Driving in Croatia

Right

Article 47(1) of the Road Traffic Safety Act: a vehicle travels on the right side of the carriageway.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Left

Article 67(1): you overtake on the left. The one exception is a vehicle that has moved over and is signalling a left turn — pass that one on the right.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

130 km/h

Article 54(1)(1). Signed A, and tolled.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

110 km/h

Article 54(1)(2). This is the Croatian expressway, "brza cesta", and roads open only to motor vehicles. Croatia treats it as its own road class below the motorway. It is not always two carriageways, so read the signs.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

90 km/h

Article 54(1)(3): all other roads outside a built-up area.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

50 km/h

Article 53. Inside a built-up area the limit is 50. A sign may raise it, but never above 80. Near schools and kindergartens it is often signed lower.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Motorway — 90 km/h
• Dual carriageway — 80 km/h
• Country roads — 80 km/h

These are the figures in Article 55 for a car towing a trailer that has NO brakes of its own. The Act sets no extra limit for a car towing a braked trailer or caravan, so that combination keeps the ordinary 130, 110 and 90. If you do not know whether your trailer is braked, drive to the lower set. In a built-up area the limit is 50 either way.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

0.5 g/l

Article 199(2). The law writes it as 0.50 g/kg of alcohol in the blood, or the matching figure in milligrams per litre of exhaled air. This limit applies to drivers of cars, motorcycles and mopeds.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

0 g/l

Article 199(1) allows a "young driver" no alcohol at all. Croatia defines a young driver by age and not by how new the licence is: a driver up to the age of 24 who holds a licence issued in Croatia. On the wording of that definition a visitor under 24 driving on a foreign licence is not covered and the 0.50 limit applies instead, but no official page confirms that reading. If you are under 24, drink nothing.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

0 g/l

Article 199(1). No alcohol at all for drivers of lorries and buses (categories C1 to DE and H), for driving instructors, and for anyone driving a category B car for work — taxi drivers, ambulance drivers, and company or government drivers.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

18 years

Category B. A moped licence, category AM, comes at 15.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Not required

MUP states plainly that you may drive in Croatia on a valid foreign licence and that an International Driving Permit is not needed in that case. Croatia is in the EU, so an EU or EEA licence is accepted as it stands. A licence from outside the EU is accepted on the basis of reciprocity, so check that Croatia recognises yours before you travel. Carry the licence itself; an IDP on its own is not a substitute.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

12 months

This one year, counted from the day you enter Croatia, applies to people who take up temporary or permanent residence here, and to Croatian citizens moving back. After it you must exchange the foreign licence for a Croatian one. A short-stay visitor is not on a clock. A foreign licence is also not recognised below the Croatian minimum age for the class: 18 for B and C1, 21 for C, 24 for D1 and D.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Warning triangle
• First aid kit
• Spare bulbs
• Spare tyre or repair kit
• High-visibility vest

From the Regulation on the technical condition of vehicles, articles 94 to 100. Two of these come with an exception. You do not need spare bulbs if the car's lights have no filaments — xenon, neon or LED. You do not need a spare wheel if the tyres are run-flat or the car carries a temporary repair kit, such as a can of sealant. A hire car does not always have all of this, so check before you drive away. The vest must be worn whenever you get out and work beside the car on the road. A private car does not need a fire extinguisher; taxis, company cars, vans, lorries and buses do.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Required in the winter months

Article 102(1). From 1 November to 31 March every motor vehicle must show daytime running lights or dipped headlights while driving in daylight. From 1 April to 31 October it does not have to. Night-time and poor visibility are a separate rule and always require lights, whatever the month. Motorcycles and mopeds must run dipped beam in daylight all year round.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Required

Article 147: dipped headlights all the way through any tunnel.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Not allowed

Article 196(3) and (4). You may not use a phone in a way that reduces your ability to react and drive safely, and the phone may be used only through a device that leaves your hands free.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Allowed

Article 196(4) allows a phone used through a hands-free device.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Only where a sign allows it

Only where a separate green arrow light is fitted and lit. You may then move in the direction of the arrow while the main light is red, but you must give way to all traffic on the road you are joining and to pedestrians crossing. A plain red light means stop, with no turn allowed.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Yes — traffic from the right goes first at unmarked junctions

Article 57(1). At a junction of roads of equal importance you must give way to the vehicle coming from your right. Trams take priority from either side. A priority-road sign overrides the default.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Everyone, in every seat

Article 163(1), in the wording given to it by NN 92/14: the driver and every passenger must wear the belt on any seat that has one. The only exemption is a medical certificate.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

150 cm

Article 163(4). A child shorter than 150 cm must travel in a child seat or on a booster, fitted the way its maker says. Article 163(5) allows a child between 135 cm and 150 cm to use the adult belt instead, but only on a seat that is not in the front. A rear-facing child seat may never go on a front seat with a live airbag, even one that switches itself off.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Only where signs or markings allow it

Article 82. Parking on the pavement or in a pedestrian zone is forbidden unless a sign allows it, and even then at least 1.6 m of walking space must be left, not counting the strip next to the kerb.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Only on one-way streets

Article 80(1). Park close in against the right kerb. On a one-way street you may use either kerb.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• A junction — 5 m
• A pedestrian crossing — 5 m
• A bus stop — 15 m
• A level crossing — 15 m

