Brazil on a Polish Licence — 140 Down to 110, an IDP & the Lei Seca

The number a Polish driver has to reset first is on the speedometer. Poland lets you run to 140 km/h on the motorway; Brazil caps it at 110. That is a 30 km/h drop, and it is not a soft guideline — Brazilian motorways are lined with fixed and mobile speed cameras, and the toll roads in particular are heavily monitored. Set your cruise low and resist the urge to flow with the faster local cars, because the camera does not care who started it.

Two pieces of admin come before the wheel, though. First, the permit: your Polish EU licence travels freely in Europe but is not accepted on its own in Brazil. You must carry an International Driving Permit with it, arranged in Poland before departure — it cannot be issued in Brazil, and the rental desk will check for both. Second, the alcohol law. Poland’s 0.02 is already strict; Brazil’s Lei Seca goes further to an effective zero, enforced with roadside breath-test operations that bring a heavy fine and immediate licence suspension on any positive reading.

After those, the driving is straightforward in principle. Brazil keeps to the right, like Poland, so no side-switch. Town limits are 60 km/h and rural roads 80. The toll motorways are good; surfaces fall away quickly on rural routes, and city traffic is assertive, so keep your following distance generous. A 10 km/h overshoot costs about BRL 130 (≈ €22) plus four licence points — and given the speed habit you are unlearning, that is the fine worth avoiding.

Fuel is cheap at roughly $1.15/litre and the emergency number is 190. Read the full rules on our Brazil driving guide, confirm the permit requirement with the Driving Permit Checker, and work out exactly what a speeding ticket would cost with the Speeding Fine Calculator. Carry cash for tolls outside the electronic lanes.