Driving

No International Drivers Licence required for visitors from EU countries for stays up to three months (possibly more), so don't bother. A bigger problem may be that SAfrica drives on the left (so you'll get a hire car with the steering wheel on the right!). It doesn't really matter whether you book in Spain or take your luck in SAfrica when you arrive, but picking up a car at the airport as you arrive is usually convenient - and by booking well in advance you increase your chances of being 'bumped up' if the company are short of cars! ...or so I'm told.
Ndlovu

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<hr>No International Drivers Licence required for visitors from EU countries ...<hr></blockquote>

Make sure you have the current credit card type & size EU drivers license (introduced since the 1990's).
The earlier EU cardboard licenses as they were issued in the late 1980's and early 90's or until introduction of the cards are usually fine as well.

If you still have one of the ancient national drivers licenses you will have to apply for either a new license :-) or an international one.

In my experiences of driving in SA I have had no problems at all, the roads in the north are great and easy to drive. You can easy do 700km in one go in the same time it would take you to do half that in the UK.

On my last trip used Holidayautos who are simple to use. About GBP230 for 2 weeks hire for the basic car. That's all you need if there are 2 of you.

I drove from Jburg to Kruger, back through the north to the Western side down to Cape Town then out to Hermanus and back to CT. Never had a problem at all with the distances covered and saw absolutely everything we wanted to.

In fact this lulled me into a false sense of distance as I went Canada and thought we would cover the same distances... No way, had to adjust our schedule right away.

I've driven automatic and manual hired cars. Can't say it really mattered either way, depends on what you are used to I guess. Driving an automatic is a novelty for me and cruise control is. My UK car has cruise control but the only time I've managed to use it is after midnight on the motorways!!!

I've only ever been stopped once in SA by the police, no problem, just looked at my UK driving licence, looked very puzzled as it looked like the first one he had seen. But just us go on our way. Just a random stop I think at the beginning of a village by a bored copper!

In september we're doing a similar trip but going Jburg, Kruger, Swaziland (covering letter required from hire company), stops on the way to the Garden Route (including the big bunjy at Bloukrans), Hermanus which is one of my favourite places in the world, and Cape Town.

I'm not expecting that route to be as easy driving as the northern way but it's still very doable. This is my first trip that I have actually booked some accommodation (Kruger) as it is a school holiday at the beginning of our time there).

Love the country, one of the easiest to visit in the whole world which is why I keep coming back and will keep coming back for ever.

i used eurocar when i was there - they are pretty friendly and reasonable - just make sure if you want air conditioning to ask because they have cheaper cars w/o it -

they also told me just a drivers license in english is ok

**eurocar lets you cross borders with neighboring countries, no problem, they'll even give you maps and have 24 hour telephone access (whoever you choose you need this) and unlimited mileage -

roads are mostly good but some are gravel - check your maps you can see which are and which aren't - driving in the city is a bit spooky, be careful, be on alert etc.

have fun!
easybreeze

I need further information about the topic of this post...

I understand that "Any valid driver’s licence is accepted provided it bears the photograph and signature of the holder and <b>is printed in English.</b>" (replies #3, #4, #9).
However, the Lonely Planet Guide for South Africa, L & SZ states that:
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<hr>In South Africa, you can use your driving license from your home country if it is in English <b>(or if you have a certified translation)</b> and if it carries your photo; otherwise you'll need an international driving permit<hr></blockquote>
I worry about this difference because my driver's license is from Colombia and printed and Spanish... but the international driving permit costs here much more than I expected (around 110 USD), worth a couple of days of car renting at least. It would certainly be cheaper to hire a certified translation.

Would the car company rent a car with a certified translation of a license in Spanish? Would the policemen on the road be OK with it?

Other posters (#10, #11) seem to have detailed information about this... I would be very grateful if you could help me. It is just that I do not want to spend the 110USD unnecessarily on a greedy local motoring organization. If it is necessary, well... but then I would email the folks at LP to change the info on the guide.

Here's what Avis says on their website:<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Renters and additional drivers must be in possession of a valid unendorsed driver's license of country of residence. If driver's license is non-roman alphabet, an international driver's license is required. Please note that Foreigners must also produce a valid passport.<hr></blockquote>Note that it doesn't say English, but "non-roman alphabet". And that's what I've heard said many times before when this question has come up.

Surely it's no different to my driving in Germany (as I've done, through Avis as it happens), with my S.A. English-language licence? My own opinion is that getting an International Licence (although it's a lot less cost here) is a revenue stream for the issuer (the AA here) and unnecessary. I've had one at least once before, but that was when I was young and naive.

That's the S.A. Avis website of course.

As far as I know you do not need an IDL to hire a car. But if you are stopped by the police you need to produce either a valid unendorsed drivers' licence from your home country that is in English, or else you have to produce an international drivers licence - which is simply a translation of your licence into English, Spanish, German, Russian, Chinese (or is it Japanese?) Afrikaans (I live in South Africa), Italian and French. Note that there are two conventions governing International Drivers Licences - one of 1949 and the other of 1968. On the inside of my IDL (which I have in front of me as I type this) is a list of countries in each of the continents and a note of which IDL is recognised in each country. When we visited Europe in 2005 I needed two IDL's - one for France and a different one for Croatia.
A certified translation is not an IDL.
If you want to Google for information you will find plenty.

What I don't understand is why an IDL is such a big issue when travelling abroad. It takes ten minutes to get one, cost a negligible amount in comparison with the overall cost of the journey, it weighs nothing............what is the big deal about getting one?

Arthur and RudiK,

thank you very much for your helpful replies -- I have decided to get an IDL to avoid problems, although I found a link on another thread to an official South African government site where they explicitly say an IDL is not needed if a translation is produced for a roman-alphabet non-english license.

Regarding RudiK's question: in my case the IDL is a big issue because in my hometown (Bogotá, Colombia), its cost is definitely not "negligible in comparison with the overall cost of the journey": the price is 200.000 colombian pesos, equivalent to around 105 US dollars at the moment. This is (at least for me) quite an investment, considering that the license is only valid for one year (i.e., one trip), and that a day of car rental in SA costs around 25 to 40 USD (on the cheap side of the car fleet scale). Therefore, the IDL by itself is worth 3 to 4 car rental days. The price is set by the local motoring association (the AAC), which has a monopoly over the IDL issuing.

I am looking forward to having a wonderful time in SA, thank you again for your help...