Driving in Barbados on a Foreign Licence
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Grenada on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
91 exceptions recorded across 34 countries · none match Grenada to Barbados · Driving and licence exchange
This is the clearest divergence we found in Barbados between what the statute says and what the agency charges for. Since 2017 the Road Traffic Act has defined a driving licence to include a licence or other authorisation granted to a person of another jurisdiction authorising that person to drive, and section 61 forbids driving only without a valid driving licence authorising that class of vehicle. On the face of the Act, as consolidated to 2022, a visitor holding a valid licence from home is already the holder of a valid driving licence and needs nothing else. The Barbados Licensing Authority nevertheless publishes a Visitor Permit, states that a visitor is legally required to apply for one before driving on public roads, and charges $10 for stays under two months and $100 for longer. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs repeats the requirement on its visitor page. We could not find the provision that creates it.
At a glance
- What the Act requires
- A valid driving licence authorising you to drive that class of vehicle
- Does a foreign licence count as a driving licence under the Act
- Yes, since the definition was substituted in 2017
- Visitor Permit fee, stays under two months
- $10.00 BBD
The Barbados Licensing Authority's own figure. We found no instrument prescribing it.
- Visitor Permit fee, stays over two months
- $100.00 BBD
The Barbados Licensing Authority's own figure, for a permit it describes as valid for over two months.
- Minimum age for the permit the Licensing Authority states
- 16 years
The Authority's figure. The Act leaves the minimum driving age to be prescribed by order of the Minister.
- Penalty for driving without a licence
- A fine of $2 500 or imprisonment for a term of 2 years or both
Section 61(3) as amended by Act 2007-1. The fine is in Barbados dollars.
- Instrument creating the Visitor Permit
- None found in the Road Traffic Act as consolidated to 2022
Requirements
- A valid driving licence authorising you to drive that class of vehicle - which, since 2017, includes a licence granted in another jurisdiction
- To carry the licence or a government-issued identification card and produce it on demand to a police officer or transport inspector in uniform
- Third-party motor insurance in force for the use of the vehicle
- What the Licensing Authority asks for a Visitor Permit: age 16 or over, a valid international driver licence, a valid passport for stays over two months, a medical certificate for applicants aged 70 or over, and the fee
In detail
What the Act says
Section 61(1) makes it an offence to drive without being the holder of a valid driving licence authorising that class of vehicle. The term is defined in section 2, and since the definition was substituted by Act 2017-26 it has two limbs: a Barbadian licence under section 61, and a licence or other authorisation granted to a person of another jurisdiction authorising that person to drive, other than solely to learn. A visitor holding a valid licence from home therefore satisfies section 61 on the face of the Act. The consolidation the Ministry of Transport and Works publishes runs to Act 2022-21 and contains no visitor permit, no visitor registration certificate and no provision requiring a foreign driver to obtain anything.
What the Licensing Authority charges for
The Barbados Licensing Authority's own page says that a visitor's permit is an official representation of your eligibility to drive on the public roads of Barbados with an international driver licence, and that a visitor is legally required to apply for one before driving. It prices it at $10 for a stay under two months and $100 for longer, requires a passport for the longer permit and a medical certificate for applicants aged 70 or over, and sells it online in a few minutes. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs repeats the requirement and adds that permits are issued by most car rental companies. Neither page cites a provision, and we did not find one in the Act.
Country-level policy
Barbados publishes its law in three places that do not agree with each other about how current it is, and none of them says so on its face. The Supreme Court's statute library carries the Chapters, printed by the Government Printer, with a Law Revision Order year in the running head of each page - 2007 on the newest pages of the Immigration Act and the Income Tax Act, 1997 on the Income Tax pages that carry the residence and domicile rules. The Attorney General's Office carries annual Acts and statutory instruments, and its series of annual Acts stops at 2020. The Government Printing Department publishes the Official Gazette, which is where an Act of 2021 or later is actually found. A reader looking for the law in force has to use all three, and an amendment made between 2021 and today is invisible in the first two.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Grenada
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«a licence or other authorisation granted to a person of another jurisdiction authorising that person to drive a motor vehicle on a road or highway other than solely for the purpose of learning to drive;»Cited to the resulting definition in Chapter 295, naming the Act that substituted it. Paragraph (a) is a Barbadian licence under section 61. The definition is of the term used throughout the Act, including in section 61 itself.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The ministry responsible for road traffic law, and the publisher of the only readable and current consolidation of the Road Traffic Act Chapter 295. Its edition incorporates amendments up to Act 2022-21, carries the historical note for each provision in square brackets, and is materially newer than the Chapter in the judiciary's statute library, which is largely a scan.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It consolidates and does not issue. The document lists the Acts it incorporates and the Law Revision Orders behind it but states no date to which it is current, so the last Act named is not a cut-off and must not be recorded as one. It does not publish the subsidiary legislation made under the Act, which is where any visitor driving permit would have to be found, and it does not publish fees.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«no person shall drive a motor vehicle of any class or description on a road unless he is the holder of a valid driving licence authorising him to drive a motor vehicle of that class or description.»Subject only to section 63, which is the regulation test provision. The prohibition is on driving without a valid driving licence - and a foreign licence is one.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The ministry responsible for road traffic law, and the publisher of the only readable and current consolidation of the Road Traffic Act Chapter 295. Its edition incorporates amendments up to Act 2022-21, carries the historical note for each provision in square brackets, and is materially newer than the Chapter in the judiciary's statute library, which is largely a scan.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It consolidates and does not issue. The document lists the Acts it incorporates and the Law Revision Orders behind it but states no date to which it is current, so the last Act named is not a cut-off and must not be recorded as one. It does not publish the subsidiary legislation made under the Act, which is where any visitor driving permit would have to be found, and it does not publish fees.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Any person who contravenes this section is guilty of an offence and is
