Speed limits are a bit of a shock if the country where you live effectively doesn't have them! Modern cars in Britain now alert you so you should be able to avoid fines but the alerts themselves get a bit annoying. The locals know the limits by heart but if you're driving in areas you're not familiar with you tend to be stuck looking too much at the display rather than where you're going.
Hiring a vehicle is expensive if you holiday in an unfamiliar area and don't know where you can get a good deal as an overseas visitor. When hiring last year I was the target of a hard sell on extra insurance to avoid paying something around another 50% to avoid having certain damage in two areas. A highly exaggerated risk and I resisted but all the time it's on your mind. Especially in some narrow lanes in country areas.
Next time we will manage only with buses and trains for the longer journeys. It's well worth buying advance train tickets if you can. They get you directly to city centres, unlike park and rides.

Just take out zero excess insurance before you leave for your holiday. Its relatively expensive

[QUOTE=Justcol;13336792]Just take out zero excess insurance before you leave for your holiday. Its relatively expensive.

That's a good suggestion for some. I've never even considered taking out any travel insurance when visiting Britain.
We're planning another trip next year and for a number of reasons won't be hiring a car again. Being in my 70s I found it all a bit too stressful last year driving in areas I hadn't been in for years. Places were further away than I thought, many roundabouts, more traffic, cars travelling at the maximum limit, more speed limits, some roads in country villages having double parked vehicles, the car was 2025 so much more electronic than the much older car we have in the Philippines. The navigation app, which sometimes led you on to narrow country roads unsuitable for visitors.
There were some big advantages from having a car, given the places we stayed in and wanted to visit, but as the trip progressed we got to know and use the buses and enjoyed them more.
To cap it all on return I waited in vain for my deposit refund, then when I asked the car hire company they insisted they had sent it, showed me paperwork, which they said "proved" it. After more fruitless phone calls suggesting they double check that, I went to my bank, explained all, they looked into it with Visa and I got the deposit refund after 5 days.
So all in all next time it will be on the buses and trains for us to have a more relaxing time.. Visiting areas in N England and Scotland not as isolated as the places last year. Some sacrifice not being able to go to some places and more luggage movement required, but about the same cost, as buying advance rail tickets where possible.

When you left in 2006 the UK population was about 60 million. Currently it is estimated that the current population is 68 million.

I was back 3 years ago and enjoyed it apart from the usual 25 out of 28 days it rained somewhat but my fault for going back to the North West in March

I drove into the Manchester area a couple of times as I flew into Manchester via Heathrow. I don’t think my cousin was impressed at paying 5 quid just for pick up and drop off at the airport.

Old Trafford is still there but I took a different route in than I used to due to the building of the Trafford Centre and other things.

Love the winding narrow B roads until of course mmm who should be reversing here as 2 x Suv’s won’t fit past each other.

Couple of times got caught up in several mile tail backs on the M6, M61 etc due to accident or construction. Longest wait was just under an hour.

Countryside beautiful on sunny days but local high streets dependent which ones you visit are either thriving or full of betting shops, Turkish barbers, nail salons, vape stores and charity shops.

Lunch deals at the local chippy then were 5 quid and the average no deal was about 8 quid.

I think they are still standing up dead people in the bus shelters in Morecambe to make the place look populated.

As much as I hate to say it Yorkshire has some positives when driving around.

Some things I recognized and other stuff I did not. The place has changed some good and some not so good.

Just go with the flow and enjoy it.

[QUOTE=Raffin;13337099] Don't you take out travel insurance for medical coverage? You are not covered by the NHS if you don't live in the UK. Being in your 70's I would think its a good idea.....

Just came here to post about this because a Kiwi friend who has dual nationality has just come up against this.
The price quoted seems a lot more than UK based renewal for UK citizen.
I will now go and search to see if I can find out why this change has been made.

Forbes explainer

Looks suspiciously as if this is all down to new software.

[QUOTE=SanDiegogirl;13337188] Well I always used to travelling abroad when UK resident but it somehow slipped my mind when resident abroad. Have done a few trips, a couple with a few others. No issues. But I see the NHS charge 150% of the cost so, thanks, you make a good suggestion. Particularly due to advancing age. Probably medical only for the wife and I.

