Despite using the euro, Slovakia is a good enough value that it’s taking another country’s place for the Europe section of the next edition of The World’s Cheapest Destinations.

I used to think that the Czech Republic and Slovakia split up after the fall of the Soviet Union because of big national pride issues. In reality, it was mostly the politicians that wanted the split. People I’ve met on both sides of the line say had it been put to a referendum, the split would have failed miserably. The citizens of the two countries still think of themselves as one, but this way there were double the number of jobs for the people in power.

Unfortunately for Slovakia, much of the big business money and tourism stayed on the Czech side. There was already more industry there as the Slovak side was more agricultural. And the Czechs had Prague, which was 10 times more interesting to visit than Bratislava. So Slovakia is like the plain sister who is constantly overshadowed by her flashy older one.

Typical wine prices in euros: 2.5 to 6.5

The good news for you is, that makes it a better value for travelers overall. Bratislava has somewhat higher restaurant costs because of it being a river cruise stop and part of some coach tours, but it’s still far less expensive than Prague. The real values are in the lesser-visited but more interesting eastern part of the country, anchored by the beautiful small city of Kosice, pictured at the top. The whole main drag is pedestrian-only all day every day and it’s filled with cafes and restaurants with a view of the opera house and cathedral. From here you can get to dozens of interesting places, including the High Tatras Mountains, in 1-3 hours. Castles, great manor houses, caverns, monasteries, wineries, national parks with good hiking, skiing, rafting, cycling, and lots more.

Everything is priced in euros, but I’m doing the math for my fellow yanks to put it in dollars, at the current rate of 1 euro = $1.30.

Accommodation in Slovakia
Not many backpackers make it here—heck not many travelers from the west period do—so outside of the capital there’s not the bustling backpacker infrastructure you find in the northern Czech Republic or Budapest with dozens of hostels to choose from and day trip tours going out regularly. So lodging tends to be a better deal for mid-range travelers than shoestring ones as almost nothing is over $100 per night. It’s far easier if you’re a couple and not a single as hostels are rare. Camping is easy and cheap though and around the hiking areas you can rent a simple mountain hut for two for under 10 euros/$13.

Camping at Slovakian Paradise national park – $8 one person with tent, $12 two.
Mountain hut here or in High Tatras mountains – $6-$10 per person
Hostel bed in Bratislava – $17 – $25 per person
2- to 4-star hotel or pension – $26 – $70 double, usually incl. breakfast
Apartment for four with kitchen – $69 to $90
Best hotel in Kosice – often $120 standard double (Doubletree by Hilton)

Typical pension prices in Kosice

Food and Drink Prices in Slovakia

This is where the real bargains are. You can eat well and drink well (the wine and beer are both excellent) for a fraction of western Europe prices. This is one of those countries where a soda can cost more than a beer or wine, as can coffee. You can drink the tap water though.
Set meal 3-course lunch $3 to $8
Soups – $1 to $2.50
Main dishes – $1.50 to $6
500ml beer in a bar – $1 (happy hour) to $2.50 (nice place), average in the middle
500ml beer in a store – $0.60 to $1
Good bottle of wine in bar/restaurant – $6 to $12
Good bottle of wine in a store – majority $3.50 to $8, premium $8 to $20
Glass of house wine in a bar/restaurant – $1 to $2.60
Shot of local fruit brandy – $0.60 to $1.60
500ml of local honey – $5 to $7
Kilo (2.2 pounds) of seasonal produce – $0.75 to $2
Local cheese 100 grams – $0.40 to $2
Rolls and baguettes – $0.20 to $0.90

Transportation

There’s not enough demand here for any kind of tourist shuttle system, so bring a phrase book and a map or guidebook to figure out where you’re going. Trains cover most of where you’d want to go, but sometimes you’ll need a bus.
Long train ride (Bratislava to Kosice) – $24 2nd class, $35 1st class, 1/2 price for students
Short train ride (Kosice to High Tatras hiking point) – $8 2nd class, $12 first class
City bus ticket – $0.60 to $1
Short Intercity bus ticket – $2.25 for 40 kms
Long Intercity bus ticket – $22 for 400 kms
Taxi ride – $0.80 to $1.30 per km, Bratislava center to airport $14 to $18

What I got for 2 euros at the supermarket

Other costs in Slovakia

Some attraction places hit you with an extra charge for using your camera, so either leave it in a locker or be stealthy with a phone.
Admission to castles, manors, and castles – $2.60 to $6.50
Admission to monasteries & churches – free to $3.90
This boat trip on the border with Poland – $13
Bike rental in same town – $6.20 half day
One-day ski pass – $17 to $36

For some reason this Euro26 card seems to be more commonly known here than the ISIC card, but either should get you a discount of 50% off most attractions and trains if you’re a student.

