Slovakia: High Tatras Walking, Spis Castle and Bratislava

Arrive in Bratislava

Bratislava Airport (BTS) or Vienna Airport (VIE) to your hotel in Bratislava

• Repas du soir
• Nuit : Bratislava

Soir

Plan to land by mid-afternoon to join the evening briefing (the latest arrival time comes with your final itinerary). Bratislava is small enough to cover on foot, and the hotel is in or beside the old town. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group and walks you through the lanes below the castle: Michael's Gate, the only one of the medieval town gates still standing, the Main Square with its old town hall, and St Martin's Cathedral, where Hungarian kings and queens were crowned between 1563 and 1830. Then we sit down to a welcome dinner of Slovak dishes, and the guide runs through the week: what to pack for the mountains, how the walking days work and when to pick the easy or active version.

Compris

• Pick-up at Bratislava Airport (BTS) or Vienna Airport (VIE)
• Evening walk through Bratislava's old town with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Up the Vah valley to the High Tatras

Bratislava to Trencin, then Smokovec in the High Tatras

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Smokovec
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

After about an hour and a half we stop in Trencin for a sit-down lunch on the square under its castle, perched on a crag above the river; on the castle rock is a Roman inscription from AD 179, left by a legion wintering here. In the afternoon the road climbs past Zilina and the Liptov valley, and the peaks of the High Tatras appear ahead, rising straight out of the plain. We reach the Smokovec villages in the late afternoon, for four nights in one hotel, in Stary or Nový Smokovec, within walking distance of the funicular, so you unpack once.

Soir

Before dinner the guide walks you through the spa villas of Nový Smokovec, built from the 1870s when the mountain air was sold as a cure, and shows you the funicular and the electric railway we use tomorrow.

Compris

• Early walk in Bratislava's old town
• Sit-down lunch in Trencin under the castle
• Evening walk through the Smokovec spa villas with your guide

Hrebienok, the waterfalls and a chalet lunch

Smokovec to Hrebienok by funicular, the Studeny potok waterfalls, Rainerova chata and Zamkovskeho chata

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Smokovec
• En train

Matin

After breakfast we walk from the hotel to the funicular station in Stary Smokovec and ride it up to Hrebienok, at about 1,285 m. From there a forest path drops to the Studeny potok, the cold stream, and follows it past a string of waterfalls crossed by wooden footbridges. Rainerova chata, built in 1863 and the oldest mountain hut in the Tatras, stands where the two Studena valleys meet; inside are old photographs of the porters who still carry supplies up on their backs.

Après-midi

From here we climb gently through dwarf pine to Zamkovskeho chata at about 1,475 m, a wooden chalet where we sit down to lunch with views down the valley. Afternoons often bring cloud, so the walk is planned for the morning. Ride the funicular down after lunch, with an optional stroll to Dr Szontagh's villa in Nový Smokovec, home of the doctor who founded the spa, or take the active route up to Skalnate pleso and the cable car to Tatranska Lomnica.

Compris

• Hrebienok funicular, up and back
• Guided walk past the Studeny potok waterfalls to Rainerova chata and Zamkovskeho chata
• Sit-down lunch at Zamkovskeho chata

Popradske pleso and Strbske Pleso

Tatra Electric Railway to Popradske pleso, the lake walk, then Strbske Pleso and back by train

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Smokovec
• En train

Après-midi

Lunch is at the lakeside hut. Afterwards we walk a short way up to the Symbolic Cemetery, a quiet hillside of carved wooden crosses and plaques set up from the 1930s for people who died in these mountains. In the afternoon the group either walks back down the forest road to the train or crosses on the Tatranska magistrala to Strbske Pleso, the highest of the resort villages, for a turn around its lake and the train back to Smokovec.

Compris

• Tatra Electric Railway tickets for the day
• Guided walk to Popradske pleso and the Symbolic Cemetery
• Sit-down lunch at the Popradske pleso hut
• A walk around the lake at Strbske Pleso

Lomnicky stit and Spis Castle

Tatranska Lomnica to Skalnate pleso and Lomnicky stit by cable car, then Spis Castle and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Smokovec
• Environ 2 h de route

Après-midi

We drive ten minutes to Tatranska Lomnica for one of the first cable cars of the day: early slots sell out and the summit is clearest before midday cloud builds. A gondola lifts us to Skalnate pleso, a small glacial lake at about 1,751 m with an observatory on its shore, and from there a small cabin climbs to the top of Lomnicky stit, 2,634 m, the second highest peak in the Tatras. Visits to the summit are limited to a set time, enough for the terrace views across the whole range and south over the Poprad basin. Back at Skalnate pleso we walk the lake path before lunch. In the afternoon we drive about an hour east to Spis Castle, its ruined walls and towers spread across a limestone hill above Spisske Podhradie, one of the largest castle sites in Central Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.

Soir

We walk the upper courtyards and keep, then drive back for a free evening.

Compris

• Gondola to Skalnate pleso and the cable car to Lomnicky stit, on a reserved early slot
• Walk around Skalnate pleso
• Sit-down lunch
• Spis Castle with your guide

Banska Stiavnica, the silver town

Smokovec to Banska Stiavnica via the Liptov valley and Banska Bystrica

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Banska Stiavnica
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

We leave the Tatras after breakfast and drive south and west through the Liptov valley and past Banska Bystrica, about 210 km and three hours, to Banska Stiavnica, a mining town built inside the rim of an old volcano. Silver and gold made it one of the richest towns in the Kingdom of Hungary, and in 1762 it became home to a mining academy. The town and the technical monuments around it have been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1993.

Après-midi

After lunch on the main square, the guide walks you up the steep streets past the Holy Trinity column, raised after a plague in the 1700s, to the Old Castle, with a short stop at the mining museum's mineral exhibition on the square, where quartz and ores from the town's own mines are shown. Then we put on helmets and coats for the underground tour of the open-air mining museum, through galleries cut by hand. From about 5 pm the time is yours: sit on the square, wander the lanes, or climb with the guide to the baroque Calvary for the view over the town.

Soir

Then we share a farewell dinner.

Compris

• Sit-down lunch in Banska Stiavnica
• Guided walk of the old town: the Holy Trinity column and the Old Castle
• Mineral exhibition of the Slovak Mining Museum on the square
• Underground tour at the open-air mining museum
• Optional walk up to the Calvary with your guide
• Farewell dinner

Bratislava Castle and home

Banska Stiavnica to Bratislava, then Bratislava Airport (BTS) or Vienna Airport (VIE)

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Après-midi

We visit the castle's museum rooms and gardens, then walk down past St Martin's Cathedral to the old town for a final lunch together. After lunch the driver takes you to Bratislava Airport (BTS), about 20 minutes away, or Vienna Airport (VIE), about an hour. Book a flight from BTS after about 5 pm or from VIE after about 6 pm.

Compris

• Bratislava Castle and its gardens with your guide
• Sit-down final lunch together in the old town
• Drop-off at Bratislava Airport (BTS) or Vienna Airport (VIE)