Hi everybody!
We're planning a 3-week trip to Slowakia - mainly Tatry - with our RV. We plan to do day-trips on the bike and some hiking and motorcycling
Never been there before :)
I can order beer, water and hot-dogs, so our basic survival is granted ;)
apart from that I have no idea whatsoever.
I read that camping is declining and many places are closing down - is that true?
If anybody knows anything in particular we'd be glad to get a hint or two regarding country-specific information. Unfortunately, travel-guides do not focus on nature and camping, but on cities and hotels.
Thanks in advance,
Andrea
Hello Andrea,
Tatra mountains is good idea. There are plenty of places to see, especially if you want to go hiking as well. You do not have to be worried about places closed down - there are plenty of small hotels, private houses, in much better standards than you could reasonably expect for the low budget - also camps are not the same standard as in Germany or Austria. On the other hands, why to bother with camps, when you can get much better quality for less money. This is true especially in mountain resorts, there are plenty of place to stay so your question is too broad to be answered. But your guess - Tatry is OK. I would recommend Liptovsky Mikulas, for example, which is between Vysoke Tatry and Nizke Tatry (High Tatras and Low Tatras). I have been in Demänovská Dolina this year, which is some 5 km from Liptovský Mikulaš. There you can choose from many mountain trips, easy and difficult, plenty of caves (there is 7000 discovered caves in Slovakia, where 15 of them have an acces for tourists) - you should not miss some of them. From the place you choose you may do one day trips on bike or motorbike or move to another valley and experiences trips from there.
As far as food is concern, there is much better cousin than hot dogs or similar fast food. Language - simple German or English is largely spoken in most of places. The promoting of the places is not done well, you are right, it seems Slovaks do not care much about attracting tourists to their areas. It is not they do not like them, it is simply they do not think it is necessary to promote the places. So, you just go and see. Basically you can expect anything you are used to in Germany, but definitely you will experience more of wild and more nature.
Problem may be a little with riding on bikes at normal traffic - it is there are only few bike routes devoted to bikers. But, if you do not mind traffic, or you go deeper to forests or country side, the better for you. Also, you can expect quite a slopes at roads, so you do better to have some distances done in your saddle - you know it is not like driving along a river, or so ;-)
My hints just say something to your questions, they are subjective view since I live myself in Slovakia - but have experiences with biking via Czech rep. Austria, Germany, France, Spain and UK so feel competent to guess what you would like to know, anyway :-)
Wishing you a pleasant stay.
Jan
Jan,
thanks a lot for the information.
I know there are more delicious meals than hot-dog. it's just my level of language :) - therefore you saying that English is OK (even German!) puts my mind at ease.
And try as I might, I don't like being in a hotel. Our daily schedules are just too erratic. That's why we will go in our RV.
I'm looking forward to going there! I can do 35 km with 1000m climb in 3 hrs, so this is going to be a bit of a challenge, but we will do the walking in the high Tatras and the cycling in the lower part / Paradise.
thanks a lot, again!
Andrea