To think you either have a sense of direction or don't?

Yeah, it's just one of those things that people seem to be naturally good or bad at. I wouldn't let it put you off driving though - you can use satnav for every journey if you want, so it's easier than trying to navigate on foot.

I agree, OP. I am great at finding my way around and remembering routes. However... I have terrible time awareness and always underestimate how long it will take to get somewhere.

DP could not find his way out of a paper bag twice in a row, but is very good at estimating what time it is and how long things will take. Our combined skills are very useful!

I agree to an extent, in the sense that I still use SatNav for a 30 min journey to a hospital I’ve been to 4 times! I know I could do it but I just put it on out of laziness.

However, when I was in the Canary Islands with my mum and we hired a car (pre smart phones), I had no choice to navigate myself (without a sat nav) and it was absolutely fine!

Our brains can do so much more than we think they’re capable of!

@DuckieDodgyHedgyPiggy that's funny, my 81 year old dad keeps saying he's not like a pigeon and it took me ages to work out what he meant 😂. His sense of direction is worse than mine. Mum was incredible with directions, and so he just used to let her take control with navigating their works. So sadly, mum passed away last year, so he's quite literally lost without her.

Sounds a bit like my late OH, after dropping someone off at Piccadilly Station in Manchester he drove to Manchester airport to get back to Bolton, he couldn't work out how to get back because of one way streets etc..

I am really poor at directions I am also quite face blind, I most definitely don't have perfect pitch.
My DD is even worse than me, she gets lost in our home town.
DH and DS are both really good and can usually find the way if they have been somewhere once.
I am not too bad at map reading, it seems that I have not much visual memory.
In a new town I use what 3 words so I can find the car again, and I take photos of distinctive buildings as I walk along so I can follow back the way I have walked.

I don't have an instinctive sense of direction. I'm 50, have driven since I was 17, I can navigate with a sat nav but it's challenging. I don't know where north is, I can't see routes in my head.
And set me off on foot with Google maps and I have literally NO idea which direction to go in, which way the route is pointing, how to follow it on screen. I do much better with audio instructions though. I'm good at other practical stuff, just directions aren't my thing.

You know how pigeons have a little magnet at the top of their beak so they can tune in to the Earth's magnetic field and know which way to go? Maybe humans have a much weaker version of this? Some so weak it's useless?!

Here’s your twin op! I walk into a shop and can’t remember whether to turn left or right when I come out! My ex husband and two dds on the other hand have a great sense of direction. Plus I now have brain fog from having high blood calcium so I’m even worse.

Oh yes, that freaks me out too. Sea should be to the south.

Have a good sense of direction and usually act as navigator when travelling. I have always loved paper maps and enjoy looking at them, working out what the place names mean and where interesting bits of history and archaeology are lurking. Hate satnavs as you don't get the big picture of what's around - we often divert to see interesting looking places or to get onto smaller roads, and you need proper maps to do this.

Having said that, there are a few places that have defeated me completely for some reason and somehow blocked my directional cues, not quite sure why.
A friend brought up on the east coast of Scotland would get lost on the west coast because 'the sea wasn't on the right side'...

While some people may find it easier than others, like most things it is a skill that you can improve with practice.

I think there's a sliding scale of people who are excellent at remembering places, clues and building up a trail to instinctively work places out, and those that don't retain any of it and struggle with any kind of direction and a lot of margin in the middle.

DS1 can not remember his left and right. If you say 🖐 is Left, he still gets confused because of his dyslexic letter reversals and can't remember which way a letter L goes. He is very visual though and remembers landmarks (down to shapes of individual trees) He's a reasonable navigator although has an awkward tendancy to describe roundabouts as compass bearings which is a stage too much processing for me to visualise a protractor while working out what lane I want to be in and looking out for signs and nutters on the road.

DS2 is great. He'll do clock face descriptions. He's less observant about landmarks, but isn't bad. I like him as a navigator.

DH has gone sloppy since sat navs. He was more observant when he had to plan with an atlas and look out for signage and landmarks.

DH knows if I'm navigating that the hand is correct. If I'm flapping my right hand saying "turn left", follow the hand and ignore the verbal instruction. Somehow it gets garbled between brain and mouth.

I'm quite good at building up mental maps and looking for landmarks. I remember journeys well. I get caught out with DH forgetting routes when he was there 10 years ago so "should" remember it I had to get to know my county quickly when I moved here as a new driver and had to find work sites with the A-Z. I find hillier counties easier than flat ones though. I don't get on with east of the A1 so well as the landscape is more monotonous and I'm less attuned to it.

Nature has a lot of clues. Moss grows more on the shaded, damp north side. Trees tend to be thicker towards the light south side. Trees in exposed places are often battered from the west prevailing wind (or coastal winds). Compass positions from the sun angle on a bright day. The former are usually more useful for walking than driving though!

I too have quite good pitch though!

I can read maps just fine, but I can't (visually) remember them. So I don't think I agree that it's down to effort and practice. I would need to have a list of very specific landmarks, descriptors etc. and that would be much harder to use on the move than satnav. I used to go for long runs in the countryside and I would plot a route on a map, but would need to then memorise details like 'at 9.25 miles there is a footpath on the left' because I wouldn't remember what it was supposed to look like. At driving speed, and especially in a slightly stressful situation, I wouldn't be able to remember this stuff. There's a motorway route I drive somewhat regularly (maybe 5 times a year) where you have to be in the right-hand two lanes, but then quite soon after cross back over into the left-hand ones. I know it's going to happen at some point in the journey but there's no way I'd remember in advance exactly where/when without google maps (or my long-suffering partner) telling me.

Good point! 😂

Sometimes I do, mostly I don't! DH does, and can't understand how I don't know instinctively - but I can't understand how he can't do basic maths!
I absolutely love Google Streetview, means I can walk around on my computer, come out of a train station and know which way to turn for the bus stop. 😊

My dad always gave me this advice. If you aren’t sure, just keep going left. After all, in a square 3 lefts equal a right. This was advice he got when he was in the Royal Corps of transport and this has never failed me. At worst you’ll end up where you started and not get more lost.

No good when you are coming out of your hotel room. Left or right for reception….

I have an excellent sense of direction. I also build up maps in my head and can fill them in without needing to drove around.

However DH has no sense of direction. If he gets lost driving, he just goes left. Every time. He will ignore me as he thinks he can figure it out despite knowing that a) he never has and b) my sense of direction is spot on.

I think I'm actually better at map reading because I don't have an innate sense of direction.

I've been in conversation with people where their sense of taking a left turn interferes with their sense of needing to head North and that left turn not matching that. I have no sense of that so recognising that the left turn is the correct turn is more straightforward to understand.

I have this, and face blindness too! I am fun at parties (if I can find them).

Strangely also perfect pitch.

Satnavs are great, though. They will literally tell you to turn left or take the third exit or whatever, and are pretty good at showing you what lane to be in. I don’t think that sense of direction should put you off driving any more.

I'm the same if there's 2 options I will always go the wrong way even following Google maps. I spent a long time looking for my car in a city I'd lived in for many years cos I couldn't visualise the street it can be very stressful!