What You Need to Drive Abroad From the UK (and What It Costs)

• Take your valid GB or Northern Ireland licence, and for your own car bring the V5C log book and your insurance certificate. A UK-hired or leased car needs a VE103 certificate.
• An International Driving Permit costs £5.50 ($7) from certain PayPoint shops, but whether you need one depends on the country, so check before you travel.
• Check your insurance covers every country on your route, and look up local extras such as a warning triangle, a reflective jacket and city emission stickers.

Driving Abroad From the UK: The Documents, Permits and Extras You Need to Carry

To drive abroad from the UK you need your Great Britain or Northern Ireland driving licence, and if you take your own car you also need the V5C log book and your insurance certificate. After that, the rest varies by destination: some countries also want an International Driving Permit, which costs £5.50 ($7), some cities want an emissions sticker bought weeks ahead, and many countries expect safety equipment in the boot. This guide covers each in turn, with the gaps that catch people out at a border or a hire desk.

The detail below comes from the GOV.UK driving abroad guidance, with insurance points from MoneyHelper. Rules differ by country and change, so use this as a checklist and then confirm each item for the countries on your route, as GOV.UK itself tells drivers to do.

Start With the Licence

GOV.UK says you must take your Great Britain or Northern Ireland driving licence with you, and that you should check it is still valid and renew it online if it has expired or is about to. If it has been lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed, get a replacement before you leave. GOV.UK says online applications should arrive within 5 days, while postal applications take longer, so do not leave this to the week of the trip.

If you are hiring a car abroad, the hire company might ask for your licence details. GOV.UK says you can share them with a check code, which you can get up to 21 days before the trip, so there is no need to carry a paper counterpart. Northern Ireland licence holders are told to show their paper counterpart instead.

MoneyHelper makes a useful point for photocard holders heading to Europe: it says that in the EU and EEA a UK photo driving licence is valid, and that showing a green card is no longer required. That covers two separate worries, the licence and the green card, and both come up again below.

Do You Need an International Driving Permit?

Sometimes. GOV.UK says you might need one in some countries, and possibly one for each country you visit. The permit comes in three types, named after the 1926, 1949 and 1968 conventions. The GOV.UK guide gives examples: 1926 permits for countries such as Mexico and Somalia, 1949 permits for Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the United States, and 1968 permits for most European countries, including Germany, Italy and Austria.

The guide also lists countries that need no permit for photocard licence holders, including France, Greece, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland. That is the bit that surprises drivers who assume a permit is always needed in Europe. Check the table on the GOV.UK page for your country and licence type, and ask the embassy if your destination is not listed.

The permit costs £5.50 ($7) and is sold in person at certain shops that have PayPoint. You need to live in Great Britain or Northern Ireland, hold a full UK licence and be 18 or over. A 1926 or 1949 permit lasts 12 months. A 1968 permit lasts 3 years or until your UK licence expires, whichever comes first. If you are moving abroad rather than visiting, GOV.UK says not to apply for a permit, and to exchange your UK licence or apply for a local one in the country you are moving to.

Insurance and the Green Card

Insurance is where a trip can go wrong without anyone noticing. GOV.UK tells drivers to check that their insurance covers every country they will drive through, and what proof they must carry, and to check whether they need a green card or additional insurance for their destination. MoneyHelper says most UK full-cover policies include driving within the EU and EEA, but driving your own car outside Europe might need separate cover and an International Driving Permit for each destination.

Ring or message your insurer before you book the ferry or tunnel, and ask three things: which countries are covered, what level of cover applies abroad, and whether you need to carry any extra paperwork. Get the answer in writing, or download the policy documents to your phone and print a copy. A border officer or a police officer cannot read the policy you meant to look up at a hotel.

If you hire a car abroad, the hire company supplies the insurance, and the cover is yours to check. MoneyHelper says the hire company’s basic cover is similar to third-party insurance, and that a hire car excess is typically £500 to £1,500 ($667 to $2,001). It lists excess reimbursement insurance from about £3 ($4) a day for daily policies, or about £39 ($52) for an annual policy, against about £10 ($13) a day to cut the excess to zero through the hire company. On a week’s hire, that is about £70 ($93) for the hire company’s top-up, against a single annual policy that covers several trips.

Your Own Car Versus a Hire Car

If you take your own car, GOV.UK says to bring the V5C log book and the insurance certificate. If you take a vehicle that is hired or leased in the UK, you need a VE103 certificate, which proves you are allowed to take it out of the country. Ask the leasing company well ahead, as it is their paperwork, not yours.

Hire cars abroad leave the equipment question with you. GOV.UK says that if you hire a car, you are responsible for having the required equipment, so ask at the desk what is in the boot before you drive away, rather than finding out from a police officer.

Stickers, Equipment and Local Rules

GOV.UK says many countries require extra equipment, such as a reflective jacket and a warning triangle. Some also require headlight converter stickers, and some require a UK sticker on the car. The guide says you might need a country sticker and links to separate guidance on flags, identifiers and stickers, so check the current rule for your country before you go rather than relying on an old sticker in the glovebox.

Some European cities require emission stickers, also called permits, and GOV.UK says you might need to buy them weeks before you travel. If your route crosses a city with a low emission zone, look that up early. Leaving it to the day of travel can mean a fine on the way in.

You must follow local rules, including speed limits and drink-driving laws, and GOV.UK warns that breaking them can lead to fines. Speed limits are shown in kilometres per hour, and a motorway limit in one country can differ from the next, so your satnav and the road signs matter more than your habits from home.

Towing a Trailer or Caravan Abroad

GOV.UK says that to tow a trailer over 750kg you need category BE on your licence, unless it is already shown. If you need to add it, complete form D1, which is free and available from most Post Offices, and send it to DVLA with a letter saying you are travelling abroad, plus your licence. Check whether you need to register your trailer, and whether you need a green card or additional insurance for the trailer or caravan too. Do all of this early, as it relies on the licence going to DVLA and coming back before you leave.

A Pre-Trip Checklist

A week before you travel, check four things. Is the licence valid, and do you hold the right permit for each country? Does the insurer cover each country on the route, and do you hold the paperwork? Does the car carry the V5C or VE103, plus the safety kit the countries on your route expect? And are there any cities on the route that need an emission sticker bought in advance? That list takes ten minutes to check and avoids most of the trouble drivers meet abroad.

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Sources:

• GOV.UK: Driving abroad: Overview
• GOV.UK: Driving abroad
• MoneyHelper: Car insurance when driving abroad
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