Romania for Chinese Drivers — IDP, Zero Alcohol & the Rovinieta

Romania is one of Europe’s great road-trip surprises — the Transfăgărășan, painted monasteries, the wide quiet of the Danube delta — but for a driver arriving from China it comes with three specific things to settle before the wheels turn, and none of them is the scenery.

The first is the road charge. Romania uses an electronic vignette called the rovinieta, and it is mandatory the moment you join a national road. There is no physical sticker; the plate is registered against your purchase, which you make at the border, at fuel stations or online. Skip it and the penalty dwarfs the few euros the vignette costs. If this is your first vignette country, our overview of how Europe’s road vignettes work explains the system and which neighbours run their own.

The second is alcohol, and Romania sits at the strict end of the scale: the limit is an absolute zero, 0.0, stricter than China’s 0.02. Any reading at all is an offence, enforced with handheld radar checks that police run extensively across the country rather than relying on fixed cameras. There is simply no allowance — don’t drink anything before driving.

The third is the licence. A Chinese licence on its own is not recognised in Romania, so you need a valid International Driving Permit carried alongside it and your passport. Arrange the IDP in China before you travel; rental companies will refuse the car without it. Once you are moving, the limits are 50 km/h in town, 90 rural and 130 on the motorway, but motorways are still patchy and most driving is on two-lane roads where you will share space with slow tractors and, genuinely, horse-drawn carts — overtake with patience and plenty of sight line. A 10 km/h overspeed costs RON 290-725 (roughly EUR 60-150), paid on the spot with a mandatory receipt; our guide on who pays driving fines abroad covers rental-car penalties.

Fuel is about EUR 1.42 a litre, the emergency number is 112, and the car must carry a warning triangle, vest, first-aid kit and fire extinguisher. Read the full rules on our Romania driving guide and check your paperwork with the Driving Permit Checker.