- Bratislava
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Slovakia
Fantastic hostel with great individual rooms and apartments. We stayed in the Budapest suite, four beds, separate kitchen and own facilities.
Five minute walk to old town square and ten from river. Also a nice little bar and left luggage facilities.
Špitálska 2
www.hostelblues.sk/
Nice way how to get more information about Bratislava is to use this MP3 audio tour. It lasts about 40 minutes but covers all important points of interest including the castle, main square, Primatial Palace, Michael's Gate and others.
Company who we booked our best stag weekend ever with. Everything was great and Dean sorted out the best deal ever. Great city with nice girls.
Bratislava Castle is a must see. Great views over Bratislava, a cool museum to have a look about in (it costs though) and, if you walk back into the city, there's some cool little bars to keep you occupied on the way down.
Warning - if you get a tram, make sure to buy a ticket. They're very, very inexpensive and you don't want to be caught without one. Two of the lads I was travelling with got stopped by plain clothes inspectors who wanted £35 from them (known as a tourist fine).
My mates kicked up a fuss until a policewoman came on, told my mates to pay up or else they'd be taken to the police station, and then left. Not very pleasant.
Also, stay away from the train station area, a very dodgy area. I've never been propositioned as many times in my life!
I picked up a great map for free in one of the tourist offices but I think you can order it from the Czech cartographer company SHOCart.
It's called 'Slovensko Kemping, Termalne Kupaliska' which means 'Camping and Thermal Pools in Slovakia'. It details every pool and campsite in the country and is very useful and inspiring for planning a trip.
Great price, period look and very central.
This website for the Czech company TopBicycle is useful for anyone who wants to go cycling in Slovakia. It has details of bike tours with details of sights to see en route.
www.topbicycle.com/BicycleToursSlovakia.htm
Tel: (+420) 519 513 745 (Czech Republic)
info@topbicycle.com
Cycling is massively popular in Slovakia and the stunning countryside is criss-crossed with a 5,400km network of cycle routes, all well-marked with destinations and distances. One route follows the Danube river from Bratislava to Sturovo, from where you can peddle into Hungary, if you like. There's another great route that follows the Small Carpathian Wine Trail so you can try all the great Slovak wines and not worry who's the designated driver!
Slovak Cycle Club, Namestie Slobody 6, 921 01 Piestany
Tel/fax: 033 7740 548
email: sck@nextra.sk
I have just bought this guide because it's the first one I found that writes just about Slovakia, not in a few pages at the back of the Czech Republic guide book. It really goes into detail about the country with lots of little unknown villages, hidden treasures and things that only the locals know about. There is lots of information about accommodation, food and drink, sport (like skiing, hiking, rafting, football, tennis), caves, castles, mountains, nature, culture. It packs a lot in and it's fun to read with boxes about history, famous Slovak people and unusual items like the Warhol museum and the Dracula countess. Great photos too and useful maps. I recommend it to everyone who wants to discover this jewel of a country.
Slovakia: The Bradt Travel Guide
By Lucy Mallows
1st edition out April 15, 2007
ISBN: 978 1 84162 188 3
ISBN: 1 84162 188 9
Me and my girlfriend spent a wonderfull weekend in the Venturska Residence. It is a really nice apartment house located literally in the heart of the Old Town with major city attractions. The apartment was newly refurbished and clean and had everything from a dishwasher to free internet access. Also the hosts were nice and helpful. I definitely recommend this property to all kinds of travellers. And the price there was half the rate for the hotel room in downtown Bratislava.
www.hotels-in-bratislava.com/hotels/venturska_residence.html
I found a very useful and appealing website - city guide to Bratislava, Slovakia. It has info on accommodation, transport and sights of the city.
It's a little known fact that Slavic countries do fabulous ice cream, especially eaten in sub zero winters!
Bratislava's friendly, pedestrianised Old Town is packed with places to find superb ice cream, made with real fruit and no artifical additives, from stalls on historic squares to little hole-in-the-wall spots. Try varieties like lemon,strawberry, apple, hazelnut, coffee, After Eight, Bounty, cappuccino, vanilla, nougat and one that looks like bright carrot gelato but is, apparently, vitaminova!
Two great ice cream bars are at:
Kafe Laguna
Laurinska & Ursulinska corner
Open daily 10am-midnight
Ice Bar Luculus
Hviezdoslavovo namestie 19
Open Mon-Fri 9am-10pm
Sat-Sun 10am-10pm
Bratislava's Old Town centre is completely pedestrianised and has wall-to-wall bars, restaurants, cafes and clubs.
