In this YouTube advice video, Kat from the Wandering Bird motorhome‑travel website answers a reader’s question about whether to buy a left‑hand‑drive (LHD) or right‑hand‑drive (RHD) motorhome for touring Europe. She begins with a brief history of why some countries drive on the left and others on the right, tracing the split back to medieval knights, French‑American wagon designs, and Napoleon’s conquests. Kat then outlines the practical pros and cons of each steering configuration: LHD offers better overtaking visibility, easier toll‑booth and slip‑road navigation, and is generally more suited to mainland Europe, but tends to be pricier, harder to resell in the UK, and may come with European‑specific electrical sockets and headlight orientation issues. RHD aligns with UK driving habits, may be cheaper and easier to sell locally, and typically has the main habitation door on the left for safer curbside exit, yet can be less convenient on the continent. She discusses additional considerations such as market availability, conversion costs, insurance implications, door placement, and the importance of checking vehicle layout, engine health, and chassis condition. Kat emphasizes that the steering side is secondary to finding a layout that fits the user’s lifestyle, especially for two‑person travel, and recommends LHD for solo travelers spending most time in Europe, while RHD is preferable for those based mainly in the UK. She points viewers to a free step‑by‑step buying guide on the Wandering Bird website and teases the next video about ferry vs tunnel travel to Europe.
So, you want to tour Europe in a motorhome or camper. You're planning on buying one specifically for that purpose, but do you go left-hand drive or right-hand drive? Which is better? Also, do you know why we drive on the left and the rest of Europe drive on the right? It's kind of cool. Let's find out.
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Hi, I'm Kat from the motorhome travel website Wandering Bird, where we share tips and tricks on touring the UK and Europe. in a motorhome or campervan. Today we're going to answer a reader question about whether or not they should buy a left-hand drive or a right-hand drive camper. They want to go off and tour Europe. They're going to be spending most of their time in Europe, but they're not sure which is best. So, let's get started. First of all, did you know there are more countries around the world that drive on the right than on the left? It's about 160-something to 75, apparently. Most of the countries that still drive on the left are old British colonies. Which was kind of interesting. Also, do you know how it started, the split? I was kind of fascinated by this. So, most countries, which were sort of medieval-based, used to drive or travel on the left because the knights were mostly right-handed, so they would want to keep their right side open to use their sword arm. So they would travel on the left so that they could draw on the right and kill villainous villains as they passed them on the road. And that was how most of, certainly Europe, was. Everyone travelled on the left. And then, as time evolved, France and the USA created these huge wagons, which was how they used to move all their goods around. And these things were enormous, and the drivers of these wagons sat at the back, not at the front, and they would sit to the left, so the rear left, so that they could use their right arm for using their whip on their horse teams. So obviously, because they were on the back and the left, they wanted to pass each other left to left so that they could see and make sure they weren't going to hit each other, as opposed to being on the opposite side where they couldn't really see. So they were sitting on the left already. So in France and the USA, they started to travel on the right, which means that they would pass left to left. So then obviously Napoleon came along and he started to conquer most of Europe, and everywhere that he conquered, he insisted that they drive or travel On the left, everywhere that resisted him and was sort of in line with the UK, they stayed where they drove on the left and traveled on the left, and they passed on the right. That's how the split came. Now, obviously, in the UK, we drive on the left. We have our steering wheels on the right. But in Europe and all of Europe, with the exception of the UK, obviously Ireland, Cyprus, Malta. The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Those are the only places that still drive on the left. Everywhere else drives on the right. So if you're planning on spending most of your time in Europe, which do you get? There are pros and cons to both, and here is my take on that. So if you have a vehicle with a left-hand steering wheel, it is going to be easier in Europe to overtake because you can see around them. It's going to be easier for you to see if junctions are clear if you pull up at slip roads or anything. It's going to be easy for you to pay at tolls or to pay at car parks where the booths are on the left-hand side, but the flip side is left-hand drive vehicles are generally more expensive. Now, of course, that's a broad generalisation, but in our experience, that's what we found. They can also be harder to sell in the UK. Now, there's been a really interesting spate lately of left-hand drive vehicles, including motorhomes and campers, coming to the UK. Apparently, the market in Europe has, or was, becoming quite sort of sluggish and people couldn't sell them, so they'd moved them to the UK where they were having a much easier time getting rid of them. But it means that left-hand drive