driving in the States

ando

hey,

I'm going to the states in a few weeks with a few friends and I'll be driving from New York to New orleans. Is a Full Irish driving licence all I need?

Ta

Silvera

I have heard/read stories of people saying that their Irish licence was ok for the U.S.A.

Me, I'd get an international driving licence from the AA , just to be sure (only costs about €15 or so)

Silvera.

Kernel32

Are you renting a car? If so then the car rental company will dictate that, if its not accepted then they won't rent to you.

I recently returned from living in the US for 5 years and the US does not allow a direct swap of an Irish license for a US one, neither does Ireland allow the vice versa. But if you are simply renting then you should be able to drive with your Irish license.

skipn_easy

I drove in the states for three months with an irish driving licence. I think technically an international one would be better but as long as the licence is in english it shouldn't matter. The police didn't have any problems with it anyway.

ando

ok, thanks for that. We will be renting the car

The_Bullman

I drove from Chicago to New York and back again last summer. I rented from Enterprise, who where both the cheapest, and they would rent to under 25's.

Things I would look out for:
Insurance-its best to have your own car insurance. Using their insurance almost doubled my rate.
See if the rate has unlimited milage. If it doesn't it can be quite costly.
Don't rent from the airport. They charge more than the same company downtown.
Read the small print. When I signed the rental thingy I didn't notice a tick-box that the salesperson checked. Basically I could do unlimited milage(which I took full advantage of ) but I couldn't leave the state. I only realised this after traveling through about 6 states on my trip. I would imagine that this little tick-box would have invalidated my insurance(for starters), so just keep an eye out for this type of thing.

Any other questions, give me a shout( a pm might be a good idea, as I'm not around here much)

v10

I've rented in Boston, New York and San Francisco with Avis and I just showed my Irish full license ... No Problem.

Discovered after getting there renting is much cheaper than prebooking. My brother got a 5 Litre ! Convertable Mustang for $50 per day inc all insurance in LA when he just showed up and asked.

Turner

Sorry bout draggin up an old post but v10 do you have the name of the company your bro rented off.

Am thinkin about goin in May and would love to rent a 5 litre mustang for a week.

Cheers

Chief.