra cash.

PS - I hate road atlases - you keep having to drive over the edge of a page so you can't easily compare potential routes without switching backwards and forwards between pages...... OK for fine detail though....if they have it.

PPS - I also regard maps such as you'd buy in a service station as "disposable" - for me they have a limited life-span, they get annotated, highlighted, folded about and eventually after two or three excursions get thrown away....or make a good souvenir......

PPPS - I know a limerick about Devizes!

I agree that road signs are excellent in the UK, but there are far too many, especially in towns and cities. Sometimes it's hard to pick out the important ones amidst all the clutter. One of my pet peeves is that when driving through a city, all the little side streets have signs on the sides of buildings with street names, but often the main roads don't, so if you need to know the name of the street you are actually on, you look in vain. A GPS will tell you the street name.

I have always used road atlases, but now that I have a GPS I wouldn't be without it. I've tried it out in a city I know well, and sometimes the route the GPS chooses isn't the one I like best, but in those cases I don't need it anyway. It is very handy when driving in unfamiliar territory, when driving after dark, and when looking for specific addresses.

The road signs in Uk are universally color-coded to tell you which towns are next and the type of road you are on. Although streets are label led at intervals the road signs are to tell where you are going, not where you are.
It goes much further than that as you are told which lane you need to be in to go to a particular destination, whether nearby or out of town. Junctions are carefully designed and warnings are universally graded. Signs are false designed to tell you if they are info, warnings or compulsory. Unnecessary language is kept to a minimum and semiotics or icons are used instead. This is more or less the same throughout Europe. I would suggest downloading a copy of the highway code and a five minute perusal of the signage section will be sufficient to get the gist.

Er...Stratford is in the Texas panhandle....

"Er...Stratford is in the Texas panhandle...."

Actually - Stratford is in east London . . . But it is sorta understood, in this thread Stratford means Stratford-upon-Avon.

Actually - Stratford is in east London>>

aka Stratford East, or Stratford atte Bow for those who know their Chaucer.

I would personally go for the GPS. We just moved to London a few months ago and our rental car when we first moved over had GPS and once we got used to its lingo (half turn right, 3rd exit off the roundabout) it was great. Once we bought a car and turned in the rental we tried to use our phones and met with a lot of frustration. They weren't quite fast enough to keep up and we ended up missing turns (iPhone 5 & 4s) using Apple maps & google maps. We went to Stonehenge over the weekend using printed out Google maps and it was okay. Biggest problem I found with paper maps was we were busy checking out the scenery and missed turns. It all turned out well, but we decided it is time to invest in a sat nav...

My vote is for a GPS. I'm a proud map reader but have gone over to the other side. I have a map for a general look see, but the GPS has saved me in many countries in Europe. You can go off the beaten path if you see something interesting and still find your way back with out your map reader yelling, "Just give me a minute here. I don't know where we are!"

Heck, I even got a digital camera. No more film for me.

Hi everyone! Thought I'd come back and follow up post-trip.

We decided to go it without the GPS/Sat Nav. We picked up a good atlas of Britain and I also printed out very detailed maps of every town we went to.

Even with those things, we had a difficult time the first few days with the driving. I didn't anticipate just how different the "system" is over there, and it moves so fast with the roundabouts. It took us several days to hit our stride. It's more than just being on the other side of the road - that part was actually pretty easy for us to get used to.

For those first few days, a GPS would have been worth its weight in gold! (Or petrol as the case may be, since we got lost several times.)

We still had a wonderful trip, and managed to find everything we wanted to. It just would have been more efficient and less stressful with a GPS.

Now that I can speak from experience, I would recommend anyone get a GPS if they will be driving on "the other side" for the first time!

Thanks again for all the responses! We had a fantastic time and were safe, so I can't complain.

Hi annaandlulu,

glad you had such a good trip.

How was your cottage in Devises? what did you like best? any chance of a TR?

I've traveled all over Europe and the UK by car using maps in pre GPS days and always got to where I wanted to go. But I wouldn't be without a GPS today. My advice is to buy one and get used to how to use it before you leave.

If you are travelling with someone else ie have a map reader in the passenger seat then that's all you'll need.

If you will be driving alone at any point then a sat nav is a real boon. The modern ones are very good, with lane guidance, re-routing for delays, speed camera info etc - I don't think the stories of them getting you lost or trying to drive you into lakes really hold true these days - they've come on a lot in the last few years. I have a Tom Tom and love it. My little brother uses Nokia maps on his mobile phone and I was very impressed with that too, when we trialed it in France.

Just finished a 1500 km trip driving England and Wales....no GPS - but I know the way. However it occurred to be that pre-reading of the highway code would be a boon to foreign visitors as with or without GPS the signs are well categorised into the type of road, and the nature of the destination indicated. for example Blue for motorways, brow for tourist /leisure destinations, green for main roads etc etc...... a little bit of preparation can save you a lot of hassle.

Another point I like about the road signs is that there are no billboards and no overhead wires or cables. Trees are cut back so as not to obstruct the view and the only visible advertising is in the form of the small squares on motorway service station signs telling you which brands run the various services available

ttt

kwunwilko - where we could do with some billboards is for petrol stations telling us what their prices are - you'd think that they were a state secret!

I didn't get that problem - I did notice that they have a price place on the M-way signs but they don't always use them.......but of course the supermarkets and roadside stations all have clearly visible large electronic digital LED type signs that update more or less by the minute.
Supermarkets can afford to sell fuel cheapest as as a loss leader it gets the punters in and they get the money back on the groceries they sell. however I really could be bothered with queuing for 30 minutes to save a few pence......my hourly rate is higher than that.

Billboards are now more or less illegal throughout Europe has tewy present a traffic hazzard on several fronts....visibility and driver distraction being the most obvious, not to mention blots on the landscape.