Hi everyone,

I did a search on this but can't seem to find the answer to my question: I'm going to be driving from Malaga to England with my aunt later this month, and in the chaos of planning the rest of my holiday I totally forgot to check to see whether I'm actually allowed to drive her car (she's a resident in Malaga, has her own car with her own insurance) through Spain to get to England. I have an Australian driver's licence, not an international permit or anything. Am I going to run into problems here?

I can't believe I didn't check this out (a) before I left Australia and (b) before I agreed to help her drive. Oh well, I guess you tend to forget things when planning a year away.

Anyone have any insight?

Cheers,

-adiav.

Hi --

Technically and legally speaking you should have an international driver's permit to accompany your Australian license in order to legally drive here in Spain.

That said, I know many tourists come here with only their country's driver's license and drive here...and are lucky if they don't get caught.

The trouble you could run into is if you have an accident or are pulled over for some sort of driving violation. The police usually ticket foreigners on the spot and payment is expected at the time the ticket is issued.

Chica, are you sure you have to get an international driver's permit? Last year I drove all the way to the Balkans, and I asked in the Slovenian and Croatian embassys, and all I had to do was to get a green card, for the insurance, and that's all...

In Spain, yes (I don't know about the Balkans). You are supposed to have an International Driver's permit which is good for one year. If you become a legal resident of Spain then you only have 6 months to convert your International Permit into a bonafide Spanish license (rather than the year).

Of course, however, what is legally required and what is actually practiced quite frequently end up being two different things.

Frommer's has been pointing out, for the longest, that there is no such a thing as an international drivers license. They believe it is a way of making money by the autoclubs.

If you ever need to show a valid license you have to show the original D/L from your state.

[See Frommers site on Int'l D/Ls comments:

"I work for AAA Carolinas, so I can only go by what is valid for AAA Carolinas. The International Drivers Permit is for US citizens abroad, not for Czech citizens in the Czech Republic. It is basically a translation of your American drivers license, it is not actually required in foreign countries. The following is quoted directly from http://www.aaacarolinas.com "
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If you violate any driving law or regulation and you get stopped, you will have to deal with it like in the US: be polite, be patient, and listen to the cops who, generally, will understand enough English to see that your license is real.

On the other hand, if getting this translation (and not a complete one) of your real DL make you feel better, well, then 10 bucks will do it.