Slovakia Travel Guide

The Slovak capital sits on the Danube only sixty kilometres from Vienna, the closest pair of European Union capitals (followed by Rome and the Vatican). The Old Town (Staré Mesto) clusters around Hlavné námestie with the Old Town Hall (now the City Museum), the eighteenth-century Roland Fountain and the cluster of small bronze statues that have become the city's signature — Čumil the «Watcher» peeking out of a manhole, the Napoleon's Soldier leaning on a bench, the Schöne Náci dandy in top hat, the Paparazzi photographer. Michael's Gate (Michalská brána) on the north edge of the Old Town is the only surviving medieval city gate, with a small weapons museum and tower view. St. Martin's Cathedral (Gothic, fourteenth-century origins) is topped by a distinctive green-copper crown; the green-roof tower is one of the city's most photographed silhouettes. Bratislava Castle (Bratislavský hrad) on the Danube cliff above the city houses the Slovak National Museum and offers panoramic views over the Danube to Austria and Hungary. Devín Castle ten kilometres west, on a cliff above the Morava-Danube confluence, is the romantic ruin of the early Slavic Great Moravian state. The UFO Bridge observation deck (Most SNP, 95 m above the Danube) gives the city's headline panorama.

The High Tatras (Vysoké Tatry) are the highest section of the Carpathians and the headline natural attraction of Slovakia — a compact alpine range only 26 km long and 17 km wide, with the entire spine forming the border with Poland. Gerlachovský štít (2 655 m) is Slovakia's highest peak, climbed only with a registered mountain guide via the Velická dolina ridge. The three main resorts — Štrbské Pleso (the alpine lake at 1 350 m, the iconic ski-jump complex from the 1970 World Championships, the year-round hiking-and-skiing base), Tatranská Lomnica (the great cable car to Lomnický štít at 2 634 m, one of the most dramatic in central Europe, summit observatory open in summer) and Starý Smokovec (the family-friendly base lower down) — connect by the electric Tatra Railway (Tatranské elektrické železnice, TEŽ) that has run since 1908. Glacial lakes (Štrbské Pleso, Popradské pleso, Skalnaté pleso, the Five Spiš Lakes) sit in mountain cirques above the treeline. The Belianske Tatry sub-range north-east holds the Belianska Cave (limestone karst, open to visitors). Wildlife: chamois, marmots, golden eagles, brown bears (rarely seen but present). Best windows: December–March for skiing, June–September for hiking when the high passes are snow-free.

The Spiš (Zips) region in eastern Slovakia is one of central Europe's deepest medieval landscapes. Spišský hrad (Spiš Castle, UNESCO World Heritage Site) is one of the largest castle complexes in Europe — a sprawling hilltop ruin of about 4 hectares with twelfth-century origins under the Hungarian Kingdom; the Romanesque palace, the Gothic cathedral, the curtain walls and bastions are all visitable, and the panoramic view stretches across the Spiš plain to the High Tatras on the horizon. Spišská Kapitula immediately below — a fortified ecclesiastical town within its own walls — is the second part of the UNESCO listing. Levoča (UNESCO) is the great medieval walled town of the Spiš region, with the Renaissance Town Hall, the Cage of Shame, and the headline of central European late-Gothic art: Master Pavol of Levoča's wooden altarpiece in St. James's Church (1517), at 18.6 metres the tallest Gothic wooden altar in the world. Bardejov in the north-east (UNESCO) is the second-best-preserved medieval town in Slovakia, with the central square's burgher houses and the city walls almost complete. The Spiš region also carries the surrounding wooden churches (eight of them on the UNESCO Carpathian Wooden Churches list at Hervartov, Tvrdošín, Kežmarok, Leštiny, Hronsek, Bodružal, Ladomirová and Ruská Bystrá).

