Hi guys. I am trying to find out if I need to have an International Driver's Permit to hire a car in California. A google search gives me mixed results. I have a Victorian drivers licence and I don't think I need an IDP but any advice would be appreciated.
Driving in The U.S. (California)
pauldegab on 22/09/2016 - 07:18
Comments
When driving in the U.S don't forget…. Long Left, Tight Right.
and the mantra -"wrong side of the road, wrong side of the road, wrong side of the road, wrong side of the road, wrong side of the road, etc"
Rocky is right, you just need your Australian license. I've rented many a car all over USA and never had a problem. Been pulled over twice by US police and they're a bit mystified as to how to give you a ticket but it's obviously perfectly legal as they let me go on my merry way.
Same deal, I've driven in a few states, and our aussie licenses are fine.
Don't forget that they drive on the other side of the road. One of my colleagues did and went down a freeway off-ramp into oncoming traffic… lol.
IDPs are a useless thing invented by the automobile clubs. Think about it - a arbitrary private organization issuing permit. What country in the world would accept it as a legitimate license. An enforncement officer would have no way to validate whether its legit or something you printed from the internet.
The only thing they're good for (by the automobile clubs admission) is providing a foreign language tranlation of your local license. This is assuming that you're travelling to a country where they speak one of the languages that is translated on the permit.
Japan. you will not get a rental car in Japan with out an IDP.
Pfft - who drives in Japan anyway? The public transport is awesome, especially the unlimtied shinkansen passes for tourists.
I did, and managed to see places that tourists who stick to trains would not see.
@eug:
Bet you missed a whole bunch because you were trying to find parking!
How did you manage with the road signs, etc?
@sp00ker: Ha, I didn't drive in the city of course. Outside the busy areas, parking is plentiful. I was only there for a short while so only drove for a day trip.
I dunno about the city, but driving felt pretty similar to here. I used Google Maps for navigation and just stuck to the usual road rules. Everyone's very polite there.
The city I rented the car at was a little out of the way. Nobody spoke English so I had 3 people try to translate for me at the car rental agency, with a phrase book. In the end they rang an interpretation service on the phone and got it done that way. They were super apologetic too!
New Zealand for any license not fully in English. Even EU licences in their standardised format are not valid if it's not from an English speaking country, even with accompanying official English guide.
Vic license is fine. Was there in June and hired a car thru AVIS .. they were fine with my license,, Do carry your passport for car hire as well.
Also, it's a good idea to research insurance options. Most prices will not include insurance as Americans pay for insurance per driver rather than by car, meaning when they hire a car they are covered by their own auto insurance.
yeah they are fine with Aus licences - rented multiple cars over 3 months with Hertz on my SA licence back in 2013.
driving in the US is exceptionally easy. takes about an hour to get used to being on the other side of the road and the car. i didnt experience one incident where i ended up on the wrong (left) side of the road due to habit or accident (in driving over 30,000 miles across the western, southern and eastern US borders).
dont worry too much about speeding either, the US isn't hawkish on it like australian police. again, in all those thousands of miles i was only pulled over for speeding once (doing 90mph in a 65 zone) in florida and was let off with a warning. and i regularly did 10-15mph over the limit on all highways and motorways.
i also found drivers across the US to be of a much higher standard than anywhere in australia. Vancouver, Canada on the other hand…holy crap there were some terrible drivers there.
Thanks for all the responses guys. I thought it was the case but rental companies terms and conditions are ambiguous to say the least :)
Just watch what you do with car rental insurance
see the wiki here for some ideas and links for more info
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/car_rental_insurance
it can take careful reading but its very important to know.
As Zappy32 said US car insurance is different from here, and if you assume its the same you may get caught out badly.
don't do any burn outs turning left…
for the record, i dont think the usa has speed cameras… when i drove across the states, speeding seemed more common than not
NO
Vic license is OK
(20 plus years of driving rental cars in US with Aust license)