Bratislava - an ideal weekend break

The old town is a lovely place to wander round and admire, and is pretty tourist-free when compared with Prague, even in the summer. A lot of the centre is restricted access for vehicles, so it's easy to wander in a romantic daze without getting squashed by a bus. In the summer, I enjoyed the wandering, but the second time I went, in winter, the snowy silence of the charming area felt utterly magical.

The castle at Devin is very interesting. At the boarder of three countries, you can stand in the castle and see all of them at once. The castle is also interesting in itself.

St. Martin Cathedral, which dates from the 15th century, is well worth a look.

Quick Tips:

Consider hiring a car and driving out into the countryside for a day or two. Be warned though, when you're driving in and around Bratislava, it's easy to end up in Austria if you aren't careful! I was last there in the winter, and we ended up just driving around the countryside one day - and I think it was the best day of the trip. We ended up chasing snow flurries in the car, and drove towards the mountains in the north, the roads getting smaller, more deserted, and colder by the mile.

Best Way To Get Around:

Round the city itself, you can walk, take the excellent buses and trams, and there's no need for a car. Taxis are easily available and not expensive, and the risk of being ripped off is much less than in Prague. It's easy and inexpensive to get a cab to Castle Devin, for example.

It's an expensive place, this, and has everything you'd expect from a pricey hotel. The rooms are elegant, well decorated and equipped (satellite TV if you're missing home) and breakfast is included (and a nice, buffet one at that). The hotel's also at a convenient location, just south of the Old Town and on the river, so the views are pretty good and you can walk around easily. The hotel can arrange good, not too pricey car hire, and there is a secure car park next door to park in overnight. If you want to spend a bit of money, this is a good place to do it and enjoy the comfort. The place isn't exactly brimming with atmosphere, but it's a good place to stay, and the staff speaks English, so there's a lot to recommend it.

Going there in February 2000, we were the only visitors. If you go in the winter, be prepared to devote 10 minutes to finding the cashier, who won't be ready for tourists turning up! After you’ve found him and paid about £1 for the two of you, enter the castle grounds, follow the path upwards to the castle itself. On the way, there are the remains of a Roman castle on this spot, and boards explaining how the castle looked at the time, based on the foundations and descriptions of it found. The present construction was started over a thousand years ago, and has been added to and altered for pretty much its whole life, so it's a real mixture of styles and buildings. During the cold war, the castle was still in use, marking as it did the boundary between the Warsaw Pact countries and the West (in the presence of Austria). 20 years ago, a westerner couldn't have got within miles of this place, as it was bristling with barbed wire and machine gun posts. It's hard to imagine it now, as the spot is so peaceful, but the odd rusting coil of wire and machine-gun plinth serve as a pointed reminder.

The castle itself is remarkably well-preserved, and very interesting. There is a visitor centre inside, but it was shut when we went there in the winter, and still being built when I went there in 1996, so I can’t comment on what’s its like, other than the fact that its open from April to October. If you climb to the highest point in the castle, you can overlook three countries at once. The Danube and Morava rivers meet at this point, and the rivers mark the boarders between Bratislava, Hungary, and Austria. The castle is well worth a trip, and the feeling of standing at the meeting point of 3 countries is very odd indeed!

I've been here twice, once by bus from the SNP bridge, once when we hired a car and drove there. The castle is about 15 minutes trip from Bratislava central, west of the city. You could easily get here by cab, and it wouldn't be that expensive. If you wanted to go back to Bratislava by cab, you'd need to get yours to wait, as there doesn't seem to be a cab in the local (small) village.

If you're travelling on a budget, and want to see something of Western Europe from the safe cheapness of the east, stay in Bratislava, and go to Vienna for a day. When I was first in Bratislava, with a group of friends, this is exactly what we did. We'd all just finished a year of teaching in Poland and the Czech Rep, and we were all feeling a bit short of the readies. We stayed in Bratislava for 6 days, and on 2 of those went to Vienna for the day. It's easy, and cheap, as the two cities are really close together, and linked by a good train line. If you're really feeling broke, you can buy food in Slovakia and take it with you, and hardly spend a penny while in one of the most wonerful cities in the world! There's also a sneaky feeling that going on a day trip to another country two days in a row is pretty good fun (-: