Switzerland for Dutch Drivers — Buy the Vignette Before the Border

The first decision on a Swiss trip happens before you’ve driven a metre on a motorway: the vignette. Switzerland doesn’t have toll booths or per-kilometre charges — instead, one sticker on the windscreen buys you the entire motorway network. It costs around CHF 40, runs as an annual pass valid until the end of the following January regardless of when you buy it, and there is no daily or weekly version. Pick it up at the border crossing, the first petrol station, or online ahead of time, and stick it on properly. Get pulled over without one and it’s an on-the-spot fine plus the cost of the vignette. Our Switzerland vignette guide walks through where to buy and which roads need it.

For a Dutch driver the rest is reassuringly familiar. Switzerland keeps to the right, the same as home, and your Dutch licence is valid on its own — no International Driving Permit, no translation, just carry it. The alcohol limit matches the Netherlands at 0.05 BAC, so there’s no recalibration there either.

Where Switzerland differs from the flat, predictable Dutch network is altitude. The motorways are superb and run to 120 km/h — quicker than the 100 you’re used to — but the country’s character is in its passes: the Furka, the Susten, the Gotthard. These are sequences of tight hairpins where you’ll be in second gear for long stretches, sharing the road with cyclists, motorbikes and the occasional postbus that has priority on blind bends (listen for its three-note horn). Some high passes close entirely in winter; check before you commit to a route, and don’t assume a tunnel alternative is always open.

Enforcement is tight and Swiss fines are notoriously expensive. Town limit is 50 km/h, rural roads 80, and even 10 km/h over a limit costs around CHF 120 — serious overages can mean licence withdrawal and, in extreme cases, prosecution. Worth modelling a specific speed on the Speeding Fine Calculator if you’re tempted on an open motorway.

Petrol sits around EUR 1.92 a litre and the emergency number is 112. For parking rules, environmental stickers and the full picture, see the Switzerland driving guide.