Austria on an Australian Licence — Side Switch, the Vignette & Winter Tyres

Austria is an easy country to drive once you clear three specific hurdles, and for an Australian driver each one is a genuine change from home. The road runs on the other side, the motorways are toll-by-sticker rather than free, and the law dictates your tyres in winter. None of it is hard — but each catches people who arrive unprepared.

The side switch comes first

Australia drives on the left; Austria drives on the right. The danger window is your first hour out of the rental car park — joining a roundabout that now turns anti-clockwise, pulling onto a road, the instinct to look the wrong way at a junction. Start somewhere quiet rather than central Vienna, and be deliberate at every turn until checking left-first stops feeling backwards.

Buy the vignette before the on-ramp

Austria’s motorways and expressways run on a vignette — a prepaid toll sticker or its digital equivalent that you must hold before you join. There is no toll booth to catch you; cameras read your plate, and being caught without a valid vignette costs far more than the sticker itself. Buy a 10-day or 2-month one at the border, a petrol station or online before your first motorway. Our vignette calculator shows the current options, and our Austria vignette guide walks through buying and displaying it.

Winter tyres are the law

From roughly November to mid-April, winter tyres are legally required when conditions are wintry — snow, ice or slush. A rental booked in that window should already be fitted, but confirm it at pickup, because the responsibility and any fine fall on the driver. This is not advisory in Austria the way it might feel at home.

Licence, speed and alcohol

Your Australian licence is valid for short stays, with an International Driving Permit recommended to carry alongside it — arrange it in Australia before flying. Motorways allow 130 km/h, faster than home, with towns at 50, and the alcohol limit is 0.05. A minor speeding fine starts around EUR 30; estimate yours on our speeding fine calculator. The emergency number is 112.

See the full rules on our Austria driving guide and check your documents with the Driving Permit Checker before collecting the car.