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'''Slovakia''' is a member state of the [[European Union]] as well as the [[Schengen Agreement]], bordering [[Austria]], [[Czech Republic]], [[Poland]], [[Ukraine]] and [[Hungary]].
It is most of the time very easy to find a ride, waiting times are usually less than half an hour. Slovak people are incredibly friendly and will do their best to make you feel comfortable. Some will even invite you to have lunch with their family and/or have a drink with friends! Some, but not many drivers speak English or German, especially younger ones. Russian is more widely understood among older people, but not necessarily liked. In the some southern part areas of the country the majority speak Hungarian (you can recognize where towns and villages are marked by blue place-name signs), there is a substantial Hungarian-speaking minority. It is not common for drivers to ask money for a ride. Hitchhiking in Slovak is called ''stopovanie, stopovať''.
Hitchhiking (and indeed all pedestrian access) is not allowed on motorways, but one can hitchhike from entry ramps or ask drivers for a lift at petrol stations. On the country's national roads, you can simply stand wherever cars are going slowly and put out your thumb. Use a card displaying a two-letter code of your destination town (see below in section "Number plates"), if your intended destination cannot be obvious to the drivers. It is not advised to hitch on an older national road which runs parallel to a newer motorway, because all longer-distance traffic uses the motorway (unless of course you only want to get to the nearest village). Hitchhiking in pairs of a man and a woman is the best bet: most successful and also secure.
