Driving across boarders in Europe

If you go to Austria.info they mention needing a vignette to drive on the motorways. There is a link on the website. They also give you other info like speed limits, international drivers license, and insurance.

If you have rented the car, be sure to tell the rental place what other countries you are visiting. There may be a small fee for that.

The Pickerl (Autobahn vignette) was mentioned already.

If you plan to drive between Nov 1 and Apr 15 ensure your car has winter tyres at winterly conditions (Austria sets dates, Germany does not). Main reason to mention is that in Austria the penalty for missing winter tyres is extremely high and can cost a multiple of a transatlantic economy flight if other traffic participants are endangered.

Also take care of the validity of foreign driving licences in the Federal Republic of Germany.

You will need an International Driver’s Permit from AAA to legally drive in Austria. Your rental car will likely have the Austrian vignette already - ask the car rental company.

I once rented a car in Germany and drove to Austria, and all I needed was the small vignette that Barbara mentioned. If you rent a car in Austria, it usually comes with it, but not if you rent in Germany.

And it is a good idea to inform your rental car agency that you are driving to another country. It shouldn't be an issue with Austria but still better to let them know.

Auto spell check can cause such challenges! I read your title and envisioned you driving across fellow boarders at your B and B…..

🤣🤣🤣, Carol!

Thank you for responding to my question. Yes, I meant to say borders... I will follow up with the car rental company. We hope to go Sept/Oct time frame, so hopefully we will not run into winter conditions then.

One way cross-border rentals can become very expensive. Maybe you check to do cross-border by train and rent one car in each country separately.

When we recently rented, we reserved online and the site said which countries we were allowed to drive in. When we picked up the car at Frankfurt we were asked which countries we were going to drive in. There were no additional charges.