The valley
Demänovská dolina is fifteen kilometres long and lies entirely within the Low Tatras National Park. The lower part is limestone, with the caves, and the upper part below Chopok is granite, with the ski slopes. Our house is at the bottom by the river, a short way from the caves.
about 10 min by car · 6 km
Jasná spreads over both faces of Chopok (2,024 m): about 50 kilometres of pistes, 1,000 metres of vertical, twelve freeride zones and snowmaking on most of the mountain. The season runs from late November into April or May. In summer the cable car takes you to the ridge for the walk to Ďumbier, the highest peak of the Low Tatras, and the bike park opens below. From our door it is ten minutes by car or a ride on the ski bus.
about 3 min by car · 1.5 km
The Ice Cave is the closest of the valley's show caves. A deed from 1299 already mentions caves in the valley, and the Ice Cave itself was first described by J. P. Hain in 1672. The permanent ice that gave it its name has melted in recent years; after a cold winter some ice can form again for a while. The tour takes about 45 minutes along 650 metres of walkway, with the temperature just above freezing even in August. Bring a jacket. It is open in the summer season, roughly mid-May to September.
about 6 min by car · 3.7 km
Discovered in 1921 and first opened to visitors in 1924, the Cave of Liberty is part of the longest cave system in the Carpathians, over 40 kilometres surveyed so far. The short tour takes about an hour, the long one an hour and forty minutes. It is a steady 6 to 7 °C inside, all year round. Tours run several times a day, more often in summer; the Slovak Caves Administration publishes the current times. Popular slots sell out, so book ahead in summer.
about 20 min by car · 12 km
Tatralandia, about twenty minutes from the house, is the largest water park in the region, open all year, with thermal pools, slides, a sauna world and a small western town for the children. Bešeňová, about twenty-five minutes away, is more of a thermal spa, with outdoor pools that stay warm even when there is snow all around. Many of our guests ski in the morning and go to warm up in the thermal water in the evening.
about 20 min by car · 14 km
Liptovská Mara, the region's big lake, lies about twenty minutes away, beyond Liptovský Mikuláš. In summer there are beaches, pedalos and sailing boats, and out of season it is still a good place for a long walk by the water. On the shore stands an old church tower, a reminder of the villages the reservoir flooded. The open-air archaeological museum at Havránok sits on the hill above the lake.
In autumn the larches and maples on the valley's limestone slopes turn colour. Four hikes that start in the valley:
In the national park you walk only on marked trails, from an hour after sunrise until an hour before sunset. In autumn the Chopok lifts run on some days only; the timetable is on jasna.sk.
From Chopok (2,024 m) on a clear day the whole Liptov basin lies spread out below you, sometimes hidden under a sea of cloud, as in the photo. Above it runs the ridge of the High Tatras with Kriváň (2,494 m). For Slovaks it is a symbol; it is also on the Slovak 1, 2 and 5 cent coins. From the top station of the cable car the ridge trail runs east to Ďumbier (2,043 m), the highest peak of the Low Tatras, and chamois live on the slopes below the ridge. Bring proper boots and a windproof layer, and set off early.
about 8 min by car · 5.1 km
The limestone towers of Machnatô stand at the mouth of a side valley, five kilometres from us towards Jasná. There are more than a hundred routes, from easy to very hard, a few minutes' walk from the roadside car park. Under the national park's visitor rules it is the one place in the valley where anyone may climb, in daylight. The other crags, such as Siná and Repiská, are for members of climbing clubs; the current rules are on james.sk. LOZILLA in Liptovský Mikuláš runs rock-climbing courses at Machnatô and has an indoor climbing gym.
about 15 min by car · 9 km
Vrbické pleso is a small glacial lake at 1,113 metres, the largest natural one in the Low Tatras and a protected natural monument. It is a flat quarter of an hour on foot from the car park in Jasná and one of the easiest mountain walks in the valley, which makes it a good first outing for families with small children.
about 45 min by car · 51 km
Štrbské pleso is a glacial lake in the High Tatras, next to the village of Štrbské Pleso at 1,346 metres. You can walk around the water or hire a boat in summer, many hikes into the mountains start here, and in winter there is skiing. The drive is along the D1 motorway towards Poprad.
Some photos of the valley are by other photographers, reused under open licences. See the Photo credits.
