We will be in Slovakia on August 20. Our intention is to travel by train from Bratislava to Presov, with the goal of renting a car in Presov to then tour villages near Svidnik (where my father was from). A reasonable plan, or would it be better to go to Kosice from Bratislava and use Kosice as our base? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Welcome to the forum. I'm sorry I can't help, but am interested in learning more for future trip planning. Hoping by sending this to the top, someone might see it to respond.

I'm not sure about the travelling part, as I was only in Bratislava, but I can recommend a fabulous restaurant called the Three Musketeers. It's incredible.

Can you narrow down your request for advice? Not sure what you don't know. As far as the choice between the cities, I'd say it's a draw.
If you go to the tourist info office in Bardejov, they have a map showing all the villages with wooden churches. Be sure to have a good driving map. What ? your accomodations?

Hello,

are you flying into Bratislava, or Vienna? It is much cheaper to rent a car in Vienna (from 5 Euro/day) than Slovakia. If you fly into Slovakia, there are direct flights to Kosice (also from Prague, should you fly to Bratislava through Prague) If you book well in advance, flights are cheaper than train tickets. You get there faster, but you see more from a train
Bratislava - Kosice is a 6 hours journey by train, 1 hour by plane

for flight tickets www.skyeurope.com
for train schedules www.vlaky.sk ( I guess this is only in Slovak, but write in from where to where and date and it gives you option of trains or bus)

Both Bratislava and Kosice are nice.

Let me know if I can be of further help

Have a wonderful journey

I spent two weeks in Slovakia last May. I rented a car and traveled the entire country. The trains do not go to the smaller towns I went to and the rail system there is not up to Western European standards. It also gives you a lot of flexability. I think you would be better off basing in Kosice. It is closer than Bratislava. You will have a great time. The people outside the larger cities were wonderful. A word of warning. English is not very widespead outside of Bratislava. I speak some slovak and still found communicating somewhat difficult. If you know any German, that would be a help. Bring a dictionary.

A very colorful place to headquarter, rather than in Kosice and other bigger towns, would be Stary Smokovec in the middle of the Tatras....the Grand Hotel is a throwback to the late 19th century..gigiantic rooms, an indoor swimming pool added a few decades ago, and beautiful hiking trails all about. Drive..the only way to see Slovakia..
Stu T.

We toured the villages near Svidnik in 1975. We stayed overnight in Svidnik, and in those days the accomodations were miserable and while things may have improved, I do not recall that the town had anything that would encourage tourism. I believe that Bardejov was already a resort town in those days and may have better accomodations.

We drove through Eastern Slovakia in 2003 en route from Krakow, Poland to Budapest. We spent nights at Hotel Dukla in Presov and at Hotel Slovan in Kosice.

Each of the hotels was described to us by the local tourist offices as the hotel where visiting party leaders stayed during Communist times. They were pleasant enough, clean and reasonably priced (less than $100 per night including breakfast as I recall). However, neither hotel is air conditioned. There is a large window that tilts open a few inches at the top for fresh air. We were there at the end of September and it was not a problem but in August you will probably find the rooms to be rather warm. There were a few portable floor fans in the lobby that were available for use in the rooms but I did not see nearly enough fans for each room.

We liked both cities. Kosice is larger and has more dining/accommodation options but it about 35 km further from Svinik than Presov is. Because of that extra distance to travel to and from Svidnik, Presov would be more convenient as a base for daytrips to Svidnik.

If you stay in Presov, we had a very good dinner at Carpe Diem on the pedestrian street adjacent to the Hlavna ul. In Kosice, we had a pleasant lunch in the hotel dining room and a good dinner at McAjster Bar.

We visited the historic area in the center of Bardejov. While I have read somewhere that there is a hotel or commercial lodging there, Bardejov is quite small and we did not see anything that would lend itsself to serving as a base. Perhaps we just missed it.

Each restaurant we used in Levoca, Presov and Kosice had menus in English and at least one person who spoke English although most shopkeepers did not. German seemed to be the second language for most older people; English for younger.

Roads were good and well marked. It was an interesting area to visit and I'm sure you'll have a good visit, especially with your family connections.

I purchased a great 1:100,000 road atlas of Slovakia on eBay called Podrobny Autoatlas which I recommend if you can locate one.

We had an excellent meal in Bardejov in a restaurant (known for serving game)on the cellar level about 200 feet north of the info office, across from the Rathaus (or Slovak equivalent). Don't remember the name, but the meal was the best in a 3 week tour of Austria, Hungary, Cz Rp, Sl Rp, and Poland