Taking a rental car out of Romania

The rental company's conditions allow cross-border travel with a rental car only with its written consent, and only to:

• countries of the European Union;
• countries of the European Economic Area, which means the EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway;
• other countries the rental company expressly approves.

The conditions contain no list of approved countries outside the EU and the EEA. The company decides on each request individually, so for such a country ask before your trip and leave only after written approval has been given.

For Bulgaria and Hungary, Romania's neighbours in the European Union, the rule applies as follows:

The rule applies to every country you enter, not only to your final destination. If you drive to Greece through Bulgaria, or to Austria through Hungary, list every country on the route in your request.

Cross-border travel cannot be booked online; you request it as part of your booking:

1. Search for a car on the home page as usual: pick-up point, dates, the driver's age and how long the driver has held a licence.
2. At the “Extras” step, cross-border travel is marked as a service that cannot be booked online. Its cost is not included in the total shown.
3. At the “Your details” step, use the “Observations” field to list the countries you intend to enter, including those you only drive through, and the dates. For example: “Requesting consent for cross-border travel: Bulgaria and Greece, 12 to 16 July.”
4. Send the booking. The request is passed to the rental company with your booking, and the company decides whether to approve it.
5. Leave Romania only after you have written consent. If you have not received it by the time you collect the car, ask the company's representative for it before you sign the rental contract.

• The deposit is doubled. The usual deposit is shown in your booking summary; for travel abroad the conditions require twice that amount, blocked on your credit card in the same way. Check in advance that your card limit covers it.
• Kilometres are limited. Outside Romania, the kilometre limit and the cost per extra kilometre set in your rental contract apply, even on rentals for which the conditions set no limit for driving in Romania.
• Cross-border travel carries a separate charge, which is not included in the total shown when you book. Ask the company for the amount before you sign the contract.
• Roadside assistance covers Romania only. After a breakdown or an accident abroad, bringing the car back to Romania is at your expense. In an emergency, 112 works in every EU country.
• The car is returned in Romania. Every return location in the booking form is in Romania, so the car cannot be dropped off in another country. To end your trip in a different Romanian city, see one-way car rental.
• Costs on the road are your responsibility: vignettes, road and bridge tolls in other countries, Green Card extensions, parking and fines, including fines incurred in the countries you drive through.

The exact rules, with their clause numbers, are set out below under “What the rental company’s conditions say”.

Under the rental company's conditions, if you take the car out of Romania without its consent:

• in addition to the rental rate, you owe a contractual penalty, a per-kilometre charge counted on the rental days and the cost of bringing the car back to where you picked it up;
• the company may terminate the contract with immediate effect and treat the situation as theft of the car, which it may report to the police and other authorities;
• in a country that is not allowed, you are liable for the full value of the car in the event of damage or theft.

The full wording of these rules, with the amounts, is in the Rental Conditions (in Romanian).

The rovinietă included in the rate covers Romanian roads only (see the road vignette guide). In other countries, vignettes and road tolls are your responsibility, under the rental company's conditions.

Electronic vignettes are bought for the car's registration number. You book a car class, not a specific car, so the registration number is known only at pick-up. Buy your vignettes after pick-up and before you reach the first toll road in that country.

• Bulgaria. Cars need an e-vignette for the tolled road network. There is no sticker: the vignette is linked to the registration number and the country of registration, and it is checked by cameras. You can buy it on bgtoll.bg, in the BGTOLL app, at self-service terminals and points of sale, or at the cash desks at border crossings, including the Danube bridges at Ruse and Vidin. One-day, weekend, weekly, monthly, three-month and annual vignettes are available.
• The Danube bridges to Bulgaria. At the Giurgiu–Ruse bridge, the Romanian crossing toll in the Giurgiu to Ruse direction has not been charged since 1 October 2026, according to CNAIR's portal for this toll (in Romanian). The Bulgarian side charges a crossing fee in the Ruse to Giurgiu direction, that is, on your way back into Romania. At the Calafat–Vidin bridge, the fee is charged in both directions, at the toll point at the Bulgarian end of the bridge.
• Hungary. Motorways and tolled expressways require an e-vignette (e-matrica). National vignettes are available for one day, 10 days, one month and one year, as well as annual regional (county) vignettes. They are sold by the national toll operator, Magyar Közút Nonprofit Zrt. – Útdíj Üzletág, on its official portal and through authorised resellers. The category follows the registration certificate: a car for up to 7 people, driver included, is category D1; one with 8 or 9 seats is category D2, as is a goods van (category N1), whatever its number of seats. Before you pay, choose the category that matches the car you were given.

Charges and rules in other countries are subject to change, so check the official websites listed below before you set off.

Every pick-up point is in Romania, and the car is returned there. From them, the borders are reached as follows:

• To Bulgaria: from Bucharest or from Otopeni and Băneasa airports. From Bucharest, the DN5 road leads to the Danube bridge at Giurgiu–Ruse.
• To Hungary: from Timișoara, where the A1 motorway runs to the Nădlac II border crossing and joins Hungary's M43, or from Cluj-Napoca, through Oradea to the Borș crossing (see Cluj to Oradea by car).

Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary are part of the Schengen area. Since 1 January 2025 there have been no routine checks on people at the land borders between them, although checks can be reintroduced temporarily.

• your identity card or passport, as required by the country you enter;
• your original driving licence;
• the rental contract and the written consent for cross-border travel;
• the car's papers, which the company hands you at pick-up: the registration certificate and the RCA (third-party liability) insurance policy;
• confirmations of the vignettes and tolls you have paid.

Before you reach the border, check again that the countries in your written consent match your route.