Romania

Driving in Romania

Romania runs a zero alcohol limit for every driver, with no allowance whatsoever — the first thing to know if you are arriving from Hungary or Bulgaria and carrying assumptions about a glass of wine with lunch. The rovinieta vignette is required for motorways and national roads alike, not just motorways, so most meaningful driving in the country falls inside it. It is digital and plate-linked, sold by day, week, month or year, and bought online or at petrol stations and border crossings. Winter tyres are condition-based rather than calendar-based: the requirement applies whenever roads are covered in snow, ice or slush, whatever the date, and chains can be required on signed mountain roads. Headlights are mandatory day and night, year-round. The practical hazard worth flagging is rural rather than regulatory. Horse-drawn carts and livestock still use country roads, including after dark and often without lights, and the transition from a 130 km/h motorway to an unlit rural road where that is possible can be abrupt. Limits are 50, 90 and 130, and the currency is the leu.