Driving in Slovakia

Slovakia is, without doubt, a beautiful country, with a lot of places to visit and many hidden gems waiting to be discovered.

While all kinds of transportation are available in the country, the best way to reach your destinations fast and comfortably is to drive a car or motorcycle. Driving in Slovakia is very similar to driving in any European Union country. However, there are some differences and catches that might surprise you, not necessarily in a good way. I would like to give you all the important information and some tips to prepare for your vacation or road trip to Slovakia.

Entering Slovakia

To enter the country you can use any official border crossing. As Slovakia is part of the European Union and belongs to the Schengen zone you will not encounter any border checks when entering from other Schengen countries. 

The border with Ukraine is the outer border of the Schengen zone, therefore a permanent border check is still here.

Entering Slovakia during covid-19

During the pandemic, Slovakia did close some smaller border crossings and reinstate the checks when crossing borders. The situation currently changing from day to day and is hard to predict. As of September 2021, all border crossings are open, but police or military do check Green pass or covid tests. Until the pandemic is over better check the government page for actual conditions: https://korona.gov.sk/en/travelling-to-slovakia-and-covid19/.

Roads in Slovakia

Slovakia has around 38 thousand kilometers of paved roads, plus few thousand unpaved roads.

The roads are divided into motorways (in Slovak: Diaľnica), expressways (in Slovak: Rýchlostna cesta), and I. class roads (in Slovak: Cesta prvej triedy) and local roads.

Several A and B-class European roads cross the country as well.

You can download a full map of Slovakia motorways and expressways from the National Highway company here (pdf file).

Motorways and expressways

As of April 2020, the term "expressways" was removed from traffic rules and old blue signs were replaced with new green for both motorways and expressways. I will therefore use only "Motorways" when talking about R and D roads.

Slovakia has only around 622 km of motorways, and except few kilometers (for example motorway in the capital city) are all with payment. The payments are for 10 days, 30 days, 1 year (valid from 31. January to 31. January), and new 365 days (valid from the purchase date). You can buy toll tickets on gas stations (not all. The best are big brands like OMW, or Slovnaft and Shell) or online on https://eznamka.sk (you can switch to English and few other languages). Be aware that you have to have a valid toll ticket before you enter paid section of a motorway! Police do regularly check cars (you can spot police vans on side of the road. They are usually toll police). The current prices are in the picture below:

Most of the motorways are in good condition (many are actually brand new) with two lanes for one direction. The exception is part of D1 from Bratislava to Trnava which is three lanes. The speed limit is 130 km/h with exception of the same part of D1 from Bratislava to Trnava, where the speed limit is limited to 110 km/h during the day (from 5 AM to 7 PM). Inside cities, the speed limit can be limited to 90 km/h. As of 2021 the speed limit on motorways passing cities was removed from traffic laws. I still recommend paying attention to speed signs. To this day in the capital city Bratislava the speed limit is changing according to the traffic conditions (from 120 to 60 km/h !), so look for overhead panels. 

You will find gas stations and service stations with restaurants, toilets, and places to sit and for kids to play fairly often, so don't worry about running out of gas. 

Motels and overnight hotels are easy to find on motorways and many of I. class roads.

The exits are well marked so you should not have a problem finding the right one even without GPS.

Other roads in Slovakia

The condition of roads, other than motorways varies a lot. Some are brand new with perfect tarmac, some are full of potholes, cracked tarmac, and bad sides. Being a mountainous country, many roads pass hills and mountains and are twisty with sharper turns especially in north and middle regions. Many roads are damaged with deep lines from trucks which can be dangerous especially in rain. 

The general speed limit outside of cities is 90 km/h and in cities and villages 50 km/h. Police are quite tolerant if happens, that you pass the limit over for few kilometers outside of the city, but much less tolerant inside the cities. The fines range from 10 euro to 800 (you can read about fines valid for 2021 on www.autoviny.sk. Only in Slovak language, so use google translator.).

The gas stations you will find in cities, but also in the countryside on side of the roads. Apart from known brands like OMW, Shell, Slovnaft, you will find also smaller brands like Jurki, OkTan, Benzina. Even some shopping brands like Metro and Hypernova have their own gas stations. 

