Driving to Croatia in 2026: vignettes, tolls and the cost

Anyone driving to the Adriatic from Germany or Austria passes through three toll systems. Austria and Slovenia sell vignettes tied to the number plate, Croatia charges per stretch driven at toll plazas. The prices in this article are as of 8 September 2026 from the official ASFINAG, DARS and Croatian Motorways websites; fuel is not included.

Austria: the vignette and two tunnels

• Vignette for a car up to 3.5 t: 1 day 9.60 euros, 10 days 12.80, 2 months 32.00, a year 106.80. Motorcycle: 3.80, 5.10, 12.80 and 42.70 euros.
• The digital vignette is bought on asfinag.at and is valid for the number plate. Bought online, the 1-day and 10-day vignettes can be valid immediately; the 2-month and annual vignettes are valid only from the 18th day after the online purchase (consumer protection rule).
• Two tunnels are charged on top of the vignette: Karawanken (A11) 9.00 euros per passage, Tauern and Katschberg together (A10) 15.00 euros per passage, each on its own 7.50.

From 1 December: Austria sells only the digital vignette

The fiery red 2026 sticker is the last one. According to the Austrian motoring club ÖAMTC, from 1 December 2026 every Austrian vignette is sold only in digital form: the 1-day, 10-day, 2-month and annual vignette. The motorway operator ASFINAG says the dual system of sticker and digital vignette ends with the 2026 vignette year and that from 1 February 2027 only digital versions exist in Austria (ASFINAG, ÖAMTC). The digital vignette is tied to the number plate, not the windscreen. According to ASFINAG the 2027 annual vignette costs 108.90 euros from 1 January 2027; bought by 31 December 2026 it costs 106.80 euros (2027 vignette).

• Until 30 November 2026: the 2026 sticker and the digital vignette are both on sale.
• From 1 December 2026: new vignettes are digital only. According to ÖAMTC the 2027 annual vignette runs for 14 months, from 1 December 2026 to 31 January 2028.
• Until 31 January 2027: a 2026 annual sticker already on the windscreen stays valid.
• From 1 February 2027: only digital vignettes are valid in Austria.

What it means for visitors in December

If you drive to Zagreb for Advent or to the coast for Christmas, from December you buy the vignette in advance online or at a sales point. Online, the 1-day and 10-day vignettes are valid at once, the 2-month and annual vignettes only from the 18th day after purchase. At selected petrol stations and tobacconists, at toll stations and vending machines, and at ÖAMTC and ARBÖ this waiting period does not apply: you give your plate, the vignette is booked into the system on the spot and is valid immediately (ASFINAG help). Keep the confirmation, because ÖAMTC says any later change of plate needs the product ID printed on it. If you drive a rental or borrowed car, ASFINAG's vignette register (Vignettenevidenz) shows whether a valid vignette is already booked for that plate. On the way to Advent in Zagreb you also need the Slovenian e-vignette and, from 15 November, winter equipment on Croatia's designated winter roads.

Slovenia: an e-vignette even for 40 kilometres

• Car (class 2A): weekly 16.00 euros, monthly 32.00, annual 117.50. Vehicles higher than 1.30 m above the front axle, which means most campervans and vans (class 2B): 32.00, 64.10 and 235.00 euros. Motorcycle: weekly 8.00, half-year 32.00, annual 58.70.
• The e-vignette is bought on evinjeta.dars.si, is tied to the number plate and runs from the date you choose. Cameras check it; driving without one costs 300 to 800 euros.
• You need it even if you are only passing through: the Karawanken to Ljubljana to Obrežje stretch towards Zagreb and the motorway from Sežana to Kozina on the way from Trieste towards Rijeka are both vignette roads; the main road from Kozina to Starod is not. The old roads are free but cost hours.

Croatia: no vignette, tolls per stretch

• Car prices from Zagreb (Lučko) on the A1: Karlovac 2.80 euros, Rijeka 10.10, Zadar 17.60, Šibenik 22.10, Split 26.40, Ploče (Karamatići) 33.70. All including VAT.
• Campervans and vans higher than 1.90 m are group II: Zadar 28.20, Split 41.40 euros. Motorcycles pay less: Zadar 10.80, Split 15.80.
• You pay by card, in cash or with an ENC transponder. HAC credits every ENC top-up with a 21.74 percent discount, so Lučko to Split uses about 20.70 euros of credit instead of 26.40; when the device pays off is explained further down.

