Driving Abroad

[Wolands Advocate]

If you’re driving in Spain, Cyprus and Malta, you’ll always need a UK sticker, no matter what you have on your number plate.

For other EU countries your number plate must have plus UK to be valid.

That might be the case, but in a quarter of a century of regularly driving in continental Europe on British plates, no policeman or traffic warden has ever once picked me up on this . Certainly, I think you'd have to be extremely unlucky to have one who worried about whether you had a Union Jack on your plate in addition to a UK sticker.

I am also fairly sure, based on queries from more than one of their number, that many continental policemen aren't even aware that Boris the Johnson wasted yet more government time and taxpayers' money pointlessly asking the UN to change the distinguishing sign for British road vehicles from GB to UK.

I drive through France or via Spain 4/5 a year to get to Andorra. The Spanish equivalent of our Traffic Cops are now very hot on UK drivers not displaying a UK sticker and / or having old style GB plates and whilst I have never had a fine I have been pulled twice and told off for not displaying a sticker…. Last time I had a sticker on inside of my rear window but the tint hid it!
As stated the French don’t require a sticker though….
Finally be warned I now understand speed cameras on the French Péage system have a post brexit link with DVLA so gone are the days of cruising at 90mph!

Oh really, when did that arrive? And where can I find concrete information about this? While cruising at 90 in France is the equivalent of cruising at 80 in the UK given the higher speed limit in France, I have no desire to line the pockets of les flics if I can avoid it.

[PJV997]

If you’re driving in Spain, Cyprus and Malta, you’ll always need a UK sticker, no matter what you have on your number plate.

For other EU countries your number plate must have plus UK to be valid.

That might be the case, but in a quarter of a century of regularly driving in continental Europe on British plates, no policeman or traffic warden has ever once picked me up on this . Certainly, I think you'd have to be extremely unlucky to have one who worried about whether you had a Union Jack on your plate in addition to a UK sticker.

I am also fairly sure, based on queries from more than one of their number, that many continental policemen aren't even aware that Boris the Johnson wasted yet more government time and taxpayers' money pointlessly asking the UN to change the distinguishing sign for British road vehicles from GB to UK.

I drive through France or via Spain 4/5 a year to get to Andorra. The Spanish equivalent of our Traffic Cops are now very hot on UK drivers not displaying a UK sticker and / or having old style GB plates and whilst I have never had a fine I have been pulled twice and told off for not displaying a sticker…. Last time I had a sticker on inside of my rear window but the tint hid it!
As stated the French don’t require a sticker though….
Finally be warned I now understand speed cameras on the French Péage system have a post brexit link with DVLA so gone are the days of cruising at 90mph!

I’ve just spent the last 3 days driving back to the UK from the Algarve.

My only ‘encounter’ with the police was in Spain passing an unmarked police car. I accelerated to maybe 20kph over the limit to pass as he seemed to be dithering as he approached a lorry in his lane and once past resumed my normal 5-8kph true speed over the limit. There was a strange flash from his lower valance as I passed, presumably a camera.

I had a large UK sticker inside my rear screen, not totally clear due to tinted windows.

He followed me past, settled in behind as I was doing my usual 5kph true speed above limit and within about 30 seconds put on his blue lights, now I realised what the flash was. He overtook me and I was expecting him to pull in front and get me to stop, but he overtook 2 more cars and pulled over a Golf on Spanish plates just ahead.

We passed a lay-by and there was another unmarked car that had pulled over another driver and was issuing a ticket or talking to. Both cars were small innocuous Seat hatchbacks.

On the French autoroutes, I drive at about 143-145 kph, true speed is probably 136 - 138 kph or 85mph. Didn’t have any issues or trigger any cameras at that speed.

[Nuclear Nick]

If you’re driving in Spain, Cyprus and Malta, you’ll always need a UK sticker, no matter what you have on your number plate.

For other EU countries your number plate must have plus UK to be valid.

Finally be warned I now understand speed cameras on the French Péage system have a post brexit link with DVLA so gone are the days of cruising at 90mph!

I’d be interested to hear where that information comes from. Everything I’ve heard and read from numerous reliable sources says that the link was severed at Brexit and so they can no longer pursue us once back in the UK and vice versa for those caught speeding here.

