Driving in Europe: Austria Edition

Here’s where I provide my own cautionary tale so others don’t have to make the same mistake I did. This past weekend, we decided to set out for Salzburg Austria (as, undoubtedly, you will have figured out by the plethora of blog posts about Austria that you’ll be seeing in the next few days).

In getting our preparations together, we planned our route, our place to stay, and all of our activities. We had everything covered…everything except for one thing. And it could have been avoided if we did a simple search online for “Driving in Austria”. So without further ado, the highs and lows of driving in Austria. We’ll start with the low, because pretty much everything else was a high:

The Autobahn Vignette

In the US, we pay for tolls on the road as we drive. Lanes that require a sticker are clearly marked. This is not the case in Austria. Driving from Italy through the Brenner Pass (which is amazing) and just past Innsbruck, the Austria Autobahn requires a sticker, called a Vignette, to drive the roads. It’s a basic sticker that costs 8 Euro for 10 days. Not pricey at all. The problem is, it isn’t terribly clear that you need one, unless you’re fluent in German, of course. I only happened upon it searching information about a location we hoped to visit. The penalty for not having a sticker is steep: 120 Euro steep ($156). It took me 2 days to figure it out too (so 240 Euro steep for me).  The way they catch you? Cameras. Or at least, you hope they catch you with cameras, because if a cop pulls you over, they can demand 200 Euro in cash on the spot, plus the ticket you will get in the mail later. I can be grateful that I probably only have 1 or 2 pictures coming in the mail, and that the police didn’t notice my naivete. Apparently, the Vignette is also required in Switzerland, Slovenia, and Germany, among others.

Now on to the high points…

Side of the Road Wonders

Driving across country in the US usually reveals side of the road rest stops and deserted gas stations. However, in Europe, rest stops and deserted gas stations are replaced with deserted castles and rest “villages”. The drive from Italy to Austria also includes trips through the Dolomites and Alps. Plenty of side of the road photo ops, or if you’re like us, out the window photo ops.

 

Driving (and Drivers) on the Autobahn

If you listen to Rick Steves, you’ll avoid the Autobahn because he makes it into a hair-raising experience. If you’re like me, however, you’ll look forward to every chance to use the Autobahn, because you’ll find the best drivers in the world on it. I’m not kidding either. The rules are simple, if you’re slow, stay in the right lane. If you’re slow in the left lane, you get over. If you don’t get over, you deserve to be honked at or at least have lights flashed at you. And the best part, everyone gets it. Not once did I mutter out loud my usual rants in the car while driving in the US: “Get out of the way!” “Why are you going so slow” or, most importantly, “At least go the SPEED LIMIT!” (any one who has driven in the Midwest will appreciate that one). Even better, trucks are not allowed in the fast lane! The Autobahn is a perfect system where fast drivers can enjoy their freedom in the left lane and slow drivers can do whatever it is they do in the right.

Speaking of drivers, there’s one peculiar thing missing from the Autobahn that we regularly see on US Freeways: Skid marks. That’s right, I didn’t see one skid mark (and broken light fragments were curiously absent as well). Either the Austrians really know how to clean a highway, or people are more attentive while driving. I suspect it’s the latter.

No Speed Limit

This is a bit of a myth, there are speed limits on the Autobahn, but there are also stretches where the speed limit isn’t restricted. In fact, instead of having signs that indicate the new speed limit, the signs indicate when the old speed limit is over. My GPS told me that those “no speed limit” stretches had a limit of 130 km/hr, but I can tell you that I had cars pushing me much faster than that…What can I say, when in Rome (or Austria)…

Stop Lights

Now this doesn’t have anything to do with the Autobahn, but Curls and I noticed something very efficient about traffic lights in Austria. Green lights begin to blink when they’re about to go to yellow, and even better, the light turns yellow when it’s going from red to green (just like in races). There’s no guessing, you know when to start revving your engine (and believe me, everyone does on the yellow light). Curls and I both agreed that the US should adopt this as soon as humanly possible.

Gas prices and Cost

I put this under the good side of driving despite the fact that you pay 1.29-1.59 Euro per liter (not per gallon). Cars here have much better gas mileage than in the US. For example, we drove from the Treviso Italy area to Salzburg (5 hours of driving) on a half tank of gas (which is about Euro 40). I don’t care how you slice the gallons to liters ratio, that kind of mileage and price is unheard of in the US.  Also, another highlight of Austria is gas is much cheaper there. 1.29 in Salzburg vs. 1.59 in Treviso.

In the end, the cost to drive from Treviso to Salzburg was 18 Euro in tolls and a tank of gas (about 70 Euro). For 6 people, that’s much better than taking the train.

 

Overall, driving the Autobahn was more than a bucket list thing, it was invigorating. It would’ve been even better had I done a little homework about the Vignettes beforehand.