Best Time to Visit

The climate of Slovakia is a temperate continental climate with distinct seasons. Many wonderful activities can be found to do all year round depending on the temperature you’re looking for. There’s amazing hiking in the mountains in summer, and skiing and Christmas markets and holiday festivities across Slovak cities in December.

The Slovak Republic boasts incredibly stunning wild nature reserves and national parks that offer a wide range of activities. There are 9 national parks, 12 limestone caves open to the public, several UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and the highest per capita number of castles in the world. There are also numerous mineral and thermal springs meaning that many cities and towns in Slovakia have spa centres.

Slovak Paradise National Park forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland and is famous for its beautiful canyons and ravines with waterfalls and rocky formations created by streams over millennia. The park also has 300 kilometres of trails with ladders, chains, and bridges, making outings there quite adventurous on foot. There are 2100 varieties of butterflies in the park, and of 350 caves in the park, only the Dobsinska Ice Cave is a UNESCO World Heritage Site – it’s the most visited underground cave in Slovakia and has some truly otherworldly physical features.

Velky Sokol is the highest peak in the jagged High Tatras and offers awesome hiking and climbing among stunning alpine flowers, snowfields, thundering waterfalls, marmots, birds, the endangered saker falcon, and the European otter and ground squirrel. Also found here are chamois(a mountain goat-antelope), bears, and lynx.

The city of Kremnica has a mint that opened in 1328 in the Middle Ages and it’s still operating today, as the oldest of its kind. The area has a rich history of gold and silver mining, and its coins have been used for centuries.