What to do in Bratislavia?

niceirishfella

headed there for a long weekend next month with my partner.

What would be good.........bit of shopping, maybe a nice pamering spa for my lady:), somewhere nice to visit maybe a bit of culture, then in the evening where to dine with some nice food and drink etc?
Overall, whats is like?
Anyone here in the know.

Thanks in adv.

NIF

CantGetNoSleep

One thing to do? Don;t go there

Whats it like? its sh^t

Sorry to be negative but it's honestly the worst city i've ever been to

On the upside its very close to Vienna

RATM

Would tend to agree with above, its not the best city you'll come across. The most famous tourist attraction in Bratislava is a statue of a man crawling out of a manhole. That says it all.

On a more positive note the old town is clean and there are a few good pubs and restaurants around to entertain yourselves. Just dont go there expecting the cultural jewels that you would find in Prague or Budapest. You could go and have dinner one night in the UFO lookalike type restaurant thingy on the bridge, I didnt but as far as I know it revolves so you get a different view throughout the evening.

If you get bored of the old town after one night ( most ppl do except for all the Stag parties who are too hammered to notice ) then hop on a train to Vienna for a day trip. Its only an hour by train and a far more pleasant and interesting city.

AdrianII

some mates went and hated it

rough, un friendly and horrible place to stay

they ended up going to vienna for a few nights, its only a bus away - so go there

Four of a kind

We stopped there on our Euro trip last Nov and have to say it was great craic. There were 11 of us so it did'nt matter where we went. As a city its pretty sh£t tbh. The food and drink is sooooo cheap and thats all we were after.
Nothing to do or see in the city so as a place for a couple to go, I'd not recommend it

Random

Nothing special.. did seem very clean though! Not that I noticed until someone mentioned it just now .. no complaints as we were just on the piss !

kaimera

This or Andorra is what we're trying to decide atm {guys trip, 4 of us}

rmacm

Pox.....back to the drawing board I think. A dude I worked with a while back and had a good time there although he was only over for a weekend break so he probably wasn't looking for a whole lot to do.

niceirishfella

As am I and my partner..........over for a weekend short city break.
A lot of negative posts - maybe due to a alcohol induced view by some?
She booked it, 5 star hotel - all we seek is a break, something different - we're not stagging or henning it..........
will take a trip down to vienna............

will i open a new thread - "What to do in Vienna in 1 day" or can anyone help me out on this too!

Thanks.

P. Breathnach

Herself and I did the mirror-image trip: Bratislava as a day-trip from Vienna. We used the high-speed river ferry, and did not think it worth the price because that stretch of the Danube is not very interesting. The train is far cheaper.

Be not dispirited about Bratislava. The old town is pleasant enough to stroll around; the castle is not spectacular, but is worth looking at; there are some interesting buildings; prices are on the low side -- we still look back on our lunch in a restaurant called Redoute (in the same building as the casino) as a truly good meal in 1970s style at 1970s prices. There are a few tourist-oriented places that seem to have copped on to western European prices, so be alert to that.

I am told that outside the old town Bratislava is a monument to grim communist concrete architecture.

There is a lot to see in Vienna. Your first choice is between fine art (lots of it) and history (lots of it).

raemie21

Hmmm, would agree with other posts here to be honest. Was there for two days three years ago and really not very appealing. There aren't many actual sights in the first place and the city is quite small without much character. Quite run down and lots of construction that time anyway. Sorry!

Also, no alcohol consumed which would affect the experience/review. Drak streets and dodgy characters abound, we were honestly too intimidated to go out there.

Pete4779

niceirishfella wrote: »

headed there for a long weekend next month with my partner.

What would be good.........bit of shopping, maybe a nice pamering spa for my lady:), somewhere nice to visit maybe a bit of culture, then in the evening where to dine with some nice food and drink etc?
Overall, whats is like?
Anyone here in the know.

Thanks in adv.

NIF

In Bratislava you will find plenty of boozing, whores and acres of communist housing blocks as far as the eye can see. However, for shopping, culture and good wining and dining, Vienna is a €60/35-40min cab ride from Bratislava.

grets85

We went to Bratslavia and thought it was a lovely place.

