Driving in Poland for UK and US Visitors: Licences, Rules and Tolls

Driving in Poland is straightforward for UK and US visitors once you know a few local rules: traffic drives on the right, headlights or daytime running lights are on at all times, the alcohol limit is 0.2 per mille and motorway speed limits are in km/h. A UK photocard licence needs no International Driving Permit, a US licence does. There is no vignette for cars: you pay tolls only on a few concession motorway sections.

This guide summarises what changes when you drive a hire car in Poland: documents, the main road rules, tolls, parking and Kraków's Clean Transport Zone. It is a practical overview, not legal advice. The rules below were checked against official sources on 24 October 2026; check them again before you travel, because tolls and local rules change.

The full rules on driving licences, including EU licences, residence in Poland and other countries, are in our separate guide renting a car in Poland as a foreigner. Here we cover only what UK and US visitors most often ask about.

Driving documents for visitors

When you drive in Poland, carry your driving licence, your passport (or an EU national ID card) and the car's documents, which are in the car or handed to you at pick-up. For a hire car, the rental company also has its own requirements: at ANSCars the driver must be at least 21 and have held a category B licence for at least 2 years.

UK photocard and paper licences

According to GOV.UK, you do not need an International Driving Permit in Poland if you hold a UK photocard licence; the same applies to photocard licences from Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. If you still have an old paper licence, GOV.UK says you need to update it to a photocard licence or get an IDP, and for Poland that is the 1968 type. Driving in Poland on a UK licence is not the same as driving a car with UK number plates: a hire car is registered in Poland, so rules for foreign-registered vehicles, such as the extra step in Kraków's Clean Transport Zone, do not apply to it.

US licences and international permits

The United States is party to the 1949 Geneva Convention but not to the 1968 Vienna Convention. Under the Polish Act on Vehicle Drivers, a licence from such a country must be accompanied by an International Driving Permit. The IDP is issued in the US before you travel and is valid only together with your state licence, never on its own. Check the current guidance of the US Department of State for Poland before you travel. Many cars in Poland have a manual gearbox, so if you only drive automatics, book a class with an automatic gearbox, such as C automatic or D.

Road rules and speed limits

Poland drives on the right and overtakes on the left. Unless signs show otherwise, these are the standard speed limits for cars, according to the European Commission's Your Europe portal:

The other rules that most often surprise visitors:

• Lights: daytime running lights, or dipped headlights in the dark, are compulsory at all times of day and year.
• Alcohol: the limit is 0.2 per mille (0.2 mg/ml of blood) for all drivers. In practice, do not drink at all before driving.
• Phones: you may use a phone only with a hands-free set.
• Seat belts and children: seat belts are compulsory for everyone, and children must travel in a suitable child seat. You can order a child seat or booster with your hire car.
• Equipment: a car must carry a fire extinguisher and a warning triangle. Check that both are in the car at pick-up.
• Emergency corridor: in a traffic jam on multi-lane roads, drivers must leave an emergency corridor for emergency vehicles, and merge in turn (zip merge) where lanes end.
• Hard shoulder: on motorways you may not drive, stop or park on the hard shoulder except in a breakdown.

In winter, roads to the mountains, such as the route from Kraków to Zakopane, can be slow and slippery. Our cars run on all-season tyres; that does not replace careful driving or checking the forecast.

Tolls and payment

Poland has no vignette for cars. A car pays only on three concession motorway sections, at the toll gates or automatically through a video tolling app:

On the A4 between Kraków and Katowice, the operator Stalexport accepts cash in złoty, euro and US dollar banknotes (change is given in złoty), Visa, Mastercard and Maestro cards, fleet cards and video tolling through apps such as Autopay, SkyCash, IKO, Yanosik and O!AUTO. The tariff of PLN 18 per plaza for a car has applied since 1 April 2026.

e-TOLL, Poland's electronic toll system, is for vehicles over 3.5 tonnes on state roads. According to the Polish tax administration (KAS), since 1 July 2023 light vehicles do not pay on the state sections A2 Konin-Stryków and A4 Wrocław-Sośnica, and from 21 September 2026 drivers of light vehicles with a trailer no longer have to use e-TOLL either. An ordinary hire car does not need e-TOLL. Our cars have no toll device and no account in a toll app: the renter pays at the gate or adds the car's registration number to their own app after pick-up, and removes it after the return.

If you drive on to Czechia, Austria or Slovakia, those countries require a vignette for motorways, which you buy yourself in the official online shop of each country. At ANSCars travel abroad must be declared in the booking: the consent is written into the agreement for a one-off fee of PLN 199.

Parking in Krakow

In central Kraków, street parking is paid from 9:00 to 22:00: Monday to Sunday in sub-zone A, the very centre, and Monday to Saturday in sub-zones B and C, according to the city roads authority ZDMK. Parking is free on public holidays. You pay at a parking meter or in a mobile app, and you always enter the car's registration number and the correct sub-zone. Not paying leads to a surcharge of PLN 400, reduced to PLN 200 if you pay within 7 days.

For a longer visit, the cheaper option is a Park and Ride (P+R) car park on the edge of the centre. According to the public transport authority ZTP, a one-person P+R ticket costs PLN 10 and includes parking and unlimited public transport in zone I for that day. If you are staying in the centre, ask your hotel about parking before you arrive.

Parking fines and other charges incurred during the rental are paid by the renter. If the authorities ask us for the driver's details, for example after a speed camera photo, we charge PLN 150 for providing them.

The Clean Transport Zone

Since 1 January 2026 Kraków has had a Clean Transport Zone (Strefa Czystego Transportu, SCT) covering about 60% of the city. According to the City of Kraków, petrol cars may enter if they meet Euro 4 or were built in 2005 or later, and diesel cars if they meet Euro 6 or were built in 2014 or later. Cars registered in Poland that meet these standards are added to the system automatically. Cars with foreign plates must be registered in the SCT system by their drivers, even if they comply.

The rule depends on the car, not on your nationality or the country that issued your licence. A UK or US visitor driving a hire car on Polish plates does not register it; a visitor driving their own car from abroad does. We will cover the zone in more detail in a separate guide.

Collecting and returning a hire car

A short checklist for the handover at ANSCars, at our pick-up point at ul. Opolska 12 or at the Orlen petrol station next to Kraków Airport:

1. Bring your licence (with an IDP if you need one), your passport or EU ID card and a debit or credit card in your name for the deposit, unless you take the Protektor package.
2. Name every additional driver in the agreement (PLN 10 per day per person, max. PLN 100). Someone not named in the agreement may not drive the car.
3. Walk around the car with us. The electronic handover report records photos, the mileage and the fuel level, and you confirm it with a code sent by text message.
4. Note the registration number: you need it for parking apps, video tolling and any online parking ticket.
5. If anything happens on the road, report it to us straight away and complete the damage report form. With Protektor you then pay no excess; an unreported damage brings the full excess back.
6. Return the car with the same fuel level as at pick-up and at the agreed time. A rental day is 24 hours from pick-up, with a tolerance of 59 minutes.

The price includes 400 km for each rental day, counted in total over the whole rental. In our rentals from 2022-2024 a car typically covered 150 km per day, so a few day trips from Kraków usually fit well within the limit. Day trip ideas are in our guide Kraków to Auschwitz-Birkenau by car.

Frequently asked questions