Slovakia circuit 2019 - bikerswelcomeEN

After a long period of experiencing travelling around Europe, we decided to explore our country on motorcycles. With just a little prayer that it wouldn’t be a total fiasco that just pisses us off because it doesn’t work here, we started to make our plans. First, I opened the map and also the old road atlas.  I looked for the most visually tortuous roads that would meet our expectations for at least the smaller “Slovak” Dolomites. And of course, the point was to avoid all the main roads, which forced us to lay out routes from second and third class roads. Sure, we were expecting potholes, gravel and other messes, but I will write about the pleasant surprise of the individual routes later on. Some information can also be found on Google, but links to moto holidays in Slovakia were mostly private blogs which I did not want to read – and I also wanted to create something completely new.

However, Slovakia is not such a huge country, so some people will surely find out that they already know the routes and that they have them mapped even better.

But I hope that our 3,662 km circuit will attract those who want to set off on an adventure in Slovakia.

If you follow our route, you will definitely find your own adventures and experiences along the way. I wrote ours below. Here in Slovakia, we don’t have mountain passes in the true sense of the word, nevertheless I will talk a lot about nice hills with corners. Since these are our memories (some useful, others for recounting in our old age), if you’re looking for info only about the routes just click on the green links.

We leave on July 6, 2019 at 10:30 am from Bernolákovo with two friends who have joined us for the weekend. First, we catch a refreshing shower right behind the village from sprinklers in a field.

First stop – the Kráľová Dam. A local buffet with hot dogs. And we would have had one! But after five minutes the man discovers that his sausage heater isn’t working, so we are just stuck with our waters. After a while, two more motorcycles park and some guys from the Czech Republic head out for a walk. We were amazed by their courage to leave their helmets on their motorcycles and head out into the open :-). However, upon leaving we found out that Palino had left his keys in the ignition of his motorcycle and unlocked the navigation too. So hats off to this courage/happiness.

Our second stop is the Tri groše restaurant at the Sĺňava Dam (village of Ratnovce). A nice patio, kind staff, good food, the owner also cleared his own table for us so that we did not have to swelter in the sun. Summer is still whizzing by at full heat. 100 metres behind the restaurant is a dam, tents, deck chairs, water sports. A creation as if we were by the sea.

The next stop is Duchonka. All wrong! A nice environment, but the Duchonka Hrádza pub – an unwilling lewd waitress and bad Kofola. We decided not to eat there.

The road from Duchonka is beautiful, narrow, in the woods. Stop No. 4 is Jankov vŕšok. A monument to the partisans, hotel, old army vehicle. The road to Jankov vŕšok is great, such a small Pezinská baba, narrow but beautiful. Heading downwards, we take a shortcut along an almost unpaved road.

We continue on the way from Bojnice to Čičmany, which is beautiful, super tarmac. A lookout tower with tobogganing above the town of Bojnice. Destination: the manor house in Čičmany.

We found some lodging. It is kind of an inn with a restaurant. The rooms are beautiful, trendily furnished, where a modern country style greets you. Unfortunately, the restaurant is open until just seven o’clock, so we go for dinner. The bar has a smaller selection, missing coke and Jim Beam, but the staff is young and kind. However, I have to write a rather bad review for dinner thanks to the fact that all the courses were served at once (later we found out that it is standard in Slovakia to serve a warm dessert right with the main course), but I corrected it in the morning, as this accommodation deserves to be always full. After our dinner we go for a walk down the street, over the bridges and for one who dares, over the stream too :-).

We have 20 km to get to the destination of our accommodation for this day, but the route is 180 km :-). So we start the circuit. We turn left from the hotel. The whole street is full of beautiful wooden houses (called “čičmianske” houses). We continue along the route through the woods which is very nice up to Kľačno.

From Kľačno a beautiful road through the mountain pass, which we named the ”Kľačno pass”.  We take a photo on the side of the road towards the valley. A surface like in Slovakia, but better than in Norway.

