by Lars Haagen Petersen

Few tourists experience Malta's southern coastline. This is probably due to the poor bus coverage in that area and the fact that it is a bit of a challenge to get around on your own in a rented car with right-hand drive. To this must be added that the signage in Malta is more than deficient when leaving the main roads. Fortunately, the latter issue can be remedied by bringing ones own GPS. I intentionally write "bring", because it is my experience that there are no such aid in most rental cars in Malta.
The first issue - Driving on the opposite side of the road, which most of us are not used to is unfortunately of a somewhat different nature, as it is a matter of "getting used to". When I first tried it, I had expected that roundabouts and the like, would give me the biggest challenges, but it quickly turned out that the hardest part was judging the distance to discounts, curbs, etc., which appeared on the left side of the car. It was a challenge I had not seen coming and which I constantly had to give a large part of my attention while driving in Malta. Here it is worth pointing out that it is a good idea to make passengers aware that it is a shared responsibility to complete the trip as safely as possible. It may well be that the driver has the final responsibility - and that is how it should be - but the fellow passengers can also contribute a little to the party to ensure that it continues as long as possible.