High Tatras
Granite peaks rising straight from the Poprad plain, a glacial lake at 1,350 metres with a restored grand hotel on its bank, and an airport fourteen kilometres away.
- Arrival
- Poprad-Tatry · TAT
- To the lake
- About 14 km from the airport, in a straight line
- Private jets
- Customs at TAT, Euro Jet FBO
- Best time
- July to September
The city
Spa villages under the granite.
The High Tatras carry the highest summit in Slovakia, Gerlachovský štít, at 2,655 metres. Since 1949 the range has been a national park, the country's first, with more than a hundred lakes left by the glaciers. Along its southern foot runs a chain of resort villages built for the aristocracy around 1900: Štrbské Pleso, Starý Smokovec, Tatranská Lomnica.
Their grand hotels have been brought back one by one. At Štrbské Pleso three buildings of 1893, 1906 and 1923, a sanatorium after the war and later a ruin, reopened as a Kempinski; at Lomnica, Gedeon Majunke's hotel of 1894 was restored in 2015 and 2016. In summer the high paths open from mid-June to the end of October; in winter the lifts above the lake take over.
- Štrbské pleso The glacial lake at the western end of the range, the highest resort of the Slovak Tatras, with the peaks reflected in it.
- Kriváň The summit the national park calls the symbol of the country, climbed in the summer trail season.
- Tatranská Lomnica The Art Nouveau village below Lomnický štít, home to the TANAP Museum and two grand hotels.
Arriving
A runway at the foot of the range.
Poprad-Tatry airport lies four kilometres west of Poprad and about fourteen kilometres from Štrbské Pleso as the crow flies, so the mountains are in view from the moment of landing.
- Munich 1 h 10
- Milan 1 h 35
- Riyadh 4 h 55
- Lagos 6 h 45 long-range jet
- Tokyo 11 h 45 long-range jet
When to go
July to September.
Figures are for Poprad in the valley; the resort villages lie higher and stay a few degrees cooler. From July to September the high trails are open and the valley reaches seventeen to twenty degrees, though summer showers are frequent. Winter brings snow and skiing above Štrbské Pleso, while the high paths stay closed from November to mid-June.
- -2° J 33
- 0° F 35
- 5° M 39
- 11° A 57
- 16° M 94
- 19° J 118
- 20° J 98
- 20° A 90
- 17° S 62
- 12° O 51
- 5° N 56
- 0° D 41
Where to stay
Grand hotels from the Belle Époque.
Shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these hotels.
- Grand Hotel Kempinski High Tatras Three historic buildings of 1893 to 1923 joined into ninety-eight rooms and suites at 1,351 metres, with a spa of more than 1,300 square metres.
- Hotel Lomnica Gedeon Majunke's hotel of 1894, restored in 2015 and 2016, with tasting dinners in the vaulted rooms of its Franz Josef restaurant.
- Grandhotel Praha Opened in 1905 as the Palace Hotel and renamed in 1919, an Art Nouveau house of 123 rooms and suites below Lomnický štít.
- Grandhotel Starý Smokovec The first large hotel in the Tatras, opened in 1904, whose guests have included Edvard Beneš, Harold Wilson and Fidel Castro.
- Hotel Patria A hotel named after the 2,203-metre peak above, with rooms and apartments over the lake and the Patria Aqua Paradise pool.
- Grand Hotel Bellevue At 1,010 metres below Slavkovský štít, with a heated pool of twenty by ten metres and the Savarin restaurant.
Where to dine
The best tables in the Tatras.
No MICHELIN Guide covers Slovakia. Tables from Gault&Millau Slovakia (2025 and 2026 editions) and the Falstaff Restaurant Guide Slovakia 2026, shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these restaurants.
- Grand Restaurant Gault&Millau, 3 toques Grand Hotel Kempinski High Tatras
- Gašperov mlyn Gault&Millau, 3 toques Batizovce, about 11 km from Štrbské Pleso
- Sissi Falstaff, 95 points Austro-Hungarian, seasonal Hotel Lomnica, Tatranská Lomnica, about 17 km from Štrbské Pleso
- Restaurant Grandhotel Praha Falstaff, 89 points Grandhotel Praha, Tatranská Lomnica, about 17 km from Štrbské Pleso
Flying to High Tatras?
Choose how you arrive.
A Business or First Class seat on a scheduled airline, or an aircraft of your own. Tell us the date and how many are travelling, and we reply with one final price, our margin included.