Then the beautiful road continues with gentle corners. In one village, a closed crossing and unmarked diversion. We found this one, so nicely off-road, gravel path. The navigation goes a little bit crazy so we turn around and head towards Šturec. It is probably one of the most famous motorcycle routes in Slovakia, but certainly no one should ride around it. A beautiful mountain pass, but unfortunately some sections are of quite a bad surface. We take a rest at the bottom of the hill, in the direction of Banská Bystrica – Čierna Ovca.

We will also go back on the route toward Šturec. A great ride. Down the road is a turn to Čremošné. Such a beautiful, narrow road. We continue. A broken tarmac in following village. I ride up the hump and a few km further I find out that the motorcycle is showing an error – HLU Failure. A little Googling and I find out that my headlamp doesn’t work. It’s Sunday, the fuses are fine. Well, not a problem. It's still day and the motorbike is still running without lights.

Once again a beautiful road from Liešťany in the direction of Čičmany. We buy magnets, because these are the only souvenirs that will squeeze into our motorcycle :-).

Some clouds are approaching, so we get back on and ride the last few kilometres to Salaš Kľak.  Our accommodation is great, we have apartment no. 3 with a balcony.  The staff in the restaurant is willing and kind. We immediately have a welcome shot, steak tartare and of course, potato dumplings with sheep cheese (so called “bryndzáky”) and goulash soup.

The next morning, we call the KTM service in Banská Bystrica. They are only able to look at the motorcycle failure after 1 pm, which does not suit us.  Even though Slovakia is small and you can travel throughout the country in a jiffy, we still didn’t want to upset our plans. So we try KTM Púchov, where they give us a number for their mechanic – Zlatko Novosad – the mechanic of Štefan Svitek.  He’ll take a look at it, so we continue on our route. A beautiful road, but all gravel near Lietava.

From Bytča we take a detour to Nimnice for the service. After 3 hours, it’s clear that the light is broken and it was not just some loose contact. We buy new headlights (batteries) in Tesco in Púchov and have a good coffee in a container at the car park. We call the service in Banská Bystrica (Motoshop Žubor), directly to Rado to ask if he can help us with KTM. He suggests that since he has the same motorcycle in stock, so he could remove the whole light from it and puts it on mine. We should come in the next morning at 8:30.

Even though it is already 4:00 pm, we decide to drive our whole route, so another 200 km more. We found a good passage through Čadca, but I would not want to go from the other side, where there was a traffic jam up to the Czech border. Then a little bit of main road, but then villages. Kysuce is one huge village. A beautiful place in Čadečka – Krčma múzeum (the Museum pub). Before our journey, we said that we would turn for all brown signs, which indicate some monument or tourist attraction. We even try it often, but here we gave up after the first two turns. We made it across the first gravel, although for me this meant going downwards like a Flinstona. On the second gravel path, Miško stops me because what he sees behind the corner is too much. Even the biggest Endurists would have too much to do to claw their way there.

We return to the road and continue to Vychylovka.  There is no entry, arrow checkout (empty), no car park, just a little gravel at the edge and especially no information about opening hours.

So we turn away and set off towards Zázrivá. A beautiful mountain pass and then a few kilometres of beautiful narrow forest road. You can’t go off steam there because it’s two-way, even though it’s about the size of one car, but it’s beautiful. In Dolný Kubín, just before we reach our lodging, we buy baguettes at a petrol station, because we know that the restaurant at the hotel is closed on Sunday and Monday.

We arrive to the Vyšný Kubín manor house - kaštieľ Kubínyi. We are immediately greeted by a man – later we come to know that it is the owner – who pours us welcome drinks. So before lodging we take one shot. We just throw our bags in the room and go for another shot so that we won’t delay the receptionist and the owner. Finally, it ends with the owner and his wife at 1am on the terrace, by the heaters. We drink and talk.  We also have a tour of the manor house, which is beautifully restored. A beautiful evening, great people!

At seven o’clock in the morning we have to go to BB for the service, so we told the owners that we can’t and don’t want to have breakfast. However, freshly baked croissants, juice, coffee and packed home-made baguettes are waiting for us in the morning (by the way, they were delicious, we had them for lunch in Terchová under the monument to Jánošík). So after saying a long goodbye, we set off to BB just after 8:30 am through Donovaly. Service at Motoshop Žubor and coffee with Rado and Miška made this unexpected detour more pleasant for us. I buy thermal underwear (a great help for the upcoming weather) and Miško some spray for his helmet so we can breathe.

