On Foot & Bicycle

To save the cost of an international ticket or just for fun, you may consider walking across the frontier into or out of Hungary. But many border guards frown on this, particularly in Romania , Yugoslavia and Croatia; try hitching a ride instead. Cyclists may have a problem crossing Hungarian stations connected to main roads since bicycles are banned on motorways and national highways with single-digit route numbers.

There are three crossings to/from Slovakia where you won’t have any problems. The Esztergom-Sturovo bridge is now open to international traffic and bicycles are allowed to cross. At Komarom, 88 km north-west of Budapest, a bridge over the Danube connects Komarom with Komarno, Slovakia’s biggest Hungarian town. At Satoraljaujhely, north-east of Miskolc , another highway border crossing over the Ronyva River links the centre of Satoraljaujhely with Slovenske Nove Mesto.

To/from Romania, the easiest place to cross on foot is Nagylak/Nadlac between Szeged and Arad. There are eight unreserved local trains a day from Szeged to Nagylak (47 km, 1 1 hours) near the border. After crossing into Romania you must walk or take a taxi six km to Nadlac, where you’ll find four local trains a day to Arad (52 km, 1 1 hours).

Slovenia-bound, take a train from Budapest to Zalaegerszeg (252 km via Tapoca, four hours by express train), then one of 10 daily trains from Zalaegerszeg to Redics (49 km, 1 1 hours), which is only a couple of km from the main highway border crossing into Slovenia. From the border it’s an interesting five-km downhill walk through Lendava to the bus dysyion, where you’ll have a choice of six daily buses to Ljubljana (212 km, four hours) and many more to Maribor (92 km).