When a person is planning their trip to the High Tatras, it can be exhausting. A large number of tourist hikes, hundreds of great restaurants and what about a place where to stay? It’s really hard to plan the best itinerary. Of course, it also depends on your physical condition and how demanding hiking is, whether you are travelling alone or with children and how many days you are going to the Tatras.
However, we bring you a four-day itinerary that includes a mix of easy and moderate hiking, along with tips on our favourite gastro establishments and hotels.
Where to stay
The choice of a place where to stay also depends on whether you are travelling to the Tatras by car or by train, or on how you want to get around. Parking is usually included in the price of your accommodation, but bear in mind that if you want to start hiking from a different location than your hotel, you can pay up to ten euros for parking for the whole day. We moved around the Tatras exclusively by train, which saved us a lot of money. They are very frequent and can take you almost everywhere. You will pay about 1-2€ per ticket.
However, the choice of hotel should also depend largely on what will be your starting point for hiking. As a rule, most hiking trails start in Tatranská Lomnica, Stary Smokovec or Štrbské Pleso. In these locations you will find a large offer of hotels, resorts and apartments in different price categories. However, if you have a car available, then Dolný Smokovec, Stará Lesná or Veľká Lomnica can be a great alternative for you.
Apartments Tatry
During our stay in the Tatras we spent 2 nights in Stary Smokovec in Apartments Tatry. This is an apartment located directly in the Hrebienok Rezort complex, but it is rented by a private person.
The apartment is beautifully furnished, also includes a terrace with a beautiful view and offers everything you will need during your stay. It also includes a fully equipped kitchen, so if you don’t want to eat out all day, you can prepare some tasty breakfast or dinner here. Located just a 5-minute walk from the cable car to Hrebienok, the Coop Jednota and many bars and restaurants are also nearby.
Grand Hotel Prague
For the next nights we moved to Tatranská Lomnica to the hotel Grand Hotel Praha. I’m sure you all immediately think of exorbitant luxury, exorbitant prices and something you can’t afford. WRONG. The Grand Hotel Prague offers so many great benefits to its visitors that when you add it up at the end of the day, you’ll find that it’s not as expensive and disadvantageous as it may seem at first glance.
At the Grand Hotel Prague you will enjoy great service, beautiful rooms and the price of your stay also includes a wonderful buffet-style breakfast. For example, you can also choose from gluten-free and lactose-free alternatives. But that’s still not all.
Wellness
All visitors also have access to unlimited wellness facilities. In the wellness centre there is an indoor swimming pool, two whirlpools (one inside the other outside), saunas and also the only year-round outdoor pool with a beautiful view of the Tatras. It’s amazing, isn’t it? When you consider, for example, that in some places you pay tens of euros per person for a spa and here you can enjoy it without limit, it’s a really great benefit. But we’re not done yet.
Water parks
If you decide to stay in Grand Hotel Praha (or any other hotel from the TMR network) you will also get entry to Tatralandia or Aquapark Bešeňová absolutely FREE. It may seem like one advantage after another, but for those who are still unconvinced, here is the last, but in our opinion, the best advantage of all.
Gopass/Skipass
GOPASS or SKIPASS for cable cars. Yes, you hear right. If you decide to stay in such a Grand Hotel Praha, you will get a GOPASS, which you can use for example on the cable cars from Tatranská Lomnica to Skalnaté pleso (or up to Lomnické sedlo), on the cog-railway to Hrebienok, or to Predné Solisko. When you add it all up, it will certainly be clear to you that staying in one of the hotels from the Tatry Mountains Resorts network is really worth it!
Hiking from Tatranská Lomnica
Enough about accommodation, let’s go straight to the places you can go. The High Tatras offer many hiking trails, each of which is unique in its own way. We decided for the hike:
Tatranská Lomnica – Skalnaté pleso – Veľká Svišt’ovka – Zelené Pleso – Tatranská Lomnica
As we were waiting for a quite difficult and long route, we decided to skip the first, more boring route from Tatranská Lomnica to Skalnaté Pleso and save our strength. We used the GOPASS that we got at the Grand Hotel Praha and took the cable car to Skalnate pleso, which saved us about 2-2.5 hours of time.
From there we took the red trail towards Veľká Svišt’ovka. The weather was really good, the sun was shining, the sky was clear and it wasn’t too hot. It took us about 65 minutes to get to Veľká Svišt’ovka. The route was moderately difficult, almost all the time we were going slightly uphill, but it was nothing terrible.
For those who do not want to continue further, there is still the option to return back along the identical route to Skalnate pleso, which will take you less than 1 hour. We enjoyed a beautiful view from Veľká Svišt’ovka, from which we could already see our next destination – Zelené pleso. From Veľká Svišt’ovka the road continued only downwards. Most of the route was easy, the terrain was stable, but there was a short stretch that went over iron chains.
