Austrian Highway Pass
 

I understand that it is now necessary to purchase a special pass to use the highways in Austria. When one enters Austria from another country, the border guards can issue this permit. Has anyone had experience with the procedure? Is it a major deal? How much is it and might my rental car company in Munich already have bought one? How long does the process take? Any info would be appreciated.

When we rented a car in Salzburg they told us we needed one, and it was just done as part of the rental. Don't remember how much it cost, but it didn't take any extra time to get it.

I'm anxious to hear any replies to your message since we are leaving in three days for Germany and Austria. We too are renting a car in Munich - in fact, we wanted to take a brief trip to Venice but were told by the rental company (Avis) that we are forbidden to take their cars into Italy. I've read that we can purchase the Austrian road pass at any place near the border at perhaps $10.00 (?) Hope you have a good trip - see you there... Judy <BR>

We rented a car in Germany and drove into Austria. I rolled down my window at the border and when the Austrian border guard looked at me, I said "just an American tourist" He then said, "You'll have to pay our highway tax". If I had just driven through, I would have been waved on like the rest of the traffic, but by saying something, I had to pay the tax which was only equal to about 5 or 6 dollars.

We returned last night from our trip to Germany and Austria. I had wondered earlier on this forum about the highway pass - however, when we drove from Munich toward Salzburg and crossed the border, we didn't even see a place to stop - in fact we were rather unaware of the border. We asked a hotel clerk in Salzburg about it, and she said that we were supposed to have one, but she didn't know where we could get one. A few days later we received a parking ticket in Graz at the railway station where we had parked our car for about 25 minutes - we couldn't read the German sign, but we made out that it said something about 45 minutes, so we thought we had that long. It turned out that we had to have a special parking tag to park anywhere there - this holds true for many cities, I guess, especially Vienna (now that was something!) We never bought a highway pass, and we later went back into Austria to visit Innsbruck from the direction of Oberammergau, and once again failed to see anyplace to buy a pass. <BR>

In order to use the Austrian Autobahns,you must purchase a sticker, which they call it Vignette. Custom office at the border crossing do not sell them, it must be purchased at a local gas station or store. We were told that it was difficult, if not impossible to locate a place to purchase these vignettes at the border. <BR> <BR>We entered Austria at the Lichtenstein border. The border inspector checked our passport, but never mentioned the fact that a vignette was required. a couple of miles down the road, we were pulled over by a police road block, told that we were not authorized to use their autobahn, and fined us ATS 1,100.,00 ($150.00), plus ATS 300.00 ($50.00) speeding ticket for good measure. We had to pay on the spot, otherwise they have the right to confiscate your valuables, and even throw you in jail. They handed me a paper in English indicating these conditions. In Salzburg, we got a parking ticket where we were told by locals we could park. <BR>At an information location down the road, we were told by the attendant that police will set up at the information station to catch unsuspecting tourist like ourselves, who are not aware of the vignette requirement. They told us most are unsuspecting American, and we should complain to Austrian authorities upon our return to the US. <BR> <BR>There is not question in my mind that border inspector, who checked our passport, radioed ahead to police road block about another sucker heading your way. <BR> <BR>Austrian have found an easy revenue producing scheme, which will be difficult to change. It will be a while before I return to Austria.

Did any of you ever get the feeling while in Austria that they have an awful lot of "rules!!" We didn't find it a particularly appealing country although it is very beautiful and the food is great, but the rules got in my way!! Glad we didn't try to drive in---took the train out and down to Italy to the Alto Adige which is a blend of Italian and Austrian and much friendlier! I too think your rental car agency should have informed you about this and you should have some recourse with them if you told them you were going to Austria. <BR>

We just returned from a road trip in southern Germany and Austria. You will only need the "vignette" (tax sticker) if you use the Autobahn. It is not required on any other highway. They can be purchased at any gas station or convenience-type store at or near the border. They are sold in varying lengths of time, but for a tourists purposes the 10 day sticker is the most popular. They cost about 7.00 USD. If you are renting a car you might ask if they have a car with the sticker already intact; ours had one but it had expired so we needed a new one.(But we turned our car in with 7 days time remaining on the sticker. So it would pay to ask when you pick up the car.) The rental car companies do not provide the stickers; unless you are lucky enought to get a car with an up-to-date sticker intact, you are responsible for getting the sticker if you intend to drive on the Austrian autobahn. Oh yes, and there is a steep fine for not having the sTicker if you get stopped. We did see some random police stops along the road; don't know whether it was specifically to check for the sticker, but if you are stopped for ANY reason and don't have the tax sticker while using the Autobahn you WILL be fined!!! Hope this helps and haben sie eine gute reise!~