I’m making my way through the cheaper countries of Europe right now, finding good values all over compared to their neighbors to the west. Next stop, Romania. 

I spent most of my time in Transylvania, which I’ll discuss without mentioning any mythical creatures of the night. This is the area where most travelers gravitate to if they’ve got some time, which they rightfully should. It’s a gorgeous area with well-preserved buildings from the medieval times through Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and more, with a strong Saxon/German influence.

The photo at the very top and the one to the right are from where I arrived on an overnight train headed east: Sighisoara. How can you even say that name without smiling? Yeah, it’s a tourist trap town, but a deserving one. Plus once half the tour buses pull out at the end of the day, it’s a lovely place to hang out and absorb the feeling of living in history.

It costs about $3 to tour the citadel, a couple dollars more for a taxi to the center from the train station, and there are hostels with beds for $10-$12. There’s also a campground outside of town with lots of facilities.

The next shot is from Sibiu, which is not as photogenic or hilly, but feels more like a real city than an open-air museum. There’s a long pedestrian-only street filled with bars, shops, and restaurants and it’s a lively scene at night. This was a European Capital of Culture a few years back. You can sit down and get a half-liter beer for a dollar and you can get 3 covrigs (simits in Turkey) for another dollar, so what’s not to like?

It’s not all about the buildings though. With high mountains in many directions, the scenery alone is often worth stopping for. This is the view from a monastery I visited. If you’ve gotta be a monk, seeing this every day would make it a bit easier. (You can spend the night there for about $16 double.)

I always ask myself when traveling to different places, could I live here? I didn’t really feel a yes anywhere in Romania until I got to Brasov. It’s near multiple ski slopes, it’s an easy train ride to the capital, and has another one of those long pedestrian streets full of fun places to eat and drink. And it’s got mountains right next to it. That’s a pic from a nice spring day above.

More later on prices, a real article later in Perceptive Travel, but for now some images to ponder from Romania. As with Slovakia, this is definitely a destination worth visiting, budget reasons or not. But if you are on a budget, this place is a great value.

When I told people my first stop in Eastern Europe was Slovakia, I usually got a blank stare. Or a question meant to gain understanding of what exactly was there. Why travel to…where were you going again?

Older people know it as the latter half of Czechoslovakia. As in the order of the words, it’s to the east of Prague. I’ve been basing myself in Košice (photo at the top), which has one of the most attractive city centers you could wish for in Europe. Pedestrian-only and almost no tour groups in site. Most tourists you do see are Czech, Polish, or Hungarian.

And you find castles like this all over the Kosice region.

Plus there are some great parks and protected areas where you can take in nature through hikes, cavern exploration, or boat rides.

As for prices, which I’m checking out for a book update, it’s a mixed bag. Overall, Slovakia is significantly cheaper than the U.S., which you can’t say for anywhere in Western Europe right now. The best deals are on what you consume: restaurant food, wine, and beer especially. This is a country where you can still get a big lunch and a glass or two of wine or a beer for less than US$10.

You’ll seldom pay more than 6 euros for admission to anything and usually it’s more like 2. Transportation is reasonable, but not all that well set up for English speakers. There’s not much of a backpacker infrastructure, so this is a country where I would definitely advise carrying a guidebook—and a phrase book.

I’m getting ready to hop on a plane to Eastern Europe, where I’ll soon be reporting on cheap travel in four countries there. I’ll be doing some stories for Perceptive Travel and writing chapters for the next edition of The World’s Cheapest Destinations.

