Planning a Trip to Slovakia

Hi there, if You stay in Bratislava for the night, one of the best place is at Botanicka - Druzba students dormitory, its placed just by the river, and from the windows You may have great view at Danube!!! It's not far from the Old Town, and You can walk up there also by the riverside, what is taking about 25 minutes on foot to get to Novy Most with fantastic view point on the top of the bridge!!! If You chose the other way, with the buses you can get as well to Devin Castle, and Sandberg where are real dunes!!! What i can recomend you is definitely two things - walking up the Kamzik and tring the national food - bryndzowe haluszki (sheep cheese dumplings) in "Koliba" in Mlynska Dolina!!! Slovakian people are definitely crazy about meals, and even in MacDonalds you can find their fried cheese!!! And now watch out - in Slovakia you can buy leggaly Absint, the famous alkohol which was driving mad many poets in XIX century :D Of course You cannot miss Obchodna i Kapucinska, Kamenne Namestie (where is also Tesco haha), but if You plan make some shopping Billa is much better than Tesco for sure. From Hlavna Stanica - main train station, you can easily get to Tatra Mountains, the highest in all Carpathian Range, and getting couchette costs about 20 euro and if you leave at 9pm you will get to capital of the mountains at 6 in the morning!!! The same price in both ways this time is to Vienna, also by the ferries, which is so cool, traveling to Budapest is not bad, though not many hungarian people talk in english, lol If You need sports, then fabulous thing is going for the ice hockey, but if you need a high culture, try in Narodne Divadlo (theather - national opera house), i watched there russian "Eugeniusz Oniegin" and that was great! The best thing is to come up for Christmas Market, i still havent been in Dresden, but in Bratislava i saw even enchanted Bawarian people so it must be one of the best in Europe!!! If we talk about Osterich culture, then please go to Hlavne Namestie and visit Kaffee Mayer and try the best cakes they have!!! mmm... Someone said "Bratislava is fun, polite and small" and i mean it :-) P.S. Hey girls, in the beginning of the year and then after summer there are fabulous sales in shops, like Terranova and other big companies, and in compare to west european countries difference is really pretty big!

Do not buy train tickets from Vienna to Bratislava ahead of time! I found that by going to the train station and asking someone at the desk for the best deal, we were able to find tickets for much cheaper prices than we would have found by using the kiosk or internet.

This is a small village near Kezmarok and Poprad in northern Slovakia. I stayed at a hostel at the edge of the village. Inside, nothing much but a pretty church, post office, store, and a coll looking log house pub/restaurant beautifully decorated with hunting trophies. Half a liter of awesome Slovakian beer costs half an euro, which makes this pub by far the cheapest place to drink I've ever been to.

A 45mn en voiture de Vienne (Autriche) Bratislava est une ville de taille moyenne post communiste; seul le petit centre vaut vraiment le déplacement et en le parcourant on se dit qu'on est pas venu pour rien; on peut également y manger pour pas cher (sauf dans les auberges à touristes). Je conseille fortement de prendre pour une vingtaine d'Euro un guide à l'office du tourisme, car il vous fera découvrir des petits trésors cachés! Pour les naïfs qui voudraient s'y amuser la nuit, laissez tomber et choisissez Prague, Budapest ou Vienne ou l'offre est beaucoup plus riche.

If you have the opportunity to visit this village during winter time, just go for it because visitors are more than welcome specialy in the tourist center-post office-restaurant-bar up the main street.

Take some moment to discuss your feelings about the country with the persons around, they are so pleased to see that someone can enjoy their country.

Do not buy train tickets from Vienna to Bratislava ahead of time! I found that by going to the train station and asking someone at the desk for the best deal, we were able to find tickets for much cheaper prices than we would have found by using the kiosk or internet.

