Hiring a car on holiday?
Whether you’re cruising down Route 66 or just driving from the airport to your hotel, before you hit the road, check the rules and regulations that apply in the country where you’ll be driving.
For more info, see the Foreign Office website offering motoring advice to holidaymakers, highlighting the various laws affecting motorists around the world.
We’ve found 15 serious, strange and downright silly driving laws, so you don’t get caught out.
1. Breathalysers (France)
If you’re pottering down to Poitiers, be aware that ‘drivers of all motor vehicles and motorcycles must carry a breathalyser’. If you don’t show the gendarme your kit when asked, you’ll get an €11 fine.
2. GB stickers (EU)
In Europe, unless your car has got number plates that include a GB symbol, you’ll need to display a GB sticker. You’ll also have to display a photo of the Queen on the dashboard, and wear a bowler hat (only joking!).
3. Children (France)
In France, children under 10 are not allowed to travel on the front seat of a vehicle without a special child restraint. The only exception is if the vehicle has no back seats (so they’re ok in your Lotus), no rear seatbelts (isn’t that illegal?) or if the rear seat is already occupied with children under 10 (wearing seatbelts, presumably).
4. Red light rules (USA)
You may curse them when you’re running late, but red lights mean stop. Not stopping could have serious consequences. But in the USA, you can turn right on a red, as long as the road is clear of pedestrians and traffic.
5. Horns (various)
While in some countries constant use of your horn is obligatory (used most effectively in conjunction with colourful language directed at fellow road users), it may surprise you that in many others, including the UK, horns are banned at night or in urban areas.
6. Trams (Norway)
In Norway, trams have right of way. You could try testing this, but it is not advisable.
7. Lights (various)
While leaving your lights on usually means a flat battery, in countries such as Sweden where daylight hours are short in winter, you must leave them on at all times, even on a sunny summer’s day.
8. Alcohol (Macedonia)
Drinking and driving is illegal, of course. But in Macedonia, the authorities go a step further: if you’re ‘visibly under the influence of alcohol’, you not allowed to sit in the front seat, presumably not just because you’ll be useless at navigating
AC 
As an American, I must say that I don’t like “right on red.” As a pedestrian I have more than once been crossing the street only to see a car coming at me.
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