Slovakia Experience

A day in Bratislava

Advantages: Small enough to see everything in a day, great views, not too busy.
Disadvantages: Nothing much to do for more than a day.

On arriving in Bratislava, we decided to make the most of our short time there-just 5 hours stop off en route to Budapest from Prague. We dumped our bags at the left luggage at the station and made our way to the centre of town. Without a detailed guide book we had to find our own way around, not too hard as despite being the capital city of Slovakia, it's about the size of Reading! Our first destination was the President’s house, impressive with ...
...metal ball somewhat spoilt photos from the front. We then made our way to the main square, where to our disappointment there was a McDonalds. We kept walking. On Reaching the River Danube, we saw an impressive looking bridge, called the New Bridge (full name the Bridge of the Slovak National Uprising), with a tower on the other bank. We crossed in anticipation of getting great views over the city. For £2 we were whisked skywards in a lift, and then ...

Timor123 24.04.2007 · Read full review
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Review of General: Slovakia

City-Breaking, Slovak Style

Advantages: Interesting place to visit because it's so different. Ultra Cheap
Disadvantages: Not an awful lot to do. Language barriers

I went to Bratislava while working in Vienna for a summer as it is only a hop, skip and a jump away from the Austrian border. I knew then, and to this day know very little about Slovakia as a whole. I don't tend to read historical guides for fun, so can tell you little of this country's history or politics, but I can tell you what it was like to spent a few days exploring this one city. To set the scene I was 18, female (still am, for that matter) ...
...Slovakian. Even back then Bratislava was a city that had high aspirations, and was keen to market itself to the wider world. I spent my days surrounded by Japanese and American tourists which isn't that surprising (this is the cultural hub that is Europe after all), but the language level of those in the tourist industry varied greatly. I didn't expect everyone to speak English, but given that virtually no-one speaks Slovakian I would have expected ...

zoe_page 01.05.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Bratislava (Slovakia)

Tatra Car Museum

Advantages: Great Museum
Disadvantages: Wrong Country.. Czech Republic

...of Koprivnice. Technicke Muzeum Tatra A.S. 742 21 Koprivnice, Záhumenni 369 Location: South of Ostrava. Open Tue - Sun 9 - 17 in summer, 9 - 16.00 in winter Tatra's works museum displays some great and very funky cars, and other implements of transportation. If you have never seen a Tatra car, you will think that the Edsel was a style setter when you see one! www.tatramuseum.cz This is located in the NE of the Czech Republic. If you go, you ...
...part of the world. It is the home to the Star brewery, and is very pedestrian friendly. Another town that that is worthy of a visit is Bratislava - which IS in Slovakia. Ostrava, CZ is friendly, but pretty much not a tourist destination. Ostrava has more tourist information booths per tourist than any place else in the known universe.... Have fun - Central Europe is a great place, and you cannot go wrong. ...

kent369 27.10.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Tatra museum (Slovakia)

Gingerbread houses and textiles

Advantages: very original wooden houses
Disadvantages: long way to go !

Guided by our much thumbed Lonely Planet guide, we made our way off the beaten track to Cicmany, famous for its wooden chalet type houses, and painted on the outside with hearts and geometric patterns and so on. Very distinctive. We had driven past the place where you can see a full sized nativity scene all the year round; don't know why. Perhaps it was because petrol was low and it was getting late. We were travelling back from Poprad, and felt ...
...lies a mile or two off the main road - difficult to reach without a car. Very foreign and mainly Slovakian speaking. There are a number of places to stay at, from a couple of hotels to rooms in the gingerbread houses. Unfortunately we didn't manage one of these, but the little hotel we negotiated a price for (not having quite enough money on us - they wouldn't accept Czech) was modern and clean; very comfortable. The little museum with people in ...

Alegna 02.08.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Cicmany (Slovakia)

Hotel Filmstar

Advantages: Cheap, reasonably cheerful, one of the city's better hotels
Disadvantages: Eastern Europe and Western Europe still differ a lot

...in Bratislava, staying at the Hotel Turist (read on to see why the op’s called Hotel Filmstar). I was in quite a good mood when I arrived as my taxi had only ended up costing me 50p more than the hotel had said it should – quite an achievement I thought considering I don’t speak a word of Slovakian. The first thing I realized when I arrived, though, is that websites can lie. You probably knew this already, but I was a naive little ...
...situated in close distance from hotel TURIST (5 min. walk): the culture and congress centre Istropolis, recently opened Polus City Centre, soccer stadiums Slovan and Inter, 2 marketplaces, night club, sport hall Pasienky, swimming pools, fitness centre, ice rink, bowling hall, park with lake and other sport facilities” Found the stadiums (just follow the crowds) and saw the park and lake, but the rest are a mystery to me, and I feel I know ...

zoe_page 02.06.2003 · Read full review
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Review of Hotel Turist (Bratislava)