[crockers]

I think Brexit killed the reciprocal agreement on speeding.

[Scoobyd]

I’ve just spent the last 3 days driving back to the UK from the Algarve.

How did you find driving to the Algarve and back? I go over to Portugal every year as have good friends there and have always wanted to drive it one year. Plus not sure I'd fancy taking the Macan through some of the narrow streets in the little villages I tend to frequent!

[Bluesnose1812]

I’ve just spent the last 3 days driving back to the UK from the Algarve.

How did you find driving to the Algarve and back? I go over to Portugal every year as have good friends there and have always wanted to drive it one year. Plus not sure I'd fancy taking the Macan through some of the narrow streets in the little villages I tend to frequent!

That happens all over the world. It's not the narrow streets that causes the problem. It's the 90° corners that are impossible to get round.

[PJV997]

I’ve just spent the last 3 days driving back to the UK from the Algarve.

How did you find driving to the Algarve and back? I go over to Portugal every year as have good friends there and have always wanted to drive it one year. Plus not sure I'd fancy taking the Macan through some of the narrow streets in the little villages I tend to frequent!

I love a road trip and have probably done 20 in Europe over the past 20 years, so start from a position that I enjoy the drive.

Regarding Portugal, we’ve been three times in the past 18 months primarily as we take our dog.

One trip in my new GTS, one in my Gen 1 Turbo and one in our previous ‘dog car’ - a Mini Clubman JCW.

It takes about 18 hours from the Algarve back to Calais Eurotunnel and we did the last two trips in three days which is the right time for us. We found the four days of the previous trip too long.

Each Algarve trip we have taken longer to get there, between 6 and 14 days with the journey outbound being more a part of the holiday rather than a means of getting from A to B.

It’s great having your own car when there and whilst we’ve frequented some towns with narrow streets, everything has been fine.

The only issue with travelling there/back was the snow mentioned above.

Also I did fill up once with Shell 98 V Power on the French Autoroute near Bordeaux at €2.389 per litre - I think the most I’ve ever paid for petrol (maybe topic for another thread!).

Regarding the suitability of the Macan for such an endeavour, my GTS was excellent. Comfortable for long distance cruising and getting around 25-26 mpg at a steady 80-85 mph cruise. I wouldn’t say though I got out after the 6 or 7 hour drive feeling fully fresh, but I think that is more my age than a fault of the car (I have 14 ways).

If truth be told though, the Gen 1 Turbo with 20 inch wheels and standard suspension was a more comfortable cruiser.

I’d certainly recommend a long road trip at least once.

If you fancy taking the car to Portugal but don’t want such a long journey the first time, there are also ferry options from various South England ports to Santander or Bilbao.

[IPKnightly2]

I have never been to Portugal but either get the Portsmouth ferry to Caen in the winter, or Bilbao in the summer…crossing the Bay of Biscay in the winter is not high on my enjoyment scale!
From Caen I get to Toulouse easily in 8 easy hours stopping every 2 hours to swap drivers with Management . Day two is reserved for an enjoyable 3 hours up the mountain into Andorra.
Back to the point of speeding tickets I also assumed the only benefit to the Brexit disaster was lack of data sharing hence immunity from speed cameras however a good friend of mine works for the French Police in Paris warned me they have now an agreement in place and to be careful on the motorway network!

[PJV997]

*** just noticed this didn’t post earlier…..

Even more surprising than my unmarked Police car encounter was a sudden hail storm. Again the the middle of Spain just north of Salamanca.

Although it was cold and overcast, there was no warning. Initial heavy hailstone shower that turned to snow and within 5 minutes the Autoroute went from damp to dangerous. Waze tried to send us off the Autoroute but looking at a minimum of 1 inch of snow on the slip roads and presumably the same or worse on side roads, we stuck with the Autoroute.

In the next 10 miles we saw 6 cars in the ditches/verge. Thankfully we navigated it safely but slowly and we’re back to damp roads in 20-30 minutes.

Not what I expected in the middle of Spain. First picture is the initial hailstones, second the result of at least one persons careless driving…