Riding in Austria: vignette, tolls and the Tyrol noise ban

Carry your licence with the motorcycle category, the registration document and your insurance certificate. EU licences are valid as they are, and UK photocard licences don't need an International Driving Permit. UK-registered bikes need no green card in Austria, according to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, but they do need a UK identifier on the rear.

Every vehicle up to 3.5 tonnes needs a vignette to use Austrian motorways (Autobahnen) and expressways (Schnellstraßen). Motorcycles have their own, cheaper vignette. The types are:

• 1-day and 10-day: valid straight away, even when bought online.
• 2-month and annual: if you buy the digital version online from ASFINAG, the earliest start date is 18 days after purchase. That is a consumer-protection cooling-off period. Buy it at a sales outlet or toll station instead and it is valid at once.

The digital vignette is linked to your number plate, so there's nothing to stick on the bike. ASFINAG is ending the sticker: from 2027 the vignette is sold only in digital form. Type your plate in carefully: the vignette is only valid for the plate you enter. The annual vignette runs from 1 December of the year before the one printed on it to 31 January of the year after.

A weekend crossing through Tyrol to the Dolomites usually needs only the 10-day vignette. Prices change each year: check them on the ASFINAG site before you buy, and buy from ASFINAG or an official outlet.

Some motorway stretches charge a separate section toll (Streckenmaut) that the vignette doesn't cover: the A13 Brenner motorway, the A10 Tauern motorway, the A9 Pyhrn motorway, the A11 Karawanken motorway and the S16 Arlberg expressway with its tunnel. You pay at the toll station; check the motorcycle rate on the ASFINAG site.

The big alpine roads are separate again. The Grossglockner High Alpine Road is a private toll road with its own motorcycle tickets and is closed in winter; it usually opens in early May and closes in early November, with dates set by snow. See our Grossglockner day loop for how to ride it.

Road	Default limit
Built-up areas	50 km/h
Outside built-up areas	100 km/h
Motorways	130 km/h

Some motorway sections carry a lower limit, often 100 km/h, under the air-quality law (IG-L); these are signposted, sometimes on electronic gantries, and they are enforced. Austria has sharply raised penalties for very high speeds, up to taking the vehicle in the worst cases, so don't treat an empty pass road as a track.

On motorways and dual carriageways with at least two lanes, every road user, motorcyclists included, must keep an emergency corridor (Rettungsgasse) open as soon as traffic starts to slow, as the Austrian government’s oesterreich.gv.at sets out. Don't ride in it. Blocking it can cost a four-figure fine if emergency vehicles are held up.

Tyrol bans loud motorcycles from some of its most popular roads. The ban covers motorcycles whose stationary noise level, the near-field figure in the registration papers, is above 95 dB(A). It runs each year from mid-April to the end of October and has covered these roads in the Reutte district:

• the Lechtal road (B198)
• the Tannheim road (B199)
• the Berwang–Namlos road (L21)
• the Hahntennjoch (L72 and L246)
• the Bschlabs road (L266)

The Fernpass road (B179) has not been part of the ban. Police check the figure in the registration papers at the roadside. The list of roads is set each year: check the current status on the Land Tirol website before you plan a route through the Lechtal.

On a bike, the air-quality rules you're most likely to meet in Austria are the lower IG-L speed limits on some motorway sections described above. If your trip continues into France, check the Crit'Air rules on our France page.

Fuel stations are frequent in the valleys and scarce on the high roads, so fill up before a pass rather than after. The high passes open from late spring and close with the first heavy snow, which can come in October. The valleys and lower roads stay rideable longer. July and August bring the crowds and the closures; June and September are the sweet spots.

From Calais, most riders cross Belgium and Germany to enter Austria at Kufstein or via the Arlberg, a two-day ride for most. Remember: no toll in Germany, a vignette the moment you join an Austrian motorway. Many riders combine Austria with the Dolomites in Italy and the Swiss passes.

• Grossglockner High Alpine Road: the classic Austrian pass day, with stays in central Austria.
• Tyrol biker hotels: the base for the Lechtal, the Hahntennjoch, the Timmelsjoch and the run south over the Brenner.
• The Dolomites and the Stelvio: an easy reach from Tyrol over the border into Italy.