liable on summary conviction to a fine of $2 500 or to imprisonment for a term
of 2 years or both.»About this source
The ministry responsible for road traffic law, and the publisher of the only readable and current consolidation of the Road Traffic Act Chapter 295. Its edition incorporates amendments up to Act 2022-21, carries the historical note for each provision in square brackets, and is materially newer than the Chapter in the judiciary's statute library, which is largely a scan.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It consolidates and does not issue. The document lists the Acts it incorporates and the Law Revision Orders behind it but states no date to which it is current, so the last Act named is not a cut-off and must not be recorded as one. It does not publish the subsidiary legislation made under the Act, which is where any visitor driving permit would have to be found, and it does not publish fees.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«The driver of a motor vehicle on a public road shall have his driving
licence or a government-issued identification card in his possession and
produce it for examination on being required to do so by a member of the
Police Force or a transport inspector in uniform»A driver who produces an identification card instead must produce the licence at a designated police station within 24 hours.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The ministry responsible for road traffic law, and the publisher of the only readable and current consolidation of the Road Traffic Act Chapter 295. Its edition incorporates amendments up to Act 2022-21, carries the historical note for each provision in square brackets, and is materially newer than the Chapter in the judiciary's statute library, which is largely a scan.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It consolidates and does not issue. The document lists the Acts it incorporates and the Law Revision Orders behind it but states no date to which it is current, so the last Act named is not a cut-off and must not be recorded as one. It does not publish the subsidiary legislation made under the Act, which is where any visitor driving permit would have to be found, and it does not publish fees.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
Practical notes
We could not reconcile the two. Either the permit is created by subsidiary legislation we did not reach - the Act gives the Minister wide regulation-making powers - or it survives as an administrative charge after the 2017 amendment removed the need for it. A visitor planning to drive should expect to be asked for it regardless, since the rental companies issue it and the Authority sells it.
Secondary accounts state that the visitor permit was abolished with effect from 15 October 2025 and replaced by a car rental levy. We found no instrument doing that, and both the Licensing Authority and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were still publishing the requirement when this was read. The claim is recorded here as unconfirmed, not adopted.
The Road Traffic Act quoted here is the consolidation the Ministry of Transport and Works publishes, which lists its amendments up to Act 2022-21. The copy on the Law Courts statute site is an older edition and much of it is a scan with no text behind it; nothing here is quoted from that copy.
This record rests on sections 2, 61 and 74 of the Road Traffic Act Chapter 295 as consolidated by the Ministry of Transport and Works, the Barbados Licensing Authority's visitor permit page and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visitor page.
- consolidatesRoad Traffic Act, Chapter 295, consolidated to Act 2022-21
Ministry of Transport and Works of Barbados
About this source
The ministry responsible for road traffic law, and the publisher of the only readable and current consolidation of the Road Traffic Act Chapter 295. Its edition incorporates amendments up to Act 2022-21, carries the historical note for each provision in square brackets, and is materially newer than the Chapter in the judiciary's statute library, which is largely a scan.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It consolidates and does not issue. The document lists the Acts it incorporates and the Law Revision Orders behind it but states no date to which it is current, so the last Act named is not a cut-off and must not be recorded as one. It does not publish the subsidiary legislation made under the Act, which is where any visitor driving permit would have to be found, and it does not publish fees.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- administersVisitor Permit
Barbados Licensing Authority
About this source
The authority that issues driving licences, registers vehicles and sells the visitor permit. Its service pages state what it requires of a visitor who wants to drive - a minimum age, an international driver licence, a passport for longer stays, a medical certificate over seventy - and the fees it charges, and it issues the permit online.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It administers and does not issue instruments, and its statement that a visitor is legally required to hold a permit is not supported by the Road Traffic Act as consolidated to 2022, which since 2017 has defined a driving licence to include a licence granted in another jurisdiction. It must not be cited for whether a permit is required in law, only for what the Authority publishes and charges. It carries no revision dates and no citation to any provision.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- administersPlanning to visit
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados
About this source
The ministry responsible for consular policy and for CARICOM affairs, and the Government's voice on both. It publishes the complete visa table for every country in the world - the only such list any Caribbean country in this comparison puts out as a readable document - and it published the frequently asked questions for the launch of enhanced cooperation in free movement on 1 October 2025, including the Government's own answer to which laws govern it.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It administers and does not issue: nothing it publishes is an instrument, and its free movement FAQ is explicitly an explanation of a decision rather than a text of law. Its visa table carries its own revision date - August 2022 - and nothing says whether it has been reviewed since, so it must not be cited as the position today without checking. Its visitor page states a driving permit requirement that the Road Traffic Act as consolidated to 2022 does not contain.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source