Give Bratislava two days and no more: the old town, the castle rock and Devín at the river confluence are a compact, pleasant start rather than the trip. Then go east, because that is where the country is. The High Tatras are the anchor, reached by train to Poprad and the electric line up to Štrbské Pleso, and they carry anything from a lakeside afternoon to a week of ridge walking. Next door, Slovenský raj is a different sport: narrow gorges climbed on fixed ladders and walkways, not switchbacks. Central Slovakia is the mining half, and Banská Štiavnica is the one town worth rearranging a route for, with Vlkolínec and Čičmany within reach of the same drive. Spiš and the east hold the heaviest concentration of what UNESCO listed here: Spiš Castle above Spišské Podhradie, the square at Levoča, the walled square at Bardejov, and the wooden churches scattered through the villages beyond Prešov, with Košice as the base. Seven days covers the capital, the Tatras and one other region properly. Ten covers the east as well.
1 Slovakia city guide
Fun fact
Slovak tourism authorities count around 180 castles and more than 400 manor houses in a country of 49,035 square kilometres, which is the highest density anywhere in Europe and the claim the country markets itself on. The reason is geography rather than wealth. This was the northern frontier of the Kingdom of Hungary, the passes through the Carpathians were the routes an invading army would use, and after the Mongol invasion of 1241 the crown pushed nobles to build in stone on every defensible rock. Spiš Castle is the largest survivor, spreading over four hectares on a limestone hill above Spišské Podhradie. Most of the rest are ruins, unstaffed, unfenced and free to walk up to.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityThe two halves shared a state for 74 years and very little before that. Bohemia and Moravia sat inside the Holy Roman Empire and then the Austrian crown lands; Slovakia was the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary for roughly a thousand years, which is why the castles are frontier fortifications, the towns were German mining colonies, and the southern belt still speaks Hungarian. Czech and Slovak are close enough that people follow each other without switching, and they are separate languages with separate literary histories. The split on 1 January 1993 was negotiated by two governments and passed without a shot, which is the reason it is called the Velvet Divorce and the reason nobody here treats it as a wound.
The realityIt is a different size and a different proposition. The old town is small, walkable in a morning, and its best hours are spent on a terrace rather than in a queue. What Bratislava has that Prague does not is position: 60 kilometres from Vienna, on the Danube, at the point where Austria, Slovakia and Hungary almost meet, with Devín standing on the cliff where the Morava joins the river. Treat it as the arrival city and the country improves immediately. Treat it as the destination and you will wonder what the fuss was.
The realityThe winter half is real and the summer half is better. The High Tatras hold 29 peaks above 2,500 metres, the only alpine terrain in the entire 1,200-kilometre sweep of the Carpathians, and the walking season runs from mid-June once the seasonal trail closures lift. Slovenský raj is a national park crossed on ladders and catwalks bolted into gorge walls. The Slovak Karst has more than a thousand recorded caves. Add the UNESCO mining towns, the spa towns, the Tokaj vineyards in the southeast, and a castle on what feels like every defensible rock, and the ski lift is one line item.
The realitySlovakia was never part of the Soviet Union. It was a Warsaw Pact satellite until 1989, which is a different thing, and it joined the European Union and NATO in 2004, the Schengen area in December 2007 and the euro on 1 January 2009. The panel-block housing estates are real and so is Petržalka, the largest of them, across the Danube from the Bratislava old town. So are the medieval squares at Levoča and Bardejov, the baroque of Banská Štiavnica, and the Gothic of Košice. Both halves are the country.
The realityCompact is not the same as gentle. The range is roughly 26 kilometres end to end and it goes from valley floor to 2,655 metres inside that, which means steep, sustained, rocky ascents and weather that turns over faster than the forecast. Selected high trails, saddles and summits are closed from 1 November to 14 June for the terrain and the wildlife, several summits may only be climbed with a licensed mountain guide, and the mountain rescue service takes calls on 18 300. Brown bears live here. None of that makes it dangerous; all of it makes it a mountain trip rather than a walk.
How to behave
- Say dobrý deň on entering a shop, a bakery or a small restaurant, and dovidenia on the way out. It is the minimum and its absence is noticed.