Two worked examples

• Munich to Split via Salzburg, Villach, the Karawanken tunnel, Ljubljana and Zagreb: Austria 10-day vignette 12.80 + Tauern 15.00 + Karawanken 9.00 = 36.80 euros; Slovenia weekly vignette 16.00; Croatia Lučko to Split 26.40. Total one way 79.20 euros.
• Munich to Zadar the same way: 36.80 + 16.00 + 17.60 = 70.40 euros one way. On the way back the tunnels and the Croatian tolls are paid again, the vignettes only if they have expired: the Austrian one after 10 days, the Slovenian one after 7.

What is easy to miss

Vehicle height decides the price, and at different points: in Slovenia the line is 1.30 m above the front axle, in Croatia 1.90 m overall height. A campervan with a roof box easily crosses both. Both vignettes are valid for the plate, not the vehicle, so a replacement car needs a new one. Coming from Italy you need the Slovenian vignette already for the stretch from Trieste towards Rijeka; coming from Poland or Czechia via Hungary you need the Hungarian e-vignette (nemzetiutdij.hu) and then pay Croatian tolls on the A4 from Goričan. Fuel, ferries and parking are a separate story.

What you need by starting point

The worked examples use the Salzburg and Villach route from Munich. From Vienna the A2 via Graz has no tunnel surcharges, and the Slovenian motorway from Šentilj via Maribor reaches the Croatian A2 at Macelj, tolled to Zagreb like the A1. From Linz the A9 adds the Bosruck and Gleinalm tunnels, charged on top of the vignette like the Tauern. From Italy the Slovenian motorway from Sežana to Kozina (vignette required) connects to the ordinary main road via Starod to Rijeka and Dalmatia. For Istria you stay on the motorway to Koper and continue to the Dragonja crossing; if you come straight from Trieste via Škofije, the coastal expressway to Koper and Izola has needed no vignette since 1 January 2026. The Istrian Y motorway beyond has its own tariff from Bina Istra; a HAC ENC works there only with a separate Bina Istra ENC account, otherwise you pay by card or in cash.

Buying the vignettes before you leave

Buy both vignettes before you leave, on the official sites only, and type the plate exactly as printed, with the country of registration. A typo makes the vignette worthless. Both sites take foreign cards and send a confirmation email, keep it on your phone. If you forgot: petrol stations on the German side of the border sell the 10-day sticker only until the end of November, and from 1 December Austria sells only the digital vignette (see above). Petrol stations and motoring clubs near the Karawanken sell the Slovenian e-vignette at the till. The Tauern and Karawanken tolls can be bought in advance on asfinag.at as a digital section toll, which lets you use the video lane at the tunnel and skip the queue.

At the Croatian toll plaza

Most Croatian motorways are a closed system: you take a ticket at the entry barrier and present it at the exit, where the price for that stretch shows on the display. A few toll points work as an open system with a single plaza and no ticket, among them Bregana on the A3 at the Slovenian border and Rupa on the A7 north of Rijeka, where you pay once as you pass. Lanes marked ENC are for transponders only, the rest take cards and cash. Keep the ticket where you can find it: arriving at the exit without it, or with a ticket older than 24 hours and no proof of why you were held up, costs a contractual penalty of twice the toll for the longest route to that exit. The Zagreb bypass is free, so drivers from Ljubljana pay the open plaza at Bregana and then take the ticket for the south at Lučko. On summer Saturdays the queues at Lučko and at Dugopolje, the last plaza before Split, are the longest, and the ENC lanes are the ones that keep moving.

The ENC: price, discount and top-ups

The ENC is a small transponder for the windscreen that opens the barrier without a ticket. HAC sells it for 15.00 euros at its sales offices, and it works on the A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A10 and A11 and on the D425 link to Ploče. It runs as a prepaid account: each top-up is credited with the 21.74 percent discount, and the credit never expires. The device belongs to a vehicle group, not to a number plate, so it moves to a hire car of the same group, but it can never pay for two cars at once. After the purchase it works after 30 minutes on HAC motorways and after 2 hours on those of other operators.

