Pickup
Return
🎁 Use code WELCOME3 during checkout to get discount on your first booking with us. Enjoy! ☀️
Car rental in Austria is what turns a Vienna flight into a proper trip across the Alps and the Danube. The capital itself runs fine on trams and the U-Bahn, but the Wachau, Hallstatt, Tyrol and the Salzkammergut lakes only open up once you have your own keys. Half the country sits in villages, lakeshores and mountain valleys that no train reaches.
In 2026, daily rates average $51 in low season and $62 at the summer peak (June–September). Vienna runs a touch higher — around $58 in winter and up to $69 in August. Book 4–6 weeks ahead and you usually save another 10–20%, especially on automatics and family cars.
A couple flew into VIE last August on a late Lufthansa from Frankfurt. We met them by flight number, signed the contract on the bonnet, and they were rolling onto the A4 in fifteen minutes — past the queue still waiting for the chain-rental shuttle.
TakeCars pickup points are Vienna, Vienna Airport (VIE) and Bratislava, 45 minutes across the Slovak border and often noticeably cheaper. Several Vienna suppliers meet you in arrivals by flight number — no shuttle bus, no shared queue, no walk to a remote lot.
Vignettes and mountain tolls
The ASFINAG vignette is the toll for motorways (A) and expressways (S). On a car rented inside Austria it is already valid — sticker on the windscreen or a digital one tied to the plate. ASFINAG 2026 prices for cars up to 3.5 t: €9.60 for one day (digital only), €12.80 for 10 days, €32.00 for two months, €106.80 for the year. The numbers start to matter when you pick up in Germany or the Czech Republic and drive in — buy the vignette before joining any motorway, on asfinag.at, in the Unterwegs app or at a border petrol station.
The 2-month and annual digital vignettes only activate on the 18th day after purchase under EU consumer-protection law. Leaving the same week? Take the 10-day option.
No vignette is a €120 replacement toll on the spot; refusing escalates the fine to €3,000. Cameras read every plate, and Austria pursues unpaid fines across the EU.
Mountain tolls sit on top of the vignette. The A13 Brenner from Innsbruck to the Italian border is around €11.50 each way. The Grossglockner High Alpine Road in 2026 is €46.50 for a car and around €40 for an EV — open late April through October only. Other paid sections: Felbertauern (~€13), Silvretta and Timmelsjoch (~€18), the A10/A11 tunnels.
A family of four drove Grossglockner in June for €46.50, parked at Edelweissspitze for the marmots, then re-entered the same day on the same ticket. Switchbacks, glacier views, and lunch back in Heiligenblut by four.
The pass is one of the great Alpine drives, not just a toll road, and the ticket includes same-day re-entry — handy if you want to see both sides of the ridge.
Most tourists in Austria start their trip here
Documents, payment and deposit
EU/EEA driving licences are accepted as-is. Drivers from outside the EU/EEA need an International Driving Permit (IDP) if their licence is not in the Roman alphabet. Even if the desk does not check, the police can fine you and the insurance can be voided after an accident. Carry the IDP with the original licence, not instead of it.
Minimum age sits at 18–19 with most suppliers; a young-driver fee of $7–17 per day applies under 25. Premium classes, vans and large SUVs usually start at 21–25.
A guest from outside the EU walked up to a chain desk in March with a perfectly valid Maestro card and a debit Visa. Both refused. He drove with us forty minutes later because Vienna takes a cash EUR deposit.
Payment catches travellers off guard. International chains require a real credit card — Electron, Maestro and prepaid cards are refused. TakeCars accepts Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay for online prepayment, and several Vienna suppliers will accept the security deposit in cash EUR or on a debit card at pickup. That is rare in Austria and one of the main reasons travellers without a credit card book Vienna through us.
Deposits run €300–1,500. International chains sit at the upper end and only take credit cards; local Vienna providers often offer €0–300 options under the Low / No deposit filter.
A Vienna host in our network takes a €400 cash EUR deposit on a Skoda Octavia. The chain desk across the hall blocks €1,200 on credit. Same airport, same car class, very different start to the holiday.
Cash deposits in EUR are not something the international chains offer in Austria; we can offer them in Vienna because we know each partner personally and stand behind every booking.
Hyundai i30 Combi in Austria
everything was very good. 5/5
Hyundai i20 in Austria
Everything went well. The car is new, I was met at the airport, and the car was handed over to me at the airport.
Hyundai i30 in Austria
Everything was great! We met quickly. Processed quickly. The car is in good condition and clean. The delivery of the car was also quick and at the agreed time. Special thanks for helping us out and accepting the deposit in cash. I will recommend your service to my friends.
Hyundai i30 Combi in Austria
Everything went great with the rental. The car was new, clean. The car was handed over right at the hotel, which was very convenient. But the most important convenience is the possibility of cash deposit and the cost is lower than on any aggregator in Vienna.
