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Welcome to our UK travel forum where you can get advice on everything from holidays to exotic destinations, to tips on London travel.

Welcome to our UK travel forum where you can get advice on everything from holidays to exotic destinations, to tips on London travel.

UK travel

Scary Dorset holiday relieved I'm home

20 replies

Molly333 · 25/08/2016 23:05

Hi this may sound pathetic but I've just got back from a holiday with my two children and me in Dorset ( Lyme Regis) and was scared witless ! The reason being was the journey . The hills and roads . It started when I met many diversions when just past Yeovil on the way in and as a result had to drive many windy roads up and down hills some with sheer drops !!!!! Utterly hidious and not a place I will ever visit again , I've never been so scared

OP posts:

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Stylingwax · 25/08/2016 23:06

IsItMeOr · 25/08/2016 23:08

I love Dorset, but it sounds like you need to stick to more urban holidays as a nervous driver.

PurpleDaisies · 25/08/2016 23:09

If you're not used to those sort of roads they can be scary. Growing up in rural Wales and learning to drive in them was a big bonus for me! The good news is the more you're on country lanes the less intimidating they get. I hope it didn't ruin your holiday too much.

Molly333 · 25/08/2016 23:15

Guess I'm just not used to it it. It's pretty flat where I am and I should hv considered the terrain but defo anxiety provoking to a score of 10 at times !

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PurpleDaisies · 25/08/2016 23:18

The main thing is you managed it. It won't be as bad if you have to do it again. Many people feel a bit like that driving on motorways.

Molly333 · 25/08/2016 23:45

Thanks folks for being understanding I felt like a total wreck

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Glittermud · 25/08/2016 23:47

I felt the same in cornwall a week ago. I love somewhere v flat and v rarely have to do hill starts so was stalling all over the place. V humiliating. And the endless single track roads were terrible.

I've never been so happy to see a motorway...

Glittermud · 25/08/2016 23:48

*live not 'love'.

megletthesecond · 25/08/2016 23:51

They do take practice. My advanced driving teacher took me on lots of wiggly country roads so I'm ok these days.

At least you did it. Bit of bonus driving experience under your belt, they won't be so daunting next time.

PurpleDaisies · 25/08/2016 23:55

Honestly, it does get better. I almost had panic attacks after I nearly fainted at 70mph through illness and I just couldn't drive past where it happened. CBT really helped.

It sounds like you're being really hard on yourself. You didn't enjoy the driving but you did it. That's a huge achievement.

LordTrash · 25/08/2016 23:57

I live in Dorset and I find Lyme stressful to drive through. Try the east of the county before you abandon us altogether though. Totally different and much flatter.

MaybeDoctor · 26/08/2016 08:05

I began driving in London, with one of my first regular routes being the Hammersmith and Chiswick roundabouts, then the A4. The Hangar Lane Gyratory was no problem, but then I went to a rural area for a few days and was really nervous about driving on country lanes at night. So it is just a matter of what you are used to.

user1472122946 · 26/08/2016 08:11

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

EBearhug · 26/08/2016 08:28

Lyme wasn't designed for car driving. It does depend what you're used to, though. I remember taking a friend home (to central Dorset) and we did a tour of West Dorset. He commented that he wasn't sure he'd like driving round those roads - I hadn't thought anything of it. Driving in central Birmingham was a lot scarier for me, and that's after I'd had a lot of motorway and big town practice.

NicknameUsed · 26/08/2016 21:52

They aren't that bad. I live in a rural area in South Yorkshire where narrow windy roads are the norm. The roads that make me nervous are the Devon and Cornish lanes with the high "hedges" which are really solid banks covered in vegetation.

EBearhug · 26/08/2016 23:22

The roads that make me nervous are the Devon and Cornish lanes with the high "hedges" which are really solid banks covered in vegetation.

That's what west Dorset's like, too.

(My father never quite forgave my mother for writing off the convertible he had before they married on those roads, too.)

blueskyinmarch · 26/08/2016 23:29

It depends what you are used to. My DD1 was travelling today from London to the Lakes by car. She and her friends shared the driving. She opted to do the section off the motorway through the little roads and hills as that is what she was used to when she learned to drive in rural Scotland. That is less scary to her than the motorway or town driving.

NicknameUsed · 27/08/2016 09:57

We had a holiday in West Dorset a few years ago and didn't find the lanes as bad as the Devon and Cornwall ones.

Molly333 · 27/08/2016 10:59

Devon and Cornwall are now out then , defo got me scared 😭

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NicknameUsed · 27/08/2016 15:28

I am currently on holiday in a very rural part of Cheshire and there are some very narrow windy lanes with high hedges.

I have been gingerly driving around at about 30 mph, but most of the other drivers have been driving way too fast for the roads.

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