Country Travel Cheat Sheet
Pick a destination and see the essentials at a glance — the emergency number, whether the tap water’s safe, the speed limits, and the legal drinking age — pulled together from our country guides into one card.
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- Works worldwide
- Instant results
France
4 of 4 factsEmergency
full tool →One number covers police, ambulance and fire.
Tap water
full tool →Speed limits
full tool →km/h
Motorways drop to 110 in rain; dual-carriageway expressways are 110; central Paris is a blanket 30. Drivers with under 2 years’ licence are capped at 110 on motorways.
Drinking age
full tool →A quick snapshot drawn from our own country guides — general information, not legal, medical or driving advice. Rules change and can depend on the specifics of your situation, so confirm anything important with an official source before you rely on it. Open any “full tool” above for the detail and sources.
Related tools
What should I look up before visiting a country?
Four things cover most of it: the emergency number to dial, whether the tap water is safe to drink, the speed limits if you’ll drive, and the legal drinking age. This cheat sheet shows all four for your destination on one card, drawn from our individually-sourced country guides, with a link through to each full tool. Pick a country above to see its essentials.
Methodology: The cheat sheet introduces no data of its own: it joins four of the site's existing, individually-sourced datasets — emergency numbers, tap-water safety, default car speed limits and the legal drinking age — by each country's shared identifier, so every value matches the detailed tool behind it. Coverage differs between datasets, so a country can show fewer than four facts; missing entries are shown as missing and linked to the relevant tool rather than guessed. It currently spans 52 countries and is general information to help you prepare, not legal, medical or driving advice — always confirm anything important with an official source. How we test & calculate.
Four searches, one card
Before a trip there’s a familiar little checklist of facts to look up: what number do I call in an emergency, can I drink the tap water, how fast can I drive, and what’s the drinking age? Normally that’s four separate searches. This cheat sheet puts all four on a single card for whichever country you pick — drawn straight from our own emergency numbers, tap-water, speed-limit and drinking-age guides.
The same data, just gathered up
There’s nothing new invented here. Each figure is the one you’d find in the dedicated tool behind it, with its own sources and detail — the cheat sheet simply joins those datasets together by country so you can take them in at a glance. When a country isn’t yet in one of the datasets, the card says so and points you to the tool, rather than filling the gap with a guess.
A snapshot, not the final word
Treat it as a quick orientation. The emergency number is the one genuinely worth confirming on arrival — it’s the fact you can’t afford to get wrong — while drinking-age and water rules can hinge on details the headline figure can’t capture. For anything that matters, follow the link to the full tool and check against an official source. Pair this with the travel checklist to make sure nothing else slips.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the cheat sheet show?
For the destination you pick, it pulls together four things travellers most often need to look up before a trip: the emergency number to dial, whether the tap water is generally safe to drink, the default speed limits for a car, and the legal drinking age. It’s designed as a quick at-a-glance snapshot — a single card per country instead of four separate searches — with a link through to the fuller tool behind each one.
Where does the data come from?
Each fact comes from this site’s own dedicated, individually-sourced tools — the emergency-numbers, tap-water, speed-limits and drinking-age guides — which are compiled from references like national authorities and Wikipedia’s country comparisons. The cheat sheet doesn’t invent anything new; it simply joins those existing datasets together by country, so what you see here matches the detailed tools exactly.
Why does my country show fewer than four facts?
Not every dataset covers every country yet, so a destination might show, say, three of four facts. The selector marks countries that have fewer than the full set, and any missing card says so plainly and links you to the relevant tool to check directly, rather than showing a guess. The collection currently spans 52 countries, with most having the complete set.
Is this legal, medical or driving advice?
No — it’s general information to help you prepare, not advice. Drinking-age rules can depend on the drink, the venue and how you pay; water safety varies locally and by individual sensitivity; and speed limits change with road type, signage and conditions. Always treat the cheat sheet as a starting point and confirm anything that matters with an official source for your specific situation.
How current is it?
The underlying guides are kept reasonably up to date, but rules do change — a country can revise speed limits or emergency arrangements. The emergency number especially is something worth double-checking on arrival, since it’s the one you can’t afford to get wrong. For anything time-sensitive, follow the link to the full tool and verify against an official source.