vehicles are harder to get rid of in Europe and in the UK. Now, of course, the market might pick up and it might change, but that's definitely something to think about if you're planning on driving it into the ground and keeping it for the rest of your life, that isn't something to worry about. Another thing to think about is left-hand drive vehicles are generally, again, broad generalisation, but they're generally European. Now, European motorhomes and campers don't often have ovens. No idea why. It seems to be a cultural thing. They also will have the wrong pin sockets. Now, that's a fairly easy change. It's not like you're buying an American vehicle and the voltage is totally different. European to UK is a fairly easy switch. But it's just something to bear in mind that you would have to possibly deal with if you bought a European left-hand drive vehicle. So make sure if you are shopping for one that you take your time, you check it all out, and you check that it's got everything that you want off a motorhome. If you want to get a list or a guide of everything that you need to check when you're buying a motorhome, whether it's right-hand drive, left-hand drive, European, or UK, there is a step-by-step guide on the Wandering Bird website that you can download for free and take it with you when you go check out a vehicle and make sure that you cover everything. And check that they've got everything that you're going to need. If you're going to be based mainly in the UK and travel to Europe, I would recommend a right-hand drive, but either will work. I find that buying motorhomes, you get more choice if you look for a right-hand drive as well as a left-hand drive. I certainly wouldn't cut yourself off. In our opinion, the most important thing is to look for the layout that works best for you, and then obviously making sure that you have a sound engine, a good chassis that's not rotting. All these things, the vehicle is more important for us than which side the driving steering wheel's on, especially if there are gonna be 2 of you in the vehicle. Now, if you're gonna be driving a lot on your own, I would say a left-hand drive probably makes more sense if you're gonna be spending most of your time in Europe, because obviously it's easier for you to overtake and everything else. The other thing you need to think about are headlights. If you're buying a European vehicle, the headlights might point the wrong way in the UK, or vice versa, so you're probably gonna need some form of headlight conversions. On there. Another thing to think about are European vehicles and UK vehicles, motorhomes and campervans, often have their main hab door on different sides. The UK obviously have them on the left because that way when you're parked over on the kerb, the door takes you straight out onto the pavement. In exactly the same way, the Europeans often have their main door on the right. We've actually had vans with doors on either side and it doesn't make a huge amount of difference. Obviously, with kids and with pets, if you open the door, you've got to be really careful they don't rush out into the middle of the road. But generally, if it's a really busy road, you would get out of one of the driver's side doors, and there's more than enough room normally in a motorhome or camper for you to be able to do that. But that happens very rarely because you generally find yourself in either a campsite or an aire or a wild camping spot, in which case you're not on a really busy main road. If you're planning to be spending a lot of time and you're planning to Stealth camp or camp a lot in cities and towns, then that is something to look at. Which side of the vehicle your main entry and exit door is? You can convert a vehicle from a left-hand drive to a right-hand drive or right-hand drive to a left if you want to. Bear in mind that there is a whole process to go through. You can't just do it and that's it. You've got to send it off to the DVLA. I believe they need some form of proof that it's done by a professional company, and then I think it will probably affect your insurance premiums. I don't know that for sure, but other people who have converted their vans in some way have had difficulty either getting insurance or getting it at a decent price. So that's definitely something to think about if you're planning on buying one and then converting it. So the short answer is that it doesn't really matter. Look for a layout that works for you best. Imagine being in that space. Imagine living in there on a rainy day or a rainy week and how you would use it, how you would store stuff. And find the van based on that. Don't just look on whether it's a left-hand drive or a right-hand drive. If that's really important to you, then start the search there, but you will find your pool a lot more limited. So that was a question from Tony. I hope that helps, Tony, answer your question. If you've got a question that you would like me to answer, by all means send it through to me once you've signed up to my mailing list, and I will do my best to answer it for you. Next video is going to be one that I've been asked an awful lot at the moment: whether you should take the ferry or whether you should take the tunnel when you're going over to Europe. And it's a good question, to be fair. So I will see you then and give you my opinion on that. Until then, I hope you have a wonderful week. By all means, if you're traveling to Europe, check out the Wandering Bird website. There are loads of checklists and other things on there which you might find useful. Until then, see you later.
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