St Helena Driving Advice and Car Hire Info
St Helena drives on the left and, according to the St Helena government website, you can use your own licence to drive here providing you have no endorsements for dangerous or drunken driving in the previous 5 years. Speed limits are 30MPH on most roads with some 20MPH limits in Jamestown and Half Tree Hollow.
Saint Helena is one of the most isolated places in the world, located in the South Atlantic Ocean more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) from the nearest major landmass. The island is associated with two other isolated islands in southern Atlantic, also British territories — Ascension Island about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) to the northwest and Tristan da Cunha, 2,430 kilometres (1,510 mi) to the south.. Around 4000 people live on the Island, most in Jamestown and the other main settlements of St Pauls,Half Tree Hollow, and Longwood.
Saint Helena is a small island (16km x 8km) with around 140 kilometres of roads, 95% of which are paved and in generally good condition. There are around 3000 vehicles on the island. All roads head inland from Jamestown, there is no coastal road around the island. The terrain is hilly, and an important road rule here is that cars ascending a hill must give way to a descending vehicle. That may mean reversing a long distance to a passing place on a winding road, so if you aren’t confident about your reversing skills, you may want to practice before driving here! Driving style is generally slow and laid back, with drivers abiding by road rules.
There are a couple of rental companies in Jamestown and the Tourist office in town can help arrange cars. These are small operations with a couple of cars each so will get booked up quickly especially at holiday times. You can contact the tourist office by email on –
enquiries@tourism.gov.sh
If you are a local car rental company on St.Helena who would like to feature on DriverAbroad.com please check details on our Partnering page or contact us on ADriverAbroad@Outlook.com
Although I try and keep the information in the site updated as much as possible, in a rapidly moving world, situations can change daily. Therefore please use the site as an approximate guide, and in conjunction with other resources in order to form your view on driving conditions, roads, safety etc.
