Serbia on an Indian Licence — Carry the IDP, Switch to the Right

For Indian travellers, Serbia is an easy place to pick up a car and drive — the new motorways are good, fuel is cheaper than home, and the country sits on the road route between Central Europe and Greece. The licence question is the simple part. What changes the way you actually drive is the side of the road.

You change sides — that is the headline

India drives on the left; Serbia drives on the right. That single difference is responsible for nearly every mistake first-time visitors make: pulling out of a fuel station onto the wrong lane, taking a roundabout the wrong way, or glancing the wrong direction at a junction. Give yourself a quiet stretch of road for the first half hour and check twice before every turn until it stops feeling reversed.

The permit you should be holding

Your Indian licence is accepted for stays of up to six months, and an International Driving Permit is recommended rather than strictly required. In practice the IDP matters at the rental counter and during roadside checks, because it presents your details in a format Serbian officers can read. Sort it in India before you fly — you cannot obtain one locally. If you are unsure what your specific case needs, the Driving Permit Checker settles it in a few clicks.

Speeds, cameras and what a fine costs

Town limits are 50 km/h, rural roads 80, and motorways a generous 130 km/h — faster than the 120 you are used to at home, so it is the urban 50 that catches people, not the open road. Serbia runs both fixed cameras and mobile patrols, and enforcement on the main corridors is consistent. A modest 10 km/h over the limit already starts at around RSD 5,000 and can reach RSD 20,000 depending on where and how fast. These are paid on the spot, so keep a payment method handy. You can sanity-check a likely penalty with the Speeding Fine Calculator, and if a rental ticket follows you home, our guide on who pays driving fines abroad explains how that works.

Drink-driving and the kit in the boot

The blood-alcohol limit is 0.03, the same low figure you have in India, so there is no adjustment to make there — treat it as no alcohol before driving. The car must legally carry a warning triangle, reflective vest, first-aid kit and spare bulbs; rental vehicles usually come equipped, but confirm it before you leave the lot. Petrol runs around $1.45 a litre, and supermarket-brand stations are the cheapest.

Before you set off, read the full rules on our Serbia driving guide. The emergency number across the country is 112, so save it now and download offline maps for the stretches where rural signal drops out.