Austria Travel Guide
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Guide
Austria is in Schengen, which is why it surprises people that Austrian police still run checks along four of its borders. Controls with Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia were due to expire on 15 September 2026 and have been extended by another six months, into March 2027, with the government pointing at people smuggling and irregular migration. The Interior Ministry calls the approach border-area controls: more flexible checks over a wider zone near the border, decided by risk assessment, rather than a permanent booth at every crossing.
Austria has eight land neighbors in total, Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, so the four controlled borders are half of the map, not all of it. The German frontier is a separate story, because it is Germany that checks it.
Border crossings
- The four controlled borders
Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia. Because checks are flexible rather than fixed, you might drive straight through one day and be waved to the side the next, and a check can happen on a road or river crossing anywhere near the line. The government's stated aim is to cause as little disruption as possible for commuters, so keep a passport in reach anyway.
- Germany, where the checking is done from the other side
Austria itself does not appear on its own list for the German border, but Germany has checked all nine of its land frontiers, Austria included, since September 2024. Read the Germany guide on this site before assuming the Bavaria to Salzburg or Passau to Linz roads are unwatched.
- Italy, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein
None of these three is among the four neighbors Austria has extended controls with. That is a statement about Austria's own decisions, not a guarantee that a neighbor's police will not stop you, so the passport advice stands.
Transit routes
- Buy the motorway vignette before you drive on it
Austria charges for its motorways through a vignette tied to your vehicle. For a car up to 3.5 tonnes, a 10 day vignette costs 12.80 euros in 2026, and the operator ASFINAG sells them online with immediate validity, in its toll shop and app, and through more than 6,000 outlets in Austria and abroad. Driving without one is the kind of small mistake that becomes a fine.
- 2026 is the last year of the sticker
This year's vignette is the bright red one, and it is the last adhesive sticker, since from 2027 only the digital version will be sold. Digital products are linked to your license plate, and whoever keeps a plate keeps its digital product when they change vehicle.
Entry point notes
- Schengen rules, plus the EES at the first external border
For most short stays that means 90 days in any 180 day period. The EU's Entry/Exit System has been fully operational at external Schengen borders since 10 April 2026, so a non-EU traveler is normally registered where they first enter Schengen, which is often not Austria at all.
- Checks here are inland, not at a line on a map
Because Austria uses border-area controls, the practical advice is to carry the same passport you entered Schengen with for any trip near the Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, or Slovenian frontiers, including short day trips and train rides.