International driver's licence required in Spain?

On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 05:10:37 GMT, Glenn
wrote:

B wrote:

On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 06:15:12 GMT, Glenn
wrote:

But, I still believe that charging $10 to renew an IDL each year is a
monopolistic rip-off. Since my drivers license has not changed in 17
years, I don't see how the translation of the fields is going to
change from year to year.?

Actually, remembering the bureaucratic nightmare I had dealing with
the police in Grado (near Aquileia) a couple of years ago, and that
you had with your citizenship paperwork last year, I think I will take
your advice and carry an IDL with me next time I'm in Italy.

But.. I still refuse to pay AAA, so I'll probably just dig out the
only IDL that I bought back in 1989 before my first trip to Europe...
since the translations haven't changed, it should still be acceptable.

When my IDL expired after my move to Italy, I was a month short of my
scheduled date for taking the driving test for my Italian license. My
American license was still valid, and reasoning as you have just done,
I asked if I couldn't use the expired IDL along with my still-valid NJ
license. The answer was NO. Since routine document checks are fairly
common around here, I just didn't drive for that month.



So I usually just advise people to go with their own comfort level
(or, whatever their rental car company's policy may be...)

Which just confirms that there's lots of bad advice circulating on the
internet.

Whadya mean "lot's of bad advice"? With all the great advice out
there, I'm all fired up to go to Salzburg... aren't you???

-----------
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

--
Glenn

-----------
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

B Vaughan muttered....



When my IDL expired after my move to Italy, I was a month short of my
scheduled date for taking the driving test for my Italian license. My
American license was still valid, and reasoning as you have just done,
I asked if I couldn't use the expired IDL along with my still-valid NJ
license. The answer was NO. Since routine document checks are fairly
common around here, I just didn't drive for that month.


As is usual in Italy, the "rules" (and interpretations) differ greatly from
place to place....

Recently (as I had several times between 1962 and 2003), I rented a car in
Italy, using my Texas DL. I also during the rental period negotiated a
"deal" with a young policemen in Florence to allow me thru traffic
barricades on to the Piazza del Duomo (apparently and with good reason a
sacrosanct vehicle free zone)to help a fellow tourist in some difficulty
because of a physical handicap. The traffic policeman seemed satisfied
after a glance at the Texas DL.

I guess I had become so used to not needing an IDL in Italy back during
'62-'65 when I regularly drove USNavy cars and occasional rent cars that I
had not even thought about it since (nor had I needed one for rentals in
the UK, netherlands, France, Spain and Germany in the intervening years).

Only query I ever had to answer about driving was in Malta, 1964, for
running into a paddlewheel Admiralty tug while driving an aircraft carrier.
Across the green felt in one of those castles overlooking Valetta's harbor,
the tug's skipper was awarded the blame, whilst my Captain and I were left
free to drive again, threats to small craft everywhere....;-P

TMO

Subject: International driver's licence required in Spain?
From: Glenn
Date: 1/7/2004 11:10 PM

snip to

But, I still believe that charging $10 to renew an IDL each year is a
monopolistic rip-off. Since my drivers license has not changed in 17
years, I don't see how the translation of the fields is going to
change from year to year.?

You will think its $10 well spent should you be in an accident or some other
police involved misfortune. Its is one of the smallest "monopolistic rip-offs"
in practice these days.