Here are 9 wonderful trips in eastern Slovakia, including the lesser known ones
In the east you will find places that are not found anywhere else in Slovakia. Even easterners don’t know about some. Here are our 9 proven travel tips.
Dark Sky Park in Poloniny. Photo – Facebook
Eastern Slovakia – it’s not just the pleasant High Tatras. Visit you can also find places that require a little longer, but you won’t find anything like it anywhere else in Slovakia. Even the easterners don’t know about some, even if they have them to jump on. read our tips for trips to lesser-known places in eastern Slovakia.
Famous opal mines
Less than 30 km from Košice in the Slanské vrchy mountains is the underground world of the oldest opal mines in the world. Famous mines are spread between the villages of Zlatá Baňa and Červenica and are also known as Dubnícke bane. The underground network of corridors reaches a length of up to 35 kilometers and connects a complicated system of underground mining, which operated until 1922. It was subsequently removed for almost 100 years and reopened to the public in 2015.
The tour of this unique monument is 1 km long and. You can take it with an expert explanation from the fields of history, geology and mineralogy and learn a lot of interesting things about the treasure of the Slanské vrchy.
The tour is also suitable for families with smaller children. It starts every day at 9:00 a.m., the entry time must be reserved. The temperature in the mine is from +4°C to +6°C, so warm clothes and sturdy shoes are recommended.
Slovak Paradise
National Park Slovak Paradise is one of the most visited areas of eastern Slovakia. It consists of preserved karst plains, extensive underground caves, unique river canyons, beautiful gorges and gorges with waterfalls. Visiting eastern Slovakia without hiking in the Slovak paradise is impossible.
From the tourist centers of Čingov, Kláštorisko, Podlesok and Dedinky, you can undertake various challenging hikes and trips, on foot or by bike.
Suchá Belá, Prielom Hornádu and Zejmarská dolina
The valley of the Suchá Belá stream is the most visited tourist route. The passage through the valley is one-way, 4 km long and takes approximately 2 hours. Along the path that leads through the wet river bed, ladders above the waterfalls await you. The highest, Mišov waterfall, measures up to 29.5 meters. You start the route from the village of Podlesok, after crossing the valley you reach Malá poľana, and you return to Podlesok via the Glacka route following the red sign.
Zejmarská gorge in Slovak paradise. Photo – wikipedia.sk
One of the most beautiful canyons in the Slovak Paradise is the Hornád Gorge. Bridges, footbridges, steps and chains await you on the trails.
The third attractive route is the Zejmarská dolina on the southern side of the national park. It is the shortest gorge, which is only 1 km long and you can cross it in about an hour. But even in this short time, you will experience everything that the Slovak Paradise can send to tourists – waterfalls, cliffs, overhangs. It is an excellent alternative for a family with small children.
For more demanding tourists, we recommend Ferrata Kyseľ, which has been accessible since 2016 after 40 long years since the devastating fire. This route is only open from mid-June to the end of the year. The route is not difficult, but you definitely need safety equipment that you can rent – a helmet, a harness and a via ferrata set with a fall arrester. The crossing takes approximately 2 hours.
You can also meet the tourism of the Slovak Paradise in history with a visit to the Spiš castle, where culture lovers, children and adults alike, are at the beginning.
Wooden churches in the east
East Slovak wooden churches are wooden sacred buildings, which are united by exceptional construction technology – exclusively wood was used for their construction, without the use of nails. The second specificity is their cultural connection with the Byzantine environment.
Most of them come from the 16th – 18th centuries. You can find them mainly in eastern Slovakia in villages Bodružal, Ladomirova, Dobroslava, Nižný Komárnik (Svidník district), Hervartov (Bardejov district) and Ruská Bystrá (Sobrance district).
Bodružal wooden church. Photo – wikipedia.sk
Some of them were gradually dismantled and moved to various museums and open-air museums, where they were rebuilt according to accurate documentation. You can find these relocated churches, for example, in the Museum of Ukrainian-Rusyn Culture in Svidník, the open-air museum of the Šariš Museum in Bardejovské Kúpely, the open-air museum of the Vihorlat Museum in Humenno, the open-air museum of the Ľubovnian Museum in Stara Ľubovna and the grounds of the East Slovak Museum in Košice.
The churches still serve people and you can visit them even as tourists. As long as it is enough for you to see them only from the outside or from behind the windows, at any time of the day. There is also a table near the main church on which you can find the telephone contact for the administrator, the address on which you can possibly search.
But if you want to see them in their beauty, we recommend coming during mass.
Mansion in Betliari
When getting to know eastern Slovakia, you shouldn’t miss it mansion in Betliari. It is located in the Slaná river valley northwest of Rožňava. It is the former representative and hunting residence of the Andrássy family, which was among the most important aristocrats in Europe in the 19th century. The entire collection fund of the museum is the legacy of the Andrássy family.