The motorcycle is ready and we set off back to the beginning of our route. 12:00 pm from Vyšný Kubín on a route of more than 300 km. We go to see the Jánošík monument in Terchová and we drive there and back to Vrátna dolina.

Then, we continue on and drive once more on the nice forest road from yesterday.

The next direction is Zuberec, and we modify the route a lil bit so that we would get to the hotel by 6:00 pm. The Zuberec road – a beautiful and empty mountain pass.

Then Liptovský Mikuláš and the journey continues to the Tatras.

There is no entry to the Sliezsky dom exit, but we have accommodation there, so we go through the open ramp. At the reception we find out that we need permission in advance, but they will be happy to do it for you for a fee. Well, we are already here and the narrow 7 km road is broken here and there and without tarmac (of course in the most difficult corners), it is both beautiful and slow, because something goes in the opposite direction (mostly tourists on foot). It’s 4 degrees upstairs, so a quick shot :-).

At 6:00 am in the morning I’m going to light up a cig in front of the hotel and there are a lot of people getting ready for their ascent. The snow is falling a little bit, fog, rain, the thermometer shows -3 degrees (even we have waterproof clothes). We set off a little after ten in the rain and I wear all available layers of clothing. After a few metres, it stops raining and we get down without any problems. We cross the Tatras to the east.

We continue towards Červený Kláštor. A beautiful road from Slovenská Ves to Reľov – we call it the “Magurská arterial road“. We stop for a little lunch at the Goralský dvor - Goral restaurant in Červený Kláštor.  Nothing but rafts sailing along.

One village further, in Haligovce, is Goralský dvor. It is also promoted as a motorcycle den. There is a restaurant and a camp.

We have a short stop in the Nestville park in Hniezdne. It’s great here. In front of the entrance is the Nestville chocolate factory, where we have a coffee and some cakes (the poppy-poppy one is really delicious!). We can’t leave without a souvenir in the form of two of their best whiskeys of course. The motorcycle is a remarkable thing in terms of luggage space. Bottles and magnets will always fit.

A great road from Stará Ľubovňa to Mníšek nad Popradom and also from Plavnica towards Šambron. Our excellent route continues somewhat to Spišské Podhradie, i.e. from Nižný Slavkov to Levoča through Repaše. If the weather was better, we would have had a beautiful view of the Tatras over the surrounding hills.

The accommodation is in the Pension St. Martin. Historical but nice. A beautiful garden where we sit and have a good dinner – delicious steaks and whole grain potato dumplings with sheep’s cheese. The waiter told us something more about the local history. After dinner, a short walk around the Spiš Chapter. This route is great, almost without cars, wooden houses, cows, sheep, nice  corners, really beautiful. Pleasant driving.

We leave on a rainy morning. A nice section at the very beginning, but the start is quite broken. Bardejov – only a short stop over the Beatles house. The Baradejovské kúpele spa – a quick walk, buying some wafers, and the sun starts shining. In a few minutes a storm arrives, so quickly to the nearest chalet – Sabaraca. Huge portions, delicious fried pierogies with sour cream, good coffee. It is still raining.

When the rain starts letting up, we set off. Along the way, we find out that Dukla is not so far from Svidník. So we go to see the monument. No car park or signs. We return to the route, but earlier we had seen tanks at the crossroads behind Svidník, so we go to back and take a picture of them.

There we notice a small sign – Death Valley. We pass it all over and take pictures of the tanks scattered on the hills.

A visit to Medzilaborce with a photo in front of the Andy Warhol Museum.

Then in the direction towards Snina, but through side roads. A nice road between Medzilaborce and Snina. We find our accommodation – Hotel Bystrá, just behind Snina near Sninské rybníky (Snina ponds). Great so far. And the main thing is that we made it without any rain all the way from Bardejov. It starts raining after dinner. The whole route was almost without cars. A pleasant ride.

