after my trip to morrocco (see africa) i decided to go to eastern Slovakia in the Presov Kosice and mountain regions for genealogy research. found it to be a great cheap place to go. found my grandfathers town and historical papers. great place to visit. and your money goes a long way. we flew from casablaca to frankfurt, rented a car and drove though Slovakia with stops along the way. pics are at:www.andrew-rabatin.net.andy
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I've been toying with the idea of spending some time in Slovakia on the Europe trip I'm planning. What places/experiences did you like best? Did you like the cities or small towns better? How much did it cost to rent a car there? How about lodging? Sorry to bother you with so many questions, but anything you tell me would be great. Thanks!

Brataslava was just a big city. we spent most of our time in the eastern section between Presov and Kosice. finding places to stoy was not hard, but Slovakia is not a big tourist area, so there are not places in small towns. Make sure you go to the Tatra mountains. I think the cheapest would be to fly from nyc to fra to brataslava. rent a car in slovakia its cheaper. i rented a car in germany and found out later that i was not covered on insurance in slovakia for some reason.
we liked the small towns better, we were doing genealogy, so we had a guide to read the documents for us. we stayed in presov and kosice and Barjov. Levoca. Stary Smokovec. get a good atlas i used autoatlas slovenska republika. not much english almost none in the very small towns but if you are a traveler, you can always make do. Slovakia is a very cheap place dinner for 3 maybe $8.00 usd. watch the car thing. i made it though but would not recommend renting a car outside of slovakia without making sure about the insurance. you also have to buy road stickers in Austria and Slovakia. get them at any gas station. all credit and debit cards work everywhere. i started out in morrocco and worked my way north to germany and austria and slovakia. took about a month for the whole thing. driving in the cities is a bit difficult, if you are not seasoned, and you dont have a good navigator. the country was easy i bought a inexpensive garmin extrex legend and downloaded the german slovakian maps. it was a big help. people are very nice but a bit suspicious at first but when they find out your not from the government, they are extremely warm and helpful. my pics are at www.andrew-rabatin.net of slovakia. anything more specific let me know. thought it was a great experience because it is not yet a tourist area for westerners. (couldnt even find a "i was in slovakia" t-shirt!
andy

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