Driving in Bangladesh on a UK Licence — Same Side as Home, but Honestly Think Twice

Yes, a British visitor can drive in Bangladesh, but the UK licence does not work by itself. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office is blunt: you need a 1949 International Driving Permit and your UK driving licence together, and you cannot buy the IDP once you have left the UK. Bangladesh has been party to the 1949 Convention since 1978, which is why that particular permit is the one that counts. Traffic keeps to the left, as at home. Almost everything else is different.

Get the 1949 permit before the flight

This is the step that cannot be fixed on arrival. Arrange it in Britain; nobody in Dhaka can issue one to you. Check that the one you are given is the 1949 version, keep it with the photocard licence, and carry your passport as well. If you pick up a car with a driver instead, none of this applies to you, and you can skip straight to the safety notes below. The Driving Permit Checker shows which permit other countries on your route expect.

Left-hand traffic, but not British traffic

The side of the road is the only part that will feel natural. The mix on it will not. The Foreign Office lists the reasons accidents are common: poor driving standards, many unlicensed or unroadworthy vehicles, and large numbers of rickshaws sharing the carriageway. Add buses, motorbikes, handcarts and people on foot, and lane discipline as a British driver knows it stops being a useful idea. Leave space on every side, expect vehicles to stop or pull out without warning, and treat the horn as information rather than insult.

Speed limits that look like a misprint

Search for UK speed limits and you get 30, 60 and 70 mph. Bangladesh works on a completely different scale.

Lorries are held to 30 km/h on rural roads. In practice congestion often keeps you below even these figures, so plan journeys by time of day rather than distance. A trip that looks short on a map can take most of an afternoon.

Why the Foreign Office says avoid night driving

After dark the risk climbs sharply. Many drivers do not use headlights at all, and others drive on undipped beams, so you are dazzled by one vehicle and cannot see the next. There is also a risk of robbery on journeys between towns after nightfall. The official line is to avoid driving alone at night. If an inter-city trip runs late, stop short and finish it in the morning.

Rickshaws, ride-hailing and buses

You will share the road with cycle rickshaws on main routes, and the Foreign Office warns they offer little protection in a collision, so think twice before riding in one on a busy road. Uber operates in Bangladesh and drivers generally take cash. Because police often cannot verify private hire drivers’ details, run the checks yourself:

• wait somewhere safe, not out on the street
• match the plate, make and model (plates are usually in Bangla; the app shows them in English)
• ask the driver to say your name, and compare their face with the app photo
• share the trip with someone you trust and leave GPS tracking on

Buses carry their own warnings: poor maintenance, no seat belts and frequent fatal crashes. Avoid them alone and at night.

Zero alcohol and one number

Bangladesh’s legal limit is 0.0. A single drink puts you over it, so there is no “one pint” margin of the kind some drivers assume at home. For police, ambulance or fire the number is 999, the same digits you already know, which is one less thing to remember in a crisis. The minimum age to drive a car is 18, a year older than in the UK.

If you still want to self-drive

Speak to your insurer before you book; cover written for UK roads may not stretch this far. Collect the car in daylight, drive the first day outside rush hour, and keep the IDP, licence and passport in the same place. Fuel has been running at about $1.05 a litre. The Bangladesh driving guide has the general rules, and the driving fines abroad guide explains who pays when a hire car is involved.

Sources

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Bangladesh travel advice, safety and security (1949 IDP plus UK licence; IDP only available in the UK; driving standards; night driving; rickshaws; ride-hailing; buses): gov.uk