After about 80 minutes we finally reached the finish line. But not the full destination of the whole route, as we still had a way back. Cottage near Zelené pleso is our most popular alpine cottage in the High Tatras. It has a really incredible environment around it! Beautiful reflection of the surrounding mountains in the clear green water of the green lake.
It must be admitted that we were quite lucky, because we arrived at the hut just after 13:00, when there were not so many people there and the sun started to shine on Zelené pleso again. After a reward of bean soup, poldeck and beer, we rested for about an hour and regained our strength for the trip back. When we looked at the orientation board, we got chills! Apparently it is 3:10 to Tatranská Lomnica. But that was not true at all. We had a very average pace at the beginning, then we picked up the pace a bit and the whole route down to the hotel took us 2:20 hours. After a full day of hiking, we enjoyed the spa and great food.
Tatranská Lomnica – Skalnaté Pleso – Lomnické Sedlo (Lomnický Štít)
Another great way to enjoy a beautiful day in Tatranská Lomnica is to visit Lomnické Sedlo or even Lomnický Štít. Those who like hiking can take the route under the cable car from Tatranská Lomnica to Skalnate pleso, which takes about 2-2.5 hours. From there you can take a chairlift, which runs from 9:00am to 4:30pm and costs 11 €. Again, if you are staying in one of the TMR hotels, you can take the cable car from Tatranská Lomnica to Lomnické Sedlo for free.
An alternative is also an experience on Lomnický Štít, which you can take a cable car directly from Skalnaté pleso. Tickets cost €59 and you need to book in advance as the number of seats is limited. This is the only cable car that is not included in the price of your stay in the TMR hotel network. We managed to snag some incredibly beautiful weather and since we booked the very first morning lift at 9:00am up we had plenty of room to enjoy it to the fullest.
Of course, we didn’t miss the “Slovak breakfast” with a view. If you decide to visit Lomnický Štít, you should know that the cable car ride takes about 10 minutes. You will be given a number when you arrive at the top. This number will be announced after 50 minutes, at which point you must report back to the boarding station as your stay on the peak is over. This system is to ensure that visitors are well organised and coordinated and that the viewpoint is never overcrowded.
Hiking from Starý Smokovec
As we have already mentioned, we spent our first nights in the High Tatras in Starý Smokovec. The reason was also to have walking access to the cable car to Hrebienok, where most of the tourist hikes start. Our favourite routes from Hrebienok are:
- Hrebienok – Térry’s Chalet
- Hrebienok – Skalnate pleso
- Hrebienok – Sliezsky Dom
- Hrebienok – Zbojnícka chata
And it is about the last two that we will talk a little more today.
Hrebienok – Sliezsky Dom
We chose the route from Hrebienok to Sliezsky Dom mainly because it is an easy hike with a total duration of 4 hours. The elevation reaches only 385 m and the route offers very nice views all the time. As it was our first hiking trip in the Tatras after a long time, we wanted something simpler and more relaxing.
The destination is also beautiful. At the Silesian House you will enjoy great refreshments and a view of Velicek pleso. You can easily spend several hours here. Follow the same route back to Hrebienok, where you will take a cog-railway down. An alternative is of course also to make the ascent and climb from Hrebienok outside the tubing hut, which will take you about 30-40 minutes. Again, if you are staying in the TMR hotel network, you have a free ticket to the Hrebienok tubing hill. The price is 16€ return ticket for an adult and 10€ for a child.
Hrebienok – Zbojnícka Chata
The route from Hrebienok to Zbojnicka chata is considered to be a moderately difficult hiking with an elevation of about 730 m. The beginning of the route is very pleasant and everyone can handle it. The climb starts after the second half of the route, but we guarantee you that the views will definitely be worth it. At Zbojnícká chata you will enjoy great food and beautiful views. In total, this hike will take you 5:30 hours.
Gastronomy
During our stay in the High Tatras we also tried several gastro establishments, which we would like to recommend to you. If you are currently in Stary Smokovec, it is definitely worth mentioning Stodola Smokovec. We tasted there the best bryndzové halušky and homemade soup.
Right next to the Hrebienok resort there is also a restaurant called SLOWENSKA, where we had dinner. We had a burger, wings and beer. The atmosphere was great! Burger Váňa is also worth mentioning. It’s a small stand along the main road, and the smell of burgers is so strong that it makes you swoon in an instant.
If you want to enjoy other than traditional cuisine, you can try the UMAMI restaurant, which serves sushi and other Asian specialties. If you are looking for a place to have breakfast in the morning, you can stop by MONDIEU or Pekárova žena for pastries or coffee.
All accommodation options can be found on the following links:
* All links in this article, including accommodation through booking are affliliate. All in one place. It won’t cost you any extra money or effort, it will make your planning easier and save you time. We would be delighted if you booked your dream holiday through them 🙂