Hyundai Bayon in Austria
everything was just great: the car, all arrangements were fulfilled from start to finish, the car was given earlier than we could at first, for which I am grateful, otherwise we would have spent three hours at the airport with our suitcases. Thank you very much, the staff are all attentive!
-
Cash EUR deposit option in Vienna
Several Vienna suppliers accept the security deposit in cash, a rarity in Austria where the big chains insist on a credit card.
-
Meet-and-greet at Vienna Airport (VIE)
Selected cars are handed over by flight number in the arrivals hall — no shuttle bus, no shared queue.
-
Verified reviews per car
Every listing shows real renter reviews, and most rates include free cancellation up to 7 days before pickup.
Driving in Austria
Austrian rules are clear on paper, but a few things still catch travellers off guard on day one.
Speed and IG-L
Standard limits: 50 km/h in towns, 100 km/h on rural roads, 130 km/h on motorways. On parts of the A12 and A13 in Tyrol and Styria, IG-L 100 signs drop the motorway limit to 100 — easy to miss, and IG-L fines under environmental law run far higher than ordinary speeding tickets.
A driver from Innsbruck told us the cruise control caught him out on the A12 last spring: IG-L 100 lit up over the gantry, cruise stayed at 130, and the fine arrived three weeks later. Read the overhead signs, not the dash.
Section control
Streckenkontrolle is automatic average-speed enforcement: cameras at the start and end of a section compare your timing. Active sections include the Kaisermühlen tunnel in Vienna, Plabutsch and Karawanken. Phone in hand is €50; speeding from 20 km/h over costs €30–€2,180; extreme excess reaches €7,500.
Alcohol and winter tyres
The drink-drive limit is 0.5 ‰ for experienced drivers and 0.1 ‰ for those with under two years behind the wheel.
From 1 November to 15 April, Austria runs a situational winter-tyre rule: on snow, ice or slush, M+S tyres on all four wheels (4 mm tread) or chains on the driven wheels (ÖNORM V5117) are mandatory. Cars rented inside Austria during that window come on winter tyres; cars from Germany sometimes do not.
Worth saying once: Austria has no Umweltplakette and no Umweltzone. That is the German system. Vienna asks for no environmental sticker at all.
Routes and cross-border trips
The most popular loop is Salzburg → Hallstatt → Vienna — 350 km, realistically 2–3 days with stops at the Salzkammergut lakes and through the Wachau valley. Most drivers take the B158 over the A1: more scenic, and rarely congested outside summer Saturdays.
A couple on a five-day trip in July parked in Obertraun at 08:40 and walked the lakefront into Hallstatt. By 11:00 the village lots were full. Day visitors cannot drive into Hallstatt itself — barriers stop everyone except residents.
From Tyrol or Salzburg, Italy is a short hop — Dolomites, Lake Garda, Venice. Italy sits on the standard Western Europe list and needs no extra fee. Declare the cross-border at the desk, or insurance will not cover you.
The Austrian vignette does not work in Italy. Italian motorways use ticket-and-pay-on-exit booths, and any international card opens the gate.
Switzerland is a separate case. Most suppliers permit it but charge a cross-border fee of $11–55. Switzerland requires its own annual vignette (CHF 40 / ~€42) even for one day on the motorway, and rental companies almost never include it.
The Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia are usually allowed without a fee, but each runs its own e-vignette by plate: CZ and SK around €12 for 10 days, HU about €14. Buy online before crossing.
A traveller picked up in Munich last September and dropped off in Vienna for $98 with cross-border tax. The car arrived on German plates without the Austrian vignette — sorted at the first petrol station inside Salzburg for €9.60.
Munich pickup with an Austrian dropoff works well for travellers flying into MUC. Just remember the car comes on German plates and the vignette is on you.
€7/day myth, €25 real floor, hidden fees
City-wide since 2022, €1.70/30 min, free weekends
P4 Level 0, meet-and-greet, after-hours fees
Pick up the day you leave Vienna, not before
Vienna ↔ Bratislava, one booking, no surcharge
Renting in the capital
Car hire in Vienna mostly makes sense when you leave the city — the Wachau, the Burgenland lakes, day trips to Bratislava, Prague or Budapest. For the capital itself, public transport is among the best in Europe and the centre is largely pedestrianised.
All 23 districts sit inside the Kurzparkzonen short-term zone with a 2-hour maximum, enforced Mon–Fri 09:00–22:00. Weekends and holidays are free. The 2026 rate is €1.70 per half-hour, a 30% jump on 2025. Tickets come from Trafik kiosks, U-Bahn machines or the HANDYPARKEN app.
A guest left a Skoda overnight on an Anrainerparkplatz in the 9th district last winter, thinking the 22:00 cutoff applied. It does not — residents-only spaces are off-limits 24/7. The tow lot in Floridsdorf cost him €240 plus parking. Read the signs.
Overnight on-street parking is free 22:00–09:00 and on weekends. A covered car park runs $22–38 per 24 hours, or use a Park & Ride at a U-Bahn terminus (€4.60/24h).
