I just picked up a rental car in Prague and we will be using it to visit Hungary, Austria, and Germany - barely touching into Slovakia along the way. We're doing a big loop. We are zipping quickly from city to city and will be using major highways whenever we can. Here in the Czech Republic the car has a pre-paid vignette for the motorway.
This question is just now occurring to me - do toll roads in any of these countries require some sort of vignette sticker or are there toll booths? We haven't driven roads in these countries in 20+ years and don't know what to expect now!
Thanks for your help!
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Austria - Yes, you need to have an Autobahn Vignette to drive on the Autobahns. You can buy this at the border.
Germany - No, the Autobahns are free
Hungary - Don't know, somebody else will have to answer.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19261 posts
I'm pretty sure that, for now anyway, the Autobahn is free for passenger cars - no stickers, no toll booths. I have heard indications that that might change in the future. For Austria, certain highways require that the car have a vignette. If you use ViaMichelin to determine the time and distance between two cities, it will tell you the tolls/fee for various routes. It also has a check box to find routes without tolls/fees.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33754 posts
In addition to the Vignette, Austria has a number (quite a lot, actually) of tunnels which require a toll in addition to the Vignette (because they are on motorways), and at least one private toll road not covered by the Vignette.
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
Germany has a toll tunnel somewhere up north (I think around Hamburg), but that's it. There's plans in the works to start a vignette system, but they have not yet implemented it. No additional costs to drive on any roads.
Austria- as mentioned previously.
Hungary... I don't know the exact details, but it's some kind of registration/vignette system.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
Both Hungary and Slovakia require you to buy toll vignettes near the border in order to drive on the faster roads within each country.
http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/driving-europe-tips