Who Has It Better? Off-Roading (and Overlanding) in the USA vs UK

We wrote them a nasty letter and said “we don’t want to be friends anymore.” Then we threw out their tea. And after that we kicked their butts in a war. But the score hasn't been settled completely. Now it's time to figure out who has it better when it comes to overlanding and off-roading: the United States or the United Kingdom.

For the last 18 months we lived in England and had the opportunity to explore a lot of the very different and unique trails found across the pond. One of the questions we got most commonly while we lived there was if it was better to off-road in England or back in the United States. The answer to this question is not straightforward. In fact it's a very messy answer and it really depends on your personal preferences, and in someways, your personal priorities.

Green lanes were generally pretty easy trails, with minor obstacles that the Jeep had no problem overcoming.

Off-roading in England is referred to as driving on a “green lane”. The term green lane comes from the fact that the off-road trails are marked as green lines on maps in England. These green lanes are considered legal roads and in order to drive on them your vehicle must meet all of the legal requirements for operating on any other roadway in England. In other words, no buggies or extreme off-road vehicles. The limited exception to this rule is wherever you find a private off-road park, but those are few and far between in the United Kingdom.

Green lanes also have the unique challenge of passing through privately owned land and properties. This means you could literally be driving up someone’s driveway or through their field and farm as part of your off-road experience. Come across the gate? You better leave it in the state you found it in or else the sheep might get out. Certainly a different type of atmosphere than what we're accustomed to in the United States and driving on the green lane requires a certain amount of patience and willingness to put your vehicle into park every few hundred feet to tend to the next livestock gate.

Green lanes are also a little bit more regulated than what we are accustomed to in the United States. There aren't as many resources to help you find where routes are located and the best resource out there the Green Lane Society (GLASS), which has a very unfriendly interface through which you can try and find the next route that you want to drive. I found myself regularly cursing at the GLASS website — they don’t permit you to download trail routes as .gpx files to put into a mapping application, their system doesn’t allow you to do real-time route planning, and the maps only work when you have good cell signal (which you almost never had). I spent hours transposing their data into other apps, and it was an incredibly frustrating endeavor, especially considering I PAID an annual membership fee to have access to their resources. I cannot believe Brits put up with that terrible system…. (sorry y’all)

Resources for finding green lanes were more limited, with only one website offering any decent data. Unfortunately, their mapping system was archaic and frustrating to use.

Laws in the United Kingdom also prohibit wild camping anywhere except for in Scotland. In other words, if you've had a lovely day on the trail and then want to set up camp in a remote spot, you cannot legally do so as camping in England is limited to within campground only.

Although there are plenty of trails available in the United Kingdom, they are not as long as many of the ones we find in the United States. The average lane we drove was only a few miles long, making the notion of airing up/down every 2-5 miles rather tedious. Contrast that to the United States, where you can literally drive across the country on a long trail.

Green lanes are often much shorter than the off-road trails in the United States.

So I've offered a bunch of reasons why camping and green lane driving in the United Kingdom is not as good as it is in the United States. But are there any areas where the monarchs have it better than the colonists? The answer is certainly yes! Because of the additional regulations and since green lane information is harder to find in the United Kingdom, I found that there were fewer hooligans hitting the trails. Fewer wild hooligans means fewer shenanigans. Routes were cleaner. There was less (or no) trash left behind. People were more courteous, prepared, and professional. Drivers were more cognizant of staying on the trail and avoiding the routes when it was too wet, resulting in less damage to the ecosystem from our vehicles.

Green lanes often went through private property, so you had to frequently exit the vehicle and open / close livestock control gates.

Obviously the United States is much larger and we have more land and therefore more unique ecosystems. While I really enjoyed some facets of off-roading in the United Kingdom, specifically how clean and well-maintained trails were, I did find myself missing the variety of routes that we have here in the United States. I also found that I missed the opportunity to camp after a nice day on the trails. Likewise, off-roading in the United States is a great way to explore and access an interesting vantage point that I might not otherwise be able to access.

Primitive camping isn’t allowed in the United Kingdom, except for in Scotland. All camping must be done in a campground.

Apologies England. While I enjoyed being able to explore your trails and offerings, I’m glad to be back with Lola here in the U.S. of A - home to the better off-road experience and primitive camping. Put another win in the ledger for Team USA!