I'm already out of US traveling through EU and will be in Romania in 2 weeks. I was planning on driving through Romania for 6 days, booked a car through Budget at Bucharest Hilton, then was surprised to find out that in their fine print it said that non-EU citizen must have an International Driver's Permit (IDP) to rent a car. Now I'm confused because I'm getting conflicting information from different sources:

- The Lonely Planet guide said I was ok just with a US driver's license
- The Hilton concierge told me that they confirmed with Budget that I was ok w/o IDP.
- My email to Budget office itself has not been answered.
- US Embassy in Romania's website says I need an IDP in Romania

The last obviously carries a lot of weight. But I think what'd carry the most weight would be a Romanian authority definitively and explicitly stating that I do/don't need an IDP. I have not been able to find such info, probably cuz I know 0 Romanian.

Then, my friends who's driven through Romania without one tell me that I just need to have a 100 lei bill handy if I ever get pulled over. I consider myself a pretty good driver, also know how to drive in crazy city conditions, so I'd say my chances of getting pulled over is low. Then, another friend who's a Romanian tells me that if I get unlucky, the cop can take away my driver's license on the spot for such violation.

Normally, I would just take public transit but it looks like their trains are really slow, sometimes no direct route, and I have a pretty tight schedule. Plus, I really wanna drive on the transfagarasan road

Please help.