Meanwhile, here’s what this blog’s readers have been checking out the most over the past month:

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9) Good & Bad Travel Gear Trends for 2012

8) Travel Safety in Perspective – USA vs. Mexico

7) Quit Your Job, See the World

6) Updates on the Cheapest Places to Travel, 2012

5) How Many Countries Have You Been to? (Spoiler alert—I don’t care.)

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2) 6 Places to Live for Super-cheap

1) The Cheapest Places to Live in the World – 2011

I’ll be doing a 2012 version of that last one in June. Stay tuned by signing up for the RSS feed (top right) or following me on Twitter (@timleffel).

I’ve started work on updating The World’s Cheapest Destinations, with the 4th edition coming out in December. Meanwhile, here are a few updates in terms of which countries are cheaper, about the same, or more expensive since the 3rd edition came out in 2009. This is for those traveling with U.S. dollars. If your currency is up or down in a big way against the dollar, keep that in mind. For Canadians or Australians, for example, everywhere is cheaper than it was three or four years ago.

(Slightly) Cheaper Destinations

Unfortunately, this is a rather short list. There may be a recession in the developed world, but most of the cheap (as in developing) countries are going gangbusters in terms of growth. Vietnam’s leaders are freaking out, for example, because their GDP growth may be only 6% this year. If we had half that number in the U.S. then Obama would get re-elected in a landslide. Add more traveling Chinese, Russians, Indians, Brazilians, Turks, Middle Easterners, and others to the mix and the demand for international travel is growing around the world.

Eastern Europe – a mixed bag, but a slight fall in the euro often translates to a big fall in currencies that haven’t converted, as in the Czech Republic and Hungary. Now’s a good time to go.
India – with the dollar at around 50 rupees, budget travelers are getting a lot for their money here. At the middle and high end though, forget it.
Indonesia – Outside of Bali, where a crush of tourists has led to increased prices across the board, a more favorable exchange rate is keeping prices in check.
Mexico – For the moment, this “honorable mention” country is actually a tad cheaper than it was in 2009 because of exchange rate changes. You need to leave the resort areas though and go inland.

Quito, Ecuador

About the same

Someone getting off a plane now won’t notice a big difference from someone who did so three years ago in these places.
Ecuador, Panama, Belize – the first is one of the world’s cheapest, the latter two not. But all use the U.S. dollar, so no real changes.
Bolivia, Nicaragua and Honduras – the predicted surge in tourists never seems to happen, so things keep chugging along as before, with incremental changes.
Guatemala – Crime issues, a weak tourism board, and strong ties to the U.S. economy have meant no upticks here. Prices are stable.
Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam – You’ll find increased prices in pockets here and there where tourists congregate, but overall it’s not dramatic and they’re still a terrific value.
Jordan – Things keep getting better for Jordan, but it’s the best house in a bad neighborhood. So apart from the ridiculously high price to enter Petra, it remains a good deal.

Chivay, Colca Canyon, Peru

More expensive

These destinations will hit your wallet much harder than before. This is usually due to a stronger local currency, an improving local economy, an increase in tourists, or all of the above.

Turkey – I’m taking this country out of the next edition. It’s now one of the world’s most popular tourist spots and is priced accordingly. Now a huge cruise ship destination too, which never helps.
Thailand – This is the one I get the most angry e-mails about. Sorry kids, but the baht was in the high 30′s when I researched the last edition. Now it’s at 30. The country has weathered multiple crises that would have sunk almost anyone else and is more popular than ever. Growth has been frenetic and the locals have more money to spend.
Argentina – It’s not that their currency is doing well or that their economy would be cranking it it weren’t held together by central government duct tape and magic tricks, but inflation is very bad, so the prices keep rising, especially for anything imported. Beef and local wine are still a great deal…
Peru – Take a resource-based economy witnessing record-high commodity prices and combine that with a bucket list bucket of moneyed tourists and you get…rising prices all around. It’s still a deal off the main corridor, but “doing Machu Picchu” is going to bust the budget no matter how you work it out.
Morocco – Though still probably the best value in Africa for those on a $100 or $200 a day vacation budget, prices have gone up as they have aligned with the euro. With Spain in the crapper though economically and the rest of Europe ailing, the situation here could improve as time goes on.

Also on the “who knows” front is Egypt, which is still a big question mark. Africa’s other great value could implode or it could return to tourism as normal. We shall see.