78
I trespass for a living (I'm a geologist) in Georgia mostly, but have in pretty much all of the Eastern U.S.
So, when planning field work the first thing I do is get on the internet and search for county tax assessor's maps. The online maps will show who owns the parcels; state, county, federal, or private. If they are private then I'll do a white pages ...
65
When you're out driving around
If you're not on a road, you're probably on private property unless otherwise indicated. National or state parks would be the primary exception to that. Granted, there are many of those in Tennessee and North Carolina.
If there's a specific property you want to visit and you know it is private, you really should seek ...
63
Provided there were no other sign or rule forbidding it, turning was perfectly fine. The red X cross on blue background means it's forbidden to stop (absolutes Halteverbot).
It's somewhat similar to the more well-known “no parking” sign, but stricter (parking is defined as leaving your vehicle or letting it stand longer than three minutes whereas this signs ...
49
There are some very remote roads in northern Quebec.
The James Bay Road (Route de la Baie James) is one option.
Located in northeastern Canada, in the province of Quebec, the James Bay Road runs north from its beginning at Matagami to Radisson, 620 km (388 miles) away. It is a very remote road - there are no towns along the road (except at either end), ...
46
On the E65 interchange north of Stupica...
41
Buying option
For a one-month trip, I do not recommend buying and selling a car. Although it probably could be done, let me address some of the complications with that first, then I'll discuss rentals:
A $3000 car will be old, and probably not very reliable. I would not trust a car in this price range to get me safely around the country without thorough ...
35
I traveled all the way through the USA from the east coast to the west coast, by car and RV. I thought about getting a UMTS / LTE stick for my Notebook, too. But there really wasn't any need for this.
You can get FREE WIFI almost everywhere:
Coffee Shops (Starbucks, etc.)
Fast food Restaurants (Pizza Hut, McDonalds, KFC, etc.)
Camp grounds
Hotels
Shops / ...
33
Sure they do, here's a few:
(credit ojdo.de, CC licensed)
However, these are uncommon for anything larger than city states, because drivers are usually trying to go a specific city, not an entire country. In the second sign from Stockholm's ferry terminal, you'll note that "Tallinn" (Estonia), "Riga" (Latvia) and "St. Petersburg" (Russia) are listed ...
30
The area you will cover is a bit broad but there are generally rules that you can follow:
If you see the No Overnight Parking sign that has an obvious meaning.
There are plenty of roadside motels and camping grounds where you can park overnight and sleep.
The municipalities may institute their own rules for overnight parking and sleeping in cars so when you ...
30
First off, don't let anyone tell you it's not worth it: you can find cheap cars that are very likely to keep running for a the duration of your trip. They won't be in the best shape, but that's true of buying second hand cars in general. If you are under 25 years of age, car rental will be very expensive and buying is (in my opinion) the better option.
When ...
28
California has some rigorous laws against vagrancy and homelessness and depending upon local ordinances or just plain bad luck you could be in for a nightmare. If you have to do it, try to be outside the city limits.
Based upon what you wrote, you will most likely have a license plate that identifies a rent-a-car. That will flag up as unusual for anybody ...
28
Red circle means Prohibition, round signal means law-enforced (as per driving code and rules), upper left to lower right red bar means prohibition to park your vehicle (2 or more minutes and stopped engine supposes your car is parked) and upper left to lower right with a 'mirrored' lower left to upper right red bar means prohibition to park or pulling over ...
26
The mordida (nibble) is unfortunately deeply ingrained in Mexico, although mostly a feature of local police and not the federal police or the military, and there are various anti-corruption initiatives at work in the larger cities.
Generally, the interaction involves being pulled over for a traffic offense like speeding or not wearing a seat belt. The ...
26
There are obviously a lot of gas stations along this road too, some of which have restrooms you can pay a little to use. See hours on the linked page as well. These are frequently treated as public facilities, rather than for paying customers only.
You can also pay a little at hostels / guesthouses along the way to use their facilities.
26
A good contender should be Russian Р-297 Amur, from Chita to the Svobodnyi fork. It's 1400 km of road accompanied by Transsib, but it is barely inhabited and barely traversable. Maybe it got better in the last years, but it should be a worthy competitor for Brazilian rainforest roads all year around.
There are derelict settlements here and there, still you ...
