Irish Drivers License in Canada and America?

Brethitmanhart

Hi,
I'm in Vancouver at the moment and my friends and I are thinking of buying a cheap car and driving to Vegas (as we have to get to Vegas anyway)
The problem is that we don't know the rules about licenses etc.
2 of the lads have full irish licenses, and we are only here on a visit so we are wondering would we be ok driving with them?
We'll be going over the border into Washington so it will be most important there and in British Columbia, I know it's ok in California (or so I read) but not sure about Washington.

Has anyone ever done this and can they give any advice?

Run_to_da_hills

The USA will not accept an Irish driving license. It would be up to you to get an international drivers permit. (AA).

maggy_thatcher

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

The USA will not accept an Irish driving license. It would be up to you to get an international drivers permit. (AA).

That's not true. All an IDP is is a translation of your Irish licence in a collection of different languages. The USA will accept Irish driving licences with no problem (as they're already in English), assuming you're only there for a visit (usually ~90 day limits). I've rented cars in the US and Canada with my Irish licence with no problem at all.

I've never tried purchasing a vehicle in the US/Canada though, so I don't know how vehicle registration would work in this scenario...somebody with more experience on that may be able to give you more advice on that.

Run_to_da_hills

maggy_thatcher wrote: »

That's not true. All an IDP is is a translation of your Irish licence in a collection of different languages. The USA will accept Irish driving licences with no problem (as they're already in English), assuming you're only there for a visit (usually ~90 day limits). I've rented cars in the US and Canada with my Irish licence with no problem at all.

I've never tried purchasing a vehicle in the US/Canada though, so I don't know how vehicle registration would work in this scenario...somebody with more experience on that may be able to give you more advice on that.

I lived in the States for a year and its a different story. I had to go for the US driver license in the end. No big deal over there, takes a few days as opposed to several months here.

Buying a car is a lot different from renting.

Brethitmanhart

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

I lived in the States for a year and its a different story. I had to go for the US driver license in the end. No big deal over there, takes a few days as opposed to several months here.

Buying a car is a lot different from renting.

Well we will only be there for a few days and would have proof of flights out of canada within 15 days of crossing the border....the reason we cannot rent is because we are 20 and not 21.

So is buying a car a no-go even if we're visitors?

maggy_thatcher

Brethitmanhart wrote: »

Well we will only be there for a few days and would have proof of flights out of canada within 15 days of crossing the border....the reason we cannot rent is because we are 20 and not 21.

Head across the border by train/bus to Seattle, and rent a car from there. The US have much less stringent age limits (if you go with someone like RentAWreck you have to be 18). This will also mean you can avoid the excess many companies charge for being able to cross the border with it.

dowlingm

Licensing is the least of your problems. How do you register your ownership and insure the car without BC identification? You may also get an issue at the US border.

Any of those makes more sense then turning up at the US border in some boneshaker you picked up on Craigslist, or getting lifted by either BC or US cops for driving an unregistered/uninsured vehicle over a 2000km+ route each way. If you're in the US and Canada on a visit you do NOT want to risk becoming inadmissible.

I recommend you either take Greyhound or Amtrak ex Vancouver (Greyhound will get you from YVR to LAS in 28hr), rent in Seattle if you can find a company willing to rent, fly SEA-LAS (cheaper than YVR-LAS because you're not paying 2 sets of security charges), search Craigslist for someone who needs a car driven from Seattle to Vegas, or walk.

keithclancy

maggy_thatcher wrote: »

That's not true. All an IDP is is a translation of your Irish licence in a collection of different languages. The USA will accept Irish driving licences with no problem (as they're already in English), assuming you're only there for a visit (usually ~90 day limits). I've rented cars in the US and Canada with my Irish licence with no problem at all.

I've never tried purchasing a vehicle in the US/Canada though, so I don't know how vehicle registration would work in this scenario...somebody with more experience on that may be able to give you more advice on that.

+1, biggest load of crap ever.

Rented in Germany, Holland, France, and Curacao and never had an issue.

Any rental company will have a book to decipher your license.

Those IDP things are just a page with whats written on your license in different languages.

The gardai might have caught the Pravo Jazdy fella if they used them in Ireland