For a single holiday the sums are close. Lučko to Split and back costs 52.80 euros by card; the ENC discount saves about 11.50 euros of that, less than the 15.00 euros the device costs. It pays from the second long return trip, for families who drive to the coast every year, or for anyone who wants the ENC lanes on a summer Saturday. At the heaviest peaks HAC may also open those lanes to cards and cash. Topping up works four ways:

• At the marked exit lanes of the toll plazas, 24 hours a day, by card or in cash.
• Online on the HAC sales portal prodaja.hac.hr by card, or with the Aircash app.
• With SMS vouchers of 20, 50, 100 or 160 euros from petrol stations such as INA, Petrol and Tifon, sent by text to 611000, or to +385 91 208 0422 from a foreign mobile number.
• At Petrol stations: since June 2026, 199 of them in Croatia handle ENC top-ups, all except those in marinas.

A new system is on its way. Under the name Crolibertas, HAC is fitting gantries over the motorways for free-flow tolling: no barriers, with the toll charged by distance through the ENC or, for cars without one, by number plate recognition. As of October 2026 the gantries are being installed and tested but do not charge; an ENC that beeps under one is being read for the tests, and nothing is debited. Until HAC announces the switch, ticket and barrier stay as described above. Toll law NN 156/2025 brings the new rules into force on 1 March 2027. What that means for visitors: Barrier-free tolls from March 2027.

Roadworks on the way, as of 15 October 2026

• Zagreb zapad, planned for 17 to 26 October 2026: HAC scheduled repairs to the expansion joints on the western bridge of the interchange, where the A2 from Zaprešić, the route from Macelj, meets the Zagreb bypass and the A3 towards Lučko. In the first two phases traffic from the A2 towards the A3 crosses the overpass on one lane; in the third phase, at night and in quiet hours, the overpass closes and all A2 traffic takes the separate service carriageway. All arms of the interchange stay open, and the carriageway towards Zaprešić stays free of works. HAC expects longer queues coming from Zaprešić, above all at peak hours (index.hr).
• A1 between Gornja Ploča and Sveti Rok, until December: the Grabara and Ričica bridges are being repaired, and traffic runs in both directions on the carriageway towards Dubrovnik. The works are due to finish in December (Novi list, citing HAK and HAC).

Before you set off, check the road conditions page of HAK, the Croatian Auto Club, or HAC's free LiveTrafficHR app. Closures, wind restrictions and queues at the plazas change during the day, and on a busy changeover Saturday a different departure time usually helps more than any toll saving.

Common mistakes

The wrong Austrian vignette is the usual overspend. For a return within 10 days the 10-day vignette at 12.80 euros covers both crossings. For a longer holiday, 2 separate 1-day vignettes cost 19.20 euros, well under the 2-month vignette at 32.00, because Munich to the Karawanken tunnel fits comfortably in a day. In Slovenia the arithmetic is flat: 2 weekly vignettes cost the same 32.00 as a monthly one, so the monthly only pays if you cross Slovenia 3 times within a month. Set each start date to the day you cross: the Slovenian week counts from that date.

• Driving into an empty ENC lane without a transponder: the barrier stays down and you reverse out in front of the queue.
• Taking the Loibl pass to avoid the 9.00 euro tunnel: it costs an hour, and the Slovenian vignette is still needed once you join the motorway.
• Leaving the A1 at Karlovac to save the toll: the old road via Plitvice to Zadar or Split takes at least 2 hours longer.
• Buying from a reseller site instead of asfinag.at or evinjeta.dars.si: same vignette, often double the price.
• Forgetting the return leg: Munich to Split and back within a week comes to 129.60 euros, 145.60 with a second Slovenian vignette.

Borders and paperwork after Schengen

Croatia joined the Schengen area on 1 January 2023, so the crossings at Obrežje, Macelj, Goričan, Starod and Dragonja are internal borders with the barriers up. Since October 2023 Slovenia has at times run temporary checks on its Croatian border, so keep passports within reach. For US, UK, Canadian and Australian travellers the EES registration happens once, at the airport where you land or at the first external Schengen border, and the drive on to Croatia adds no further scan. The 90 days in 180 run across all 3 countries together, and ETIAS, due in the last quarter of 2026, covers the whole trip with a single authorisation. A UK-registered car needs the UK identifier on the plate or a UK sticker, and its insurance certificate covers the EU without a green card.