Banská Štiavnica
Slovakia
A silver-mining town built down the inside of an old volcano, with two castles, a calvary on the hill opposite, and lakes the miners dug
Photos by 🅐🅛🅔🅝🅐, Tomáš Malík, Martin Katler and Regös Környei on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Slovakia
May to September — the Salamander festival weekend in early autumn fills every room in town
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 80mm in Jun
Where it is
48.45°N, 18.91°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Stay at least one night — it is two hours from anywhere with an airport, and the town is at its best at dusk
- Walk up to the Calvary in the late afternoon for the view back over the roofs
- Go underground at the open-air mining museum, and take a layer — it is cold down there all year
- Swim in a tajch on a hot day, Počúvadlo being the best known
- Book well ahead if your dates touch the Salamander festival
Banská Štiavnica travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Slovakia
Good valueEuro. Cards are taken in the town; carry some cash for the lakeside kiosks and the smaller cafés.
ATMs & cards
A few bank machines in the centre — Slovenská sporiteľňa and VÚB among them. Refuse any offer to convert to your home currency.
Avoid these
- any machine offering to charge you in your home currency
Use these instead
- Slovenská sporiteľňa
- VÚB
There are only a few machines in a small town. Arrive with some cash for the lakes.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Slovakia
Very safeVery safe. The hazards are the gradients: the streets are steep and cobbled, and slippery in the wet and the frost. The lakes are cold and deep and have no lifeguards.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (5 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the steep cobbled streets — worn smooth, and treacherous in rain and frost
- the mining lakes — cold and deep, with no lifeguards
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Slovakia visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Slovakia
Good and affordableRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis for walking in the forests or the mountains from spring to autumn — it is present throughout the country
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment. Mountain rescue in the Tatras is charged for; check your insurance covers it before hiking or skiing.
Tap water is drinkable everywhere. Ticks in forest and meadow from April to October. Altitude and sudden weather on the high Tatra ridges, which go above 2,600m.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
GoodSlovak and hearty — halušky, kapustnica, game in season. In a town this small, book dinner on a summer weekend.
Travel tipsGetting around
Car needed- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- Against a taxi
- Usually cheaper than a street taxi, and the price is fixed before you get in.
Both run in the two biggest cities; Bolt also covers most of the regional towns. In the mountains it is a taxi booked by phone.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Bratislava — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
eSIM
A data eSIM for Slovakia, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:
Works here
Works here
Must-see
Travel tipsNearby day trips
Travel tipsSay a few words
Slovak
- HelloDobrý deňDOB-ree dyen
- PleaseProsímPRO-seem
- Thank youĎakujemDYA-koo-yem
- Yes / NoÁno / NieAH-no / nyeh
5 more phrases
- Excuse mePrepáčtePREH-paach-tyeh
- How much is it?Koľko to stojí?KOL-ko to STO-yee
- CheersNa zdraviena ZDRAH-vyeh
- DeliciousVeľmi chutnéVEL-mee KHOOT-neh
- GoodbyeDovideniaDO-vee-den-ya
Close enough to Czech that the two understand each other without effort, and Slovaks will not thank you for saying they are the same. English is good among the young; Hungarian is spoken along the southern border and German by some older people.
Travel tipsReligion
Roman Catholic, with Lutheran and Greek Catholic minorities
A little over half Catholic and about a quarter with no religion, more observant than its Czech neighbour and more so in the villages and the east. The wooden churches of the east, Catholic, Lutheran and Greek Catholic, are working parishes as well as UNESCO sites: shoulders and knees covered, and quiet during a service.
Travel tipsDo's and don'ts
Do
- Say dobrý deň on entering a shop and dovidenia on leaving
- Take your shoes off at the door of a home; slippers are usually offered
- Say na zdravie and look people in the eye when glasses meet
- Validate a paper ticket the moment you board a tram or bus; inspectors fine on the spot
Don't
- Do not call it Czechoslovakia, or treat Slovak as a dialect of Czech; the split was in 1993 and both sides mind
- Do not mix it up with Slovenia, which happens daily and wears just as thin here
- Do not drink before the toast has been made
- Do not walk the high mountain trails out of season; several close from November to mid-June and the closure is enforced
Where to stay in Banská Štiavnica
No Holistay rentals in Banská Štiavnica yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Banská Štiavnica on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Bratislava BTS
2h 15mfrom the airport· 129 km as the crow flies
About 2h 15 by hire car; the bus or train takes three hours or more with a change.
Also worth pricing: Vienna VIE — far more routes, and two and a half to three hours by road.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
