Renting a Car in Europe: Country-by-Country Guide

Renting a car in Europe is rarely a single transaction. Each country layers its own rules on top of the base rental contract — low-emission zones, electronic tolls, mandatory vignettes, restricted historic centres and minimum-age surcharges that can double the headline rate. The car itself is usually the cheap part; the fines, stickers and insurance upsells are where foreign drivers actually lose money. This guide breaks down what changes between borders, what the major rental traps are, and how the daily-rate maths really works in 2026.

Fast Facts

Detail	Info
Typical EUR/day (economy)	€25–€90 depending on country and season; Portugal and Eastern Europe cheapest (€15–€40), Switzerland and Nordics most expensive (€70–€140)
IDP required	EU/EEA licences: no; UK/US/Australia/Canada: recommended Europe-wide, technically required in Italy, Spain, Greece and Czech Republic if the licence is not in Latin script
Low-emission zones	320+ active LEZs across Europe (highest count: Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands); fines €70–€500 typical
Vignette countries	Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia — purchase before crossing the border
Biggest pitfall	Italian ZTL zones — every historic centre is camera-enforced; foreign-plate fines arrive 6–18 months later via the rental company at €100+ per infraction

Before you book: the rules that apply everywhere

The baseline rental contract in Europe runs to the same shape regardless of country. A few rules are nearly universal, and getting them wrong before you arrive is what produces most of the bad outcomes at the counter.

Licence and International Driving Permit

For residents of EU and EEA countries, your national licence is valid in every other EU/EEA state without any additional document. For non-EU drivers — UK, US, Australia, Canada, South Africa and so on — most rental companies will hand over the keys on a national licence plus passport, but the legal picture differs by country. Under the 1968 Vienna Convention and its 1949 Geneva predecessor, an International Driving Permit (IDP) is technically required when your licence is not in the local script or when the host country has not signed the relevant convention.

In practice this matters most in Italy, Spain, Greece and the Czech Republic, where police can refuse to accept a non-Latin-script licence without an IDP and rental companies sometimes demand one at pick-up. Issued by your home automobile association (AAA in the US, AA/RAC in the UK, CAA in Canada), an IDP costs around €15–€25 and is valid for one year. It is a translation booklet, not a standalone licence — always carry both. The British government recommends an IDP for stays beyond six months in any EU country; consult the UK government driving abroad guidance for current rules.

Minimum age and young-driver surcharge

Most European rentals require drivers to be at least 21, though a handful of countries and categories push this to 23 or 25. Drivers under 25 pay a young-driver surcharge of €15–€30 per day at almost every major chain, and the largest vehicle categories (premium, SUV, vans) are often closed to under-25s entirely. A handful of brands rent to 18-year-olds in Germany, Austria and the Nordics, but with much higher excess and limited categories. Senior surcharges over 70 or 75 also appear at some chains, particularly in Ireland and Italy.

Payment, deposit and credit card

A physical credit card in the main driver's name is required at almost every counter for the security deposit, which can run €500–€2,500 depending on vehicle class. Debit cards are accepted for the rental fee itself in many countries but routinely refused for the deposit on premium and SUV categories. Prepaid cards and digital wallets are rarely accepted. The deposit is held — not charged — and released within 1–4 weeks after return.

Insurance: what is included and what is upsold

Every rental contract in Europe legally includes third-party liability (damage to other people and property) — that part is not optional and you do not need to buy it again. What is upsold at the counter:

• Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Theft Protection (TP): usually included in the base rate in continental Europe with an excess of €800–€2,500
• Super CDW / Zero Excess: reduces the excess to zero, €15–€25 per day
• Tire, glass, undercarriage, roof: extra €5–€10 per day
• Personal Accident Insurance (PAI): redundant if you have travel or health cover; €3–€8 per day

The cheapest combination is usually to buy third-party excess insurance from a specialist provider (Insurance4carhire, iCarhireinsurance, etc.) for €4–€7 per day before you travel, decline the counter Super CDW, and pay the excess upfront if anything happens. Always photograph the car at pick-up and drop-off from all angles, including wheels and roof — front-desk damage claims after the fact are the single most common dispute in European rentals.

