Weekend Trip to Bratislava

Having visited Budapest in the past, myself, husband Michael and our close friends Nicola and Rayon decided on a kids free weekend visit to the Slovakian city of Bratislava. When you mention that you are going to Bratislava, most people say ‘where?!’. Bratislava, like Budapest, is sat on the banks of the Danube River. An early Friday morning departure and Monday night return allowed for a great four days stay in this charming city, often overlooked for its nearest rivals Prague and Budapest. The country of Czechoslovakia split in 1993 to form 2 new countries The Czech Republic with its capital Prague and Slovakia with its capital Bratislava – both countries are therefore relatively new and Slovakia operates under the Euro.

The Old City has a vast choice of restaurants, bars, shops and cafés for all tastes and pockets. The evenings had a great ambience with people sitting out to dine and locals enjoying ice-creams, coffee and cake. The city is also host to several micro breweries and we enjoyed drinks and meals at one of these on our last afternoon in the city. With Bratislava being so close to Austria, we were able to take a day trip by local train from Bratislava to Vienna. The cost was €14 per person return and the journey takes roughly an hour. Once in Vienna, the open top bus enabled us to see the main sights of the city within the day before returning to Bratislava for the evening.

Nowadays there is a great emphasis on using local knowledge and people in many destinations and we were pleased to do a local excursion just the four of us with a young lady from the city who took us on a great afternoon walking tour. We sampled a local shot of Borovicka accompanied with brown bread and salt – a traditional Slovak welcome. Following this we experienced 360 degree views of Bratislava from the fortifications of the ‘Michalska Brana’ (Michael’s Gate). Klaudia, our local lady, then led us on to a local pub carefully tucked away down a side street (we’d never have spotted it!) and here we tested the locally brewed ‘Punk’ Beer which was spot on! The tour also took us to St Martins Cathedral, Bratislava Castle and we jumped on the local tram to visit a hidden monument to WW1. After enjoying a picnic with local Slovakian delicacies, it was time to head back to the final pub for another local beer. The ‘funeral’ pub was a popular gathering place for locals on a sunny Sunday afternoon and was a welcome place to wind up the tour.

As Bratislava is on the Danube riverside, it was lovely to take a walk along the banks of the river and see all the river cruise boats leading up to the city with their guests ready to explore another port of call. The riverside seemed to house a more modern section of restaurants, shops and shopping mall, again, a lovely change from the city and great to be able to watch the comings and goings along the riverside with an aperol spritzer!

Overall I’ve found Bratislava to be good value for money, a really interesting place with great people and would definitely return to this quaint, surprising city.