Anyone been to France recently? Do you need an international driver license to drive a rental car there?

None of the EU countries require an intl licence.

No, ditto re Siobhan's comment above. I've rented/driven in 4 countries and it was never required.

Nope - regular drivers license was fine.

Apparently international licences are a thing of the past. We were there in spring and not needed.

In 4 separate trips and 8 different car rentals have never needed to show it. - they are permits not licenses and are simply a translation of your license into other languages - my understanding is that it is more for if you get stopped by the police and they do not understand the terminology on it - licences in cyrillic, japanese, chinese, korean, arabic etc would definitely require it

Chris Myden
Admin
All-star contributor
I agree that they're a thing of the past. Have yet to require one anywhere in the world. Definitely not needed for Europe.

Their function is to translate your drivers license. In Europe most law enforcement speak english so you are likely ok. It is a way to avoid unnecessary delays if you are stopped.

http://www.icbc.com/.../International-driving-permits.aspx
ICBC.COM
International driving permits

No u don't

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Much appreciated

I think it's good to have it just in case. We were told we didn't need it when we went to apply for it. But when we went to Santorini they wouldn't rent us any vehicle except an atv.

We rented a car on Mykonos and didn't need it. We did have to surrender our DL while we had the car thou, which was a bit unnerving but had no problems.

Wonder why you had to surrender the license - surely a photocopy would have sufficied

That's weird. We went room three different places for rental in Santorini and all said the same thing, that we need an intl drivers license. They would only rent us atv

no u dont
nowhere in europe . all police can speak english now. regular driver license will do including greece italy and communist countries.

those who get .it . buy it for the fact to feel special and brag about feeling they are no longer restricted.. .lol trust me. its only for geeks and over worriers including narcisstic bs people. youll do fine . Also ICBC sells auto rental insurance $10 per day tax included that you must buy beforehand. gives you full coverage

I rented a car there a few months ago, and got pulled over... My BC driver license was fine

Some car rental places will charge you extra if you dont have it...so just watch out for that.