Country-by-country: the rules that actually change

France: Crit'Air, speed cameras and the autoroute network

France is one of the easier countries to drive in once you understand two things: the autoroute toll structure and the Crit'Air emissions sticker. Crit'Air is a colour-coded windshield disc that classifies vehicles by emissions, and it is mandatory in the Zones à Faibles Émissions (ZFE) of Paris, Lyon, Grenoble, Strasbourg, Reims, Rouen, Toulouse and Marseille — a list that expands every year. For foreign-plated vehicles you order it online for €5 before you travel; it arrives in 4–8 weeks, so plan ahead. Driving in a ZFE without one risks a €68 fine for cars (€135 for trucks).

Autoroute tolls are paid by ticket-and-card at toll plazas or via an electronic tag (Liber-t, Bip&Go); a Paris–Marseille run is roughly €70 in tolls plus fuel. Speed limits dropped to 80 km/h on most secondary roads in 2018 and remain there; the speed-camera network is dense and very lightly forgiving (4 km/h tolerance up to 100 km/h, then 5% above). Foreign-plate speeding tickets are now systematically forwarded to your home country under EU cross-border enforcement directive 2015/413. Expect rental rates of €40–€90 per day for economy, much higher at Paris airports during summer.

Spain: ZBE in Madrid and Barcelona, AP-tolls and DGT enforcement

Spain's national traffic authority DGT (Dirección General de Tráfico) maintains a strict speed-camera and breathalyser regime. The legal blood-alcohol limit is 0.5 g/L for general drivers and 0.3 g/L for those with less than two years of licence; roadside breath tests are routine.

The two big urban traps are Madrid's Madrid 360 / ZBE de Especial Protección (formerly Madrid Central) covering the historic core, and Barcelona's ZBE Rondas, the largest LEZ in Southern Europe at 95 km². Both require an environmental sticker (the DGT distintivo ambiental) that is not available for most foreign-plated vehicles, so foreign rentals are technically restricted from entering during weekday peak hours unless they meet Euro 4/6 standards — rental fleets generally do, but check the contract. Fines start at €100.

Motorway tolls on AP-designated roads are real and can be steep — Bilbao to Barcelona is roughly €55 in tolls. Many former toll motorways (AP-7 along the Costa Brava) were converted to free in 2021. Expect rental rates of €30–€80 per day for economy outside summer, doubling on the Balearics in July–August. For a long-form planning frame, see our Iberian road trips guide.

Italy: ZTL is the single biggest pitfall in Europe

More foreign drivers are fined in Italy than anywhere else in Europe, and the cause is almost always the same: the Zona a Traffico Limitato (ZTL) in historic centres. Every Italian city of any size — Florence, Rome, Milan, Bologna, Pisa, Siena, Lucca, Verona, Naples, Palermo and dozens more — has a camera-enforced ZTL covering the medieval core. Cameras photograph the licence plate of every vehicle entering during restricted hours; residents have permits, visitors do not.

The trap is that ZTL signs are small, often only in Italian, and Google Maps and Apple Maps will routinely route you through one without warning. Fines run €80–€100 per infraction, and because each ZTL contains multiple cameras a single drive can produce three or four separate fines. Foreign-plate notices arrive 6–18 months later via the rental company, which adds a €40–€60 administrative fee on top. The only safe rule: park outside the historic centre and walk in, even if your hotel is inside the ZTL. Hotels can register your plate temporarily but only for the arrival/departure window — confirm in writing and keep the email.

Italy also has the densest autostrada toll network in Europe (A-designated motorways). Tolls are paid by ticket at exit or via a Telepass tag; Milan to Rome is roughly €45 in tolls. Speed limits are 130 km/h on autostrade, 110 km/h in rain. Expect rental rates of €25–€70 per day for economy. For broader background on what to plan before any European road trip in 2026, our Schengen visa and travel rules guide covers documents and cross-border basics.

Portugal: Via Verde electronic tolls

Portugal's main motorways use the fully electronic Via Verde system — there are no physical toll booths on most A-roads, and foreign-plated vehicles cannot simply ignore them. Rental companies in Portugal handle this in one of two ways: either the car comes with an active Via Verde transponder (added to your bill as a daily fee of around €1.50–€2.50 plus the toll passages), or you must register your plate at an EasyToll terminal at the border or major airports — credit card linked, tolls debited automatically for 30 days, €0.74 activation per period plus actual tolls.