It has a much more relaxed, easy-going and friendly ambience than many other European capitals and, because there are no cars, you can try all the superb Slovak beers, wines and fiery spirits, tottering from one bar to another without fear of being mown down by a Skoda in a hurry.
Highly recommended for gourmets and bon-viveurs everywhere.
Bratislava Old Town
Tram 13 from the main railway station
Bus 61 from Bratislava's M R Stefanik airport.
Only 64km from Vienna
A superb Cuban restaurant on the banks of the Danube, found in the pistacchio ice cream-coloured Esterhazy Palace.
The Slovaks have done a fantastic job of recreating a steamy Havana atmosphere and the elegant domed ceilings and walls are covered with black and white photos of Cuban nightlife.
Great mojitos (175Sk) with Angostura bitters. Pricey but superb food and live music every night from nine pm. There's a friendly Cuban guy who welcomes visitors at the door.
Typical of the relaxed, welcoming and laid-back atmosphere in Bratislava's pedestrianised Old Town.
Don't listen to comments from boorish, drunken stag partyers from the UK: Bratislava is one of the safest, friendliest and cheapest city break destinations in Europe.
MALECON
Namestie L. Stura 4.
Tel: 02 5464 0167
www.malecon.sk
Trams 11, 13 & 14 to Namestie L. Stura.
Just returned from a four-night boys’ adventure and found Bratislava a really miserable, rude and racist place. It is dirty, graffiti was visible everywhere once you step five minutes outside of the old town and, as I travelled with a number of black guys, found the general friendliness of people awkward.
Our hotel was run by shaven-headed thugs after dark who talked and looked at us in disgust, which was carried on in the bars and clubs in town. Every taxi driver offered us sex and they make up prices from one day to the next! Wouldn't recommend to anyone, go to Poland or the Czech Republic!
As an Aussie student, just want to say, make sure you know how much your drink costs before you order. Most places are good (Slovak pub, bar across from charlie's) but in other bars, the bar tenders will take what you give them and walk off, it may not be much but it adds up. In just over two drinks in BAROK CIRCUS i paid sk100 (euro3) too much. It's not much, but honesty goes a long way. I took another traveller's tip and asked for a bill, but got some random bill for sk 430. So, just pay with whatever it says on the menu in exact change if possible, it's a pain in the ass but will save you over the night.
Possibly the coolest and smartest bar I have been to. This is at the top of the UFO tower and offers spectacular views. Even better are the cocktails ... not cheap but made in front of you by very friendly staff. Sadly we didnt check this out on Saturday night, when it becomes a club/bar (some more forward planning needed there). The toilets are amazing!
100 krona gets you to the top of the tower
At the UFO tower - Novy Most, Bratislava; tel: (2) 6252 0300;
www.u-f-o.sk
This is one of many bars in the city centre with outside seating. The location is very pleasant and you can watch the world go by.
Best of all is the pizza ... you pay about £4 for a huge pizza, stone-baked and very nice. Good selection as well, and when you have finished that, the ice cream place next door is well worth a trip. If you are going to 17's at night, be aware that it is very popular with the stag parties, but it's OK for one or two of the cocktails, which are very well made.
Hviezdoslavovo nám. 17, 811 02 Bratislava;
clients.fatchilli.com/17/index1.php
Everyone says: go to Charlie's Bar. Don't. For a start, the place is a dump. Secondly, and this is the main reason not to go, the door staff are crooked thugs.
We were in there, minding our own business and our friend went to the toilet. He was followed in by 3 doormen who closed the door behind them and demanded money and cocaine off him. Upon finding that he had no cocaine and was not eager to hand over cash, they beat him up, leaving him needing a trip to the hospital and several stitches in his top lip which had been completely split open.
We called the police who seemed to be in on it because they arrived, and the same doorman that had been involved in the beating told them that there was no problem. They left, despite us protesting otherwise, with a guy standing there bleeding profusely from the mouth.
Just don't go there. I can't say strongly enough that there are so many good bars and clubs in Bratislava - enough for that place to be avoided. Vote with your feet. Any place that employs thugs on the door who try to fleece tourists needs to be given a wide berth. Go to the Slovak Pub. It's ace.
Don't find it. Avoid it.
I stayed in this holiday studio in the Old Town. Nice and clean, fully fitted kitchette, air-conditioning and a large patio. Also, the landlord was very friendly and helpful in meeting us late at night. Will absolutely recommend it for other people.
Zelena 10, Bratislava;
www.hotels-in-bratislava.com/hotels/old_town_apartment.html
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