Articles 82 and 83. The junction and crossing figures are measured from the nearest edge. The bus stop figure applies both before and after the stop sign. You must also stay 15 m clear of a bridge, tunnel, underpass or overpass, and you may not stop on any of them.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• A fine
• Towing

Articles 82 to 86. Police or municipal officers can order a badly parked car to be moved, and the owner pays the cost of moving and storing it. The list of places that get a car towed includes disabled bays, pedestrian crossings, pavements, cycle tracks, bus stops and bridges and tunnels.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Required between set dates

On the designated winter sections of public road, which include every motorway, winter equipment is compulsory from 15 November to 15 April whatever the weather and whatever the road looks like. For a vehicle up to 3.5 t "winter equipment" means one of two things: four winter tyres marked M+S, M.S., M&S or 3PMSF on all four wheels, or four summer tyres with at least 4 mm of tread on all four wheels plus snow chains carried ready for the driven wheels. Studded tyres are banned. Separately, Article 193 of the Act forbids driving without winter equipment whenever the road is covered in snow or ice, on any road and on any date. Ask the hire company what the car has.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

15 November to 15 April

15 November of one year to 15 April of the next.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Required for rider and passenger

Article 114(1). The rider and every passenger on a motorcycle or moped must wear an approved helmet, properly fastened. A cyclist under 16 must wear one too. No child under 12 may be carried on a moped or motorcycle at all.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Engine up to 50 cc
• Power up to 4 kW

A category B licence is also valid for category AM, which is mopeds, so a car licence covers a moped with nothing added to it. A moped is defined as a two- or three-wheeler with a petrol engine of at most 50 cc, or an electric motor of at most 4 kW, that its build stops from going faster than a set speed. That speed threshold is left out of the figures here because the two official sources disagree: the Act was amended in 2015 to say 45 km/h, while MUP's licence page still prints 50 km/h. Anything larger than a moped needs a motorcycle licence — A1 at 16, A2 at 18, A at 24 — and Croatia has no course or code that stretches a car licence to 125 cc.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

15 years

Category AM, which covers mopeds and light quadricycles.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Top speed at least 60 km/h

Article 139(1) states this as a design speed and not as a vehicle class: a motorway, an expressway and a road open only to motor vehicles may not be used by any vehicle that cannot go faster than 60 km/h. A moped is built to stop well below that, so it is barred. A 125 cc motorcycle is allowed. The same article keeps out pedestrians, bicycles, animals and horse-drawn vehicles.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Required at all times

Article 102(2). A motorcycle or moped must run dipped headlights in daylight all year, not only in the winter months that apply to cars.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Toll booths

Croatian motorways are tolled at barriers. On most of the network you take a ticket at the entry plaza and pay at the exit plaza for the distance you drove; on a few short stretches a single plaza acts as both. Cash and cards are taken. An ENC electronic tag lets you use a dedicated lane without stopping, at up to 40 km/h. There is no vignette. Sections run by other concessionaires, including the Istrian motorway with the Ucka tunnel, charge on their own accounts. A free-flow system that removes the barriers is under construction and was not yet in use on the date checked, so allow time and cash or a card for the plazas.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

112

Free, 24 hours a day. One number for police, ambulance, fire, mountain rescue and sea rescue. Calls are answered in Croatian, English, German, Italian, Hungarian and Slovak.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Minor speeding — fine 30–130 EUR (In a built-up area: 30 euro up to 10 km/h over, 60 euro for 10 to 20 over, 130 euro for 20 to 30 over. Outside a built-up area: 60 euro for 10 to 30 km/h over.)
• Serious speeding — fine 260–2650 EUR, possible driving ban (Outside a built-up area: 260 euro for 30 to 50 km/h over, and 660 to 1990 euro for more than 50 over. In a built-up area: 390 to 920 euro for 30 to 50 over, and 1320 to 2650 euro or up to 60 days in prison for more than 50 over. Repeat offences bring a driving ban.)
• Drink driving — fine 90–2650 EUR, possible driving ban (90 euro for a zero-limit driver with up to 0.50 g/kg. 390 to 660 euro above 0.50 up to 1.00. 660 to 1990 euro above 1.00 up to 1.50. 1320 to 2650 euro, or up to 60 days in prison, above 1.50 or for drug driving. A repeat offence adds a driving ban of at least three months.)
• Running a red light — fine 390–920 EUR, possible driving ban (Failing to stop at a red light. Repeat offences bring a driving ban.)
• No seatbelt — fine 130–130 EUR (The same 130 euro applies to carrying a child without the right restraint.)
• Holding a phone — fine 130–130 EUR
• Illegal parking — fine 30–90 EUR (30 euro in most cases, 90 euro in a space reserved for disabled drivers.)

These are the amounts written into the Act in euro when Croatia adopted the euro. Police allow a measuring margin of 10 km/h up to 100 km/h, and 10 per cent above 100.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Yes

Article 294. Police and authorised municipal officers collect the fine where the offence happened. If you do not pay there, you are handed a written order and have eight days to pay. If you have no address in Croatia, an officer may hold your passport for up to eight days to make sure the fine is paid or that you attend. For a very minor first offence carrying a fixed fine of up to 130 euro, a warning may be given instead.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source