Mansion in Betliari Photo – wikipedia.sk
In the interior of the mansion, you can admire beautiful facilities with period furniture, music, hunting salon, exotic collections from all over the world. One of the main attractions of the mansion is the central library, which will take your breath away with its beauty. The library in the mansion was founded by Leopold Andrássy in 1790, and its interior also dates from this period. It preserves over 14,000 volumes of mainly theological, historical, geographical and philosophical works from the 15th to 19th centuries, which were written in 6 different languages.
The manor house is surrounded by a beautiful English park, which with an area of 57 ha is one of the most maintained parks in Slovakia and is registered in the list of world historical gardens.
Maze and castle in Stara Ľubovna
Gardens with an area of more than 11,000 m2 is located in the north-east of Slovakia in the town of Stará Ľubovňa by the river Jakubianka. The largest part of the gardens consists of the Čertova skala maze, which, with an area of 6400 m2, is the largest of its kind in Central Europe. It is divided into 9 parts, each of which is inhabited by one of the nine masters, who pass on their experience to the apprentices through creative tasks and help them find their way to the center of the maze, where the most beautiful view of the Ľubovnian Castle awaits them from the observation tower – Devil’s Rock.
In addition to the maze, he will also find a 1,200 square meter sports park in the area, which is used for activities, but also allow him to spread out a blanket and enjoy a picnic.
It’s just a jump from a maze to a beautiful one Ľubovnian castle. It is surrounded by nature and offers a view of the Tatras. When you enter, you decide whether to explore the castle yourself or take an explanation with a guide. The Ľubovnian Castle is equipped so that even the blind and deaf can take a tour of it. You will also be delighted by the regular falconry performances that are part of the tour.
Dobšinsk ice cave
Our only one ice cave is in Dobšina. It is located between Poprad and Rožňava. The entrance to the cave is on the northern slope of Mount Duča at an altitude of 969 m. There is an approximately 25-minute ascent from the parking lot in the settlement to the cave entrance. The cave is open to visitors from mid-May to the end of September. The tour lasts 30 min. The lowest temperature in the cave is around -4 °C, so warmer clothes are better, especially in summer.
Evil Hole Cave
This cave is different from any you have known so far. It is the only accessible cave in the territory of the Prešov district and you can visit it every day. And the adventure of real cavers awaits you in it.
Zlá diera cave Photo – zladiera.sk
The cave is unlit, upon entering you will receive a suit, a helmet and a carbide lamp in your hand. The basic route takes about 40 minutes, is easy and suitable even for small children. In case of interest, it is always a good idea to check the options by phone tours.
Poloniny National Park
The most distant but most beautiful tip for a trip in eastern Slovakia is the Poloniny National Park, which is located on the Slovakian-Polish-Ukrainian border.
It combines many unique elements of natural and cultural wealth. This connection is unique not only in Slovakia, but also on a European scale.
The exceptionality of the territory lies in the occurrence of the largest complexes of original beech-fir forests in Europe, which in some places pass into primeval forests, and in an extraordinary concentration of rare and endangered species of plants and animals. For example, the mountain deer also lives here, which is only found in the wild in Slovakia in this national park.
Polonia. Photo – Facebook
The name Polonina comes from the unique mountain ridge meadows located above the forest quota, in these parts called poloniny.
Dark Sky Park
Polonia they are exceptional, among other things, for their incredibly dark starry sky. They became the first park with a dark sky in Slovakia, ie an area with a light pollution buffer. You can observe up to 3,000 stars here with the naked eye (for comparison, you can see only 200 in cities and only 20 in big cities). Evening observation of objects in the night sky through binoculars is an attraction for visitors from all corners of Slovakia and abroad.
You can also try observing the sky in Astronomical observatory on Kolonicé sedlo, which is an outpost of the Vihorlatská hvezdárna in Humenno. Here you can take a tour of the observatory with an expert explanation about the work and facilities of the observatory and observe the Sun through a solar telescope on a clear day.
Cycling also comes into its own here. They are waiting for you marked here cycle paths and cycle paths with a total length of more than 250 km. Here, you enjoy driving mainly on forest roads and trails in undemanding terrains with picturesque scenery and views.
One of the most popular trips in Poloniny is the ascent to Kremenec Hill. With an altitude of 1,221 m above sea level, the park is part of the Bukovské vrchy and Národné Poloniny and is also the easternmost point of Slovakia: it lights up 30 minutes earlier in Kremenci than in the capital, Bratislava.
At the highest point of Kremenets, there is a granite border pillar marking the triple border of Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine. The easiest ascent to Kremenec is from the village of Nová Sedlica following the red tourist sign.
If you have time and desire to cool down a little after the trips, join the best places for swimming in eastern Slovakia.