- Take your shoes off inside a home. Slippers are usually produced before you have finished asking.
- Do not assume Czech, and do not assume Russian. Slovak is the state language, Czech is understood rather than spoken, and Russian was a compulsory school subject rather than a shared tongue.
- A homemade slivovica or borovička may be offered on arrival in a village house. Refusing outright reads badly; accepting a small one and saying na zdravie does not.
- In the mountains, register your plan, read the trail closure notices at the trailhead, and treat them as law rather than advice. They are.
- Easter Monday is oblievačka, when men douse women with water and lightly switch them with a braided willow whip for luck. In villages it is enthusiastic. If you are travelling that week, expect it, and expect the buckets to be full.
- Tipping is rounding up, or five to ten per cent for a good meal. Say the total you want to pay as you hand the money over rather than leaving coins on the table.
- Bryndza, oštiepok and žinčica come from a living sheep-herding tradition in the Carpathian valleys, not from a folklore display. Buy them at a salaš, the working dairy huts signed off the mountain roads.
Famous Slovak faces
Peter Sagan
Zdeno Chára
Marián Hossa
Peter Šťastný
Martina Hingis
Milan Rastislav Štefánik
Ľudovít Štúr
Andy Warhol
Aurel Stodola
Jozef Murgaš
Štefan Banič
Juraj Jakubisko
Eugen Suchoň
Must-try Slovak food
Bryndzové halušky
The national dish, and the one to order first. Small potato dumplings turned through bryndza until the cheese melts into a sauce, with fried smoked pork fat and its cracklings over the top. Rich enough to be a whole meal.
Strapačky
The same dumplings, sauerkraut instead of the cheese, and the same smoked pork on top. Sharper, less heavy, and the version people cook at home more often.
Kapustnica
Sauerkraut soup with smoked meat, sausage and dried mushrooms, soured and deep. Every family has a recipe and every one of them appears on Christmas Eve, which is the meal it belongs to.
Demikát
Shepherds' soup: bryndza thinned into stock with potato, onion and caraway, poured over stale bread. Older than most of the food on this list and still served in the mountain huts.
Oštiepok
Sheep cheese pressed in carved wooden moulds, brined and then smoked, so it arrives patterned and firm. Sold at the roadside dairies with parenica, the same cheese rolled into a spiral, and both carry EU protection.
Lokše
Thin potato flatbreads cooked dry on a griddle, then brushed with goose or duck fat. They are the correct accompaniment to the autumn goose feasts in the wine villages north of Bratislava.
Tokajské víno
The Slovak side of the Tokaj region runs to roughly 908 hectares across seven villages in the far southeast, on the same volcanic soil as the larger Hungarian side and making the same botrytised sweet wines. Far less known, and priced accordingly.
Vyprážaný syr
A thick slab of Edam breaded and deep-fried, served with chips and tartar sauce. Standard pub food, entirely unrepentant, and the default order for anyone who has had enough sheep cheese.
Kotlíkový guláš
Beef and paprika cooked slowly in a cast-iron kettle over a fire, thinner than the Hungarian version and closer to a stew than a soup. Cooked outdoors at every village event that involves standing around.
Bryndza
Soft, white, salty, spreadable sheep cheese, matured from lump cheese made in the Carpathian valleys. Slovenská bryndza has held a protected geographical indication in the EU since July 2008, and it is the ingredient the national dish is built on.
Šúľance
Rolled potato dumplings, boiled and then covered in ground poppy seed or walnut with melted butter and sugar. Sweet, and eaten as a main course rather than a dessert, which surprises people.
Skalický trdelník
A sweet dough wound round a wooden roller, baked over embers and rolled in ground walnut. It comes from Skalica on the Czech border and holds a protected geographical indication, which the chimney cakes sold to tourists elsewhere do not.
Žinčica
The whey left over from making bryndza, drunk warm or cold at the salaš dairies. Slightly sour, faintly fizzy, and the traditional partner to a plate of halušky.
Slivovica and borovička
Plum brandy and juniper spirit, the two house spirits. Slivovica is often homemade and the homemade version is stronger than it tastes; borovička is the commercial one, and Spišská is the name to look for.