Car rental in Vienna is available in the city and at Vienna Airport (VIE). City pickup is typically $5–17 per day cheaper — no airport concession fee. A third option, rare among aggregators, is pickup in Bratislava: 45 minutes to central Vienna.
A 24/48/72-hour Wiener Linien pass beats a rental for the city itself. But for Vienna → Wachau → Melk a car turns a weekend into a real road trip.
The simple framing: take the city pass for the centre, and add the car for the day the trip leaves Vienna.
Rates in Austria vary throughout the year depending on the season and the rental length in days.
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- August
- September
- October
- November
- December
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
How expensive is renting a car in Austria: average daily rates for a one-week car rental, across all car classes. Delivery across Austria not included.
Frequently asked questions
If you rent the car inside Austria, the vignette is already valid — either a sticker on the windscreen or a digital vignette tied to the number plate. If you rent in Germany, Italy or another neighbouring country and drive in, the vignette is not included — you must buy one before joining any A or S road. Always confirm at pickup.
ASFINAG 2026 prices for cars up to 3.5 t: €9.60 for one day (digital only), €12.80 for 10 days, €32.00 for two months, €106.80 for the annual sticker. The 2-month and annual digital vignettes activate only on the 18th day after purchase under EU consumer-protection law — book the 10-day option if you need to drive immediately.
The on-the-spot Ersatzmaut replacement toll is €120 for cars; refusing or evading escalates the administrative fine to €300 and up to €3,000 for repeated offences. Cameras detect every plate automatically, and Austria pursues unpaid fines across EU borders, so ignoring the notice is not an option.
The deposit depends on the car class and supplier. The big international chains typically block €800–€1,500 on a credit card; local providers can go as low as €300. On TakeCars Austria, deposit conditions are shown per car at checkout, and several Vienna suppliers accept a cash deposit in EUR.
Most international chains require a real credit card and refuse Electron, Maestro or prepaid cards. Smaller Vienna providers and TakeCars are more flexible — several cars allow the deposit to be paid in cash EUR or with a debit card. This is one of the few realistic routes to renting in Vienna without a credit card.
EU/EEA licences are accepted as-is. Drivers from outside the EU/EEA need an IDP if their licence is not in the Roman alphabet (Cyrillic, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, etc.). The police can fine you even if the desk did not ask. Carry the IDP together with your original national licence — not instead of it.
From 1 November to 15 April Austria runs a situational rule: in snow, ice or slush, M+S tyres on all four wheels (4 mm minimum tread) are mandatory, or chains on the driven wheels (ÖNORM V5117). Cars rented inside Austria during this window come on winter tyres; cars rented in Germany sometimes do not.
Yes. Even with a valid Austrian vignette, the A13 Brenner motorway from Innsbruck to the Italian border charges a separate section toll of around €11.50 one-way for a car. Pay at the toll station in cash or by card, or buy in advance via the ASFINAG digital section toll.
The 2026 toll is €46.50 for a car, €36.50 for a motorbike and around €40 for an EV. The road is open only from late April/early May to late October — closed all winter. The ticket includes same-day re-entry. Buy at the entry stations Ferleiten (Salzburg side) or Heiligenblut (Carinthia side), or in advance online.
Most Austrian suppliers permit it, but Switzerland always carries a cross-border fee of $11–55, and some prohibit it on premium classes. The Swiss vignette is mandatory even for one day on the motorway: annual, CHF 40 (~€42). Rental companies almost never include it — buy it at the border or online.
No. Unlike most German cities, Vienna and Austria have no Umweltzone or environmental sticker requirement for cars. You do not need a Plakette like in Germany. The only related restriction is the IG-L 100 km/h speed limit on parts of the A12 and A13 in Tyrol and Styria.
Streckenkontrolle is automatic average-speed enforcement over a long stretch of road. Cameras at the start and end of the section compare your timing; if your average exceeds the limit, the fine is triggered automatically. Active sections include Kaisermühlen tunnel (Vienna), Plabutsch and Karawanken. Braking before the exit camera does nothing.
Day visitors cannot drive into the historic centre — barriers stop all non-resident traffic. Park at P1 (overnight guests), P2 (day visitors, summer only) or P3/P4 outside the village. 2026 tariffs are roughly €5/1 h, €9/2 h, up to €18 for the day. Lots fill up 09:30–12:00 — arrive before 09:00 or use the Obertraun Park & Ride.
On-street short-term zones become free between 22:00 and 09:00 weekdays and on weekends, but Anrainerparkplätze (residents-only spaces) are off-limits 24/7 — tow trucks and a €240+ fee. Safer options are a covered car park ($22–38 per 24 hours) or one of Vienna's Park & Ride lots (€4.60 for 24 hours).
According to TakeCars Austria, daily rates run from $51 in low season to $62 at the summer peak; in Vienna $58 to $69. The cheapest months are January–April and October–December; the most expensive are July–September. The promo code WELCOME3 gives a discount on the first booking. For summer and ski season, book 4–6 weeks ahead.