Confirm at the counter which scheme applies; un-paid Portuguese tolls bounce back through the rental company at considerable markup six months later. Lisbon and Porto have low-emission zones (ZER) covering the central districts during weekdays, restricted to Euro 3+ vehicles for cars — rental fleets comply but pre-2000 vehicles do not. Expect economy rates of €20–€50 per day, the cheapest in Western Europe outside summer peaks.

Germany: Umweltzone, Autobahn and the green sticker

Germany operates Umweltzonen (low-emission zones) in more than 80 cities including Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Leipzig. Entry requires an Umweltplakette — the green emissions sticker — affixed to the windshield. Rental cars are almost always pre-fitted with the green sticker (only Euro 4 diesel and Euro 1+ petrol qualify); confirm at pick-up. Without one, fines are €100.

The Autobahn has no general speed limit on roughly 70% of its length, though advisory speed is 130 km/h. Sections through urban areas, around interchanges and through specific Bundesländer have posted limits, often 100–120 km/h. Speed cameras are common on the urban and limited sections, and traffic-flow controls (variable signs) are legally binding. The Autobahn is tolled only for trucks; passenger cars pay no road toll in Germany. Expect rental rates of €35–€80 per day for economy. Rail remains the easier option for a city-to-city trip; see our Europe by train pillar for the comparison.

United Kingdom: left-side driving, ULEZ and Congestion Charge

The single biggest adjustment in the UK is the obvious one: cars drive on the left. Add a right-hand-drive car for the first time, narrow rural lanes, the roundabout culture (priority to traffic from the right, opposite of right-hand-traffic countries) and 30 mph (48 km/h) urban limits, and confidence usually returns after a half-day of practice.

London adds two layered charges. The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) now covers all of Greater London; non-compliant vehicles (pre-2015 diesel, pre-2005 petrol) pay £12.50 per day. The Congestion Charge covers central London inside the Inner Ring Road, £15 per day, Monday–Friday 07:00–18:00 and weekends 12:00–18:00. Both are camera-enforced and applied to the registered keeper — rental companies forward charges plus an admin fee. Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester have LEZs of varying severity. Expect UK rental rates of £25–£60 per day outside London airports.

Netherlands: cycling-first cities and small LEZs

The Netherlands is one of the easier countries to drive between but among the trickiest to drive within cities. Amsterdam's central district is a low-emission zone (Milieuzone) restricted to Euro 4+ diesel; modern rentals comply. The harder adjustment is the cycling-first road geometry — at every urban junction, cyclists have priority unless explicitly signed otherwise, and right-hook collisions with cyclists are the most common foreign-driver incident. Slow to walking pace at junctions, look right for cyclists before turning. Trams have absolute priority. Speed cameras are dense, the cross-border enforcement directive is fully active. Expect rental rates of €40–€80 per day for economy.

Switzerland: vignette and Alpine pass closures

Switzerland is not in the EU but is in Schengen, and its motorway network requires a mandatory annual vignette costing CHF 40 (approximately €42) — sold at border crossings, petrol stations and online from Swiss FedRO (the federal roads office). The vignette is valid from 1 December of the previous year to 31 January of the following year (14 months), and a digital e-vignette has been available since 2023. Driving on the motorway without one is a fixed CHF 200 fine plus the vignette cost.

Mountain passes — the Furka, Grimsel, Susten, Gotthard (the old road, not the tunnel), San Bernardino, Julier, Bernina and a dozen others — are closed by snow from roughly late October to late May. Plan winter trips around the road-and-rail tunnels (Gotthard Road Tunnel, Lötschberg, San Bernardino) and the car-piggyback trains (Furka, Lötschberg). Snow tires are not legally mandated but driving without them in winter conditions is treated as negligence. Expect Swiss rental rates of CHF 70–CHF 140 per day (around €70–€140) — the most expensive in Europe.

Austria: vignette and Alpine routes

Austria operates a similar but cheaper vignette system, run by ASFINAG: €11.50 for 10 days, €34.10 for two months, €103.80 annual. Available in physical or digital form online. Some major Alpine motorway sections (Brenner, Tauern, Pyhrn, Karawanken, Arlberg Tunnel) require additional point tolls (Streckenmaut) on top of the vignette. Driving the Brenner motorway from Innsbruck to the Italian border is €11–€12. The Grossglockner High Alpine Road — a scenic toll route, not part of the autobahn system — is €40 per car. Expect rental rates of €35–€75 per day for economy.

