Slovakia

Slovakia has retained more of its traditional charm since splitting from the Czech Republic than its former neighbour or others in the region. How long this will last, who knows. But for the moment at least, skiing and snowboarding in Slovakia is still a unique experience. Go now, before the cloning starts.

Slovakia is generally quite lumpy and gets a fair bit of snow during the winter months, so ski resorts tend to crop up all over the place. Indeed it's said you never have to go more than about half an hour from anywhere in the country to find some kind of lift or T-bar.

That being all well and good, if you're making the effort to go to Slovakia, you probably want more of a concrete plan than driving around randomly looking for a useful patch of slide. Only the largest ski resorts in Slovakia can guarantee snow-making and these are all found in the north, in the Tatra Mountains.

The Tatras are split into the Low and High Tatras and are home to the ski resorts of Jasna, Strbske Pleso, Donovaly, Vel'ka Raca and Tatranska Lomnica.

Jasna's pretty well set up with a good smattering of red runs and a couple of blacks, an impressive vertical of around 1,000 metres (3,280 feet), night skiing and a snowboard park. Strbske Pleso only really has the one run but has some of the best off-piste in Slovakia.

Like other ski resorts in Eastern Europe, you'll find the slopes here can get mobbed at the weekends. This, combined with less than state-of-the-art lift systems means you might find yourself waiting in line a little longer than expected. But what resort doesn't have some sort of queue these days?

Cost

Skiing and snowboarding in Slovakia is still a bargain, compared with western European resorts. A week's adult lift pass is about $180, while a pint of beer is about $1.

The larger ski resorts in Slovakia all have on-mountain accommodation (a room in Jasna's four star Hotel Grand Jasna Demanovska Dolina starts at around $60). If you like your après ski lively, you might prefer to base yourself in a nearby town or city like Lipovsky Mikulas or Stary Smokovec.

Getting here

Your best bet for getting to the Tatras is to fly to the capital Bratislava. You're faced with a three hour transfer once you land, which is niggling but by no means uncommon in Europe.