Austria on a UK Licence — Vignette First, Then the Side Switch & 0.05 Limit

Austria is one of Europe’s great driving countries — Alpine passes, immaculate roads and clear signage. Your UK licence is fully accepted with no International Driving Permit. But before you enjoy any of it, there’s a toll sticker most British drivers don’t know about until a camera does.

Buy the vignette before the first Autobahn

Austria charges a motorway vignette for every Autobahn and S-road, and you need it on the car before you join one. It’s sold as a windscreen sticker or a digital toll tied to your number plate, available at the border, petrol stations and online. There’s no toll booth to remind you — enforcement is camera-based, and the penalty for driving without a valid vignette runs far above the sticker price. Our Austria vignette guide walks through the options and durations, and the vignette calculator shows what your trip will cost. Note that certain high Alpine routes (Grossglockner, Brenner) carry separate tolls on top.

You’re switching to the right

The UK drives on the left; Austria drives on the right, so your instincts are reversed. The danger isn’t the motorway — it’s day one: pulling out of a fuel stop, a roundabout now flowing the other way, a glance in the wrong direction at a junction. Take your first hour on a quiet road, not central Vienna, and check every turn deliberately until it stops feeling backwards. Mountain roads also demand respect — use low gears on long descents.

Alcohol, speeds and the fine

Austria’s alcohol limit is 0.05, tighter than the 0.08 in England and Wales — one drink can put you over, so treat it as none. Limits are 130 km/h on motorways, 100 rural, 50 urban, with widespread cameras; speeding about 10 km/h over costs roughly EUR 30. Winter tyres are legally required in wintry conditions from November to April. You can estimate a penalty with our speeding fine calculator, and the full rules are on our Austria driving guide. Petrol is about $1.65/litre and the emergency number is 112.