The question turns up in almost every enquiry we receive from outside Syria: I hold a licence from my own country — can I drive on it here, or do I need something extra?
It is a fair question, and it is answered badly almost everywhere online, because most of the pages that come up are selling a document rather than explaining one. So here is the document, plainly described: what it is, what we actually ask for at handover, and which half of the question is not ours to answer.
An International Driving Permit is not a licence
An International Driving Permit — IDP — is a booklet, not a licence. It translates the licence you already hold into several languages and restates its categories in a standard layout agreed internationally. It is issued in your own country, normally by a national automobile association or an equivalent authorised body, and it is issued on the strength of the licence you already have. It confers no right to drive on its own.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. If your national licence expires, is suspended, or is lost, the booklet in your pocket becomes waste paper on the same day. This is why you will never see an IDP presented alone anywhere in the world: it is always shown together with the licence it translates. Think of it as a certified translation with an official cover, not as a second licence.
Syria has been a party to the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic since January 1954 — the framework under which most IDPs are issued. Permits made under that convention are valid for one year from the date of issue. That is shorter than many travellers assume. If you obtained yours for a trip two summers ago and never thought about it since, check the date before you pack it.
What we ask for when you collect the car
We accept driving licences from every country. There is no nationality condition on renting from us, and a foreign licence is accepted as it stands — we do not ask you to convert it, translate it through us, or produce a local equivalent.
That covers everyone who writes to us: the Syrian expatriate home for a family visit, the Gulf visitor travelling for a fortnight, the engineer on a contract, the journalist, the returning student. The licence in your wallet is the licence we work with.
Two conditions apply equally to all of them. The driver must be at least 23 years old, and the licence must be valid on the dates of the hire — there is no requirement to have held it for any length of time. What does not apply is a deposit: Tab takes none on any car, so there is no cash to leave, no hold on a card, and no sanad amaneh — a signed undertaking — to put your name to. That is worth checking against whoever else you are comparing, because most companies in this market do take one of the three.
The same page carries that car's kilometre allowance, which likewise belongs to the car and not to the company.
The half we cannot answer for you
Here is the honest boundary, and we would rather draw it than blur it.
"What does the rental company require?" is our question, and it is answered above: your national licence, from any country, and an age of 23 or more.
"What does the law require me to be carrying while I drive?" is a different question. It touches traffic enforcement, roadside checks and insurance, it is not identical for every nationality, and it can change. No rental company anywhere should be your authority on it.
Before you travel, ask two bodies. First, whoever issues IDPs where you live — the automobile club or motoring association — whether an IDP is advised for Syria and how long yours would remain valid. Second, the Syrian diplomatic mission in your country of residence. Both enquiries cost you nothing more than a phone call, and both give you an answer that actually applies to your passport rather than to a generic traveller.
The conclusion most travellers reach on their own is the sensible one: if an IDP is straightforward to obtain where you live, obtain it and carry it. It weighs nothing and it lives in a pocket. Carrying a document you turn out not to need is a much smaller problem than needing one you left at home.
If you are a Syrian abroad
This case has its own wrinkle. Many expatriates hold two licences: a Syrian one issued years ago, and a current one from the country they now live in. The instinct is to choose between them. Don't — bring both if you have both, and check the expiry on each before you fly. An old Syrian licence that lapsed while you were away is not a fallback, and a licence you have not looked at in five years is exactly the kind of thing that turns out to have expired last spring.
Arriving and driving away
Most of our foreign customers meet their car the moment they land. We meet arrivals at Damascus International Airport and delivery there is free, as it is anywhere inside Damascus — so the licence conversation happens once, at the kerb, and then you drive. You can rent a car at Damascus Airport for exactly that reason.
If your trip runs across the country rather than out of one city, one-way rental is available: collect in one city and hand the car back in another. Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Latakia and Tartus all have their own pages, and the full picture of where we deliver is on our car rental across Syria page.
Before you book
- Your national licence, valid on both your collection and return dates.
- An IDP if your own country issues one and advises it — checked for its one-year expiry.
- Your passport.
- Age 23 or over for the driver.
- Nothing for a deposit, because there is none to leave.
Fuel is handed over full and comes back full, and cancellation is free. Everything else worth knowing about a particular car is on that car's page — and if a question survives all of that, put it in the booking form and we will answer it there.