Lady’s Guide to a Trip to the High Tatras

If you drive from Bratislava to the High Tatras, make sure to have your camera ready. The scenic road runs alongside green farmland, picture-pretty church spires, and bucolic rivers. The best stretches even go by castles. Lots of castles.

High Tatras

After a great time in Bratislava, my friends and I headed up to the High Tatras for two days.

This mountain range on the border of northern Slovakia and southern Poland is known for its great hiking, pretty towns, and relaxing spas. I couldn’t wait to visit.

Bratislava to the High Tatras

My friends and I drove north through Slovakia in a caravan of two identical red rental cars.

Along the way we passed towns with crumbling castles high above them and along rivers with stone forts perched on their glacier-cut cliff banks. It was so picturesque I almost didn’t want the drive to end.

Almost. The fact that my friend’s mother had a home-cooked Slovakian meal waiting for us at the end of the drive eased the pain quite a bit.

After introductions, we settled in for a feast of pork, potatoes, and halusky (potato dumplings) with cheese and bacon. It was excellent, and incredibly generous of her to host us.

Ivachnova

When dinner was finished we continued our drive to the High Tatras until we reached our friends’ weekend house in the village of Ivachnova.

The house was great, and we were incredibly impressed that they had built and furnished the place from the ground up. We stayed up late that night discussing our plans for the following day.

Zakopane

The next morning we were happy to find ourselves under a brilliant sunny sky in the High Tatras. We were so happy, in fact, that we all piled into our friends’ car and drove to Poland for lunch.

The drive was as beautiful as the one from the day before. Instead of castles we were awed by historic wooden houses, mountain lakes, and local dairy products.

The last of these was so alluring that we had to stop by the side of the road to buy some fresh sheep cheese and thick salty string cheese. Yum.

When we reached the Polish town of Zakopane we found ourselves in the middle of a late summer festival.

A group of people in traditional dress walked by bearing a large Bulgarian flag. Presumably they were on their way to the huge blue circus tents that had been set up on one side of town.

We found parking and made our way to a large pedestrian street in the middle of Zakopane. Crowds of people could be seen up and down the cobblestones enjoying lunch at traditional Polish eateries and buying souvenirs.

We made our way to a restaurant with long wooden tables and intricately carved chairs.

Lunch came in the form of heaping plates of potato pancakes, fruit dumplings, goulash, and sauerkraut soup. It was all washed down with local beer, of course.

High Tatras Hiking

The large meal was the perfect fuel for our next activity: hiking in the High Tatras. We returned to Slovakia along yet another scenic stretch of highway, and drove up, up, up into the mountains.

Despite getting a late start, we found that there were still plenty of people on the trails. We chose a hiking path that went to a mountain lake and started our hike in the summer sunshine.

The trail in the High Tatras took about an hour each way and led us along the side of a mountain. There were gorgeous views of the valley below and the peaks across from us during most of our hike.

Closer to the trail were raspberry bushes and tiny purple flowers that kept us company while we walked through the High Tatras.

Dinner in Ivachnova

By the time we got back to the car it was almost dark. We drove home to Ivachnova to pick up a friend for dinner.

Unfortunately, it was so late by that time that we had to drive to five different restaurants before we found one that was open.

Thankfully we found a place that served pizzas and beers until 11pm, and we had a good time eating outside on the terrace there.

Besenova Spa

By the time we got back to the house we were exhausted. We went to bed early to get good sleep for our spa appointments the next morning. They took place at a spa called Besenova in the neighboring town of the same name.

We showed up at the spa two minutes before it opened and there was already a huge crowd waiting to get in. We stood in line, paid the entry fee, and put our belongings in lockers.

When we got outside we chose one of the many warm thermal pools to swim in before getting our massages.

The massages were the perfect antidote to all the driving we had done the previous day. Afterwards we had a bit of time to try out another pool before we had to head back to Bratislava for our flight to London.

High Tatras

It was too bad we couldn’t stay longer, as there were more pools to try and lots of the spa left to explore. But at least we had the beautiful drive back to Bratislava to look forward to.

Three hours of castles, rivers, and mountains were the perfect way to ease into the reality of leaving Slovakia, and a good reminder for us to return another time to see more of the country.

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