Bratislava →
Košice

Bratislava → Košice via D1

The route runs along the D1 motorway through Trnava, Trenčín, Žilina, Ružomberok, Liptovský Mikuláš, Poprad and Prešov. The D1 motorway is 512 km long and forms the main transport artery of Slovakia. The trip from Bratislava to Košice covers about 400 km, by car roughly 4 h 30 min, if there are no delays around Trenčín or on the Liptovský Mikuláš → Poprad section.

An alternative southern route runs through Nitra, Zvolen, Lučenec and Rožňava (roads I/16, I/50, R2). It is 30–60 minutes longer, but bypasses any congestion on the D1 and runs through the Muránska Planina National Park.

Carpooling on this route makes sense for students of P. J. Šafárik University and the Technical University of Košice who travel between home and school, as well as for working commuters. The price per seat is around €25. Drivers set it themselves based on fuel costs and the number of passengers.

Bratislava: before departure or after arrival

The capital of Slovakia sits at the tri-border with Austria and Hungary, only 80 km from central Vienna, making it one of the few European capitals with another metropolis within an hour's drive. It has represented the country since 1993, but the city's history goes back long before independent Slovakia. Bratislava's St. Martin's Cathedral served as the coronation church for nineteen Hungarian kings, including Maria Theresa, between the mid-16th and the early 19th centuries.

The castle above the Danube serves as the seat of the National Council and houses a museum on Slovak history. From the castle terrace you can see not only Petržalka across the river, but also the Austrian side of the cross-border Burgenland region. On the opposite edge of the city, by the D1 exit, lies Slavín, a memorial to World War II and the largest military cemetery in Slovakia.

Košice: historic heart of the east

Slovakia's second-largest city has a compact historic core formed by a long pedestrian street that widens into a square shape with parks and a fountain in the middle. Atmospherically, it resembles Hungarian or Polish provincial capitals more than Slovak regional cities. It has its own theatre and opera scene, its own philharmonic, and held the title of European Capital of Culture in 2013.

The central building is the Cathedral of St. Elizabeth, a Gothic cathedral whose construction took roughly 130 years from the late 14th century onward. It is one of the largest sacred buildings in Slovakia, and Francis II Rákóczi, leader of the last anti-Habsburg uprising, is buried in its crypt. Next to the cathedral stand St. Michael's Chapel and Urban's Tower, which together with the cathedral have been a national cultural monument since the 1970s.

In front of the cathedral, during the season (May to October), a Singing Fountain plays in sync with music, every full hour in the evening. For visitors, it's one of the few "performing" fountains in Slovak public space. The city is also home to the East Slovak Gallery and the State Scientific Library.