How do you give directions to places ?

Well, I would have given more or less the same directions as you. J52!

It's different now that I have moved abroad, but it always used to work on the principal of "Keep straight on until you see the Red Lion, then take the next left. Just before you come to the White Hart, take the right fork. Go past the church and the house is on the left just past the Crown and Sceptre."

A pub crawl, when does it start?

I always wave my arms so that I don't have to distinguish left from right.

The problem I have, when driving to somewhere for the first time is remembering ' turn right by thr red van' and then someone moves the red van! x

absent that's DH's method.

I do use my arms but at the same time as saying ' carry on until you get to the mini roundabout, turn left go right at the second traffic lights pass the large Tesco.........

A bit like TomTom

With a fair degree of arm waving - and I have only a vague idea of road and junction numbers!

absent that is the method my DH uses too - most men I've come across use pubs as visual markers, wonder why that is? . I do the same sort of thing, but it's likely to be "you'll see some white gates on the left - take the next right then keep going till you reach the BP garage, then it's the second on the right...." While waving my arms around of course

No good asking me, I have absolutely no sense of direction what so ever, however, I can pinpoint landmarks for people. I always remember when we were touring Wales a long while ago, and stopped to ask directions, the only three words we understood were "The Red Lion"!

PRINTMISS It [Red Lion] is the most widely used name for a pub in the UK.

I have no sense of direction either and usually leave it up to Mr absent, who will go into immense detail, including short cuts. Meanwhile, I have a nap.

Living near Hadrian's Wall I often get asked for directions, mostly from foreign visitors who sometimes don't have a very good grasp of English. I am quite good at "turn left at the junction and follow the road all the way round until you come to the next one, then turn right, go up the hill, it's very steep, and when you get to the junction on the main road turn right. BTW these are directions to Housesteads Roman Fort from my house!

My DH is famous in our family for his short cuts, which always seem to turn into long ones. He then tries to claim he was taking the "scenic route". We never go straight from A to B. (Think he must have been a cab driver in a previous life)

Yep directions by pubs but as I don't know left from right you could be going almost anywhere.

Reminds me of a Punch cartoon many years ago of a lost motorist asking the way first of a vicar: "Left at St. Barnabas, straight over the crossroads at All Saints, and right at St. Peter's; and then of a farm labourer: "Left at the Dog and Duck, straight over the crossroads at the Fox and Hounds, and right at the King's Head."

Long distance driving requires post it notes on the dashboard. Then reversed for the journey home!

I could get a sat nav, but that would take the fun out of it!

BTW I did navigate DH & myself across N America, through several cities without a single mistake, so I can read a map.

x

I have a sat nav with an Australian accent - adds fun to the instructions, especially when being exhorted to 'tyke the sicond ixit'

What a good idea Marmight. If i ever get a sat nav I hope it has accent choices. x

A few years ago there were pictures in the paper of some of the people who recorded the sat nav instructions and an interview with each one.
Ours has a lovely voice and she said how important it was to pronounce the place names correctly. However, she completely mispronounces the name of our town!

I would like one with an Aussie accent (I could keep in practice for the next visit!) 'Turn right onto the highway then next left in about 500 kilometres eh!'

I usually know the name or number of main roads and can give straight forward directions , on minor local roads like others I would say something like go past the park on your right till you get to the letter box and take the 2nd turning on your left..go straight over the first roundabout and then turn right at the next roundabout..

OH had a robot voice on our Sat-Nav it was very funny .

As I can get lost in my own home, I usually just point people in the correct general direction and advise them to ask someone else, especially if a one-way system is involved!

DH confuses the hell out of people - not on purpose I hasten to add but he'll say things like, 'At the end of the road there's a house with a red door and a little lane down the side. Well, you don't want to go down there!'

DD has Ozzy Osbourne on her sat-nav. 'TURN THE F****NG CAR ROUND.....YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!!'

No wonder she's always getting lost.

I realised some years ago that I am quite sexist when I give directions. If it's to a man, I use pubs and road numbers (those that I can remember), but I prefer to give directions such as, turn right at the lovely white house, left at the huge horse chestnut, straight on until the church and left by the high stone wall.

When I was at uni I had to give my tutor directions to the school in which I was teaching. As usual, my directions went via pubs and he was quite shocked. He said he always gave directions by churches.

Yes, definitely used to be pubs but difficult when some close and others change their names!

Haven't got a sat nav, couldn't stand it when a friend's kept telling her to 'recalculate'!