These brands are perfectly safe to buy fuel in terms of quality, but they also tend to be cheaper. On the downside, they might offer only one type of petrol and one diesel and very limited service. Many gas stations also have LPG, or you can find dedicated LPG stations. 

In general, the directions are well marked and you can easily navigate with a road map and without GPS.

Summer, especially school holidays (July and August) is the season of road works and we like to dig out and broke all roads at once.

Mountain passes

With over 50 % of the country covered with mountains, you will sooner or later have to drive through one of the mountain passes. 

They are generally in good conditions, but full of serpentines and often sharp turns. During workdays, you will eventually get stuck behind a truck, especially on main routes like Donovaly (Transit from Poland).

The reward for you will be spectacular views and incredible nature surrounding valleys.

Road tunnels

Slovakia has only twelve road tunnels currently in use. The longest one, Branisko, is 5 km long and located in the east part of the country and the shortest one, Lučivna, is only 250 meters long. 

Tunnels located on motorways don't have any extra charge.

Driving an electric car

With the recent boom of electric cars, Slovakia trying to catch up with the rest of the world and building networks of charging stations. You can find a map of charging stations on www.electromaps.com. There are currently five (and one more coming) Tesla superchargers in the country: https://www.tesla.com/findus/list/superchargers/slovakia.

Currently, electric vehicles don't have any special advantages over petrol vehicles, but the government considering allowing EVs to use special lanes like bus lanes.

General traffic rules in Slovakia

Alcohol tolerance

The most important is that Slovakia as one of few European countries has zero-tolerance for alcohol. The police are very strict in this case and penalties are very severe. The country has a lot to offer in the "beverage" sector and beer is cheaper than water (for real), but avoid drinking while driving.

Police will ask you for an alcohol test every time they stop you. If you will refuse to do a test on the spot, you will be forbidden to continue the drive and escorted to a blood test.

Traffic laws enforcement

The police are equipped with modern handheld measuring devices, and they can catch you speeding without spotting them. You can also encounter civil police cars equipped with speed measuring and video recording. These cars are hard to spot as they don't have any visible marking or equipment. Any so-called anti-radars are not effective and highly illegal.

Parking

All the places where is allowed to park are marked with white lines or with a blue sign with the white letter P. Parking spots with payments have additional pictures of parking clocks. Spots marked with blue lines are residential parking and based on the city, different rules and times apply to them. 

Watch out for signs which forbid parking or stopping. Police, especially local police like to check this and you can get towed, or find a blocking device on your wheel.

B 33 is Parking forbidden and B 34 is Stopping forbidden.

On "Parking forbidden" you can stop for a brief moment, like to pick up a passenger, but on "Stopping forbidden" you are not allowed to stop at all.

Rescue and emergency lane

From 2020 is included in traffic law, that drivers when driving in slow traffic must maintain lane for emergency service. Drivers in the left lane must stick with the left side of the road and drivers in the right lane must stay to the right side of the road. 

There are no signs on the road for this and also no signs of how to create a lane for rescue service. So stick with the same rule if you hear sirens behind you.

Lane splitting

Just a small note if you ride a motorcycle. Lane splitting is not officially legal in Slovakia, but police tolerate this and very rarely will stop motorcycle riders for this cause.

Dealing with Slovakia police

All units of traffic, state and also local (in Slovakia: Mestká polícia) police have the right to stop you and enforce traffic rules.

When dealing with police stick with politeness and don't try to deny your offense. They will have video recordings. This way you might escape with a lower fine or just a verbal warning. Be aware that if you are not able to pay a fine on the spot (most of the units will have a card terminal), they will confiscate your driver's license until you pay. You will receive a permit to drive, but is valid only in-country. If you will deny your offense (and you commit one), they will escalate you to the Traffic law inspection office and your fines will increase if you will not be able to prove your innocents. 

These days you shouldn't encounter police stopping you for no reason and trying to give you a fine for a made-up offense. But if this happens, always ask for proof and make sure you understand if you need to sign something. Speaking with police officers other than the Slovak language might be tricky sometimes, especially in smaller regions and the countryside, but in general, you should be fine with some level of English or German. 

Do not try to bribe police officers! Their encounters are recorded and can get you in serious trouble.