Bit of a late reply to benefit the OP I suspect, but we've recently had a trip back to the motherland and have been pleasantly surprised. You'd imagine a hellhole of knife crime and immigrant gangs roaming the streets if you believed the news, and our experience was anything but.
Travel was done via China on China Southern - we had a couple of connections in regional cities, so it wasn't the most direct route, but it was $1300 pp return which I thought was excellent bang for the buck considering the service was brilliant.
Despite the dismal Kiwi dollar, we found the prices to be pretty reasonable - particularly if you like shopping at Aldi and can avoid the temptations of the middle aisle. We were also been able to enjoy a good few bargain meals out courtesy of 'Spoons!
Car hire is ludicrous - although strangely it's dirt cheap on the continent, where we scored rentals for under £3 a day - but public transport, particularly on long distance coaches and in London, is excellent value.Trains tickets are a complete lottery in terms of price. Speed cameras have popped up everywhere - particularly on the motorways where they are on every second gantry - although I think it has slowed the average driver down compared to what I remember (has been a while though!).
Speaking of London, it was a revelation. I've never really enjoyed it as a city, but this time - possibly with having kids - the accessibility, cheap mass transit and huge number of free events have made Auckland look like the dark ages. We saw nothing close to crime and certainly feel safer than you would in South or Central Auckland at night. Yes, it isn't the friendliest place going, but that's a big city I guess, and if that's what you're after, the people in regional towns and villages are every bit as welcoming and definitely more gregarious than Kiwis. Although there's no denying that if you're going back to said regional towns looking for the UK of the 90's and not a high street full of Turkish Barbers and Gregg's, you're going to be sadly disappointed.
Coming with kids, the thing that's really struck us is how far Kiwi kids are behind the UK in education. Our oldest has been marked as above average for years in NZ, but it's clear that in core subjects they are at least a year behind their peers in the UK and have a much narrower view of the world. Schooling seems to offer a lot more by way of extra-curricular activities too, which is more usually done through a club structure in NZ.
Regarding health insurance, it is a must when travelling. NZ and the UK have a reciprocal healthcare agreement - which we tested after an accident that required a child being put in plaster - but I wouldn't be confident about illness or chronic conditions being covered.
The big downer for us was being reminded what a UK winter is like. We need a regular dose of sunshine and the near permanent cloud and rain would make coming back a deal breaker for us. It's a real shame as from our experience, given the way NZ has gone over the last few years, the UK would be a better alternative for us at this point in time.

Although saying that, it's always going to feel that way when you come from summer to winter and it's been very wet everywhere in Europe recently, even Portugal and parts of Spain.

We have friends who moved back to Isle of Wight 3 years ago and they went to NZ last year June and said the exact same that it rained every day and very grey. Of course down to location, but over the year they get nearly the same amounts of sunshine as Auckland.

There are other parts of the UK that might be grey in winter but they at least get a lot less rainfall and not so windy as parts of NZ and of course cheap travel within Europe always an option.
I'm still in the West of Ireland and the grey or rain is not the problem for me in winter, the bigger issue is the wind and it's nearly like Wellington now and has definitely increased the last few years.

I love the Isle of Wight - have considered a move there before but the work and schooling opportunities weren't that flash for us. It's a beautiful part of the world though and maybe something for later in life. It's true that NZ is bloody wet in winter, but it's rare that you go more than a few days without seeing some decent sun (in Auckland anyway). I couldn't deal with the wind down in Welly!
We'll probably seriously look at the UK again once the kids are out of school - if we could spend summer in the UK and winter somewhere bit brighter then that could be a great lifestyle choice. It was a really pleasant surprise coming back and finding that the UK still had some cool opportunities for us.

Yes, I agree in terms of work probably not ideal and of course not cheap either based on local wages. Of course the UK has it's problems, but that can be said about any country now.

There are still some great spots across the UK and like everywhere down to personal preferences. It's definitely something we could imagine later on and spending spring/summer in Ireland and then autumn/winter in Spain would certainly be an option.

The older I get, the more I feel there are some places in the UK that seem to tick a lot of boxes. Not in terms of weather or economy, but Pembrokeshire looks like it has a lot on offer. For example Saundersfoot for a relaxed lifestyle but still busy enough in summer.

I'd be interested to know who you used for car hire. I'm going back to France and Blighty in May for a quick visit, but am heading to the continent for a month in October and am looking for a car for a couple of weeks.

Shopped around a few of the price comparison engines, but found that Skyscanner was reliably the cheapest if you don't mind using local car hire companies over the big players. If you're wanting to get the full insurance cover then make sure you look into the quotes on Skyscanner rather than just taking the one that has the cheapest daily hire rate as they can vary wildly.
If you are using the small hire companies and decide to book your insurance with them directly, make sure you check the car before signing up. We got one in Italy where every - and I mean every - panel on it was scratched or dented on collection. Short of a head on crash with an artic, it would have been impossible for them to tell if any more damage had been done, so we skipped insurance and had no issues.
All the little local ones we used were excellent with great service.

Glad you had a lovely time here in the UK, the weather (yes I am going to say this even though I live in the Peak District lol) has not been good at all this winter and it is never this bad but spring is in its way the upside if is we can always grab a bargain and head to med for some winter sun which we do and it does not have to cost the earth. Enjoy being back home in NZ (a place I would love to visit and will do one day) ps our local town is nothing like other have mentioned and there are plenty of other towns like ours.

A bit off topic but I stumbled across a site on FB recently. All AI fake videos about the UK, but the majority seem to believe it's real. In this example a Muslim girl is apparently complaining there is no halal available. The doom and gloom stories have reached new levels and it's really scary that people actually believe it. When you read comments it's shocking how people are influenced.