{"id":3133,"date":"2024-10-06T20:18:09","date_gmt":"2024-10-06T18:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2troubletravelers.com\/long-weekend-in-the-high-tatras-hiking-trails-the-best-halusky-and-tips-on-how-to-save-money\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T21:40:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T19:40:39","slug":"long-weekend-in-the-high-tatras-hiking-trails-the-best-halusky-and-tips-on-how-to-save-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2troubletravelers.com\/en\/long-weekend-in-the-high-tatras-hiking-trails-the-best-halusky-and-tips-on-how-to-save-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Long weekend in the High Tatras: hiking trails, the best “halu\u0161ky” and tips on how to save money!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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.<\/p>\n

However, we bring you a four-day itinerary<\/strong> that includes a mix of easy and moderate hiking, along with tips on our favourite gastro establishments and hotels.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Where to stay in High Tatras<\/h2>\n

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\u20ac per ticket.<\/p>\n

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 Tatransk\u00e1 Lomnica<\/strong>, Stary Smokovec<\/strong> or \u0160trbsk\u00e9 Pleso<\/strong>. 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 Doln\u00fd Smokovec, Star\u00e1 Lesn\u00e1 or<\/strong> Ve\u013ek\u00e1 Lomnica<\/strong> can be a great alternative for you.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Apartments Tatry<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

During our stay in the Tatras we spent 2 nights in Stary Smokovec in Apartments Tatry<\/strong><\/a>. This is an apartment located directly in the Hrebienok Rezort complex, but it is rented by a private person.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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Grand Hotel Prague<\/a><\/h3>\n

For the next nights we moved to Tatransk\u00e1 Lomnica to the hotel Grand Hotel Praha<\/strong><\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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Grand Hotel Praha Suite Classic.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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.<\/p>\n

Wellness<\/h4>\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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The only year-round heated outdoor swimming pool in the High Tatras.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

Water parks<\/h4>\n

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 Be\u0161e\u0148ov\u00e1 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.<\/p>\n

Gopass\/Skipass<\/a><\/h4>\n

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 Tatransk\u00e1 Lomnica to Skalnat\u00e9 pleso (or up to Lomnick\u00e9 sedlo), on the cog-railway to Hrebienok, or to Predn\u00e9 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! <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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If you stay in TMR hotels, Gopass cards are included in the price of your stay.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

Hiking from Tatransk\u00e1 Lomnica<\/h2>\n

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:<\/p>\n

Tatransk\u00e1 Lomnica – Skalnat\u00e9 pleso – Ve\u013ek\u00e1 Svi\u0161t’ovka – Zelen\u00e9 Pleso – Tatransk\u00e1 Lomnica<\/strong><\/h4>\n

As we were waiting for a quite difficult and long route, we decided to skip the first, more boring route from Tatransk\u00e1 Lomnica to Skalnat\u00e9 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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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If you are lucky like us, you can see a fox on Skalnat\u00e9 Pleso.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

From there we took the red trail towards Ve\u013ek\u00e1 Svi\u0161t’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 Ve\u013ek\u00e1 Svi\u0161t’ovka. The route was moderately difficult, almost all the time we were going slightly uphill, but it was nothing terrible.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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From Ve\u013ek\u00e1 Svi\u0161tovka you can see Zelen\u00e9 pleso in the valley.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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 Ve\u013ek\u00e1 Svi\u0161t’ovka, from which we could already see our next destination – Zelen\u00e9 pleso. From Ve\u013ek\u00e1 Svi\u0161t’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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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Above Zelen\u00fd Pleso there is Koz\u00ed \u0160t\u00edt.<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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The valley of Zelen\u00e9 Pleso is one of the most beautiful in the High Tatras at all.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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 Zelen\u00e9 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.<\/p>\n

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 Zelen\u00e9 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 Tatransk\u00e1 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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Note. You can also take the easier route to Zelen\u00e9 Pleso, which is also suitable for families with children. The beginning of the whole hiking is in Tatransk\u00e1 Lomnica, from Tatransk\u00e9 Matliare or from Ke\u017emarsk\u00e1 Biela Voda. The whole route up will take you roughly 2-2.5 hours, but it is certainly easier than the one we took from Skalnat\u00e9 pleso via Ve\u013ek\u00e1 Svi\u0161t’ovka.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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This is the view you will get if you go to the cottage at the Zelen\u00e9 Pleso from Tatransk\u00e1 Lomnica, for example.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

Tatransk\u00e1 Lomnica – Skalnat\u00e9 Pleso – Lomnick\u00e9 Sedlo (Lomnick\u00fd \u0160t\u00edt)<\/h4>\n

Another great way to enjoy a beautiful day in Tatransk\u00e1 Lomnica is to visit Lomnick\u00e9 Sedlo or even Lomnick\u00fd \u0160t\u00edt. Those who like hiking can take the route under the cable car from Tatransk\u00e1 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 \u20ac. Again, if you are staying in one of the TMR hotels, you can take the cable car from Tatransk\u00e1 Lomnica to Lomnick\u00e9 Sedlo for free.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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From the Lomnick\u00fd Sedlo you have a beautiful view of the Lomnick\u00fd \u0160t\u00edt.<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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This cableway goes to Lomnick\u00fd \u0160t\u00edt.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

An alternative is also an experience on Lomnick\u00fd \u0160t\u00edt, which you can take a cable car directly from Skalnat\u00e9 pleso. Tickets cost \u20ac59<\/strong> and you need to book in advance<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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At the top they offer \"Slovak breakfast\" - coffee with gin. We decided to skip the coffee.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

Of course, we didn’t miss the “Slovak breakfast<\/strong>” with a view. If you decide to visit Lomnick\u00fd \u0160t\u00edt, 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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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From Lomnick\u00fd \u0160t\u00edt you have a view on all sides.<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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There is also an observation deck where you really feel like you are in the clouds.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

Hiking from Star\u00fd Smokovec<\/h2>\n

As we have already mentioned, we spent our first nights in the High Tatras in Star\u00fd 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:<\/p>\n