Visiting Austria / Switzerland other countries?

[willis1337]

I appreciate that there is mention of this in the sticky FAQ but thought a post with more detail would be helpful as I visited Austria a couple of years back and didn't buy (and was blissfully unaware of) a vignette.

If you are visiting Austria, Switzerland or any other European country on tour I would check the link below for details, or risk a hefty fine if you are caught without one:

https://www.easyriderseurope.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=107&Itemid=119

[Marmalade]

It's only Austria or Switzerland that you'd need to buy one in on a bike, most other places like germany and czech are only required if in a car or in the main a vehicle over 3.5t
You can avoid buying if you make sure you don't use the motorways but for what they usually cost it's not worth the trouble
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[c-m]

It's Switzerland you have to pay tax (vignette). In Austria as long as you don't use the motorways, it's fine.

Saying that, I used the motorways in Austria and even parked up next to police at service stations, without any problems.

[Phoenix]

Well this thread is only going to get buried within a couple of weeks so it's no help really, the vignette information is already there if you search for it anyway which is the only way this thread will be retrieved.

c-m, you're somewhat wrong, the Swiss Vignette is only required, just like Austria, if you use the motorways, if you don't ride on the motorways then you do not need one. The difference between the 2 countries is that the Swiss make you pay for the entire year at about £40, the Austrians let you pay for 7 days or so if that's all you need.

Slovenia also has a vignette system for motorcycles, again, only if you use the motorway and it is cheap and can be bought for just 7 days too (sometimes petrol stations sell out of the 7 day passes).

Hungary also has a similar system too, once again only on the motorways, however the chances that you will need to use a motorway in Hungary are slim because there is only a couple and normal A/B road traffic travels fast enough to not need to use them.

Once thing I found confusing in Austria is that on motorways you will hit toll booths occasionally with lots of lanes and some of them having vignette symbols overhead. Naturally (if you can't read German) you assume that as you have a vignette you go in that lane to get through, these booths are for Maut which is totally seperate and for bridges, tunnels and some other stretches and must be paid regardless. I managed to get through one without paying by sitting at the tag barrier (think someone thought they'd let the muppet through) but the next one wasn't having it.

[c-m]

I really don't think you need to worry about it anywhere other Switzerland. You are right I was wrong you do only need the Swiss one for motorways.

I have travelled extensively in the region Czech Republic, Austria (lived there for a short time), Slovenia, Hungary.

In Slovenia they use an automated system to check your windscreen.

Mostly the police are pretty cool and don't care about bikes.

Still for £4-12 it's piece of mind.

[willis1337]