Driving in Belgium from the UK — The Side Switch & a Lower Alcohol Limit

Two things change the moment you roll off the Eurotunnel shuttle or the Calais ferry into Belgium, and neither is the paperwork — your UK licence needs no IDP here. The first is obvious but unforgiving: Belgium drives on the right. The danger window is your first hour, when reflexes are still British — glancing the wrong way at a junction, drifting left out of a petrol-station forecourt, or taking a roundabout the familiar way. Give yourself quiet roads before you tackle anything busy, and stay deliberate at every turn until “keep right” stops feeling wrong.

The second change is the one that quietly catches people: the drink-drive limit is 0.05, not the 0.08 you live with in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. That margin you might mentally allow for “one drink” at home does not exist in Belgium, random breath tests are common, and the penalties are immediate. Treat it as zero.

Belgium also keeps a rule the UK abandoned: priorité à droite, priority to the right. On many urban streets and unmarked junctions, traffic joining from a road on your right has the right of way, even if it feels like they should yield to you. Locals exercise it confidently, so watch for cars nosing out from the right and do not assume a side road must give way. The infamous Brussels ring (R0) concentrates all of this — dense, fast, multi-lane and merciless to hesitant lane changes — so plan your exit early.

Speeds run higher than home on the open road: motorways at 120 km/h, but rural roads only 70, and towns 50 with widespread fixed and average-speed cameras. A typical minor speeding fine is around EUR 53, paid promptly. The car must carry a warning triangle, reflective vest, first-aid kit and fire extinguisher. Fuel is roughly EUR 1.90/litre, and emergencies are 112.

For the full set of rules, including low-emission zone stickers in Brussels and Antwerp, see our Belgium driving guide; check any penalty band on the speeding fine calculator, and if a camera ticket follows you home on a rental, who pays driving fines abroad explains how it gets passed back.