Kilometers walked: 787
Nights in a tent: 11
Nights home hospitality: 2, Daniel and Janna (Klástor)
Nights in a hotel: 10
Nights in a mountain hut: 10
Days walked: 31
Zerodays: 3, Trenčín (2), Kosice
Local attitude towards free camping: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 out of 5)
Very relaxed about the whole concept. We had people wonder why we asked if we could pitch our tent somewhere. There are many shelters where you will find other campers too. In national parks it’s forbidden in specific areas and at some mountain huts too. There, the rules are to be respected.
Local hospitality: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 out of 5)
People are open and curious. In conversation they are friendly and generous. We got offered quite a few drinks when telling our story 😁.
Local attitude of traffic towards hikers: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 5)
Considerate and switch lanes to give you space. The E8 trail uses some road sections in Slovakia, but generally avoids busy roads. It’s best to walk towards the upcoming traffic, this way they seem to be more considerate.
Trail conditions: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 5)
Generally well maintained, especially the SNP trail, with some bushy parts.
Trail markings: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 out of 5)
Very well marked with an easily recognisable National marking system. Markings go from named point to named point and have estimated times on them. This makes navigation very easy. In Slovakia E8 follows the SNP trail, Slovakia’s most popular long distance trail. When we diverted from E8 to our own trail, markings became a little bit less easy to follow.
Trail views and impressions: The trail starts along the Donau and crosses Bratislava. The first half of goes through forested hills, sometimes quite steep, and meadows and fields. Along the way you will find villages where you can find your basic resupply every few days. In the second half, after the hut made by the Capucine monks towards Skalka, the surroundings change into more grassy and shrubby mountains with often great views. This beauty lasts until after Telgart, and then becomes more forested again. Along the way there are many different mountain huts and shelters. Often they are also a place where you can meet other hikers. For us they were a joy along the way. We loved the fact that things were well maintained and it showed that hikers took care of the huts and treated them with respect. The trail also shows many aspects of Slovakia’s history. History from when they were part of the Ottoman empire, Austria-Hungarian empire and Czechoslovakia. A lot of this history we had to google, because Eastern European history is less known to us. Hiking this trail is really a good way of learning about Slovakia and it’s people.
Favorite drink/snack/meal: Kofola, Klobasa sausage, Kapustnica soup and bublanina. Favorite hiker dessert was Crème Olé.
Best memories: The meetings we had with the people on trail, hiking along with fellow hikers, staying at Jana and Daniel, the feeling of trail community! And of course meeting Rein at Chopok, and the unexpected festival in Telgart.
Would do it again: Yes, especially the trail from Donovaly to Telgart.
Would recommend this trail to: Anyone who has some hiking experience and would like to hike a long distance trail in Europe. SNP is a great and diversetrail through Slovakia! The section from Donovaly to Telgart is great if you have limited time, yet want to see a great part of this trail.
Tips if you go: Use the website of the SNP trail for information on huts and springs https://cestasnp.sk/ On the ERA website you can also find the website of https://snptrail.com/ in English. We also used https://www.transcarpathian.org/trail/ this has very useful downloads with gpx files on water sources and shelters. Our Czech friends all use the Many app for their information. That’s also really accurate.
Sometimes the trail deviates to a spring (half circle symbol) or viewpoint at the top (triangular symbol) Take the extra effort of going to the viewpoint, especially in the first half of the walk. It makes your energy spent in climbing up through the forest more worthwhile.
Will do this after we get home because of the trail: Order a few bottles of Kofola, make Kapustnica (sauerkraut soup)
