Switzerland on a Brazilian Licence — The CHF 40 Vignette & an IDP

Good news for Brazilian visitors: Switzerland drives on the right, the same as home, so there’s no side switch to fear. The traps here are paperwork, a sticker, and a counter-intuitive twist on the alcohol limit.

First, the sticker, because it bites on day one. Switzerland charges a single annual motorway vignette of CHF 40 to use its motorways — there are no toll booths, so the vignette is the toll. Buy it at the border, a post office, or online as an e-vignette linked to your numberplate, and do it before you join the first motorway. Get caught on a motorway without one and you pay about CHF 200 plus the vignette anyway. The Switzerland vignette guide shows exactly where and how.

On paperwork, you need an International Driving Permit alongside your Brazilian licence — sort it in Brazil before you fly, as you can’t get one in Switzerland. Carry the IDP, licence and passport together; rental desks and police expect the set.

Now the twist worth flagging: Switzerland’s drink-drive limit is 0.05 BAC, which is looser than the zero-tolerance regime you drive under at home. Don’t read that as permission to relax — Swiss penalties escalate hard past the limit, and a misjudged second glass abroad is an expensive way to end a holiday. Treat one drink as the ceiling.

Everything else is about discipline. Towns are 50 km/h, open roads 80, motorways 120, and Switzerland runs one of the densest camera networks in Europe plus active patrols on the mountain passes — a different world from Brazilian enforcement. A 10 km/h overshoot is about CHF 120, with the scale steepening sharply above; the speeding fine calculator makes that concrete. On the high passes, use engine braking downhill rather than riding the brakes, and check whether your route needs winter tyres in the cold season.

Petrol runs about $1.92/litre and 112 reaches all services. The full local ruleset is on our Switzerland driving guide.