Didn't like Vienna at all. We were interailing and everyone we met interailing didn't like Vienna. There was something really dull to it.

I think you and your partner will have a brill weekend in Bratslavia. It's very relaxing.

Aurora Borealis

I quite liked Bratislava. Nice place to walk around and I found the people very friendly.. well except the train inspectors but hey ya can't have it all. Didn't sample the clubs but am a firm believer you make your own fun for the most part anyway.
You should definitely head over to Vienna too. It's amazing. Architecture, museums, scenery and food and drink of the highest quality. Not to be missed!!

niceirishfella

Wow - 2 positive posts in a row after all the negitave ones!

Thank God for that - i thought we were going to a sh*thole for the weekend...........thanks for perking me up!

simonw

I liked it as well, i was there last summer and thought it felt FAR safer than prague. There's not a huge amount to do really but i thought it was a nice city and more interesting than vienna anyway...who do they think they are not letting me into the opera cos i was wearing shorts and an ireland jersey...:)

I found all the people friendly, especially if you say thank you in slovak after your wild gesticulating.

strange word of warning - thumbs up is how they count 1 on their fingers, not yes/ok like it is here, managed to really annoy some girl in a fast food outlet with that one... we asked for 3 of the set meal thing and kept giving her thumbs up when she understood... oops

niceirishfella

Great! Thanks for that.......i'll keep my thumbs down so!

P. Breathnach

You also need to know that it is rude to indicate two using your index finger and middle finger, no matter which way you face them! That might be particularly important as there are two of you travelling. Use thumb and index finger.

niceirishfella

wow - and what about slipping them the bird!

P. Breathnach

niceirishfella wrote: »

wow - and what about slipping them the bird!

Not my style.

BraziliaNZ

heard Slovakia has AWESOME hookers, if you can escape from the missus for a bit you should get onto it

niceirishfella

Hookerzzzz........nahhhh, no thanks........I'm on a promise for the entire weekend.........plus, i don't fancy my nads turning blue and swelling up the next day! LOL

niceirishfella

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Not my style.

yeah, i know man.....i was just messin' - thanks for the info tho - appreciated.

Nullandvoid

At the last stop on 1 of the tram lines theres a big manmade lake.its a sort of fun park but you can go waterskiing there.its great craic and brilliant value for money.don't be intimidated by the people there.they'll more than likely be excellent but they're very welcoming to beginners.

RDM_83

+1 Bratislava
Doesn't have the most spectacular sites but is a great size for a weekend city break (and because its not got the big must see sites your free to do your own thing). Its nice and easy to get in from the airport too.
The people seem easy going and the old town is actually a nice place to wander around at night (unlike someother "cultural quarters" I can mention) but I'd probably go somewhere else for better value meals, beer is lovely and cheap as chips (try Zlaty Bazant and Corgon) they also have very good Risling (and I'm sure you'd be able to get Hungarian reds in most places).
In terms of shopping the Old Town has lots of wee art shops that seem to be quite good value for cute wee things.


Never been accross the river to the newer side of town (apparently home to a set of apartment blocks with the highest suicide rate in the country
http://travel.spectator.sk/ss2003/04_dysfunctionalism.html
ps this website is fairly good

If you like the place and end up going back I'd recommend Banska Stiavnika
as a place to go if you want to see some history and countryside (going back there in August fingers crossed)

ps up the street from the downtown backpacker youthhostel (near the presidential palace) there's a nice english 2nd hand bookshop and cafe (has a small courtyard out the back)

niceirishfella

Ok, so, We went.......

It was ok to visit, did pay the tourist price in the taxis - ripp off merchants and pig ignorant. The old town is nice, drcent restaurants etc.

Got the train down to Vienna........lovely place, great shopping but not cheap.
Lovely place to go for a weekend tho is Vienna I'd say.....will defo go back to Vienna and give Slovakia a miss.

LOL

Irish Wolfhound

bratisalav is a great place to visit

also worth taking a train journey to the tatra mountains

Its a lovely country and much better than austria

try hostel blues...freindly place to stay and can recommend places to visit