by Nick Taylor

Barbara and I started to prepare for our first-ever trip to Greece and read the small print in information about car travel. It told us that we needed International Driving Permits (IDP) if we were going to rent a car and drive in Greece. This was a first.

We love to drive on our vacations.  

We’ve driven all over the British Isles, Europe east and west, and even into Belarus not long after the end of the Soviet Union.

We paid cash in advance for the black Volvo we drove that day and left a credit card with the rental company in Vilnius, Lithuania, until we brought it back, but nobody asked for an International Driving Permit (IDP).

More recently, we’ve driven from Barcelona into France and back again, from Madrid south and then east to Granada, covered most of Sicily,

driven Croatia to Bosnia

and Montenegro

and back to Croatia,

and climbed the spectacular mountains of Sardinia.

 

Nobody asked for an International Driving Permit in any of those destinations, either.

But Greece treats non-EU citizens differently and we want to drive.  We reserved a car to pick up in Athens, from where we plan to drive through Corinth into the Peloponnesian peninsula.  We’ll use Nafplion

as a base from which to explore the sites where the ancient Myceneans held sway over the rest of the Mediterranean for 400 years, where the Spartans grew their reputation as fierce warriors, where the Olympic games began,

where Agamemnon set sail on his odyssey to Troy to rescue his brother’s wife Helen. 

From there we’ll drive off the peninsula and follow the west coast of Greece until we reach the ferry to the island of Corfu.

We’ll spend a few days there not so much exploring history as nice beaches and the local cuisine.  We’ll turn the car in at the airport there and fly back to Athens.

But none of this would happen without our International Driving Permits.  Fortunately, they’re easy to get and not expensive. 

They’re available from most American Automobile Association branch offices, and the AAA website will give you locations.  Or if you have time, you can get the IDPs by mail.  You can get an application online, fill it out and send it back with the following documentation:

• Your completed IDP application form
• Two original passport pictures each signed on the back
• $20 USD permit fee
• A photocopy of both sides of your driver’s license
• For a speedy return mail service, include the money or prepaid envelopes needed. See USPS.com, Fedex.com or UPS.com for rates.

We’re AAA members so we dropped by the Manhattan AAA office at 1881 Broadway with our driver’s licenses and our passport-sized photos to fill out the brief forms.  Then we parted with $20 each and received our IDPs that are good for a year.  We were in and out in half an hour.

Now we’re off!