Comment by sampullman
1 day ago
Depending on the country, there might be a reciprocal agreement that allows driving with your state license.
I've been a few places where that's the case, and a couple others where the car rental place actually validated the IDP.
Random note just cause people are looking - if you do get your IDP, make sure to get the stamp for your certs (e.g., car, motorcycle, whatever) on EVERY page of the AAA IDP, for every language. My friend's plans for a motorcycle trip in Japan with us were shot when he showed up and there was a stamp missing from the Arabic page or some such, and the Japanese rental agency was insistent on the IDP looking exactly as it's supposed to per their SOP, and refused to rent to him, even though there was the correct stamp on the Japanese page.
When I got my IDP next year they only stamped the english page and I asked them to stamp all the pages, the AAA people pushed back and said it's not necessary. I shared my story about no, it really is, and they pushed back more. I said I really need to get all my stamps or I need my money back, since the IDP is useless to me without all the stamps (this is after I was no longer a AAA number) and the lady finally rolled her eyes and stamped it.