js13

We are planning to visit Prague, a small town in Eastern Slovakia - Michalovce, Budapest, and Vienna in 10 days in early May. It is an ambitious trip, particularly given that neither of us have been before!

I have been advised that likely the best way to get from Prague to Michalovce is by driving, so I figured we would rent a car in Prague, drive to Michalovce, then drive to Budapest, ultimately taking the train to Vienna.

Any suggestions on getting from point A to point B (and point C in this case)? Also, from what I have read, I thought it might be worth a stop in Slovensky raj, Levoca, or Presov on the way...any recommendations for Slovakia (or the trip in general) would be most welcome!

Lexma90

We made a similar trip last year, though we didn't go to Michalovce! I assume you have a specific reason to go there.

We started our trip in Prague, then rented a car (from the airport, so we didn't have to drive in Prague). We spent two nights in Telc, south of Prague, then drove east and spent two nights in Olomouc. Telc is a gorgeous little town; Olomouc is bigger and also charming. Our focus was visiting the many castles in those areas.

From Olomouc we made the long drive east to Levoca, in Slovakia. The long drive was made longer because of road construction in the eastern part of the Czech Republic, which put us on a secondary road for about 20 miles. The roads/highways were generally good in both countries, especially those in the middle to eastern part of Slovakia (I think due to EU money), where we were driving on a brand new highway. (Near the border with the Czech Republic, it's mountainous and not a highway, though still pretty good condition.) Levoca is a pretty town, though quite poor, and was a bit sad, I thought. We stayed at the Hotel U Leva - a wonderful, welcoming place. We spent the day at Spissky Hrad and that area. The next day, we took a poorly-planned route to Hungary - we went east to Kosice, spent some time there & had lunch, then drove back west (this was the stupid part) to enter Hungary, rather than taking the highway straight south from Kosice. There are some castles on the route we took, but they were closed that day (Monday). We spent two nights in the adorable town of Eger, Hungary. After that, we made the easy drive back west to Budapest.

From what I read and researched in preparation for our trip, Presov is an industrial town and not interesting. From what I saw from the highway, it looked industrial - or rather, formerly industrial, and now a lot of abandoned factories. We didn't visit Slovensky raj, because we only had 2 weeks for our trip, and as we live in the mountains in the U.S., we chose to focus on castles and history, which we don't have where we live! But we could see the mountains to our north as we drove east through Slovakia.

It was a good plan except for that one long driving day. We knew it would be a long drive, and it was - longer than we planned.

Michael

I don't think that you have enough time for all that. Obviously you have a special reason to visit Michalovce. So I would drop Vienna out of the equation and fly back from Budapest, assuming that you have not purchased the tickets already.

Are you aware that there are heavy cross-border drop-off fees on car rentals?

js13

Thank you for the advice! Especially the driving route from Prague to Budapest and the recs on the smaller towns in between. I am now a bit concerned about our ambitious agenda - we do already have tickets, and I am not sure that we can change them.

Lexma90 - did you rent your car from the US? And, did you purchase maps in the US?

Thanks again!

Lexma90

You do have a lot to fit into 10 days. Consider what parts of the trip (other than the beginning and the end) can be dropped.

I'm a bit fanatical about maps, partly because I have a bad sense of direction, and it helps me to study maps beforehand. Yes, I bought them in the U.S. We have a very good map store where I live, Mapsco, which is primarily an online vendor. But you could order maps from anywhere, I would think. We have Michelin map #732, Hungary, and #731, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

As we've done for all our Europe trips, we rented the car while in the U.S., through AutoEurope. They had good rates (as always) and were able to confirm various information. We started in Prague and dropped the car in Budapest because the rates were cheaper that way, though there was still a sizeable drop fee. You'll need, as I recall, an extra endorsement on the insurance documents, called a green something, I think, and a notation of which countries you're permitted to drive the car in. Also, to drive on the highways in each country, you need an sticker/coupon (also sometimes called a "vignette") for the car (in lieu of paying for toll roads). They're easy to get. As the car was in the Czech Republic, it already had the sticker for there. We stopped at a gas station shortly after entering Slovakia, at a place that had a sign for the Slovak coupon, and bought a coupon good for a week, for 150 korunas (about $8). We did the same thing upon entering Hungary, though to my amusement, you don't display the coupon in your car window, you just keep it in the car.

Michael

For maps, try this site:

http://www.thesavvytraveller.com/ins...ern_europe.htm

js13

Thanks again for your assistance - this is the best information I have received yet!

I have one additional question - did you have a guide or interpreter during your trip? I have never pursued that during my travels, but given that we will be a bit off the beaten path, particularly in Slovakia, I thought that might be helpful to address the language barrier. Do you have any thoughts about this?
I thought it might be possible to meet up with one in Kosice for a day of touring around the region and to Michalovce specifically?
Thanks again!

Michael

We were in Slovakia in 1975. We traveled without a guide, but I know enough tourist German to get by, which in those days helped. Nowadays English might have replaced German for those in the tourist trade. We did have an interesting experience in a hamlet at the end of a dirt road--we met a peasant who spoke some English for having lived in Canada and the States for about three years in the 1920s until he was sent back to Europe for not having proper immigration papers. He's the one who showed us the inside of the chapel that I photographed. You could look for a guide, but if your adventurous, there is no reason to go without one.

Michael

<b>you're</b> adventurous

Lexma90

We've never used a guide or interpreter, either, but if you have a particular interest or needs in Michalovce for communications, then you might consider it.

While I learned a FEW words in Slovak, and more in Czech (closely related language), we got by in English. The people at our hotel in Levoca, in particular, spoke English very well. The only other contacts we had with people were in restaurants and at attractions, such as Spissky Hrad (huge castle east of Levoca), and my minimal language skills, plus other people's much-better English, worked fine. All the restaurants we ate at, even in very untouristy Kosice, had English translations, so that was never a problem.

But English skills may be less prevalent in Michalovce. If you're planning to spend the night in Kosice, you should contact the hotel you'll stay at, and ask them if you're likely to need an interpreter in Michalovce.

JToronto

We are planning a trip in a similar area: Prague, Krakow, Zakopane/Tatras mountains, Poprad (Slovakia), then on to eastern Romania (via Hungary). The good news for you is that the hardest part to figure out in my trip has been the connection from Hungary to Romania, that you don't need to do! If you run into problems with the car rental, it may be helpful to know that it appears possible to do all of this by train. In fact, our advice was to prefer the train, since roads in the region may be heavily used by transport trucks (the main route from Istanbul to western Europe passes through this area, apparently). The German train website can give all the train connections. Also, given your flights are already booked, if you're worried about having enough time, you could look into a cheap flight or overnight train from Budapest to Vienna and use Vienna only for the "airport home".

Michael

<i>In fact, our advice was to prefer the train, since roads in the region may be heavily used by transport trucks (the main route from Istanbul to western Europe passes through this area, apparently).</i>

We did not encounter any heavy truck traffic traveling between Hungary and Romania, but perhaps we were in areas outside the main truck routes.