And to not forget, turn on car lights are mandatory during the whole year and the whole day (daylights, if your car has them, are fine during the day and with good visibility). Also, don't use your phone and drive. It's illegal and the police will stop you if they spot you.

Driving in the country

So how is it to drive in Slovakia?

Permits and papers

Drivers from the EU can drive on the island with their home country driving license. International Driving Permit (IDP) is required for non-Europian Union drivers.

Make sure you always have with you while driving papers from car, driver licenses, and in case of non-residents, passport as well. 

Other drivers

Drivers in Slovakia are most of the time calm and driving nice without extreme speeding, but can be very impatient, especially with slow and lost drivers. Road rage is not often and usually does not end up physical. But often you will meet tailgating if you drive too slow. Of course, there are exceptions and you will meet arrogant or unskilled drivers, like everywhere else. 

Not to offend anyone but from personal experience delivery drivers and in general van drivers are the fastest and more aggressive drivers. 

Trucks

During workdays can be a lot of trucks on roads, but the volume is somewhat average comparing to countries like Italy. The laws forbid trucks to drive during Sunday and national holidays so the roads are usually free of trucks during these days.

When to drive and when not to

In general, the best times to drive are national holidays and Saturdays when traffic volume is lows. The worst time to drive is Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon when "big national migration" begins (Friday from west to east and Sunday from east to west).

The rush hours are in most cities in the morning between 7 am to 9 am and afternoon from 3 pm to 5 pm.

If you just need to move from point A to B, and you don't have a problem driving at the night then evening and very early morning is the best time to get your trip done fast.

Riding a bike

Unfortunately, Slovakia doesn't have a good infrastructure for bikes, yet. But new bike roads are being built every year. When riding bike use dedicated bike roads and if are not available stick on the road. Riding a bike on a pedestrian walk is against the law. All traffic laws for cars apply to you as well. Zero alcohol tolerance is for bike riders too and police might ask you to do an alcohol test while riding on the bike. If riding a bike under influence you can lose your driver's license for the car!

Bikes are not allowed on motorways and ideally avoid riding a bike on I. class roads for your own safety.

Car drivers' tolerance to bikers is almost 50-50. While many will keep the distance and pass you safely, an equal amount will do the exact opposite. 

But don't let this discourage you to bring the bike to Slovakia. You will find a lot of trails for mountain biking and bike or low-traffic roads with amazing scenery (for example in the High Tatras, or alongside the Danube river). If you looking for more extreme downhill or enduro rides, you will find several high-quality bike parks (mainly around sky centers) and some smaller bike parks (one is directly in capital city Bratislava - On Kamzik hill)

Renting a car or motorcycle in Slovakia

You can rent a car without a problem in Slovakia. Car rentals are in every bigger city, airports and some train and bus stations.

Prices started at around 50 euro for the day. Make sure you get the insurance for the car.

In some cities, especially in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, you can rent a motorcycle. Prices start around 30 euro per day and you have a selection starting from scooters (mopeds) to proper road bikes.

In some areas, especially hilly regions you can rent an off-road bike or quad or book an adventure with a guide. 

Caravaning in Slovakia

While caravaning in Slovakia is not popular as some other countries, still you will find enough enthusiasts who prefer this kind of travel.

If you plan to try caravaning and you don't have your own, is quite easy to rent one the same as a car. Some companies limit daily driving distance so read carefully condition before making reservations.

Slovakia is very benevolent to caravans and you can park almost anywhere. You will find some marked spots for caravans near lakes or rivers for free.

There are also official camps with all the facilities you will need. Slovakia caravan and auto camping association publish every year list of the official campsites. You can find it on this page: www.caravaning.sk (look for Catalogue of campsites).

Make sure you respect private properties and zone which have forbidden caravans.

All things said

Slovakia is a great place for road trips or caravan holidays. With hundreds of castles, breathtaking mountains, historic cities, and cozy villages offer endless places waiting to be discovered by you.

Despite its past and current problems, driving across the country can be an amazing adventure. With pretty standard European traffic laws, you can enjoy epic views and find places that offer an experience for motorists rivaling many other countries.

If you like this article and planning to visit Slovakia or want to learn more about great places to drive here, consider joining my newsletter (I promise no spam will be sent). Don't miss the incoming series about the best and most scenic routes in Slovakia.