Is International Drivers Permit in Spain Required
 

Driving in Spain soon. Is an International Drivers Permit required to rent a car and to drive a car in Spain? I had one years ago and they are only good for one year. Seems like such a scam. Let me know.

Not if you are European.
On top of IDP if you wear glasses you must have 2 pairs of driving in Spain.

<i>I had one years ago and they are only good for one year. Seems like such a scam.</i>

It's not like they cost $100...

It is scam from authorities to get money from unsuspecting tourists.
;-)
One solution is to break the law and if - unlikely - you are asked for it just play dumb and hope for the best.now if you are refusing the car by rental you are in problems.
disclaimer : my opinion is valid for me and only me.

If you are being refused the car ...

I would give a solid answer but Moo does not advise where. he/she is from.

I decided to go look and see why an IDP was only valid for a year and saw this:

<i>According to the 1949 Convention on Road Traffic, an IDP remains valid for one year from the date of issue. However, according to the Vienna Convention, an IDP remains valid for no more than three years from the date of issue, or until the expiration date of national driving permit, whichever is earlier. An IDP is not valid for driving in the country where it was issued.</i>

And so I went and read the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic and sure enough, that is correct.

Do with that what you will.

Right, absolute scam for countries to provide non-citizens with a legal way to drive on their roads. ??? For US citizens, it costs an entire $20 through AAA. Such a hardship.

OP spend well over $1000 on a trip, gripes about $20.

#FirstWorldProblems

Exactly, sparkchaser -- a truly nugatory cost for the privilege of driving in other countries. Perhaps my attempt at satire didn't come through.

I read it loud and clear.

Spark was quite ironic too.
So was I. But ironing goes only well with Snob. Where is she btw ? Never there when we talk real first world problems !

Just to say that I have rented lots of cars in Spain, have bought a car in Spain and used it there for a year, and I never had an IDP. No one ever asked for it, though I had to show my license on numerous occasions. Same for Portugal... BUT I'm going to be driving in Sicily in a few weeks and decided to be a big spender and cough up the $20 for the IDP. To tell you the truth, I wasn't really being a knowing scofflaw, it just never occurred to me till I saw the posts on a recent Italy thread.

I think it is mandatory in Spain that if you are required to wear eyeglasses when per your license you must carry a spare pair of spectacles in your car if driving at all times and roadside checks include this some Spanish-in-the-know folks say.

Whether one needs an IDP is, IMO, a great example of the benefit of consulting a guidebook, as good guidebooks cover the things one never thought to ask. And the cost of a guidebook or two is another example of a trivial cost in comparison to one's journey -- made even more trivial by that fact that most of us can consult guidebooks for free in libraries. JMO.

My understanding is that the IDP is very necessary if you happen to be involved in any sort of accident involving damage to the car ( or people). It is a case of whether your insurance is valid if you are not driving with a IDP. Potentially too costly to chance for $60 ( here in Australia ).

I can only tell you the experience a close friend had. He had ordered a car from an agency at VLC train station. When he got there.. they asked for his IDP.. which he had NONE. they would not rent to him. so he went to next desk.. same.. then he went out of the station to some other places.. same story. It was the first time it had happened to him in 10 years' trips.

So.. I suggest emailing the company you will be renting from and getting it in writing or look at each and every webpage of possible companies.

I was so taken back by that incident that I got an INtl DP for my USA trip( I only have a Spanish DL) but this year I have decided not to get one because i see on their webpages that if a license is written in the Roman alphabet.. it is not necessary in the USA most, if not all, the places I checked.

We went to Spain in January 2015, and hired a car from Alicante airport. I have an E.U. driving licence, but my brother-in-law has a Californian licence, and had obtained an IDP.

It was clear that the hire company would not have added him as a driver if he had not had the IDP. We were also told that we should always carry our passports with us if we were driving.

Having just completed the ESTA forms to visit the U.S., and, among other things, having to pledge that I would not carry out genocide while in the country, getting an IDP seems like fairly small beer in comparison.

My understanding is that the real problem is that every U.S. state has the right to issue licences in any format it chooses, so it is difficult for other countries to completely understand the validity of any particular licence. Standardisation within the U.S. might resolve that problem, but that is probably a constitutional issue.

What Chartley reports makes me rethink my reluctance to get the darn thing again and again - not that it's a dent in the budget, just the hassle of having to get the photo and make the trip to the AAA office. I have never ever needed to show an IDP in the many years when I used to get it, and in a few instances when I volunteered it, I got blank stares and questions of "what is this" from rental agents.
So I stopped getting one a few years ago. In my trips to Spain I rented cars in several locations, never did the IDP issue come up (California then Colorado DL). But if things are as bad as Chartley says, I'm hurrying down to the AAA (not AA, that's a liquid problem) for my upcoming Lisbon trip. Who knows, maybe the IDP rot has set in and spread?

Many AAA offices have the capacity to take the necessary photograph, for a small fee (of course).