jose

we are planning a 3 week trip visiting Prague, Cracow and Budapest, and we have got a lot of info about that -well, not so much on Cracow-, but are not sure if Slovakia, on the route Cracow-Budapest is worth a visit. On the map we've found the Tatras mountains (although we'll travel all the time by car, do not like climbing), Kosice and the capital Bratislava, but do not know much about it, if some of them is ugly or we missed some beautiful place.

zzz

comments?

I can't answer

Someone, help out.

Ben Haines

Fodors <BR> <BR>As ever, what to see depoends on what you like. My taste is for fine old towns and cities, so I like, in this order, Levoca, Spiska Sabota, Kezmarok, other Spiz towns, Kosice, and Bratislava. Komarno and Szob are not so fine. I haven't yet reached Humenne nor Banska Bystrica, though they look good on paper. If your taste is mountains you'd drive in the High Tatras, around Tatranska Lomnica, Stary Smokovec, and Strbske Plesko, all of them north of Poprad Tatry -- so far as there are roads. Slovakia is far cheaper than Prague and Krakow, and rather cheaper than Budapest. <BR> <BR>A pleasant exit from Slovakia is far to the east, from Slovenske Nove Mesto to Satoraljaujhely, but you'll need to ask the consulate whether that frontier is open to cars: it wasn't five years ago. 12 kilometers within Hungary you're at Sarospatak, with a complete and fairytale moated castle. <BR> <BR>You can read up any of these if you use http://www.yahoo.co.uk, then enter "Kosice travel", "Levoca travel", and so on. Some other useful web sites are these: <BR> <BR>Links, from a museum of Czech and Slovak matters: http://www.ncsml.org/links.htm <BR>Links: http://goeasteurope.about.com/travel...ope/msubsk.htm <BR>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~sever/slovak.html <BR>Art, architecture, food, cultural experiences, hiking and other matters. http://www.centraleurope.com/country/country.php3 <BR>The Tatras: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/A...986149,00.html <BR>Poprad Tatry: http://www.tatry.sk/ <BR>Bratislava, including links: http://www.inyourpocket.com/Slovakia/index.shtml <BR>Rail: http://elis.zsr.sk/elisint/uk/default.asp <BR> <BR>The web covers Krakow well. Ideas are: <BR>Krakow, Gdansk, Gdynia, Sopot, Auschwitz, Zakopane, Wieliczka, Oliwa: <BR>http://www.inyourpocket.com <BR>Krakow: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/A...022905,00.html <BR>Links: http://goeasteurope.about.com/travel.../msubmenu1.htm <BR>Tourist board: http://www.polandtour.org/ <BR>http://www.welcome.pl/index.shtml <BR>Guide and links. http://www.centraleurope.com/country/country.php3 <BR> <BR>Please write if I can help further. <BR> <BR>Ben Haines, London <BR>[email protected] <BR> <BR> <BR>

alan

Hi! I just saw your poting anfd wanted to let you know that we were in the Tatras 3 yrs. ago. We stayed in Stary Smokovec for a couple of nights and had a good time there. It is beautiful country and the walks are nice. While there we stayed at the Grand Hotel which we thought was good. The staff spoke English and it was a nice place. We ate at the Koliba restaurant down the hill and while no one spoke English we had a great meal with a pitcher of wine. There was music and a huge grill in the center of the room. I don't remember the price but do remember commenting how inexpensive it was at the time. The only problem we found was that most people outside of the tourist area spoke no English or German. We managed to get by and have a good time. We drove into Poland to Krakow. On the return we stopped in at a pub with some rooms. No one spoke English either or was staying at the hotel. They closed and locked the door until morning though they gave us a key. Unfortunatly I believe this was the place that I caught legionaires disease from the little used shower head. I would however return to Slovakia again. enjoy alan