Travelling abroad in the A2

depronman said:
The French web site that I look on seemed to state that there are areas or zones that if you enter you need the sticker. The map had a row of these zones that all interlinked right across the middle of France bar a small gap that was not covered. I think it cost me around £4 for the air sticker do I thought better to have it than argue with a French police man
As I said I saw few cars with one and the ones I did were mainly foreign cars to France


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Agreed Paul I bought it a couple of weeks back to be safe!

At least the sports seats with their mesh net will come in handy for any kit we need whilst travelling through France (vest for one)
 
Another point specific to driving in France and not sure if this has been covered...

French law prohibits drivers from carrying devices capable of detecting speed cameras. If you have a sat nav where the speed limit is displayed, it is required to be disabled.

Hilary
 
YorkshireHill said:
Another point specific to driving in France and not sure if this has been covered...

French law prohibits drivers from carrying devices capable of detecting speed cameras. If you have a sat nav where the speed limit is displayed, it is required to be disabled.

Hilary
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So agree that its against the law for speed trap detection and site warnings for sure but not so sure on sat nav telling you what is just the legal speed limit of a road. Not saying you are wrong just can't find anything (yet) that says thats the case in France.
 
As far as France is concerned, this only applies to Paris at the moment. The common belief amongst the French is that any on-the-spot fines go straight into the back pocket! Bear in mind that there is no official way of making a complaint of any sort against French police!

RAB
 
YorkshireHill said:
Another point specific to driving in France and not sure if this has been covered...
French law prohibits drivers from carrying devices capable of detecting speed cameras. If you have a sat nav where the speed limit is displayed, it is required to be disabled. Hilary
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Ditto Germany if I recall correctly.
 
RAB said:
As far as France is concerned, this only applies to Paris at the moment. The common belief amongst the French is that any on-the-spot fines go straight into the back pocket! Bear in mind that there is no official way of making a complaint of any sort against French police!

RAB
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Isn't that just like the French :)
 
no, the Germans have no issue with you knowing where a safety camera is, because to avoid telling you that would obviate the need.

- Bret
 
Poland's roads were bumpy but good when I last drove them. Germany: Lane Discipline is incredibly important and *stay in the right lane unless you're prepared to floor it*. You *will* have drivers doing 200+ km/h.
really important: if you have a give way, do not assume anyone will let you in. It is your responsibility to accelerate up to speed before entering the motorway and you are ok to use the hard shoulder to do that if you have to. (so when re-entering after a junction and you need to fit between two trucks, driving 100m on the hard shoulder to get up to 100km/h is completely ok). It is illegal in some countries (like this one) to move over and let others in, so do not assume it will happen.

Pick your route, understand where you're going, and have all the maps on your nav system ahead of time. Carry some € cash, you shouldn't need it. Especiallly at the German / Czech border, the police are awake and interested because of problems with Crystal Meth. The A6 is also patrolled regularly over by Mannheim - have your papers within reach and be polite and you'll be fine.

Use cruise where you can. ignore the rest of the traffic.

Quick story from my return trip through Poland: Massive roadworks with 20+km of resurfacing and a 50km/h limit. Trundling through at 65km/h indicated, overtaking forbiddeen... and the guy behind me finally gets too frustrated and overtakes. Promptly gets pulled over by the police who were at the other end of the long straight.. lucky for me, unlucky for them. Stick to the rules and let the locals be stopped.
Lots and lots of policemen and cameras in Poland, very slow progress IMO. This is nearly 10 years ago, not sure how much if anything has changed....

- Bret
 
craigyb said:
I've got a road trip in the A2 coming up in several weeks time. About 4000 miles across Europe into the south of the Ukraine.

I know several people have traveled to Europe in their own A2's, any advice you can offer would be grateful

I have already learned not to pull out into an empty dual carriageway unless every lane is empty, but I'm keen to hear about other peoples experiences
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I drove through to Yalta and back about six years ago, but not in an A2. I greatly enjoyed the trip, but the roads in Ukraine were appalling, especially in the towns. So one had to be very vigilant for potholes and I think15" wheels would be preferable. The Fiat car I was driving subsequently gave some trouble in the DPF, and from later research on the internet I got the impression that this might have been due to a different standard for diesel fuel (sulphur?) in Ukraine. Obviously no problems about the DPF for an A2 but it might be worth finding out about fuel quality.

