Längerer Beitrag – schneller Überblick:
Pitches
Slovakia is special when it comes to vanlife & freestanding:
There is many possibilitiesto simply stand freely. But usually somewhere along the Old, mostly no longer intact swimming pools, sports fields or factory halls. Not exactly romantic. But free and possible.
Then there is the option of simply into some forest to drive. We rarely see any prohibition signs here. You just have to be careful to get out again after a possible rain shower, if you are like us without four-wheel drive. The thing with the bears should also be mentioned here, but with the hint that if you are blessed with a fertile imagination like me, you might interpret too much into certain situations.
Campsites
Otherwise there are many beautiful places directly at the lakes, at the rivers, in the forests and there are also wonderful campsites. These are relatively cheap and mostly very large. Often without parcelling, more along the lines of: "Put yourself where you like!
And then there is another special feature: many smaller campsites are closed from 1 or 15 October, but open their gates. This means that you can drive up and sometimes even use the water and sewage facilities. You don't have to pay anything, but you really don't have any services either. And: they are usually located in enchanting places. So if you're travelling in autumn, I recommend you take a look at the camping guides.
All in all, we parked at 80 % in really great places, the other 20 % are mostly public car parks that cost around 5 € for 24. And they are always located along beautiful hiking trails or in the middle of town behind the church tower. (Once again we learn: church bells can be loud!)
Water
We never had problems getting drinking water or draining grey water.
Power
We don't know about electricity, as we are self-sufficient (solar and charging booster). However, on the few campsites we have seen, the campers were "hooked up".
Satellite reception
We don't know about satellite dish reception either, but have seen the dishes set up on many other campers.
Internet
Internet reception is almost always top. Since our contracts only have 40 GB roaming, we switched to Slovak Telekom. Here we bought a SIM card for €5 and then topped it up online. On our working days, we then activated a 24-hour flat rate for €2. If you do this every day, it would be another 60 euros for a Monday with super speed!
Currency
Money: Euros, ATMs are often available. We often paid with Visa and MasterCard, which was no problem.
Parking & Roads
Parking is quite cheap, often with an app or coins. You can also pay by SMS, but we suspect that a Slovak mobile phone number is mandatory. We often paid 2 to 5 € per 24, with the exception of Bratislava. Bratislava is as expensive as other big European cities.
Road conditions: good to very good! Forest roads are forest roads, but all other roads are similar to Germany. Some are top-notch, some a little patched up. But all well passable.
Apps that we have used
Google Translate incl. photo translation!
maps.me & GoogleMaps
Slovakian telecom app to activate the daily flat rate (only works with the app)
Note: most Slovak apps are only available in Slovak, there is no way to change the language. Either get help here or screenshot and translate via Google Translate. // As of: Sept, Oct 2023
Travelspend to note our costs
Trackiwito track our route
Park4Night for pitches when we have not found any ourselves
MarcoPolo Tours for travel recommendations
Merlin Bird ID for the identification of the birds
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
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