Whether to buy a vignette is not an obvious question. Even locals can drive on free roads for years without ever taking the highways. All roads in Slovenia, including free roads, are of very high quality, and the nature and pretty villages are worth spending a little extra time on the road. But if you are in a hurry, toll roads are your choice.
Slovenia’s road network
Slovenia has 5 highways, 5 expressways and an extensive network of regional roads.
Freeways are numbered from A1 to A5, marked with a green road sign, have a dividing line and 2—3 lanes in each direction, have a speed limit of 130 km/h — all of them are toll roads. Freeways connect the largest cities of Slovenia and neighboring countries. The main highways are A1 and A2 crossing the whole country, while A3 — A5 are their short branches.
Expressways H3 — H7 are marked with a blue sign, usually consist of 2 lanes each way, and have a speed limit of up to 110 km/h.
Ljubljanska obvoznica (Ljubljanska obvoznica) consists of sections of highways A1, A2 (they intersect here) and expressway H3.
All Slovenian highways and expressways are toll roads and a vignette is required to travel on them.
Regional roads are completely free of charge. They are also of very high quality, but most often have one lane in each direction, and the speed on them is limited to a maximum of 90 km/h. Since these roads have intersections and often cross populated areas, speeds on most of their sections are no more than 50—70 km/h.
The Karavanke, an 8 km long road tunnel connecting Slovenia (A2 highway) and Austria (A11 highway), stands out. It is the only section of the Slovenian road network that is subject to a separate toll.
It is possible to get to any settlement in Slovenia by free road, but it usually takes at least twice as long.
Interactive map of Slovenian roads on the DARS website
What is a Slovenian vignette?
Unlike most European countries, where the use of certain toll road sections is paid at special checkpoints in proportion to the actual distance traveled, Slovenia has a vignette.
A vignette is a form of toll, usually in the form of a small sticker on the windshield. It has an expiration date, is tied to a specific car and is not limited by distance traveled: once paid, you can use all roads in the country during the validity period.
In Slovenia, all cars, motorcycles and vehicles up to 3.5 tons must have a vignette. It applies to all toll roads in the country. An additional toll is charged only for the Karavanke Tunnel.
Until 2022, the vignette was glued to the windshield from the inside. It was impossible to tear it off without damaging it — this ensured that only one vignette could be used on one car. Therefore, sometimes in Slovenia you could see cars with a rectangular hole in the upper left corner of the windshield — a trace of barbaric theft of the vignette.
To control vignette stickers on toll roads, the authorities organized rare but massive inspections. Slovenia switched to electronic vignettes in 2022.
The e-vignette has no physical form — it is a database entry linked to the vehicle’s registration plate. The electronic vignette is now checked automatically on Slovenian toll roads.
How much do toll roads cost in Slovenia
The cost of a vignette depends on its validity period and the class of vehicle. Locals mostly use the longest and most favorable vignette — annual or semi-annual (only for motorcycles).
The minimum validity of a vignette is one week. You have to buy it even if you plan to cross the whole of Slovenia in 3 hours on toll roads without stopping.
Price of Slovenian vignette for passenger cars:
- For one year: 110 €
- For one month: 30 €
- For one week: 15 €
The prices of vignettes for motorcycles are exactly half as much, and given the seasonality of this mode of transportation, from 2022 a separate semi-annual vignette is introduced for it for 30 € (vs. 55 € for the annual vignette)
For large (more than 1.3 meters above the front axle) vehicles weighing up to 3.5 tons, the cost of vignettes is exactly double that of passenger cars.
How to buy an e-vignette in Slovenia
The construction, repair and maintenance of Slovenia’s road network is the responsibility of the state-owned company DARS. They also collect tolls for road use and sell vignettes.
The vignette must be purchased before entering the toll road.
The quickest and most convenient way to buy a vignette is on the official website evinjeta.dars.si. You can do this in advance by selecting the vignette validity date (maximum 30 days before the vignette starts). The whole procedure is very transparent and well described, the website even has a Russian-language version.
- Go to evinjeta.dars.si
- Select the vehicle class: 1 for motorcycles, 2A for most passenger cars, 2B for light commercial vehicles.
- Select the validity period of the vignette. The minimum period is 1 week.
- Enter your e-mail address — a link to confirm your address will be sent to it, and immediately after the purchase — the confirmation and the vignette itself as a PDF document.
- Follow the link from the letter and fill in the simple form. Enter the country of registration of the car (the country where the registration plates are issued) and the registration plate of the car without spaces and other symbols except Latin letters from A to Z and digits from 0 to 9. Be careful, you are solely responsible for correctly entered license plate number.
- Select a payment method. The vignette can be paid by VISA and MasterCard or by PayPal payment system.
- Immediately after payment, you will receive a confirmation email and a PDF document with all your vignette data. It must be saved for the entire validity period.
Any error in the data entered can be corrected before the vignette begins.
You can also buy an e-vignette at the checkouts of large supermarkets and gas stations, including those at the border, before entering Slovenia. Check carefully that the cashier has entered your license plate number correctly — otherwise you will not avoid heavy fines.
Penalties for not having a vignette
From 2022, the control of vignette use is fully automated. All toll roads in Slovenia have stationary automatic cameras that read registration plates and automatically issue fines.
In addition, mobile DARS teams are on all roads in regular vehicles, reading signs on the move and checking vignettes immediately.