I was pulled over several times for alleged traffic lane infringements. My offence would be explained by reference to a long document in Cyrillic script, with the fine defined. There would then be a suggestion that we 'split the difference' and no paperwork would be completed. With foreign registration plates I was a sitting duck and it was something I couldn't do much to avoid, but the amounts weren't huge.

Please bear in mind that on your return you will be re-entering the EU on a border where smuggling is rife. I haven't yet discovered where the chassis number of an A2 is stamped, but it would be well to know and to pack the car so that it can be reached easily. If you plan to enter or leave through Moldova there are, or were, extra complications on which I will post separately if you wish.

Don't be put off - it's a fascinating country and the people are delightful.
 
I think in Spain, maybe other countries now, if you overtake a car your indicator must flash 3 times, and your indicator must flash 3 times when you pull back into the right hand lane having completed the overtake.
Komfortblinker is a good upgrade.
 
longdog said:
I drove through to Yalta and back about six years ago, but not in an A2. I greatly enjoyed the trip, but the roads in Ukraine were appalling, especially in the towns. So one had to be very vigilant for potholes and I think15" wheels would be preferable. The Fiat car I was driving subsequently gave some trouble in the DPF, and from later research on the internet I got the impression that this might have been due to a different standard for diesel fuel (sulphur?) in Ukraine. Obviously no problems about the DPF for an A2 but it might be worth finding out about fuel quality.

I was pulled over several times for alleged traffic lane infringements. My offence would be explained by reference to a long document in Cyrillic script, with the fine defined. There would then be a suggestion that we 'split the difference' and no paperwork would be completed. With foreign registration plates I was a sitting duck and it was something I couldn't do much to avoid, but the amounts weren't huge.

Please bear in mind that on your return you will be re-entering the EU on a border where smuggling is rife. I haven't yet discovered where the chassis number of an A2 is stamped, but it would be well to know and to pack the car so that it can be reached easily. If you plan to enter or leave through Moldova there are, or were, extra complications on which I will post separately if you wish.

Don't be put off - it's a fascinating country and the people are delightful.
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Thanks for the advice but I'm actually married now to a Ukrainian woman and have traveled many times by plane to the Ukraine, Dnipro,Odessa, Kiev, Kharkov, Nikolaev, Chernitiva etc and I have used BlaBla car in the ukraine to get around sometimes, so cheap and so easy to use.

I know how bad Ukrainian roads are, whole sections on motorways closed due to bad carriageways, hence why I'm going to carry two spare wheels with tyres. I thought about 15" wheels too, but the expense of buying 6 wheels was too much on top of the new brakes all around and the MOT and subsequent failure, so I ended up with a very cheap set of 16" A1 wheels to match the ones I have, plus I've had to buy 4 new tyres for the MOT.

I have been in a stop by the police (as a passenger) and it took us quite a while to pay the 4 cops that turned up for their share of the loot. But nowadays there is a lot of anti-corruption stuff going on in the Ukraine so it's not as prevalent as before.

Just waiting for my green card and IDP now and I have everything ready to go, going to move my high vis jacket to the front of the car, I have a charging mount for my phone, Ukrainian SIM with data in my dual SIM S9 with credit loaded up. A set of the latest 2018 RNS-E disks, which unfortunately stop at Poland, but I can use google maps the rest of the way, Ferry is booked etc.

Trip is in 2.5 weeks time so wish me luck, we intend to do this twice a year if all goes well.
 
trevorswaine said:
I think in Spain, maybe other countries now, if you overtake a car your indicator must flash 3 times, and your indicator must flash 3 times when you pull back into the right hand lane having completed the overtake.
Komfortblinker is a good upgrade.
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I have Komfortblinkers, see my signature
 
Ah lucky man, you'll be putting on weight if you're not careful :)
I haven't been back for 8 years but already then there was a sense that traffic police were less of a nuisance. The old joke used to be that if you asked a traffic cop what you had done wrong, he would answer that his children couldn't wait for you to do something wrong :p I hope you don't meet any of that sort, should be better now.

I realised this may be useful advice - get a travel credit / debit card. I find it really annoying how your regular bank/bs cards load every transaction with a 2-3% 'foreign transaction handling fee'. I got a Tandem credit card - no transaction fees, no fees withdrawing cash abroad, straight interbank Mastercard exchange rate (better than Visa), 0.5% cashback.

When we used to drive over to Odessa, we went either via Poland, or via Hungary. As a passenger I preferred Hungary because of the better/faster roads and the enormous food portions in restaurants!
 
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