Places abroad suitable for self-driving travel

1. The West Coast of the United States - classic and shocking natural scenery

Reason for recommendation

Generally, when traveling to the United States, people will be confused about the east and west of the United States, but if you drive by yourself, it is better to Choose America and the West properly. Moreover, the West Coast is also known as a paradise for self-drivers! Especially California's Route 1, which has appeared in various movie advertisements, from pristine natural seascapes to charming towns, from attractive aquariums to face-to-face viewing of lazy and cute elephant sea lions.

Starting from San Francisco, we first arrived at the small town of Monterey. Along the Monterey Bay, we arrived at the world-famous Monterey Aquarium. The Monterey Aquarium is one of the more famous aquariums in the United States. This is the filming location for many well-known movies. Jellyfish and manta rays are must-see marine life when visiting the Monterey Aquarium. Especially families with children must stop and see it when traveling by car.

After seeing the wonderful marine life, passing through 17 Mile Bay, we arrived at the famous Bixby-Big Sur section. The Bixby Bridge is the location for many car brands to shoot advertisements, and it is also considered one of the most beautiful bridges in the United States. I believe many friends have often seen it in advertisements and movies. The bridge's majestic grandeur and scenic coastline have made it another prominent landmark of California.

The next stop in the town of Monterey is the town of Carmel. Continue walking for about half an hour and you will arrive at the town of Carmel. It has been rated by the world-famous and authoritative travel magazine "Conde Nast Traveler" It is one of the top ten tourist destinations in the United States. The famous Chinese painter Zhang Daqian once bought a house called "Livable" here, and Clint Eastwood was the mayor here. It is super suitable for city people who want to escape the real world.

On the way to the Danish town, be sure to see the cute elephant seals basking in the sun! When you drive to Elephant Seal Beach, you must stop the car to see these lazy guys. The dense elephant seals are lying on the beach and basking in the sun. They are so cute. It is said that they breed here every year from December to February of the following year, which is why you see so many elephant seals here. Some male elephant seals even make a clanging sound, which is so fierce and fierce. ~

After watching the cute elephant seals, on the way from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, we passed Santa Monica, the end point of Highway 1 and Highway 66. The seascape here is loved by major Hollywood directors, and the well-known "Forrest Gump" was filmed here. The Santa Monica Pier on the beach extends into the sea, and there is an amusement park above it with a Ferris wheel, roller coaster and other facilities. If you have enough time, you can have a good time here.

Self-driving guide

Recommended route: San Francisco → Redmond → 17 Mile Bay → Bixby Bridge → Carmel Town → Elephant Seal Beach → Denmark Village → Santa Barbara Bara→

Recommended time: Self-driving route on Highway 1 will be very busy if you take 2 days. It is recommended to spend 3 days to visit.

Of course, if you have enough time and feel that just driving Route 1 is not enough fun. So here we recommend that you take the Great Western American Route from San Francisco → Los Angeles → Las Vegas → Salt Lake City. The recommended time is 10-20 days. This route can explore the natural customs of the Western United States more deeply.

2. New Zealand’s South Island—Take your children to the world’s last pure land for summer vacation

Reasons for recommendation

As the world’s last pure land, New Zealand is an amazing place. The country of longing. New Zealand is divided into North and South Islands. The North Island is dominated by urban scenery, while the South Island has more charming natural scenery. In self-driving travel in New Zealand, the South Island is the focus, with coastal scenery, fjords, mountains, glaciers, lakes, starry skies... New Zealand's South Island has more land, fewer people, and better scenery. It is more suitable for self-driving travel than group tours.

Depart from Christchurch in the morning and drive to Lake Tekapo, which takes about 3 hours. After arriving at Lake Tekapo, you can stop by the Shepherd's Church to take pictures. If you have time in the evening, you can go to Mount John Observatory for stargazing. After stargazing, it is recommended to stay in the small town of Lake Tekapo. If you are driving an RV, staying next to Lake Tekapo is also a different experience.

If you are driving in an RV, you can stay at the beautiful Lake Tekapo the night before! In the morning, choose to take a helicopter from Tekapo to visit Mount Cook, Fox, and Joseph Glacier. The sightseeing time is about 40 minutes.

After visiting the glacier, drive to Queenstown in the afternoon. When passing through Wanaka on the way, you can stop to take some photos of Lake Wanaka and a tree, an internet celebrity attraction! Finally arrive in Queenstown and stay overnight.

Queenstown has a lot of fun activities. I recommend that you spend 2 days to have fun. On the first day in Queenstown, you can take the TSS retro steamboat to cruise Lake Wakatipu and the alpine pastures. After watching the sheepdogs herding sheep, you can go back to the boat for lunch. In the evening, you can take the sky cable car to enjoy the night view of Queenstown and go to the mountaintop restaurant. Have a seafood dinner.

