Driving the Nürburgring Nordschleife
Public 'tourist' laps or an organised track day? How the Nordschleife works for visitors, what it costs, the rules, and how to avoid a very expensive barrier bill.
The Nordschleife is about 20.8km of narrow, bumpy, blind and fast road through the Eifel hills, and it's like nowhere else. You can drive it two ways: in the public sessions called Touristenfahrten, where you pay per lap and share the track with everyone from coaches to supercars, or on an organised track day, where you pay more but get a whole day, fewer people and proper track day rules. Read our Nordschleife circuit guide for the lap itself.
Touristenfahrten (public sessions)
On many evenings and weekends between spring and autumn, the circuit opens to anyone with a road-legal car or bike, a driving licence and a lap ticket. The 2026 season ran from 7 March to 15 November. A single lap cost €30 Monday to Thursday and €35 at weekends, with multi-lap tickets and a season card (€2,750 in 2026) for regulars.
Opening times change day to day, and the track often closes for a while after a crash or an oil spill. Always check the official opening hours page on the day.
The rules that matter most:
- It's legally a one-way toll road, so road traffic law applies. Overtake on the left only, and keep right when you're not overtaking.
- Lap timing isn't allowed.
- Some sections have speed limits, mainly near the entry and exit.
- Use your mirrors. You'll be passed by far faster cars, so hold your line and move right to let them by.
- If the yellow flags or hazard lights are out, slow right down and don't overtake.
Organised track days
Several organisers book the Nordschleife for exclusive days, usually combined with the GP circuit. There are fewer cars, overtaking follows track day rules, and you get a full day of driving rather than a lap at a time. UK organisers running Ring days include OpenTrack, Circuit Days, DN Events and RSR. Expect to pay from about £500 a day. Look for dates on our Nordschleife page.
These days book up fast, often within hours of release over the winter. Get on the organisers' mailing lists.
Insurance and the barrier bill
This is the part people ignore until it's too late. If you hit the barriers on the Nordschleife, the circuit charges you for repairs, track closure time and recovery. Bills of several thousand euros are common for quite small incidents, and oil clean-ups add more.
Most UK road policies exclude the Nordschleife completely, even in public sessions. Specialist cover is available, and some policies include barrier damage automatically. See our insurance guide.
Hiring a car
Lots of first-timers hire. RSR and several other firms rent track-prepared cars by the lap or the day, often with an instructor for the first laps. It costs more per lap than your own car, but you're not risking your daily driver hundreds of miles from home.
Getting there and staying
From Calais it's roughly 450km, about five hours via Belgium. Nürburg, Adenau and the villages round about are full of guesthouses and holiday flats, many set up for car people. Book early for summer weekends and big race weekends. See our European track days guide for the Channel crossing and paperwork.
First lap advice
Go slowly. The Nordschleife has over 70 corners (counts vary depending on what you call a corner) and most of them look the same the first time. Go round with an experienced passenger, or ride along in a taxi lap, before you try it yourself. Plan on learning it over years, not laps. Many crashes happen at the Schwedenkreuz, Fuchsröhre and Adenauer Forst sections in the first few kilometres, because people get excited early in the lap.