Of course most people will make sure to go to the ‘big’ hotspots. Most people will visit the Eiffel Tower for instance, and most people will see the Coliseum and ticking off those things would be easy. But if it was only those big attractions you sought out in Europe then you’d end up with a very warped view of those countries and you would miss out on a lot of amazing things. Here then we’ll look at some of the biggest and best sites in Europe that lots of people will miss. Do the big ones sure, but make sure you visit a few of these too to get a more varied and unique experience of travelling here.

The Tatra Mountains – Poland/Slovakia

There are many beautiful vistas in Europe, but one of my personal favourites has got to be this beautiful mountain range. What makes it amazing to me is how easily you can access these stunning views.

Strbske pleso, High Tatras National Park, Slovakia by Claire for Europe Explored

St Paul’s – England

St Paul’s Cathedral in London is one of the best hidden attractions in England’s capital and has a lot going for it. Besides the beautiful interior of this cathedral, you also get to see the burial place of many famous characters from history, see a spectacular view over all of London and experience the ‘whispering gallery’ that really is as strange as people say.

The Maspalomas Mini Desert – Gran Canaria

When you think Europe you certainly don’t think ‘desert’, but that’s exactly what you’ll find in Gran Canaria if you head to Maspalomas. This makes for something completely different to what you’re probably used to, and it’s an amazing sight for anyone

The Vatican Museum – Italy

A normal trip to Rome will involve looking around a lot of ruins and probably a trip to the Vatican City. Rather than just experiencing it from outside though, it’s worth heading inside the Vatican museum to see an incredible collection of art and history. Better yet go at night and it’ll have an even more serene ambience.

Vatican city by Claire for Europe Explored

The British Library – England

The British Library is more than just a library and is filled with exhibitions, statues and history. It’s also rather impressive to behold in itself, and it’s completely free to visit so it’s worth checking out if you’re in England.

The Lochmuehle – Germany

If you have kids then the European destination at the top of your list is probably Disneyland in Paris. For something a bit different though, check out the Lochmuehle in Frankfurt, Germany. This is a huge playground, but one that is entirely self automated. Forget huge queues for two minute rides and try something different as you pedal to power the big wheel.

The Salt Mines – Austria

There are many great salt mines throughout Europe, but Salzburg has got to be home to the best family day out. Here you’ll get to travel deep underground to visit the crystalline salt mines, to take boat rides and shoot down slides.

Auschwitz – Poland

Auschwitz may not be the jolliest day out, but it’s a sight of incredible historical significance and one very much worth seeing. It’s a haunting location, but highly educational.

Wawel Castle – Poland

If you’re visiting Auschwitz then make a detour to Krakow and visit Wawel Castle – one of the most impressive piece of architecture that no one ever really talks about. This is a huge castle which is free to enter and explore, and which some believe to be one of the ‘energy centres’ of the planet.

Mount Teide – Tenerife

If you’re looking for a an amazing and unusual landscape, then you should certainly visit Mount Teide in Tenerife. This is a huge volcano that you can travel right to the top of, and it’s actually the location where they shot Planet of the Apes.

Mt. Teide & Rock Pedestal, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain by N. Tackaberry / License: Creative Commons

The author of today’s article is Ben Llewellyn, the founder of privatejetcharterprices.com. He has travelled extensively across Europe and knows some of the best locations in the continent. So, for people having a penchant for luxury, they can get Ben’s private jet hire information & news stories on his website.

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Photo licensed under the Creative Commons, created by Marian Hubinsky

Trenčín Castle was built in the 10th century. Since 11th century it was the royal castle, which not only withstood Tatar invasions, but also served as a fortress against the Turks. It was gradually rebuilt and expanded, but the castle burnt down in 1790. Its reconstruction began just after 1945.

Trenčín Castle is accessible all year-round except for Mondays. You can get there directly from the city centre by following the street leading from the main city’s square (Mierové námestie). The castle is nicely illuminated at night.

Various events are held on the castle during the summer, such as folk exhibitions, fencing tournaments, live music concerts and more. One part of the castle serves as a gallery where you can see oil paintings of local nobility, emblems and seals.

The biggest attraction of the castle is 80 metres deep well, called Well of Love. The well is excavated into the hard rock and it is said that the well was built by Turkish Omar Pasha. Stephen Zápoľský held in captivity a beautiful girl Fatima, loved by Omar, and Zápoľský promised him that if he sink a well at the castle, he will let her go. The works lasted three years and then Fatima and Omar could really leave the castle.

In Trenčín you can also find many other historical sites. It is one of the most beautiful cities in Slovakia and certainly worth a visit.

