In the previous blog post, we talked about getting from Lviv to Uzhgorod. Today, we’ll discuss how to get from Uzhgorod to Košice (Slovakia) and vice versa.
The best way to get from Uzhgorod to Košice or back is by bus. (There’s a commuter train traveling between Chop and Čierna nad Tisou, Slovakia, from where you can get to Košice. But you have to get to Chop first, and then change trains, which is not really convenient.) Buses from Uzhgorod to Košice depart daily at 7:40 AM, 8:20 AM and 3:30 PM, and from Košice to Uzhgorod at 6:40 AM, 12:40 PM and 2:30 PM local time. Uzhgorod is just 100 km away from Košice but the trip will take you from 4 to 5 hours because of the time spent on the state border.
The current bus schedule can be obtained at Uzhgorod’s intercity bus station (tel. (03122) 3-21-27). You can also buy a ticket online on the Eurobus website. By the way, if you were unable to get a ticket to Kosice, you might as well get to Michalovce and take a bus to Košice from there.
You can also get to Košice from Uzhgorod by car. You’d better leave very early in the morning, though, so you don’t get to spend the whole day on the border (yep, it can be that bad).
I have taken the bus several times back and forth. The problem I had the last time was that when I was leaving Uzhorod to go back to Slovakia I did not have any Ukrainian money left – I only had Euros. There is no money exchange at the bus stop and they won’t take Euros or even a charge card.
You can go there by car and yes early morning is the very best. However, you can’t rent a car in Slovakia and drive it across – at least you couldn’t the last time I checked. If someone knows any different I would love to know.
And yes the time at the border is long. Longer going from Ukraine to Slovakia than Slovakia to Ukraine. Also I forgot — they don’t always turn on the air conditioning. When it was hot and I went by bus in 2008 I think and I asked the bus Slovak driver about the air conditioning – he said “what do you think we are going to Moscow?”
Thanks for sharing your experiences Karen! Hryvnias are the only legal tender in Ukraine, so yeah, you’d better make sure you have them to pay for the bus leaving from Uzhgorod
I’m planning to visit Mukachevo and Uzhgorod next month, thanks for this interesting thread. I usually take day hikes from the cities I stay in, is one of these more interesting in that respect (parks, mountains, nature places easy to reach?
Patrick, Mukachevo is closer to the center of the Transcarpathian region so some nature places are easier to reach from there. That said, there’s a lot to see in that regard close to Uzhgorod, too – Nevytsky castle, for example, or the beautiful lake at the nearby Andriivka (Andrashovtsi) village.