I'm kind of surprised that no-one ever asks questions about Slovakia here in the Europe forum. I just finished making my third trip to Slovakia, and I really like this country.

In the far West, it's kind of flat and boring, and the capitol city, Bratislava, is a bit depressing - mostly 1960s Eastern bloc Brutalist architecture. But, as soon as you start to move east, the country gets really interesting. There are lots of nice twisty roads everywhere, fascinating people, historical sites, unique architecture, and good food. The further east you get, the less expensive (and more interesting) the country gets.

One thing I did notice about towns and cities in Slovakia is that they are very much 'inward-focused'. In other words, you might drive by a town on the highway, look at it from the outside, and think "Gee, that looks like a really dull, uninteresting town." But, if you get off the highway and ride right into the middle of the town, chances are that it will have a large, quite interesting, and nicely restored central square. This means that rides through Slovakia tend to be quite 'pokey' - lots of getting on and off the bike, lots of drinking coffee and walking around town squares, stuff like that. It's kind of a nice break from places like France and Germany, where you can usually drive through the town centers on a roadway.

Anyway - if anyone is thinking about visiting Slovakia, by all means go and do it. I can't think of any negatives at all about the country (other than Bratislava not being very interesting), and it has all the other required ingredients for a nice holiday - it's inexpensive, interesting, and full of nice people. The country is well covered by the most recent release of the 'City Navigator Europe' cartography for Garmin GPSRs, so, no worries about getting lost.

Go for it.

Michael