Humenné ( pronunciation ( help · info ) ; German : Homenau ; Hungarian : Homonna ) is a town in the Prešov Region ("kraj") in eastern Slovakia and the second largest town of the historic Zemplín region. It lies at the volcanic Vihorlat mountains and at the confluence of the Laborec and Cirocha Rivers.
Characteristics Humenné is a center of one of the easternmost districts ("okres") in Slovakia. Its life is rich in cultural and sports events. The town is a starting point for tourism, because there are numerous opportunities in the picturesque countryside of the East Carpathians , though this field still requires an intensification of business activities and funding. The most attractive places are the Vihorlat Mountains boasting of their Morské oko lake, and the Poloniny (Wooden Carpathians ) at the border of Slovakia, Poland , and Ukraine , which are part of the National Park Poloniny . The surroundings of Humenné, with their romantic ruins of medieval castles and an open-air museum of architecture situated in the town park, are a source of knowledge and relaxation. Castles in the surroundings of Humenné: Brekov Castle (in ruins, 3 km to the south) Jasenov Castle (in ruins, 7 km to the southwest) [ edit ] History Humenné castle The Laborec river and the Carpathian mountains predetermined the development of the town and its surroundings, a silent witness of which has been Vihorlat volcano, at 1,075 m the highest peak of the Vihorlat mountains. Thanks to its advantageous location and pleasant climate, preconditioned by the neighboring mountains, the town has been an attractive place for people since the Stone Age , which is evidenced by a number of archeological findings. The Slavic forefathers of the Slovaks gradually moved to the basin of Humenné during the great migration of peoples, starting in the 5th century. An intensive and organized settlement of this area started as late as in the middle of the 13th century, after the Mongol raids. The first written document mentioning Humenné dates back to 1317. The history of Humenné is closely connected with the Drughets (Drugets, Drugetovci), a distinguished aristocratic family originally from Naples , who, accompanying the king Charles Robert of Anjou, came to the Kingdom of Hungary (Slovakia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary) at the beginning of the 14th century. The Drugeths made Humenné their seat and changed it into the centre of one of the largest feudal dominions in Slovakia. King Matthias Corvinus conferred civic privileges (town status) on the town, which were validated by a seal with coat of arms. At that time, the town was crossed by an important trade route connecting the Kingdom of Hungary with the Kingdom of Poland . Humenné is mentioned among royal customs offices, and later on it received the right of storehousing and supposedly market rights, too. This was also the time of an ever increasing influence of shepherd colonization from Carpatho-Ukraine by the so-called Walachians ( Ruthenes , Poles , and Romanians ). The most significant town monument, a Renaissance castle, was built on the place of an original stone castle in about 1610. The castle came to be an indispensable characteristic feature of the town and serves for museum and cultural purposes at present. In 1613, during the Counter Reformation , a Jesuit college was established as the first secondary school in the history of Humenné. The Drugeth line died out in 1684 and new feudal lords moved in, notably the Csakys and the Wandernats . The abolition of some feudal duties and the reforms of Maria Theresa promoted the development of crafts, and Humenné became the seat of the so-called "salt office". The town's population consisted of Slovaks , Ruthenes , Hungarians and Jews . Latin was used as the administrative language, which appeared to be a stabilizing factor in such a mixture of nationalities. The Andrassy family from Transylvania started to influence the history of Humenné in the 19th century, a period characterized by economic growth. Moreover, many new buildings were erected at that time. The main fields of activities of town inhabitants were agriculture, crafts and trade. The first train appeared in Humenné in 1871, stimulating the development of trade and wood cutting. In 1899(?) the first business academy in Austria-Hungary was established in Humenné. Toward the end of the 19th century, Humenné counted 4,000 inhabitants. The 20th century brought along a cultural revival. Humenné was famous for its markets and fairs. This promising, though timid, development was interrupted by World War I. A short period of the existence of Czechoslovakia between the two world wars proved to have positive effects upon the life of Humenné. As a corollary of World War II, however, all the effort had to start from the very beginning. Until 1956 Humenné was an administrative rather than an economic centre. Then the construction of a plant for the production of textile polyamide fibres, the present CHEMLON company, triggered a real chain effect on the town's growth. Humenné was gradually becoming a centre of chemical, building, food and mechanical engineering industries. This had a positive impact on the development of technical colleges. The industrial development entailed large-scale housing projects, and the town area was completed by new housing estates. While there were 7,000 inhabitants living in Humenné in 1948, the population now amounts to over 35,000. [ edit ] Demographics According to the 2001 census , the town had 35,157 inhabitants. 87.80% of inhabitants were Slovaks , 4.84% Rusyns , 3.27% Roma , 2.11% Ukrainian and 0.77% Czechs . [1] The religious makeup was 57.91% Roman Catholics , 23.00% Greek Catholics , 8.69% people with no religious affiliation, 5.91% Orthodox and 0.98% Lutherans . [1] [ edit ] Famous people Peter Breiner , pianist, conductor, and composer Michal Kováč - first Slovak president in the modern era Jozef Cardinal Tomko , cardinal Joachim Jacob Unger , rabbi Kristian Kotov chess master Buddy Nestor , first winner of Slovakia's Overweight Competeition (2003) MARTIN SUCHAR , ARCHITECT

It has a nice but small Old Town. The rest of the city is a communist-era creation with prefabricated apartment buildings and factories. There are several CS and HC members here so there's no need to stay always at a hostel. Some of my favourite places for a night-out or drink are: 1. Slovak Pub, Smadny Mnich, Harley, Cirkus Barokk, Aligator, Maly Bajkal.

Poprad is a cool little town, but it's better to stay overnight in the villages right at the base of the mountains, like Strbske Pleso, Nova Lesna, Vysoke Tatry.

Much less touristy than Prague. In the summer, you can stay in great university dorms for really cheap and be right near the old town.

Nice quiet town. You don't need more than a day or two here. Check out the Slovak Pub for yummy local cuisine.

Ville trés mignonne, calme... peut être un peu trop, on cherche encore un bar sympa indiqué par le guide du routard !!