24
ConsumerReports.org has done the analysis. Obviously it'll be different for every car and shape and size of roof rack, and contents of the rack, but in their experiment:
2013 Honda Accord (4-cyl.) MPG (Miles Per Gallon) @ 65 mph = 105 km/h
----------------------------------------------
No rack 42 mpg = 5.6 l/100km
...
23
You can walk into any large carrier store - AT/T or T-Mobile in your case (since you probably have a GSM phone), and ask for a prepaid SIM card. No address proof, I don't even think they check your ID. T-Mobile usually has the best deals (value for money) and their 3G/4G network is pretty fast. Of course, I am assuming you have an unlocked GSM phone.
T-...
23
The Greenland tourist board says No.
There are no ferry connections between Greenland and Iceland, Denmark or Canada. However, more and more cruise shipping companies are choosing to include Greenland on their itineraries, whereby it is possible to begin the voyage from Iceland or go onboard at, for example, Kangerlussuaq.
Greenland being an island, I ...
23
Yes, they do exist. The first situations that come to my mind are:
On motorways when you are approaching the border and there are not many "big cities" ahead. For example: Sign for France
When you're close to the border you might not want to
cross it inadvertently (for example, until a few months ago, I could
drive a 125cc motorbike in Spain but not in ...
22
Don't sleep in your car in cities and suburbs in California. Most have local laws covering this, and I wouldn't consider it safe, especially in a new-looking car.
Consider getting out of the cities (which can be very unfriendly places) to smaller towns and more countryside. There can often be free camping spots in parks.
One resource for free camping is ...
21
The mythical, even mystical, route I think of, is not by car but by foot. It is not even a single route but a network of paths from everywhere in Europe to a single place: This is the Way of St. James.
I never heard of something close to Route 66 in Europe. Though car has an essential role in today's Europe, its history is relatively young. Famous paths are ...
21
As I said in chat, I have been living in Tiruvannamalai for the last four years and have traveled to Bangalore by road several times. However, I haven't done it since 2013. Back then, the road was absolutely horrible, because there was a lot of construction going on. However, it seems to have gotten much better now.
To get some up-to-date information on ...
21
Unlike some European countries where one is expected to hike through what look like fenced private property, the U.S. is generally more like New Zealand: private property is usually marked, often quite clearly.
"No Trespassing" signs are quite common in U.S. rural areas, and often redundant. Fences almost always indicate to humans Do Not Pass because this ...
20
(The last paragraph is the TL;DR version...)
I have bought a car in the US as a tourist four times, but twenty years ago.
The first time I was only there four six weeks but I expected to go to all kinds of odd places at odd times so never considered doing it another way given the country's bad reputation for public transport.
As pointed out in another ...
20
I did the similar trip this year, starting in Worms, Germany with Zurich stopover and finishing in Milan, Italy. I've decided to pay for the vignette for two reasons:
to avoid any fines if I accidentally enter toll road and get caught
to travel faster between interesting areas
When travelling through Germany, I remember views from highways to be really ...
20
It is totally possible to cross Switzerland without a vignette and avoiding motorways and expressways, as @jcaron mentioned. Swiss highways are indicated by green signs and are usually easy to spot. Ramps are clearly labeled before the approach. If you pay a little bit of attention you will easily be able to avoid them.
Specifically the toll roads you want ...
19
There exists plenty, even if they are way common than in old times.
Scope of road signs is not always the same, but generally they should help you move to a destination and at the same time give you a general sense of your position. And you, as a driver, back in the days, had no GPS, few highways, and was traveling by landmarks.
In this case, for example:
...
18
I'll answer your first two questions:
Technically, the road can be done with a normal car, but practically it can't. Too many bad patches, particularly between southern Egypt and northern Kenya or Uganda.
That same stretch is also the most insecure. People are kidnapped, robbed and murdered on that stretch, though plenty, particularly locals, do travel the ...
18
Unfortunately no, according to Wikitravel.
There is no road or rail system. The easiest way to get around
Greenland is by plane, particularly Air Greenland. In the summer,
Arctic Umiaq Line passenger ships provide service to destinations
between Narsarsuaq and Uummannaq along the west coast.
Of course, if you got a skidoo or dog sled, you could ...
18
I've found (anecdotally) that initially in London, the walking times were way too slow - I was beating the times regularly.
Then I moved to Vancouver and found them too fast. I'm a quick walker, so wasn't sure what was happening.
I eventually figured it was down to knowledge. I 'knew' London far better, and even though I might be using a map, I could ...
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