Driving to Kranjska Gora: the Karawanks tunnel toll and the Slovenian vignette
Do I need a Slovenian vignette to drive to Kranjska Gora?
Not if you come through the Karawanks tunnel and turn off at Hrušica. DARS tolls its part of the tunnel section from the state border to the Hrušica junction, and it says the tunnel is excluded from the e-vignette: that stretch is paid by the tunnel toll instead. Leave the motorway at Hrušica for Kranjska Gora and you never join the e-vignette network. The Austrian motorway up to the tunnel still needs the Austrian vignette, and every passage of the tunnel is paid.
The tunnel toll stands in for the e-vignette as far as Hrušica
DARS describes the Karawanks tunnel as excluded from e-vignette toll collection, so a vignette bought for Slovenia is not valid in it. Its own page on the tunnel adds the boundary: DARS charges its part of the section in both directions, from the Hrušica junction to the state border inside the tunnel and back.
That is the whole of the Slovenian motorway a Kranjska Gora driver uses. The Hrušica junction is the first one after the tunnel, the road to Kranjska Gora leaves the motorway there, and the tunnel toll has already paid for every metre up to it.
Turn off at Hrušica and keep the e-vignette money for a day that needs it.
Each direction is paid to a different operator
Southbound, the Austrian operator ASFINAG charges the section from the St. Jakob im Rosental junction to the state border inside the tunnel, and its toll shop sells that direction online. Northbound, ASFINAG says, the tunnel is tolled by DARS and can only be paid at the toll station in Slovenia.
DARS takes that payment at the Hrušica toll booth, in cash, by credit card or by debit card, for any vehicle up to 3,500 kg. A frequent user can buy a point card there for fourteen passages within thirty days, tied to one number plate.
Plan for two tunnel payments on a return trip: one on the way in, one at Hrušica on the way home.
The tunnel runs two-way in one tube until 2029
ASFINAG finished the second Karawanks tube in mid-March 2026 and moved all traffic into it. The original tube, opened in 1991, closed straight away for a general renovation that ASFINAG expects to finish in mid-2029, and until then both directions share the new tube.
One lane each way through almost eight kilometres of tunnel is the bottleneck a winter Saturday queues at. Leave outside the changeover hours if your accommodation allows it, and check the traffic information on the morning you travel.
The Wurzen Pass comes down into Kranjska Gora itself
Kranjska Gora lists three ways in by car: from Austria over the Korensko sedlo crossing near Villach or through the Karavanke tunnel, and from Italy over the Rateče crossing. Korensko sedlo is the Wurzen Pass, the B109 on the Austrian side, and it comes down at Podkoren on the edge of Kranjska Gora.
Neither the pass nor the Rateče road touches the Karawanks tunnel, so neither pays its toll, and neither runs on a Slovenian motorway. The pass is short but steep, with the steepest ramps put at 18 per cent in its encyclopaedia entry, which is a real consideration on snow and a larger one with a trailer.
Check that the pass is open before you commit to it, and fit chains early if it has snowed.
What the e-vignette is for on a Kranjska Gora week
A day out to Bled or Ljubljana is where the e-vignette comes in, because it rejoins the motorway beyond Hrušica and stays on it. The shortest Slovenian product for a car is the 7-day Slovenian e-vignette, registered to the plate, and one bought for the day of the excursion covers the rest of a normal ski week too.
Parking in Kranjska Gora is paid by text message, by mobile app or at the meter in each car park, and the meters take cards only. Keep a card in the car rather than coins.