Oh one more thing, we have to go in School hols and reading on here it seems end of July, begining of august are very very busy? Also weather can be humid and hurricanes? Any info on this please? The only other times we could go for more than one week would be Easter!

Please don't worry about driving in US after the first few minutes it all clicks into place.

If you are flying into Sanford you can use the toll road (hardly any traffic) to get to I Drive and by that time you will more than have got the feel for it.

All main roads or 3 or 4 lanes wide and have lights at all main junctions, you can turn right on a red light unless it says otherwise and left turns usually have filter lights.

The main thing is not to panic if you miss a turn on a motorway just carry on to next junction then rejoin motorway in opposite direction just like you would at home. If you miss a left turn on a normal road you will find that within a couple of hundred yards you will be able to do a U turn and go back which would then mean that your left turn was a right turn and much easier.

You can also take your sat nav or hire one with the car although it works out expensive.

Hi,
You should have no trouble driving- all very well signposted.

It costs $12/13 each day to park at Disney - loads of parking in the theme parks - a free trolley bus will then take you to the theme park entrance.

Jean

The weather is much more pleasant at Easter than in the summer, but the weeks each side of Easter are incredibly busy. If you go in the school summer holidays, you should book as late in August as you can fit your fortnight in before they go back to school. The end of August is much less busy than July and early August, as the US schools tend to go back in mid-August, not early September like ours.

The main difference in driving is that their sign-posting is not as good as ours. You get very little advance warning of junctions, so may well miss them as previous poster mentioned! Just don't let it faze you.

Thanks for the replies.
I think, reading up, we'll give the summer months a miss as it seems the weather can be very bad. We could go in My or Oct hols but only for a week and as 2 days are spent travelling that'd only leave 5 days. I doubt this is enough!
Ta

I find it easier driving in the US than I do driving here in the UK.

chivas we went to America in August last year and like you I was petrified of driving on the wrong side of the road. Dont know why though, it was so easy.

As for the weather we had Hurricane Fay whilst we were there and apart from a couple of days of rain and wind we were fine

As said earlier driving in the States is easier than in the UK. Just make sure your front seat passenger does the road name spotting. There are some differences (besides the obvious one). On freeways (motorways) you can be overtaken (undertaken) on both sides. There is no 'slow lane'.

At many junctions you can turn right on a red light! If you are not sure about this then just wait at the light and the driver behind will peep to tell you to 'move your ass'!

They also have those wonderful 4 way junctions where no one has priority. You just stop at the line then take it in turns to enter the junction.

Actually, freeways DO have a slow lane and a fast lane (the slow lane being on the far right, the fast lane being on the far left unless it's a car pool lane, in which case it's the next lane over). But Hi De Hi is correct that people can overtake on either side. On two lane highways it's considered courtesy to only pass on the left but that doesn't often happen in practice.

It's not just many junctions you can turn right on a red light...it's by far the majority of junctions (they are called "intersections" here in the US). The only exceptions are if there is a red arrow pointed to the right or if there is a sign that reads "No turn on red". Of course, you should make sure traffic is clear before making said right turn. This only applies to right turns - it NEVER applies to left turns so please be careful.

With regards to a four way stop sign, it's not quite correct that no one has priority. Cars should go in the order at which they arrived at the stop sign but, if two cars arrived at the same time, the car on the right should go first.

I would have to agree with Hi De Hi and others that driving in the US is far easier than the UK. I never got my UK license (not taking the test didn't help!) and couldn't believe how easy it was to get my California license. There is a written test but there is a fair amount of leeway as to how many answers you can get wrong. The driving test itself is unbelievably easy. It's almost always taken in one's own car, which is nice, and the test took all of 10 minutes. I believe most people pass their test first time in the US, certainly in California, whereas that's not true in the UK. However, that possibly means drivers are safer in the UK... or perhaps are just being ripped off with having to pay to take the test multiple times. I find it amusing that I could, quite legally, drive a car in the UK despite having a California drivers license that took me all of 10 minutes to obtain!

But if you came to live here you would only be able to drive on your US licence for 12 months before you had to take a UK test.

Oh I know, but only if I was actually living in the UK again. I was thinking more of vacations and such.

hi

i also was terrified of driving in florida, but ok, very very nervous at first, but it was better than i thought it was going to be..... didnt drive at night though, gave that a miss.