There are two suggestions for how to play on the second day in Queenstown. Friends who don’t like adventurous activities can visit Queenstown and experience the local scenery. Friends who like adventure can try skydiving and skydiving in Queenstown. Bungy jumping from Kawarau Bridge!

After two days of fun in Queenstown, we started our return trip to Dunedin, a small literary city. We arrived in Dunedin after about 3 and a half hours of driving.

Because Dunedin’s attractions are relatively concentrated, you can walk to Dunedin Railway Station → Baldwin Street, the world’s most famous online attraction → Cadbury Chocolate Factory → Octagon Square to see it. It is recommended to stay in Dunedin for this day.

Stay one night in Dunedin, which is full of cultural atmosphere, and go to Larnach Castle at the highest point of the Otago Peninsula the next morning for sightseeing. After visiting the castle, drive to World Steampunk in the afternoon On the way to Oamaru, the capital, we pass by the Moeraki Boulder Beach, rated by CNN as one of the top ten most romantic proposal locations in the world.

After visiting Oamaru, we officially started to return to Christchurch. After arriving in Christchurch, we rested for one night. The next day we went to Kaikoura and took a catamaran to Kaikoura for a sea cruise. If we were lucky, we could still See marine animals such as sperm whales, Hector's dolphins, fur seals and some pelagic birds up close.

Self-driving guide

Recommended route: Christchurch → Lake Tekapo → Mount Cook → Fox Glacier → Wanaka → Queenstown → Dunedin → Oamaru → Christ City→Kaikoura.

Recommended time: This is a round-the-island route on the South Island, because if you want to experience the beauty of every scenic spot while walking the entire round-the-island route, it will take more than 9 days. If you want to go to Auckland, the North Island after visiting the South Island, then you won’t be able to go there without Twelve Three.

This route can basically go around the South Island, entering Christchurch and exiting Queenstown. It can not only visit some classic attractions, but also visit the small cultural towns on the Eastern Line of Glacier on the Cassia Line.

3. Australia's Great Ocean Road - crossing the blue three-dimensional seascape

Reason for recommendation

Travel enthusiasts have included it in the list of places they must visit in life. This driving road, built between cliffs and the azure sea, winds through pristine wind-eroded beaches, picturesque towns, historic gold mining areas and magnificent mountains, rainforests and national parks. Known as "the most beautiful coastal road in the world", it attracts countless self-driving enthusiasts with its stunning coastal scenery.

Departing from Melbourne, we arrived at Geelong, the starting point of the Great Ocean Road. As the second largest city in Victoria, Geelong is surprisingly quiet. The cultural environment in the town is very good, and passers-by will smile and say hello. However, the town is more famous for the scattered puppets on the seaside road. It is said that each puppet has its own story~

Continue driving and arrive at Lorne, which is half forest and half ocean. In addition to sunny beaches here. There are kangaroos jumping around outside the forest waterfall~

The crescent-shaped Apollo Bay, with the Otway Mountains behind it, wide white beaches, and quiet scenery blown by the sea breeze. Apollo Bay also has a special surprise: in Apollo's Great Otway Forest Park, cute koalas will appear at any time.

When you are tired of walking around the Great Otway Forest Park, you might as well go and sit by the Cape Otway Lighthouse on the seaside and enjoy the sea breeze and chat together. It is a very old lighthouse in the Australian Outback. The tower not only has a cafe, an art gallery, but also wandering actors and a lighthouse watchman's cabin.

The Twelve Apostles are one of the most beautiful scenery on the Great Ocean Road. The huge rock was carved by the force of nature to resemble twelve human faces with different expressions. It was once known as the 10 "must travel in life" One of the most beautiful sights in the world, there are only seven of the Twelve Apostles left in the past. In the future, all these faces may disappear, so when you come to Melbourne, this is also one of the attractions that cannot be missed.

The Twelve Apostles are located about 220 kilometers southwest of Melbourne and are a famous landmark on Australia's Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road is known as "the most scenic coastal road in the world". It is close to the southern coast of Victoria and is about 320 kilometers long. It was built by the Australian government for the soldiers who died in World War I. The Twelve Apostles are located on the coastline of Port Campbell National Park on the Great Ocean Road. They are 12 rock cliffs that are gradually formed by the weathering of seawater from tens of millions of years of limestone, sandstone and fossils. The independent rocks standing in the blue ocean have different shapes. Because their number and shape resemble the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, they are nicknamed "Twelve Apostles Rocks".

After driving past the Twelve Apostles, you can go to the nearby Lock Ard Canyon. Loch Ard Gorge is a famous internet celebrity check-in spot on the Great Ocean Road self-driving road. It looks like a piece of jade from a distance. There are 3 entrances here. The more beautiful entrance on the left offers a panoramic view of the entire bay, and the grass next to it is also very beautiful, and the photos are super beautiful.