The weather is great in the morning, full of sunshine. We start off. The first section is beautiful, up to Nová Sedlica. That’s the easternmost part of Slovakia. On the way to the village Ulič there is a park with miniatures of Slovak wooden churches.  On the way back in the same village there is a turn to the Brána do Polonín (Gate to Poloniny) with a beautiful pond. Both things are poorly marked for tourists who are passing through and who have not read up on it.

We continue and again find a very nice road. We go to see the quarry with a lake behind the village of Beňatina. From there up to Sobrance – a quick pump, hot dog, and coffee. We run to Morské oko (Sea Eye) behind Sobrance. From the car park it is about a 1 km ascent on the tarmac in the woods, a little uphill. The lake is nice, full of fish, great weather even in photos. Down at the car park we have a lemonade at the buffet.

We continue on our route. A while after Sobrance, a few nice  corners, then it’s without any hills, just flat and very bad road surfaces. In front of the village of Boťany we find a sign on a suspended rope bridge. We turn. At the beginning of the village there is a nice advert for the bridge, so we follow the arrows. At the end of the village, gypsy neighbourhoods and the gravel begins. It’s a sure bet that all the “tanned” children run after motorcycles and yell out. No more signs. We come to a weird stop sign, but we ride on. Due to bad coverage, Google maps cannot load a satellite image to find out where we are. So we continue to the rampart and turn right on it. After about 100 m we find a small exit down and there is a great thing – a suspended rope bridge.

We return to our route in the direction of Čierna nad Tisou. Miško must have a photo with the sign of the village – supposedly the end of the world.

We have accommodation under a wine-growing hill in the village Viničky – at the Zlatá Putňa pension. A delicious dinner (grilled pikeperch and more) and, of course, the Tokaji wine must not be missed. The villages looked extinct throughout the route. It seems that only old people or children live there, who show up during your passage, making you have to step on the gas. Furthermore, only  a dark-skinned population and noisy children. I realised that I would test myself at every brand – tortuous road :-). (I don’t even know what this remark was supposed to mean :-)). However, I also have a note about the zig-zag road sign: a smile on my face and make it as long as possible.

We leave in the morning, it rains. The forecast – storms all day long, but we catch only a few drops at the beginning and in Košice, otherwise it is beautiful weather. The beginning of the journey is a nice section. We refuel in Košice, more specifically in Krásno, at a small petrol station.

Then we set off for the village of Ružín. Beautiful roads, also tortuous in the woods and also a mini mountain pass. Unfortunately, some sections with a bad surface. Even before Ružín, we have found a way to Rokycany, Klenov and then back through Veľká Lodina to Ružín. Near Ružín we take a photo of the dam and turn into the forest. We think the journey will be there and back. There is a nice new tarmac on the way up the road, but then the gravel starts downwards, some places quite good, some places with big stones and roads like a training area for tanks. Fortunately, this is not a sharp descent. It takes approx. 5 km. We take a photo down by the water and we also meet a car which certainly didn’t come from our direction, giving us hope that we don’t have to go back the way we came and that the road will take us somewhere. The transit is an old tunnel (the old Bujanovský tunel), which is open. Great.

Behind the tunnel we stay by the water, where you can camp and there is also a buffet.

We continue from Margecany to Košice. 2 beautiful lanes – Folkmar and Jahodná. On the Jahodná mountain pass down to Košice and back from Košice, road workers made deceleration lanes before the corners, which really scrambles the motorcycle.

From Košice towards Zlatá Idka, Rudník, Jasov, Moldava nad Bodvou and Mokrance. After Košice towards Rudník, a nice mini mountain pass, but unfortunately a completely broken road. So into the footrests and in the enduro style.

An evening at home with my parents in Mokrance, without rain and storms. There were very few cars on the way, but no opportunity for coffee or lunch until Margecany.

Since we have accommodation at my mum’s place, some home-made food diversified our trip. We leave in the morning without waterproof clothes. A black cloud in front of us, but we are still dry.  A nice road from Jasov to Smolník. We turn towards Uhorná just to see the dam approx. 5 km away.

