Slovakia: High Tatras Walking, Spis Castle and Bratislava

1. Day 1: Arrive in Bratislava

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

   • Dinner
   • Stay in Bratislava
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Bratislava (BTS), about 10 km from the centre, or Vienna (VIE), about an hour's drive west across the border; a driver meets you at either. 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.

   Included

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

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: About an hour on foot on cobbles.

2. Day 2: Up the Vah valley to the High Tatras

   Bratislava to Trencin, then Smokovec in the High Tatras

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Smokovec
   Day 2 details

   A short early walk in Bratislava while the streets are quiet, then we drive north on the D1 motorway up the Vah valley, about 330 km and three and three-quarter hours of driving in all, broken in the middle. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Evening free in Smokovec

   Activity: A travel day: about 3.75 hours of driving with a lunch stop at the halfway point.

   

3. Day 3: Hrebienok, the waterfalls and a chalet lunch

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

   • By train
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Smokovec
   Day 3 details

   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. 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.

   Included

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

   Easier option: Turn back at Rainerova chata, about an hour from Hrebienok on a gentle path, and have lunch there before the funicular down.

   More active option: After lunch, climb on the Tatranska magistrala to Skalnate pleso (about 1,751 m), then ride the gondola down to Tatranska Lomnica and the electric railway back to Smokovec.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free, with an optional short stroll through Nový Smokovec's villas

   Activity: About 3 to 4 hours on foot with about 250 m of climbing on forest and stone paths; 5 hours and about 400 m with the active option.

   

4. Day 4: Popradske pleso and Strbske Pleso

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

   • By train
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Smokovec
   Day 4 details

   We take the Tatra Electric Railway west along the foot of the mountains, a narrow-gauge line that has linked the resorts since the early 1900s, and get off at the Popradske pleso stop. A path climbs steadily through spruce forest, still marked by the 2004 windstorm that flattened large parts of the lower Tatra woods, to Popradske pleso, a lake at about 1,494 m under the walls of Ostrva and the Mengusovska valley peaks. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Walk up and back on the paved forest road from the railway stop to the lake (about 1 hour 15 minutes each way, gentle gradient) and skip the Symbolic Cemetery climb.

   More active option: Cross to Strbske Pleso on the Tatranska magistrala over the shoulder of Ostrva, about 2 hours with a stony climb and descent. If that section of the magistrala is closed on the day, we ride the train on to Strbske Pleso and walk the longer path around its lake instead.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 4 to 5 hours on foot with about 300 m of climbing, about 400 m with the magistrala crossing; 3 hours with the easy option.

5. Day 5: Lomnicky stit and Spis Castle

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

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Smokovec
   Day 5 details

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

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Skip the Skalnate pleso lake path and wait on the terrace by the lake; at Spis, stay in the gentler lower courtyard while the group climbs to the keep.

   More active option: Walk down from Skalnate pleso to Tatranska Lomnica through the forest (about 1 hour 45 minutes, 900 m of descent) instead of the gondola.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot in all, on a lake path and steep castle paths. Lomnicky stit is weather-dependent: if the forecast is better for day 4, we swap days 4 and 5.

6. Day 6: Banska Stiavnica, the silver town

   Smokovec to Banska Stiavnica via the Liptov valley and Banska Bystrica

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Banska Stiavnica
   Day 6 details

   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. 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. Then we share a farewell dinner.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Skip the Calvary climb and spend the free time over a coffee on the square.

   More active option: Carry on from the Calvary across town to the New Castle, the white tower built against the Ottomans, for a second view before dinner.

   Free time: Free from about 5 pm until the farewell dinner; the Calvary walk is optional

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot on steep cobbles and paths, plus about an hour underground in narrow, cool galleries.

   

7. Day 7: Bratislava Castle and home

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

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   Day 7 details

   An early stroll through Banska Stiavnica's empty lanes for anyone who wants it, then we drive about 185 km and two and a half hours west, past Nitra, back to Bratislava. We arrive in time to walk up to Bratislava Castle, the square white fortress with corner towers that sits above the Danube. It was rebuilt in the 1950s and 1960s after a fire left it in ruins, and its terraces look across the river to the Petrzalka housing estate and on clear days into Austria and Hungary. 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.

   Included

   • 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)

   Easier option: The van can take you up to the castle gate instead of the walk up the hill.

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm from BTS or 6 pm from VIE. For an earlier flight we drive straight to the airport from Banska Stiavnica.

Wildlife and weather: Summer in the High Tatras is warm in the valleys and cool on the tops, with afternoon thunderstorms in July and August, so we walk in the morning and swap days 4 and 5 if the forecast favours Lomnicky stit. Brown bears, chamois and marmots live in the national park; your guide briefs you on keeping to the paths.

• Bratislava1 night
• Smokovec4 nights
• Banska Stiavnica1 night