Emergency numbers and help in Slovakia

The numbers

• 112 works from any phone, free, with no credit and no SIM, and operators handle English.
• 18 300 is the mountain rescue number and it is the one to save before you go walking. It reaches HZS directly rather than through the general emergency system.
• The HZS app is worth installing if you are hiking - it transmits your position to rescuers, which in the Tatras is the difference between a search and a rescue.

If you need help

• Your embassy cannot pay your bills or get you out of jail, but it can issue emergency travel documents, contact your family and provide a list of local lawyers and doctors.
• Report a theft to the police and get a written record. No insurer will pay a claim without one, and getting it afterwards from another country is close to impossible.
• A lost passport means the police first, then your embassy.

Before you need them

• Save 112 and 18 300 in your phone now, and write them somewhere that does not depend on a charged battery.
• Tell somebody your route if you are walking in the mountains, and when you expect to be back.
• Note your accommodation's address in Slovak. Reading it out to an operator matters more than you would think when you are shaken.