Intl Drivers Permit

my friends (Australian) have rented cars this year and in 2016 in Spain, Portugal and France just using their Aust. licence - no IDP -- so seems its a hit and miss situation. ribeira_sacra indicates IDL is compulsory yet my friends experience is that it is not compulsory?
all that aside the whole idea of an IDL is really to provide details of your licence in multiple languages, thats all. SO I can see no reason why if you have a passport, a valid USA licence and photo copy of IDL you would have any problems. All you can do is try, what do the car rental people say?

" but worst of all if involved in an accident you won't be covered by your insurance. " - not true IDL has nothing to do with insurance, insurance is something taken out separately. Are you saying if you had no IDL you would thus be somehow driving illegally and thus no insurance? What evidence do you have of this?

What evidence do you have of this?

The evidence you request has already been amply provided. All you have to do is click (and in one case, translate) the links.
The most germane section, via Google Translate, of Ribeira's linked-to article:

Initially, this person gave them an original New York driving license, which is not valid for driving around Spain...

If your license is "not valid" in a given situation, I can't see how your insurance would remain valid in that situation.

Plus, the US Embassy link couldn't be clearer:

U.S. citizens visiting Spain who want to drive in Spain must obtain an international driving permit prior to their arrival in Spain.

I see no reason to debate the meaning of "must."

My credibility is perfect

I think your credibility suffers greatly (on yet another thread) when your initial response of "you should be fine" needs to be amended to "provided you don't have an accident and/or no police officers ask you for proof that you can legally drive in Spain."

<<Maybe really a certified translation done locally is enough?>>

That would satisfy the basic requirement for those countries that require the IDP (and there are more than "a few"), but it's a moot point because a certified translation would cost at least 3 X what the IDP costs.

If you are not driving with a valid license in any particular country, you are not iinsured. Period.

gnc, as I thought I carefully pointed out previously, car rental companies are not charged with enforcement of the national laws relating to the requirement for an IDP, so your Australian friends did not encounter a situation where the IDP was not mandatory. It's the law; it IS mandatory. Whether or not a car rental agency asked them for it is entirely irrelevant.

This is getting silly.
No one has obviously read the news article, even with the use of a on line translator.
Cannot believe that for a sake of a few dollars you are willing to risk possible, fines, imprisonment, criminal record?
Oh stcriq post 23 that is well said.

Cannot believe

:-) You've been on this forum for a while. Believe.

ribeira_sacra, the article doesn't really match OP's situation and is not really suitable to establish a general rule! The driver from the article provided a New York driving license, that was not valid in Spain without a reason given (was it expired? a learner's permit? did he lose it before in Spain? was it fake? did he stay longer than 6 months?). Then the driver produced a fake (!) IDP. To me, it seems like the driver from the article was just a con man. Of course, when the original license is not valid any more, then an IDP - and especially a fake one - does not help. So I'm not really convinced that this is proof...

The driver from the article provided a New York driving license, that was not valid in Spain without a reason given

The reason given was that the accompanying IDP was not valid.

an original New York driving license, which is not valid for driving around Spain

The only modifier used to describe this license is "original."
Not "fake," not "expired." Original.

Plus, you seem to be ignoring what the US embassy says US citizens must have to drive legally in Spain.

Short of a Spanish official knocking on one's door and informing one that a US driver's license alone does not legally allow one to drive in Spain, I'm not sure how the situation could be clearer or more relevant.

Maybe really a certified translation done locally is enough?

My guess is this is what the driver in Ribiera's article had.
And clearly, it was not enough.
So yeah, we're not getting silly. We've arrived.

<<did he stay longer than 6 months?>>

You are increasingly displaying more and more ignorance. A New Yorker has a maximum of 90 days to stay in Spain or anywhere in the Schengen Zone without a special visa.

And a certified translation, as an aside, does not have to be "done locally," but it does have to be apostillé by a legal resident of the country certified by the Court of Appeals of the country.

You are clearly out of your league and should give up while you can.

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