Hi all,

i am going to the states in a couple of weeks time for a 4 week trip where i need to rent a car. I currently have a Irish and Australian driving permit and a out of date international driving permit. ( issued by the AA in Ireland )

to rent a car in the US, i assume i need a international licence, is it possible to get one here in thailand. ( i am on a tourist visa )

thx

Short answer: No.

Long Answer: "...I currently have a Irish and Australian driving permit...." Then you would need to get an IDP/IDL issued from either Ireland or Australia as only the AA or offical office of those countries would be able to endorse a domestic licence.

To get a real IDP from Thailand first you would need to get a Thai driving licence, not difficult and can be done while on a visa exemption stamp or if you do indeed have a tourist visa. I do have a thought at the back of my mind that you need to hold a Thai licence for a year before getting the Thai IDP - but I am unsure of this.

>...to rent a car in the US, i assume i need a international licence...

Perhaps asking the rental company is the best solution?

Taken from one US car rental compay's web site:

"If your driving licence is not written in English, you will need an International Driving Permit together with your national driving licence."

Assuming your Irish licence is not in written in Gaeilge I doubt you will encounter any problems, however email addresses and customer response sections of US based rental companies web sites are probably a better source of information than TV.

Short answer: No.

Long Answer: "...I currently have a Irish and Australian driving permit...." Then you would need to get an IDP/IDL issued from either Ireland or Australia as only the AA or offical office of those countries would be able to endorse a domestic licence.

To get a real IDP from Thailand first you would need to get a Thai driving licence, not difficult and can be done while on a visa exemption stamp or if you do indeed have a tourist visa. I do have a thought at the back of my mind that you need to hold a Thai licence for a year before getting the Thai IDP - but I am unsure of this.

>...to rent a car in the US, i assume i need a international licence...

Perhaps asking the rental company is the best solution?

Taken from one US car rental compay's web site:

"If your driving licence is not written in English, you will need an International Driving Permit together with your national driving licence."

Assuming your Irish licence is not in written in Gaeilge I doubt you will encounter any problems, however email addresses and customer response sections of US based rental companies web sites are probably a better source of information than TV.

Last time i rented a car in the US i did not have an IDP just regular license and no prob

Rented many times in US with Australian driving license, never asked for anything else.

I even think international license would be looked at with suspicion over there!

If you had only Thai driving license (in Thai) then you would need International one. They would not know if you are showing them an ID, library membership card or a real license.

That's all Int driving license is: translation of a national license into English. When the source is already in English, no problems.

thanks for info, guys.

I just received my Thai IDP.. They wont give you a Thai IDP on a one year Thai license..

Having just moved over to a 5 year Thai DL I figured I would give it a shot, here on phuket they take all your forms and info, make you buy a postal order, then send it away to BKK. Mine took about 20 days but they said allow 45 days.

The good thing is every other IDP I have had included an expiry date, this one doesn't only has an issue date, plus the majority of it is written in Thai script which will be a gas when I pass that to any officer in Europe.