When my car was in the shop, I once had an old 60-ish Hillman Minx as a loaner. The ones they exported to Canada, for LHD, they simply mounted the gearbox backwards, with as ittle retooling as possible. So the column change was the reverse of what was expected – low gear was down and toward the floor, drive was up and toward the wheel. Exactly the reverse of the standard LHD configuration for gear shift.
When we went to Bermuda and rented mopeds, we just kept reciting a manta in our heads- keep left. Worked like a charm. (Note you cannot rent cars in Bermuda so the steering wheel being on the “wrong side” was a non-issue.)
It really is far less daunting than you might imagine and perversely, the busier the roads the less of an issue it is because you take your cues from the other traffic.
I’ve driven LHD and RHD, manual and auto on both sides of the road (not in the same country obviously) and other than forgetting which door to get it, no real problems and I am far from the world’s greatest driver.
Specifically for the UK, yes we do have fast narrow roads in some places but the standard of driving really is very high. We like to moan but we have very safe roads in general and on the whole, foreign drivers should find other road users pretty accommodating and forgiving.
I must be a far worse driver than anyone in the thread because I rented a car in the Cayman Islands and nearly killed 43 people.
The multi-lane turns were the most difficult part for me. Your instincts keep telling you to go right, but you have to go left. Having a shrieking passenger was definitely a benefit. 
Was that *you *trying to go the wrong way around the roundabout!?
As one of the residents of our fair little island let me emphasize that our notoriously expensive taxis are still worth it for some of our visitors.
Next time you are coming our way send me a message. Consider it fair warning.
I was nervous about driving in Japan the first time, but it ultimately wasn’t very difficult to adapt. As other have mentioned, turning through intersections (especially big ones) could be momentarily disorienting. I honestly had more fumbles when I came back to America and tried to switch back to the right side of the road.
One thing that I haven’t been able to fix, despite living in Japan for a few decades, is talking about turns. A turn across an oncoming lane will always be a “left turn” for me, while a turn toward the near side will always be a “right turn”. Even though I handle them with no problem on the road, I keep making mistakes when describing how to turn.
It was very easy for me; however, there are two things you should understand about me to know why it was easy:
- I’m a dancer, so I have excellent relative spatial skills.
- I don’t know my right from my left verbally. Point in a direction and I’m fine, tell me to go left and I have to think about it… long and hard.
When I was driving in England, I didn’t even have to really think about which side of the road to drive on. Before I started, I pointed out to myself mentally that the driver is always closer to the center of the road, and shotgun is always closer to the curb. It holds true on roundabouts as well (point the car so that center of the roundabout is closer to the driver).
I had two main problems - when I had to shift quickly, I grabbed the wrong way and tried to shift with the window knob. Also, I had a real problem at the approximately 3 stop signs I stopped at - remembering that if I was turning right I was going to cross traffic. Maybe if I had added to my mental mapping that turning toward my passenger I wouldn’t cross traffic, but turning toward the driver side I would be crossing traffic?
I drove when I went to England with Mom. At one point I got a mild cold, and we decided to let Mom drive for a while so I could rest. After she drove us almost into a ditch, then nearly hit two or three cars in the next town, we decided that it would be easier on me to continue with the driving.