The end of this Great Ocean Road is Warrnambool. Because few people arrive, there are often few people on the beach at the end. Warrnambool is a travel retreat for those who are tired of the noise and rush. Of course, if you feel that this stop-and-go trip is not enough in the end, you can consider going whale watching and watching them dance their tails on the sea~

Self-driving guide

Recommended route: Melbourne → Geelong → Lorne → Apollo Bay → Otway Lighthouse → Twelve Apostles → Loch Ard Gorge → London Bridge → Warrnambool → Geelong → Melbourne.

Recommended time: This Great Ocean Road self-driving route is best visited in three days. On the one hand, there is plenty of time; on the other hand, because the different scenery in the three days forms a strong contrast, you can get different surprises during the journey every day.

October to May of the following year is the best time to travel to Australia. When driving the Great Ocean Road, the weather is very important. It is super beautiful to drive when you have blue sky, blue sea, red sun and sunset.

4. Canada - the place where TikTok has 10 likes Niagara Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, has received 1 million+ likes on Douyin! But what I want to talk about today is not Niagara Falls, but the stunning Canadian glaciers and snowfields. Banff National Park, ranked No. 1 among Canadian national parks, and Jasper National Park, which encompasses lakes, canyons, ice fields, and wild animals. garden.

Recommended route: Vancouver → Whistler → Kamloops → Jasper → Columbia Glacier → Banff National Park → Calgary.

Recommended time: It is recommended to spend about 5 days on this self-driving route.

You can experience glaciers, snowfields, lakes, and encounter various wild animals along the way. Moreover, it is very convenient to rent a car in Vancouver. There are many RV campsites along this route, which is very convenient, so it is recommended for self-driving friends to book an RV.

5. Zambia - Shuttle around wild animals

Reason for recommendation

With the popularity of the variety show "Adventures in Life", Zambia has also become an Internet attraction. red. When driving in Zambia, you can experience for the first time what it means to shuttle around wild animals during the day and pitch a tent under the stars at night. Zambia is the most sparsely populated country in Africa. Straight roads pass through patches of wild forests and grasslands and lead straight to the sky. It’s perfect to have a self-driving adventure here. And there will be an additional experience. When driving on this road, you will often encounter various wild animals, which are "full of game" but the experience is unique~

Self-driving Guide

Recommended route: Lusaka → South Luangwa National Park → Lusaka, the whole city is about 700 kilometers.

Let me start by saying quietly that the transportation to Zambia is very developed, so there is basically no need to worry too much about getting there. Secondly, friends who are planning to drive to Zambia must note that it is recommended to choose green or light brown clothing when traveling. Zambia is also an area with a high incidence of malaria. You must take precautions against mosquitoes after traveling. If symptoms such as chills, fever, and sweating occur, it is recommended to check and diagnose as soon as possible and receive timely treatment.

!*Things you must know about driver’s licenses in various countries*!

United States: Since each state in the United States can formulate its own relevant laws, each state has different regulations on self-driving. For example, New Jersey only recognizes international driver's licenses; however, western states such as Nevada and California allow Chinese travelers to use a Chinese driver's license + notarized document + translation, etc. for car rental and self-driving, and require that the above documents must be carried with them during the journey. Although most states in the United States can use Chinese driver's licenses, there are some states that do not recognize Chinese driver's licenses, such as Ohio, New Jersey, Texas, etc.

Australia: In Australia, Chinese travelers only need to carry their valid Chinese driver's license, notarized translation and passport with them when driving by themselves. In addition, the type of vehicle driven by the traveler must correspond to that listed on the Chinese driver's license. The maximum validity period for self-driving in the Northern Territory with a Chinese driver's license and its notarized translation shall not exceed 3 months. In other states, the validity period of a Chinese driver's license is the same as the validity period of the visa/driver's license.

New Zealand: In New Zealand, Chinese travelers can drive legally with a valid Chinese driver's license (original driver's license and valid English translation) or an international driver's license, which is valid for up to 12 months. When traveling to New Zealand for self-driving, you need to bring the original and translated copy of your driver's license.

Canada: Canadian provinces have different regulations regarding self-driving for foreign tourists. In principle, Chinese travelers can drive with a valid Chinese driver’s license and a valid translation. However, different provinces have different opinions on whether notarization is required. , it is recommended that everyone should apply for a notarization. Remember to carry your passport, original driver's license, translation and notarized documents with you when traveling. In most areas, they are valid for 3 months.

Iceland: In Iceland, the legal driving age is 20 years old, and the driving age limit is stipulated by the car dealer. Most of them require one year of driving experience. Because the road conditions in Iceland are complicated, it is highly not recommended that you insist on driving by yourself if you have little driving experience. Using an international driver's license and a European and American driver's license can be used directly in Iceland. You can rent a car with your Chinese driver's license and its translation, but if you encounter the police checking the car, you need to show the official translation and notarization.