Croatia: toll booths and the Adriatic coast

Croatia uses traditional ticket-and-pay toll booths rather than a vignette system; Zagreb to Dubrovnik is roughly €40 in tolls plus a Bosnia-Herzegovina transit window at Neum (passport required, vehicle documents demanded). The Adriatic coastal D8 is one of Europe's great scenic drives but slow — Split to Dubrovnik is six hours via the coast versus three on the motorway. Speed cameras have proliferated since 2022. Expect rental rates of €25–€60 per day outside July–August, when summer rates double along the coast.

Greece: IDP, summer surcharges and the island question

Most Greek rental companies require an IDP for non-EU drivers under the country's strict reading of the 1968 Vienna Convention; the airport counters at Athens, Thessaloniki and Heraklion routinely turn away drivers without one. Driving on the islands is the single biggest reason to rent in Greece — public transport on Naxos, Crete, Rhodes and Kefalonia is thin. Watch for August peak: rates double or triple, and the popular island agencies sell out by June. Off-season rates start at €25–€40 per day; August on Mykonos or Santorini, €80–€150 for the same category.

Eastern Europe: cheaper rates, vignette obligations

Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria and North Macedonia all operate vignette systems for motorway access — buy at border petrol stations or online before crossing. 2026 indicative rates: Czech Republic 340 CZK (€14) for 10 days; Slovakia €12 for 10 days; Hungary 5,500 HUF (€14) weekly; Slovenia €16 for 7 days; Romania 28 RON (~€6) for 7 days; Bulgaria €8 for 7 days.

Rental rates across the region run €15–€40 per day for economy, the cheapest in Europe. The main pitfalls are cross-border one-way fees (typically €100–€300 to drop in a different country) and the grey card (kleiner Schein in Austrian usage) documentation required to cross some borders. Always notify the rental company in writing if you plan to cross into Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Kosovo or Serbia — most contracts exclude these countries by default.

Cross-border rentals: one-way fees and prohibited countries

Most major rental brands allow cross-border travel within Western and Central Europe at no surcharge, provided you tell the counter at pick-up and the destination country is listed on the contract. One-way drop-offs in a different country attract a separate fee: typically €100–€300 within Western Europe, €300–€600 between Western and Eastern Europe, and €1,000+ for the longer asymmetric routes. The fee is always cheaper if you book it in advance online rather than negotiating at pick-up.

Commonly prohibited or restricted countries: Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Russia, and frequently Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Turkey, Morocco. Some brands allow these with a per-day surcharge and explicit written permission; others refuse entirely. Cross-border into Switzerland, Norway and the UK from EU countries is allowed but the foreign-plate ULEZ/vignette rules above all apply.

What to do at an accident or breakdown

The protocol is broadly standardised across the EU under the European Accident Statement (Constat amiable / CID / Constatación amistosa) — a multi-language two-page form found in the glove compartment of every European rental. If anyone is injured or vehicles are immobile in traffic, dial 112 (the universal European emergency number, free from any phone, network or mobile country). Otherwise:

1. Move the vehicles off the carriageway if safe — failure to do so on autoroute or autobahn is itself an offence in most countries.
2. Put on the reflective vest (legally required in every European country — in the cabin, not the boot) and place the warning triangle 30 m behind on city streets, 100 m on motorways.
3. Photograph the scene, all vehicles, plates, damage and any visible road markings or signs.
4. Complete the European Accident Statement with the other driver — sign both copies, do not admit liability in writing.
5. Call the rental company's emergency line within 24 hours and file a report; the contract usually requires this.
6. For theft or hit-and-run, file a police report (procès-verbal / denuncia) within 24 hours — without it, insurance will void.

Replacement cars are typically provided within 4–24 hours via the rental company's roadside-assistance number for mechanical breakdowns; for collision damage you may need to make your own way to the next rental hub. Travel insurance with rental-vehicle protection is the single most overlooked layer here — €30–€60 for a multi-day European trip from a specialist insurer is much cheaper than the counter's Super CDW and typically covers the full excess.