The Slovak Paradise (Slovenský raj) National Park in the eastern centre of the country is unique in central Europe for its gorge-hiking trails — narrow limestone canyons climbed via metal ladders, chains and wooden walkways bolted to the rock face, alongside cascade-and-waterfall sequences. The headline trails are the Suchá Belá gorge (3-hour loop with seven ladders and dramatic waterfall sections), the Piecky canyon (shorter, fewer crowds), the Veľký Sokol (the longest gorge), the Prielom Hornádu (the river-edge hike along the Hornád) and the Tomášovský výhľad viewpoint above the gorges. The standard bases are Čingov, Podlesok and Hrabušice. The Low Tatras (Nízke Tatry) further west are the longest mountain range in Slovakia (over 80 km) — Ďumbier (2 043 m) is the highest peak, Demänovská Cave (open to visitors) and the Demänovská Valley ski resort (Jasná, the country's largest) are the headline visits. The Slovak Karst (Slovenský kras) on the Hungarian border holds the Aggtelek Karst caves — UNESCO-listed underground systems including the Domica and Gombasecká caves, both open as guided visits with stunning calcite formations.

Slovakia has more than 180 castles and castle ruins — one of Europe's deepest castle landscapes, a result of the country's strategic position on Hungarian-Polish-Bohemian trade and military routes. Bojnice Castle in central Slovakia is the country's fairytale castle: a Romantic reconstruction (1888–1910) on Romanesque-Gothic-Renaissance foundations, the most-visited castle in Slovakia and the seat of the annual International Festival of Ghosts and Spirits each May. Trenčín Castle dominates the Považie valley north of Bratislava on a high rock above the Váh river — the donjon (Matúš Tower) is one of the symbols of Slovak medieval architecture, and the Roman inscription of Laugaricio (179 AD) at the foot of the rock is the northernmost surviving Roman inscription in central Europe. Orava Castle on the Polish border (cliff-top, the standard cinematic Dracula filming location since the 1922 «Nosferatu»), Beckov, Spiš (UNESCO), Devín, Bratislava and Krásna Hôrka complete the headline circuit. Several smaller castles — Strečno, Likava, Šariš, Slanský — are open as ruins. Vlkolínec (UNESCO) is not a castle but the country's best-preserved traditional wooden mountain village, with 45 brightly painted log houses on a forested hillside above Ružomberok.

Slovakia's UNESCO list runs deep into the country's small-town and rural heritage. Banská Štiavnica (UNESCO World Heritage Site) is one of the most evocative former mining towns in central Europe — a UNESCO inscription that covers both the historic centre and the technical mining monuments (the Open-Air Mining Museum, the New and Old Castles, the Calvary, the Klingerhof). The town was Europe's most productive silver-mining centre between the thirteenth and the eighteenth centuries and the seat of the world's first mining academy (1762, predecessor of the École des Mines in Paris and the Bergakademie Freiberg). The eight Carpathian Wooden Churches inscribed by UNESCO — three Roman Catholic at Hervartov, Tvrdošín and Kežmarok, two Protestant articular churches at Leštiny and Hronsek, and three Greek Catholic Eastern-rite at Bodružal, Ladomirová and Ruská Bystrá — represent one of the most distinctive surviving architectural types in eastern central Europe. Bardejov (UNESCO) and Žilina, Prešov and Trnava complete the small-town circuit. The Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art in Medzilaborce honours the artist whose parents emigrated to Pittsburgh from the small Rusyn village of Miková nearby.

Slovak cuisine is the central-European hearty tradition — bryndzové halušky (potato dumplings with sheep cheese and crispy bacon, the unofficial national dish), kapustnica (sauerkraut soup with smoked sausage, traditional at Christmas Eve), pirohy (filled dumplings), guláš (the Hungarian-influenced beef stew), and the long Slovak sausage tradition (klobása in many regional variants). Slovak wine is one of the country's quiet pleasures: the small wine regions of the Lesser Carpathians (Modra, Pezinok, Svätý Jur — the Carpathian Wine Route runs from Bratislava through these towns), Tokaj (the small Slovak side of the famous Hungarian-Slovak shared region; the Slovak Tokaj villages produce sweet aszu wines on the same volcanic Tokaj terroir), Nitra and the Eastern Slovak Lowlands. Slovak beer is dominated by Šariš, Zlatý Bažant and Topvar, and the Bratislava microbrewery scene has grown strongly. Spa culture is woven into the country's life — the great spa towns of Piešťany (the standard spa-resort with Roman baths origins, the iconic crutch-breaking statue), Trenčianske Teplice (the Hammam Building of 1888 in Moorish style), Bardejovské Kúpele, Sliač and Korytnica are all open to visitors, with the standard Habsburg-era treatments alongside modern wellness.