Getting around Slovakia: transport and apps

The vignette is not a sticker

Slovakia went fully electronic in 2016. There is nothing to buy at the border and nothing to stick on the windscreen, and guidance telling you otherwise - including some official-looking pages - has not caught up.

• The e-vignette is registered against your licence plate. Buy it at eznamka.sk, in the official app, at petrol stations or from machines near the border.
• Check the plate before you pay, including the country code. A typo buys a valid vignette for a car that is not yours, and there is no sticker to reveal the mistake.
• Cameras at motorway entry points read every plate automatically. There are no toll booths for cars, and no moment where somebody checks and waves you through.
• The on-the-spot fine is EUR 150, against a full sanction several times higher if you do not settle it.
• Motorcycles are exempt on all motorways and expressways.
• Rental cars usually come with one, but confirm it in writing. "It's included" from a desk agent is not a defence to a camera.

Trains and buses

• ZSSK runs the trains and they are cheap, punctual enough and comfortable on the main Bratislava to Kosice line.
• RegioJet competes on the same route with its own trains and buses, often cheaper and with seat reservations that actually mean something.
• Buses reach where trains do not, which in Slovakia is most of the mountains and the villages. Slovak Lines and FlixBus cover the intercity network.
• Book the Bratislava to Kosice run ahead in summer and at holidays. It is the country's one long domestic journey and it fills.

In the cities

• Bratislava's transport is trams, trolleybuses and buses under IDS BK, one integrated ticket across all of them.
• Buy in the app. It is cheaper than paper and much cheaper than the driver, and it removes the coins problem.
• Validate a paper ticket when you board. An unvalidated ticket is an unpaid fare as far as an inspector is concerned.

Driving

• Drive on the right. Dipped headlights are required at all times, all year.
• The drink-drive limit is zero. Not low - zero. Fines run to EUR 1,300, with licence confiscation and the possibility of imprisonment.
• Foreign-registered cars are targeted for vehicle crime. The FCDO warns about punctured tyres at petrol stations and staged breakdowns; stop only at well-lit service stations at night and leave nothing visible.