Originally Posted by
grteyes2
In most instances, you'll need one. Have had one every year for the past 4 years. Easiest way is go to AAA. Will need 2 passport pics (Get them before or AAA can take them for a fee). Cost is about 20 USD, takes all of 5 min after once you get to the que. Valid for 1 year but only if you also have your US license with you
At $15 (now $20) a pop, I picked up seven (yes, 7) IDLs back in 1994 or 1995. They were frankly cheap-looking and cardboardy, like a big, old-fashioned passport from between the world wars, but covered in lots of officialese language and sigils. I would use them in countries where the local gendarmes would stop and shake down foreign drivers.
On two different occasions, the peace officer indicated that if I failed to pay the on-the-spot fine, he would confiscate my license. In both instances, I told him that he was welcome to keep the IDL and drove away.
The world seems a darker, more dangerous place now that it did twelve or fifteen years ago, however, so I don't know whether I would do that again. Five lonely IDLs sit in my travel drawer gathering dust these days.