Slovakia: Day 8 - Hike from Zamkovskeho chata (1475m) to Hotel Sliezsky Dom (1670m)

Here is a summary of what is spent on Day 8.

5/8 Day 8: Hike from Zamkovskeho chata (1475m) to Hotel Sliezsky Dom (1670m). Left at 8.50am, reached Hriebenok at 10.15am, and finally arrived at the hotel at 2.30pm.

Accommodation

1 room in Hotel Sliezsky Dom (from website) - Shared room with breakfast EUR787 for 3 persons for 3 nights, EUR262 per person. Tourist tax EUR3,50 per person. This place is EUR162 more than Zamko chata, our previous accommodation. Yeah, it is expensive. 

Food
(1) Drink at Hriebenok restaurant - Radler 500ml EUR4,20, ice-cream one scoop EUR2,50
(2) Dinner at Hotel Sliezsky Dom - Fried pork chop EUR13,90, blueberry cheesecake EUR6,90, radler 400ml EUR4

The Story

05082026: Today, we check out from Zamko chata and the hike continues to Hotel Sliezsky Dom where we will stay for the next 3 nights. Today's breakfast is omelette with the usual extras - sweet bread, yoghurt, tuna salad and the giant mug of tea.

To get to Hotel Sliezsky Dom, we have to get back down to Hriebenok first. It was a downhill hike so it was relatively less tiring. We reached the stream within 50 minutes.

The stop by the stream is called 'Rázcestie pod Húpačkami' (1285m) which translates to English as "Crossroads below the Swings."

We decided to visit the small mountain hut, Rainerova utulna (1301m), which is 5 minutes walk from the stream. It is a very small cabin and there is no accommodation inside. Just a place to buy drink and snacks. I could not even see the toilet. The owner has many bells and skis hanging on the walls.

The stop at Rainerova utulna (cabin) is called Starolesnianska Polana (1285m). I thought it would have been the cabin's name. Looks like the small cabin is located slightly higher than the sign. 

The walk continues to Hriebenok and took a break. It was very hot and we had ice-cream plus drinks. At Hriebenok, there are signs for Rainerova and Zamkovskeho mountain huts. 

Bear sculpture in Hriebenok. Funny to see both the back and front side.

The hike continues from Hriebenok. My travel companions downloaded the OsmAnd application and saw that it is 5,95km to Hotel Sliezsky Dom. It does not seem very far but it was very tiring due to the heat and the scattered rocks and stones. There is a 426m uphill hike and it was not easy. The app predicts that the hike will take 3 hours 45 minutes and it took me 3 hours 17 minutes. Not bad, I guess. At least more realistic than the hiking signs. 

Uphill climb begins here. It just keeps going up and up and up. Very hot and there was minimal shade. 

Looks like we are reaching the flat trail soon. But the flat trail is not an easy trail either. Rocks and some boulders. 

I took photos to get a break. Lucky us for the clear skies despite the heat.

We could not resist plucking blueberries along the way. There are so much blueberry bushes along the trail. Big berries too. 

Soon, we caught sight of the hotel. Finally. My legs were giving up on me. Energy depleted at the last 1km and there are a lot of rocks. I thought it will be a clear trail as we reached the destination. 

YES! Arrived. Finally. Extremely exhausted. 

The hotel. Checked in. Each room has 1 hour free spa per day. The hotel offers transport to the train station, Tatranska Polianka. I thought we can take the transport during our stay but it is not free unless it is check-in and check-out days. It costs EUR5 for each time. We booked the spa for 6pm.

The room does not have any fan or air-conditioning and it is not needed with the windows opened. 

Facilities to rent a power bank to charge your phone. There are many hikers who pass by the hotel and it is great that one can charge their phones. 

Time for dinner before our spa.

There are two options for dinner - either buffet or choosing from the menu. Buffet starts from 6pm and costs EUR28. I am not a fan of buffet. So, we took from the menu as we arrived before 6pm. There is another restaurant outside the hotel for those looking for a budget meal. We ate there for the next two dinners. 

My radler 400mlis not even close to 400ml. I felt cheated. 

I took fried pork chop because it was one of the affordable ones.

Blueberry cheesecake. The blueberries were not Slovakian blueberries, at least not the ones we plucked along the hike. These are American blueberries as the flesh is white. So weird that they use American blueberries when there is an abundance of local blueberries for free. 

After dinner, we collected our bathrobes (provided by the hotel) and went for our spa. There is a jacuzzi, dry sauna, steam sauna and cold shower. Quite nice. Then, it was back to the room to call it a day.