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Malá Fatra is located in the northern part of the country. Its tourist centre is Terchová village. Accommodation is offered mostly by private owners in their home areas or cottages. The prices are around €10 per night. There are also several hotels with prices around €35 per night. In every village around the park you can find local restaurants offering delicious meals for little money.

Charming small waterfalls and gorges in Vrátna Valley

One of the most interesting trips that can be undertaken in a national park, is a visit to two waterfalls. One of them is Šútovský waterfall which is set at the river Sut in Šútovská dolina valley. The stream is more than 2 meters wide and falls to 38 meters deep gorge.

Another one, which is one of the rarest Slovak falls, is 10 meters high Klacký waterfall, declared a national natural monument. There is stunning countryside around with wild rapids and a giant pots (holes carved by water).

Photo licensed under the Creative Commons, created by Petrusia1

Gorges in Vrátna valley and Terchová valley are popular hiking attractions thanks to a beautiful scenery of rocky formations but also to local folklore festivities. They are held here every year in honor of Juraj Jánošík, a native of Terchová village.

You can also visit Crystal cave in Malý Rozsutec or climb to the highest peak of Malá Fatra – Veľký Kriváň (1709 m). If you get tired you can relax in nearby thermal park Meander Park in Oravice featuring geothermal water with temperature ranging from 35 to 37°C, or in another thermal park Bešeňová.

If you wish to learn more about famous Juraj Jánošík you can visit museum in Terchová or another popular open air museum in the village Nová Bystrica – Vychylovce. It documents the local folk architecture and life in the past. An interesting exhibition is the historic forest railways from the early 20th century.

Malá Fatra National Park with the equally interesting surroundings is simply the perfect place for a nice and cheap holiday. If you want to save some money in these hectic days and enjoy great nature at the same time, come to Slovakia.

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Photo by thermalcorvinus.sk

Termalpark Veľký Meder offers 9 pools with thermal water, with a temperature of 26-38 °C. The complex consists of indoor and outdoor sections. Indoor swimming complex offers 4 pools, bubble bath, massage, biosolarium, sauna world, bioptron treatment, beauty salon, magnotherapy, self-service restaurant and bar. There are 5 water slides, two of them are open whole year round, rope park, sports pitch, table tennis, playground or you can try aqua aerobic.

Children can have fun in new indoor entertainment pool, where they can find a unique attraction: an interactive water playground “Water Tower”. Waterfalls, showers, water curtain, water cannons, and slides for children offer unforgettable moments and maximum fun for the whole family.

Photo by thermalcorvinus.sk

The basic whole-day ticket costs €8 but it’s little bit higher on weekends and summer. However there are several discounts e.g. if you stay overnight in the complex or in some of the partners’ hotels nearby. The indoor complex is open daily from 9am to 9pm whole year round and outdoor complex only from May to October – but you can use outdoor thermal pools without any restrictions also in winter. It is really worth to warm your body in these cold days!

For further information visit the official website of Thermalpark Veľký Meder.

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Pieniny is spread in the northern part of the country called Spiš, in the region of Zamagurie. It is about 30 km long and belongs to Beskydy mountain range. In 1932, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk established here the first international natural park in Europe. It was formed by National park of Pieniny in Poland and Nature Reserve of Pieniny in Slovakia. In 1967 was declared a National Park. Most tourists to Slovakia often stop in the High Tatras Mountains only, without knowing how beautiful nature is hidden behind them.

Pieniny National Park is an area with unspoilt nature, where meadows blend with the forest, villages are subtly incorporated into the landscape. It is a country full of rock formations, amazing rivers and high-mountain streams. Although there are not any high rocky peaks, but anyway this park will enchant everyone who come here. It’s a place where you can still see freely grazing herds of sheep and remote villages where time has stopped tens years ago, both in terms of architectural and cultural. It is not unusual to see a wooden horse-drawn carriages carrying hay, as well as a hundred years ago, or old ladies sitting in traditional festive costumes in the front of their homes.

Photo licensed under the Creative Commons, created by Emillie & Lloyd

The mountain range is composed of Jurassic and Cretaceous limestones with younger sandstones, shales and conglomerates, which together creates very impressive character. The rugged relief with deep valleys, gorges and remarkable rock formations was created mainly due to the activities of water, frost, erosion and climate fluctuations. There are also numerous cave systems.

Nature in Pieniny National Park is very diverse, with a number of plant and animal species. From the protected animals you can see here such as Goshawk, Eurasian Eagle-Owl, falcon, raven, crayfish or Eurasian Lynx. There are also rare and endemic species, such as springtails, several species of grasshoppers, centipedes and butterflies. The forests are mostly mixed (firs, pine, spruce, beech, maple, and European yew).

