International Driving Permit

Is it necessary to have an international driving permit as well as the full UK licence for driving in California?

Might hire a car for a day or so here and there.


Going to be in LA/SF in August.

No, but take both copies of your UK licence. They generally only want to see your plastic bit but it doesn't hurt having the paper bit with you

No

dr nosh said:

Is it necessary to have an international driving permit as well as the full UK licence for driving in California?

Might hire a car for a day or so here and there.


Going to be in LA/SF in August.

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I recently spent 3 months in CA and central America on a KLR650. Your local license is sufficient.

I got stopped by the fuzz in Arizona, showed my international permit and he didn't have a flippin clue what it was. As the others said, you only need to have the pink licence to hire the car so that must be sufficient to drive it.

The primary purpose of an IDP is to provide a translation of the privileges granted by your driver licence into numerous other languages. Because the UK and USA share the same language (well, at least, when it is in written form, anyway) the IDP is of little value to you in the USA.

A secondary purpose of the IDP is to identify exactly what vehicles you are entitled to drive (cars, motorcycles, trucks of various sizes, buses, etc.). But, if that is self-evident on your home driving licence, and your home licence is in the same language that the cops read in the place you are visiting, there ain't much point to having one.

I have been buying IDPs for 20 years (my company pays the expense). I've only ever needed to show the IDP (for translation purposes) twice, once in Angola, and once in Russia.

Michael