We continue to Spišská Nová Ves. A nice road through the woods. From Spišská we ride to Poráč. Such a beautiful mountain pass. A gypsy ghetto in front of it. Up in the village of Poráč we continue to the ski park Poráč Park for some lunch. A centre with sports fields, a swimming pool, accommodation, hiking trails through the mining tunnels. Even Endurists roam the forest. It is a beautiful environment in the hills. On the way back we take photos of the ghetto on the hill in the village of Rudňany.

Onwards, our route leads from Spišská Nová Ves to Hnilec. From Hnilčík to Hnilec is a nice mountain pass, but pretty broken. From Hnilec another beautiful mountain pass to Gemerská Poloma.

At Rožňava, we go around Soroška (which we know anyway, but for those who don’t, it is worth driving there) through Silica. Our first stop is the Gombasecká jaskyňa cave, then from Silice a beautiful mountain pass to the plateau – the beginning by the pond. Cows graze on the top.

Down through Silická Jablonica, a bit of the main road, then through Žarnov, Péder, and Budulov to Mokranice.

In front of the collective we turn into the field and look for “Kačató”, a local pond, where we used to go skating in winter when we were children. In vain. It’s overgrown. We come home, wash motorcycles, and enjoy a home-cooked dinner. Although it looked like a path around the chimney, it was an amazing route full of discovering the surroundings and unfamiliar roads.

We leave in nice weather and it stays like this all day. Right behind Mokrance we find out that Miško has an open case, so we stop by the kerb. It occurs to us that we forgot to lock the house, so we go back.

Then, we continue on and turn towards Hačava. There’s a way back and forth, and we stop for a while at the Hájské vodopády waterfalls. We pass Soroška. A detour of the main road up to Rožňava.

There is a beautiful road behind Rožňava from Štítnik to Jelšava. It continues beyond Jelšava. Although the turn to Teplý Vrch (there and back) is great, it is terribly in disrepair and especially due once more to the road speciality – repairing all the holes by gravelling them. But it is worth it, mainly due to the turn to the Španie pole valley.

Another direction – Hnúšťa, Kokava nad Rimavicou (to an inn called Hostinec u Tani), Čierny Balog, Brezno, Tisovec, and Predná Hora.

In front of Tisovec is the salaš Zbojská - Zbojská chalet, where we stop for something to eat, but the best two specialities of the region (cabbage soup and cabbage dumplings) are sold out. Predná Hora – a narrow gravel road (supposed to be repaired soon), but wonderful views.

We have our accommodation in the Predná Hora apartments. It’s great, the owner/manager is willing to chat, so you can learn a lot from him about the surroundings. The food in the restaurant and the service in the Predná Hora holiday resort are terrible, but maybe it was caused by a power failure and the resulting stress. We will see tomorrow. We’re here two nights. The journey was full of nice  corners, which forced me to change my attitude: until now it was don't surprise me corner, but from today – it maaay surprise me :-)

Breakfast is half-empty, they are slowly adding more and more, but obviously the staff is missing.  When leaving, we help a car which had jumped over the kerb and gotten stuck. The family is very nice, and we learn that their little son was bitten by a ground squirrel early in the morning in the meadow.  So at least we know where we’ll go – a photo with us feeding the ground squirrels. You will not find any sign for this attraction, but there are plenty of visitors, even street vendors with their own stalls.

We continue on to the route towards the rock called Červená Skala. A nice journey, but quite broken roads again. Then along the main road to Heľpa. The road is off sorts, and there’s nothing in Heľpa. Then, before Brezno, we head to Mýto pod Ďumbierom (it’s called Studený vŕšok), to visit the hill we rode on lots of years ago, when I tried my first Canam Spyder.

Next stop: Čertovica. Below it we stop for a lunch in the Chata Jarabatá cottage. Super home-made food. We also meet a couple of Czech bikers and draw their attention to the radar in the village. Čertovica is a nice mountain pass, but not demanding.