Photo licensed under the Creative Commons, created by DaLee_pl

Pieniny National Park offers relatively dense network of well marked trails with the possibility to choose the optimal route according to your capabilities. Most famous and most visited area in the Pieniny is certainly Breakthrough of Dunajec, located between the towns Szczawnica and Červený Kláštor. Dunajec river created a wonderful valley and you can try rafting on the wooden rafts here, which is the biggest tourist attraction. When sailing, you can see beautiful surrounding scenery. If you do not like water very much, you can go through the Breakthrough of Dunajec on foot or ride a bike.

The highest peak of Pieniny is Vysoké skalky measuring 1050 meters above sea level and lying at the borders with Poland. The top is beautiful, offering panoramic view of the surroundings. Much better known and more significant, however, are dominant Tri Koruny with a height of 982 meters above sea level, located above the Dunajec river. It is formed by rocky towers, whose walls are about 100 meters high and have the form of a crown. The summit offers a magnificent view over the whole area of ​​Pieniny, Spisska Magura, Belianske Tatras and even the High Tatras.

Photo licensed under the Creative Commons, created by tokarcik.tomas

Very interesting is also well preserved folk architecture in the villages Osturňa, Havka, Veľká Lesná and Jezersko.

A large part of the Pieniny National Park is still a God forgotten region, which is accessible to the ordinary tourist, mostly in the summer. There are not any large hotel complexes or resorts. It is ideal for hikers, cyclists, lovers of traditional culture or history, climbers, adventurers or simply for people fleeing from everyday bustle of the city.

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For those who might not know what is it, should be noted that it is a lake of glacial origin. In the Slovak High Tatras there are in a total of 87 glacial lakes, but the most famous one is certainly Štrbské Pleso. It is not the largest or deepest one, nor the highest situated, but it’s just typical.

It lies at the connected point of Furkotská and Mlynická valley at the altitude of 1346.6 metres above sea level. It covers an area of 19.76 hectares and its maximum depth reaches about 20 meters. The lake is almost half of the year covered by ice.

The lakes were created in the Pleistocene by the action of glaciers, which dug them into the valleys. Due to the remoteness and high altitude such lakes have very clean water and are often a home to quite specific types of plants and animals. Štrbské Pleso is home to a fish called European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus). This salmon-like fish is still widespread in many countries, but currently it can be found on the Red List of Threatened Species. It has been found yet, that whitefish from Štrbské Pleso is genetically purest of its kind in the world. The lake is also home to several other species of fish, some of them (especially perch and roach) are unfortunately direct food competitors to whitefish. The management of High Tatras national park therefore prepared a program to capture these fish, to save a rare population of whitefish.

In terms of nature is the human presence on the shores of lake negligibly short, but more intense. The first mention of a lake comes from David Frölich in 1644. Later there came hunters, loggers and miners. A lake has almost ceased to exist in 1860. It was due to the residents of nearby Štrba town, who tried to drain the lake and use that “useless puddle” for new pastures! Fortunately, they didn’t do it well …

The same-name settlement of Štrbské Pleso was founded in 1872, when there was a hunting lodge built by Jozef Szentiványi. Other buildings were then built at the instigation of Hungarian Carpathian Association. At present, a town of Štrbské Pleso is a popular winter and summer resort with many hotels and restaurants, and also serves as a climatic spa centre. With its altitude it is also the highest situated resort in Slovakia. There are lots of opportunities for hiking and skiing, including ski lifts and cable cars to Solisko peak.

Despite its mountainous location, you can get to Štrbské Pleso by both road and rail. The main gate to Štrbské Pleso and High Tatras is the city of Poprad where is an international airport as well.

Whether you come to Štrbské Pleso for hiking or skiing, you will be surely surprised with its beauty and surrounding nature. There are lots of hiking trails leading from this place to several important peaks – Kriváň (2,495 m) or Rysy (2,503 m) or you can visit the great 10 metres high waterfall Skok (1,725 m), or another popular lake Popradské pleso (1,494 m).

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I am talking about Vlkolínec, which is now a part of the city of Ružomberok. It lies at an altitude of 718 m in Revúca Valley, south of the rocky mountain massif Sidorovo, also called Žiar (1099 m asl), which belongs to the mountains of Veľká Fatra.

Vlkolínec is in fact a reservation of folk architecture, a kind of outdoor museum of medieval village with wooden houses, that are typical for the mountain areas. This is the best preserved, most complete and most original collection of folk buildings in the Slovak Republic, spreading on an area of ​​797 hectares.

Photo licensed under the Creative Commons, created by Janos Korom Dr.

Archaeological findings confirm the existence of a fort on the hill Sidorovo already 2,500 years ago. The name of the village is supposedly derived from the ancient presence of wolves in the area (these animals can be still seen here). The first written mention of Vlkolínec dates from 1376, where is mentioned as one of the streets of Ružomberok. Originally, there were just a few houses, although the number of houses and population gradually increased.

Photo licensed under the Creative Commons, created by Janos Korom Dr.

At present, there are 73 listed buildings, 55 residential houses. Of these, 18 are now permanently settled with 35 inhabitants. Owners of other houses are here just seasonally. Everything is built of wood, including a local landmark – a two-storey wooden belfry from 1770.

Interesting is also a timbered well from 1860, previously the only source of drinking water for the whole village. One of the few brick buildings is a local Classicist-Baroque Church from 1875. Also the local cemetery is worth a visit.

The whole complex is rare also due to the fact that it was not affected by any new constructions. Already in 1977 the village of Vlkolínec was declared the Reservation of Folk Architecture Monuments, and in 1993 inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

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It is certainly the biggest sporting celebration of Košice, when the whole city turns into a marathon atmosphere. The preparations of the exciting street circuit starts already few weeks in advance. Those of you who are not so brave to run all the 42 km long track, may try the half marathon in the length of 21 km or mini-marathon in the length of 4.2 km. The marathon includes also companies’ run and 20 km long races for skaters, wheelchair users and handbikers. In addition to the main competition there is a rich cultural program, so the visit is also suitable for non-runners.

You can register for the run during the whole year and the registration fee is €30-€50 (depends on the time of registration). You can do so online on the official website of Košice Peace Marathon (at least a week in advance) or personally – the last opportunity to register is this Saturday.

Organizer offers very cheap accommodation in student hostels or you can use the overnight services of one of the many hotels in Košice.

So if you still don’t have plans for this weekend, then come to the most beautiful city in Slovakia and enjoy unforgettable experiences.

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The thermal water in swimming pools
All pools in the resort are filled with the natural thermal water which rises from a depth of 1611 meters and has beneficial effects. Thermal water is highly mineralized sodium – calcium – magnesium – sulphurous with high iron content. Its composition helps to musculoskeletal disorders, urinary tract and kidneys. Water temperature ranges up to about 58 °C, so it must be cooled.

Thanks to the thermal water, Aquapark Oravice is available 12 months a year regardless on the weather conditions. It covers an area of 1545 square meters and you can find here a great sport – relaxing pool, large and small relaxation pool and cooling pool. The pools are equipped with water attractions such as artificial waves, bubble seats, bubble benches, a geyser, a water mushroom, spouts, massaging jets. Of course there is also a water slide.

Wellness and other services
Aquapark Oravice provide also wellness services, you can use sauna and massage center, as well as restaurants and sports facilities. Aquapark is closely connected with the local ski center, which is built on very good level and is among the most visited ski resorts in the Orava region.

Visiting Aquapark Oravice can be ideal for the hiking nad skiing lovers. I think there is no better option than rest in a hot thermal water after the whole-day mountain trip in summer or skiing in winter. On the other side, swimming in the water while there is a snow all around you could be also very nice experience!

There are also many attractions you can visit nearby, one of them is Orava Castle, which is one of the most beautiful and best preserved castles in Slovakia.

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The village Vyhne offers also great wellness and relaxation services which are available in the Water Paradise Vyhne all year round, regardless of the weather and season.

During the summer season, which lasts from May to September, all the relax and wellness services are available at additional charge, while outside the main summer season they are included in each access to the swimming pool.

Modern Relaxation – Sports Centre offers squash, bowling, indoor-outdoor pool with a relaxing whirlpools – jacuzzi, spa services, solarium, fitness room, 4 saunas – dry, steam, herbal and infra. You can enjoy all kinds of massages here, from classical, through sporty, reflexology, to special, such as honey massage, cupping, ayurveda, hot stones, and others.

Pools are filled with natural thermal water with a temperature ranging from 29 to 36°C.

Water is also chemically treated and controlled to meet all hygiene standards. The result is crystal clear water with an extremely favourable composition of minerals and microbiological hygiene without any contraindications.

Water Paradise Vyhne is opened every day from 09:00 (or from 08:00 during weekends) to 21:00 and the basic whole-day admission is €11.

Find a moment for yourself and your health and come to relax and to eliminate stress from everyday life.

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