Driving from Germany to Bulgaria by car: vignettes, Serbian tolls and the Vidin bridge

Each figure below names its operator. The Serbian and bridge figures are not ours to sell, so they are quoted from the operators' own tariffs as read on 14 October 2026.

• Germany: no motorway toll for a car. The German toll applies to vehicles over 3.5 tonnes (Toll Collect).
• Austria and Hungary: one vignette each, on both corridors.
• Through Serbia, car category I: 850 dinar (€7.50) from Subotica to Stara Pazova and 1,800 dinar (€15.50) from Beograd to Dimitrovgrad, so 2,650 dinar or €23.00 each way (Putevi Srbije, valid from 1 July 2026).
• Through Romania: a rovinieta for the Romanian roads, then €6.00 per crossing of the Calafat to Vidin bridge, in either direction (Danube Bridge Vidin-Calafat).
• Bulgaria: €5.30 for a day, €10.00 for 7 days, or €6.60 for the weekend vignette, valid Friday 12:00 to Sunday 23:59 (Road Infrastructure Agency).
• toll.one sells the Austrian, Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian vignettes in one order. toll.one does not sell Serbian tolls, the bridge fee or the Bulgarian weekend vignette.

From Stuttgart the motorway runs through Munich and Salzburg into Austria, then past Vienna to the Hungarian border at Hegyeshalom. Drivers from Vienna join it there. In Hungary the M1 leads to Budapest and the M5 south to Röszke, where you cross to Horgoš in Serbia, follow the motorway through Belgrade and Niš to Dimitrovgrad, and enter Bulgaria at Kalotina for the last stretch to Sofia.

Serbia is outside the Schengen area, so this corridor leaves it at Röszke and re-enters it at Kalotina, with passport control at both crossings in each direction. That border time is the real trade-off against the route through Romania.

It is the shorter way on paper and almost all motorway. Buy the Austrian vignette and the Hungarian e-matrica for the dates you drive through each country; Serbia needs nothing in advance. The Munich to Sofia page totals the vignettes for this drive, and the Budapest to Sofia page covers the leg from Hungary.

Serbia sells no vignette. You take a magnetic card at the entry booth and pay by distance where you leave the toll section. The road from Horgoš to Subotica carries no toll, so the first ticket runs from Subotica to Stara Pazova outside Belgrade and the second from the Beograd station to Dimitrovgrad near the Bulgarian border.

For a car in category I, two axles and no higher than 1.3 metres at the front axle, the July 2026 price list gives 850 dinar or €7.50 for the first ticket and 1,800 dinar or €15.50 for the second: 2,650 dinar or €23.00 for the whole crossing, and the same again on the way home. Towing a caravan or trailer puts a car in category II, which costs 1,270 plus 2,710 dinar, or €11.00 plus €23.50 (Putevi Srbije, checked 14 October 2026).

The price list states every toll in dinar and in euro, and the booths take cash and payment cards, Visa, Mastercard and Maestro among them. Keep the magnetic card safe until the exit booth: without it you pay for the longest route on that section, plus the cost of the procedure.

The alternative leaves the M5 at Szeged for the M43 and the Romanian border at Nădlac, then runs through Arad and Timișoara and south to the Danube at Drobeta-Turnu Severin and Calafat. The bridge lands in Vidin, and the I-1 through Montana and Vratsa takes you to Sofia.

Romania needs a rovinieta on its national roads, not only the motorways, and since 1 October 2026 the price depends on the car's emissions class. The Romanian rovinieta page lists each period, and the rovinieta price page sets the official price beside our fee.

Romania and Bulgaria joined the Schengen area fully on 1 January 2025 (European Commission), so the Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian borders on this corridor have no fixed passport control, though spot checks happen: carry a passport or ID card. It is slower: more of it is ordinary road, through towns, than on the Serbian line.

Danube Bridge Vidin-Calafat AD charges a car with up to 8+1 seats €6.00 when leaving Bulgaria and €6.00, or 30 lei, when entering it. A van up to 3.5 tonnes pays the same (bridge operator tariff, checked 14 October 2026).

You can pay at the booth in cash or by card, or in advance on the operator's site by card, against the plate, for a passenger car only. Online, the fee depends on the direction, so pick it carefully: a payment made with wrong details is not refunded automatically.

Neither the bridge fee nor any vignette includes the other. Budget €12.00 for the round trip on top of the Bulgarian e-vignette.

For a holiday, the 7-day e-vignette at €10.00 covers seven consecutive days from the start date you pick, up to 30 days ahead, so date it from the day you reach Kalotina or Vidin rather than the day you leave Germany. A longer stay needs the 30-day e-vignette.

The weekend vignette costs €6.60 and runs from Friday at 12:00 to Sunday at 23:59 on one named weekend (Road Infrastructure Agency, weekend vignette page, checked 14 October 2026). It suits a short trip that fits inside that window, which a drive from Germany rarely does. We do not sell it, because it starts on a fixed weekend rather than a date you choose; buy it at bgtoll.bg.

A single day of driving, such as the return leg, is cheapest on the 1-day e-vignette. Check the plate in the operator's register after buying, from us or from bgtoll.bg.

No German motorway charges a car, so the first vignette you need is the Austrian one, from the border on. The German toll is for vehicles over 3.5 tonnes.

Count the way home before you buy. A 10-day vignette covers both crossings of Austria and Hungary only when you are back within ten days; for a two-week holiday buy a 1-day Austrian vignette and a 1-day Hungarian e-matrica for each day you drive through, or compare the longer periods on the Austrian vignette price page.