Full Description
The go-to Tatra Mountains travel guide for discovering the best walks and car tours.
Strap on your boots and discover Tatra Mountains on foot with the Sunflower Tatra Mountains travel guide. And on the days when your feet may have had enough, enjoy some spectacular scenery on one of our legendary car tours.
The Sunflower Tatra Mountains guide is indispensable for hiking in the Tatra Mountains or seeing Tatra Mountains by car. For those who love mountain walks, there can be few places where hikers are better catered for than in the Polish Tatras and the Slovakian Tatras. Skilfully constructed paths make hiking in very rough terrain comparatively easy; signposting and waymarking are almost universally excellent.
Whatever your age or ability we've got some glorious walks and car tours to ensure you have a memorable holiday in Tatra Mountains.
Inside the guide you'll find:
90 long and short walks for all ages and abilities - each walk is graded so you can easily match your ability to the level of walk
Topographical walking maps - give you a clear sense of the surrounding terrain
Free downloadable gps tracks - for the techies
Satnav guidance to walk starts for motorists
7 car tours and fold-out touring map - for easy reference on your tour
Strolls to idyllic picnic spots - enjoy our recommendations for where to picnic along the way
Timetables for public transport - ideal if you want to link two walks or avoid hiring a car on your holiday
Online update service for the latest information
Hillwalkers will be in their element here, but there are often shorter, easy suggestions for the less hardy or they can create their own treks from the detailed maps in the book, which show all waymarked routes.
In addition, those touring Slovakia or Poland by car will find that the tours lead to dozens of short walks and picnic spots, so that even those with little walking experience can make the most of these wonderful mountains.
In each of the six national parks covered in the book you can look forward to sampling local drinks and dishes at one or more of the mountain inns.
Walking in the national parks featured in this guide will undoubtedly be a very rewarding experience — the enjoyment of magnificent scenery and the excellent facilities for hikers, and perhaps also for successfully undertaking what may seem quite daunting walks in relatively high mountains.
The experience can be rewarding on another level: being among people who are obviously enjoying themselves, who don't seem to need an array of the latest outdoor fashions, and who are quietly proud of their mountain heritage.
Whether you tour the islands by car or explore on foot, we look forward to showing you around.
Contents
Preface 5
Acknowledgements; Recommended reading;
Useful contacts 7
Travel 8
Car touring 9
Car tour 1: PIENINY AND TATRA NATIONAL PARKS 11
Car tour 2: ACROSS THE BORDER 13
Car tour 3: SLOVAKIA'S TATRA MOUNTAINS 15
Car tour 4: SLOVAK PARADISE 16
Car tour 5: LOW TATRAS NATIONAL PARK 18
Car tour 6: MALÁ FATRA 20
Car tour 7: ORAVA VALLEY 23
Picnics and short walks 24
Walking 30
Grades, waymarks, maps 30
Equipment and safety 31
PANEL: EFFECTS OF ALTITUDE 32
Weather 32
Where to stay 33
Nuisances 33
Country code 33
Polish for walkers 34
Slovak for walkers 36
Organisation of the walks 39
THE WALKS (l see explanation of symbols on page 30)
PANEL: POLAND'S PIENINY NATIONAL PARK 40
l 1 Pieniny: The Three Crowns 41
l 2 Pieniny: The Sokolica ridge 45
l-l 3 Pieniny: Dunajec Gorge 48
PANEL: POLAND'S TATRA NATIONAL PARK 50
l-l 4 Polish High Tatras: Dolina Bia¸ego and Strà˝yska Dolina via Sarnia Ska¸a 51
l-l 5 Polish High Tatras: The ascent of Giewont 54
l 6 Polish High Tatras: Along the Poland-Slovakia border ridge 57
l 7 Polish High Tatras: The ascent of Ornak 60
l-l 8 Polish High Tatras: A ridge walk above Chocho¸owska Dolina 62
l-l 9 Polish High Tatras: A lakes tour 66
l-l 10 Polish High Tatras: The Valley of the Five Polish Lakes and Morskie Oko 69
PANEL: SLOVAKIA'S TATRA NATIONAL PARK 72
l 11 Slovakian High Tatras: Popradské Pleso and Vel'ké Hincovo Pleso 73
l-l 12 Slovakian High Tatras: Predné Solisko and Furkotská Dolina 76
l 13 Slovakian High Tatras: From Mlynická Dolina to Furkotská Dolina via Bystrá Lávka 78
Contents
4 Landscapes of the Tatra Mountains of Poland and Slovakia
l 14 Slovakian High Tatras: The ascent of KriváÀ 81
l 15 Slovakian High Tatras: Téryho Chata 84
l 16 Slovakian High Tatras: The ascent of Slavkovsk˘ ·tít 88
l 17 Slovakian High Tatras: Skalnaté Pleso and Lomnické Sedlo 90
PANEL: 19 NOVEMBER 2004 91
l-l 18 Slovakian High Tatras: Two lakes and two mountain inns 92
l 19 Slovakian High Tatras: From Tatranská Javorina to Biela Voda 96
PANEL: SLOVENSKY' RAJ NATIONAL PARK 98
l 20 Slovensk˘ Raj: Hornád Gorge and Tomá‰ovsk˘ V˘hl'ad 99
l 21 Slovensk˘ Raj: Hornád Gorge (western end) 103
l 22 Slovensk˘ Raj: The Hornád River and historic Klá‰torisko 105
PANEL: SLOVAKIA'S LOW TATRA NATIONAL PARK 107
l 23 Low Tatras: Two valleys above Jasná 108
l 24 Low Tatras: A fine ridge walk 111
l-l 25 Low Tatras: The Pol'ana spur 113
PANEL: MALÁ FATRA NATIONAL PARK 115
l-l 26 Malá Fatra: The ascent of Kraviarske 116
l 27 Malá Fatra: The ascent of Chleb 119
l 28 Malá Fatra: The ascent of Vel'k˘ KriváÀ 121
l 29 Malá Fatra: The traverse of Boboty ridge 123
l 30 Malá Fatra: Dolné Diery and Nové Diery 125
l 31 Malá Fatra: The Juraj Jáno‰ík walk 128
Transport information 131
Index 134
Fold-out touring map inside back cover
Town plans reverse of touring map