Next, we turn in front of the motorway towards the side road towards Važec, Štrba. A narrow path across the field and a smashing view of the High Tatras. Behind Liptovská Teplička, a mini mountain pass where we find ourselves standing in backwards-flowing water and taking photos. Right behind it is the spring of the Hron River. It’s a hard ascent, so we don’t go there (during a motorcycle holiday it is difficult to get down and get rid of the handlebars :-)).

We continue to Vernár. The roads are completely broken.

Turn to Dobšiná. We enjoy the mountain pass, but it is not difficult at all.

In Dobšina we turn towards Dedinky for a coffee and pancakes – at the Zuzana pension. Then we return and continue toward Telgárt, through Ranč in Stratená (cowboy-like accommodation), Muráň and the diversion at Predná Hora.

We drive to Muráň for some steamed sweet dumplings, but they are only open until 4:00 pm, so we don’t manage to have any. There is electricity in Predná Hora today, so everything is ok :-).  Good rock songs play on the pub’s terrace.  The route is full of mountain passes, suddenly it doesn’t matter how many corners it had :-)

Some beautiful weather, sunshine, not yet completely hot. Breakfast in much better conditions than yesterday. We buy a bottle of Predná Hora beer with the taste of thyme. We set off and head straight to Muráň square waiting for their famous pastry.  A small bakery and fantastic, fresh pastry with various fillings. When we leave, there already is a long queue of people in front of the store.

The road to Brezno through Zbojská and the mountain pass is very nice. Further onwards to Hriňová. A beautiful road, unfortunately without a shoulder to enjoy the view and take photos. Also, the Hriňová reservoir is visible only behind the trees, and there is no place to turn off. We stand on the side of the road and savour the pastry.

From Hriňová we ride to Detva and we enter it from the side of Stará Detva. A narrow road through the “lazy” (secluded settlements). We get to Detva and meet up with Mrs Kucbelová from the company Parta, where we get some Slovak folk costumes tailored. The boss is very nice and willing to deal with everything. It is definitely worth stopping and buying a small Slovak souvenir here.

We leave at half past two towards Kriváň and then we turn to Stará Huta. After this, we take the road towards Lešť. Beautiful, surrounded by woods. But after about 8 km, suddenly out of nowhere, with no warning sign: Ministry of Defence. We have to go back all the way and drive a few tens of kilometres backwards. (Why wasn’t it posted earlier ?!).

We force our way through Zvolen and immediately after it towards Sebedín in direction of Banská Bystrica. A beautiful mountain pass.

After Banská Bystrica, towards Donovaly and Šturec, we pop out to Špania dolina – a super narrow, tortuous road through the forest with new tarmac. The Mining Astronomical Clock (opens every hour), partisan roads, and some hiking.

We continue to Šturec and turn off right behind it. Another road where there is a ramp with no entrance sign. But it is open, so we go. We enter Kremnica via this shortcut. In front of Kremnica there is a beautiful mountain pass, but as usual with a broken surface and moreover, trucks on it.

We leave again in beautiful weather. Even before the route we run up Skalka. A beautiful zig-zag road through the forest, new tarmac. Telecommunication tower, ski resort at the top.

We continue along the route. Right at the beginning of the R1, it’s a super tortuous, fast road. Further towards Banská Štiavnica. A nice winding road, too. In the direction to Žibritov it is great.

An unexpected turn along the route in the village of Bzovik towards a brown sign – the Bzovik manor house where all the reconstruction is finished. After arriving, we find out that it is still not finished, obviously the unemployed from the area are still working on it. We eat pastries from Muráň under the tree and continue.

We turn to the Modrý Kameň castle and we go see the exposition in the Museum of Puppet Culture and Toys. A nice cultural experience. There’s a small cake shop in the courtyard.

We continue along a beautiful path from the turn to Badaň, Beluj, Počúvadlo.

We can’t miss the turn to Kopanice, but the road in the forest road is broken to pieces. At the end in Kopanice-Domky is a small lake and a nice buffet.

A beautiful road through Hodruša Hámre. We return and arrive at the Daro hotel in Hodruša Hámre. The hotel is great, especially the staff, dinner and selection in the bar, although it is actually located in the middle of the estate.

Whoosh, just make it back home. A visit to Banská Štiavnica is a must.