road taxes
 

My wife and i are traveling to switzerland and austria in May. We are driving from germany where there are no road taxes but I understand that there are road taxes in the countries mentioned. Where does one pay and/or pick up the road tax stickers?
Paul

In Austria, at various places (well-signposted) near the border, and a vignette can be bought for various lengths of time. In Switzerland, we got one at a service station but they may also be available at the actual border crossing. Either way, the only vignette available in Switzerland is an ANNUAL one, which costs approximately €35-40.

In Switzerland, you normally get them from the immigration officer at the border crossing -- Swiss francs or euros.

If it's a rental car, check to see if it doesn't have a vignette on the windscreen already, bought by a previous renter. The current Swiss sticker is light blue in colour with '07' superimposed. Austrian sticker looks like this: http://www.bmvit.gv.at/bilder/verkeh...vignette07.jpg

It's quite common for cars you hire in Switzerland's and Austria's neighbours to have Swiss or Austrian stickers on: not just on cars you collect in the country concerned. And sometimes they're still valid.

This is interesting! We drove our own car to Switzerland for a few days last October and had no idea we needed a sticker. Actually this is the first I've heard of it. We didn't get stopped or anything. I guess there aren't obvious signs. We're familiar with the Austrian vignette and speak some German, but apparently still missed it.

You only need stickers (vignettes) if you are going to use their motorway (Autobahn). When entering either country on Autobahn, it's pretty difficult (in fact impossible) to refuse to buy one (as it would be illegal to drive on), but when entering through an ordinary road you don't need to. If they ask (as they sometimes do), just say you don't intend to use their Autobahn.

How can you get caught driving without an Autobahn Vignette? Sometimes the Polizei do random inspection, stopping cars as they get on or off the autobahn ramps. They'll see if you're seat belt is on, what your tires look like and if you have an Autobahn Vignette.

We definitely entered Switzerland on the Autobahn (coming from Germany). I can't recall whether there was anyone at the border crossing or not, but we never saw anything about a vignette. Driving into Austria (also from Germany), there are signs all over the place.

I once entered Geneva on a French autoroute and had no intention of taking the autoroute in Switzerland, which I told the Swiss officer. He said "you're already on the autoroute" -- so I had to turn around and go back out into France to find a normal road to get into Switzerland without paying.