{"id":1242,"date":"2016-10-04T18:07:44","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T22:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/?p=1242"},"modified":"2017-04-27T15:34:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T19:34:56","slug":"top-5-destinations-in-slovakia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/top-5-destinations-in-slovakia\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Destinations in Slovakia to Add to Your Travel Bucket List"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Slovakia may not be the first location that comes to mind when you think of Europe, it is an often-overlooked destination for ESL teaching. It provides many great teaching opportunities for TESOL\/TESL\/TEFL certified teachers<\/a>, combined with beautiful landscapes and ancient tourist attractions and world heritage sites.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had the pleasure of living in Slovakia as an ESL teacher since November 2012. In the past several years, I traveled to many of the sites in this amazing and beautiful country.\u00a0Here are my top five places to visit in Slovakia.<\/p>\n

My Top 5 Travel Destinations to see while Teaching English in Slovakia<\/a><\/h2>\n

1. Spi<\/strong>\u0161<\/strong> Castle<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One of the most formidable and oldest castles in Slovakia, Spi\u0161 Castle (Spi\u0161sk\u00fd\u00a0hrad) dates from the 11th century and was the largest fortress complex in central Europe at the time with about 2,000 occupants. \u00a0Much of the castle burned down in 1780 but it is gradually being restored. It is by far the most impressive sight from a distance.<\/p>\n

\"Teaching<\/a>

Spi\u0161 Castle view from the bottom of the hill<\/p><\/div>\n

The entrance gate leads to the lower part of the castle courtyards and is nearly 985 ft.(300 m) long and 380 ft. (115 m) wide. There are walkways through the courtyards to the palace museum and chapel.<\/p>\n

\"Teaching<\/a>

Entrance to Spi\u0161 Castle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Teaching<\/a>

The town of Spi\u0161sk\u00e9 Podhradie (which means “below the castle”)<\/p><\/div>\n

I climbed the quite narrow rock stairs that have chain robe as railing handles, to the highest point of the Romanesque upper castle tower built in the 13th century.\u00a0I do have a bit of Vertigo so this was a challenge, but all worthwhile.<\/p>\n

2. Levo<\/strong>\u010d<\/strong>a, Historic Town<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Levo\u010da, a beautiful, quaint village located in eastern Slovakia between the High Tatras (Vysok\u00e9 Tatry) and Slovensk\u00e9 Rudohorie mountains should be on any must-see list. The architecture and artistic detail of the structures are like listening to a majestic symphony. I love this little village so much I have visited it over four times in three years.<\/p>\n

\"Top-Places-to-Visit-in-Slovakia-Historic-Homes\"<\/a>

Preserved historic homes in the square<\/p><\/div>\n

There are some 60 historic houses around the main square. Most are very well preserved in Gothic, Baroque, Renaissance and Neo-Classical buildings.<\/p>\n

The Church of St. James<\/a> is quite impressive but one of the biggest attractions in the main square is the former Town Hall displaying the works of Master Pavol<\/a>, a Slovak national artist.<\/p>\n

3. Bansk<\/strong>\u00e1<\/strong> \u0160<\/strong>tiavnica, Mining Centre<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Bansk\u00e1 \u0160tiavnica is located in central Slovakia, what was Europe\u2019s main mining center from\u00a0the 13th to the 18th centuries and grew into the third-largest town in the Hungarian Kingdom.\u00a0 In the center of town is Holy Trinity Square (Namestie sv. Tropic), decorated with Gothic and Renaissance houses.<\/p>\n

\"Top-Places-to-Visit-in-Slovakia-Old-Castle\"<\/a>

Old Castle wall that was turned from a church into a fortress – Bansk\u00e1 \u0160tiavnica<\/p><\/div>\n

The Holy Trinity monument is sandstone Baroque as is much of the architecture in Slovakia.\u00a0 The 15th century Church of St. Catherine (sv. Katerina) is located on the south-side of the square.<\/p>\n

\"Bansk\u00e1<\/a>

Bansk\u00e1 \u0160tiavnica Mine Museum Entrance<\/p><\/div>\n

When the town was threatened by the Turks, the Old Castle was turned from a church into a fortress and is currently being restored, prizing many amazing artifacts.\u00a0The New Castle on a hill south of the center was also built to ward off the Turks. The town boasts the magnificent Mining Museum with an open-air area outside the center.<\/p>\n

4. Vlkol<\/strong>\u00ed<\/strong>nec, Typical Timber Village<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Vlkol\u00ednec is near the large industrial town of Ru\u017eomberok, and is a unique example of well-preserved timber houses in a typical village in the Lipton region.\u00a0The 47 farmhouses are still inhabited and include interesting features such as an old well, which still supplies the village with water, and a 1770 belfry of the Baroque Church of the Virgin Mary.<\/p>\n

A unique feature of the settlement is the parcels of land which surround the village and retain the extended shape and characteristic of the medieval land allotment common over most of feudal Europe at the time.<\/p>\n

5. Caves of the Solvenc<\/strong>\u00fd<\/strong> Kras<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Running along the Slovak-Hungarian border in the Southeast part of Slovakia, the 4,450 limestone caves are one of the country\u2019s karst (a unique landscape of caves caused by dissolution of bedrock) \u00a0phenomena.\u00a0 Four caves; Domica, Gombaseck\u00e1, Ochtinsk\u00e1 Aragonitov\u00e1 and Jasovsk\u00e1 are partly open to the public.\u00a0 A fifth cave, Dob\u0161in\u00e1 ice cave, is in the Solvency raj (Slovak Paradise), another karst area about 25 miles (40 km) to the Northwest.<\/p>\n

The Best Time to Visit Slovakia<\/h2>\n

The best time to visit these sites is probably late spring or summer. Be sure to rent a car, as public transportation to some of these sites is non-existent, making it difficult to reach them. The country is fairly small and you could start in central Slovakia at Bansk\u00e1 \u0160tiavnica, travel a short distance to Vlkol\u00ednec, then go east to Levo\u010da, Spi\u0161 Castle and finish with a tour of the Solvensk\u00fd kras.<\/p>\n

What to discover more? Attend a free information session<\/a> near you, or download our free course guide<\/a> to learn more!<\/p>\n

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Written by Robin McGuire<\/p>\n

\"Robin<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Robin taught English as a second language in Slovakia<\/a> for two years and came back to the U.S., but was drawn back to Slovakia. She is returning to teach again in the spa town of Pie\u0161\u0165any, while\u00a0working as\u00a0a marketing consultant. She has traveled all over Europe. You can read about her adventures at robinsgreatadventure.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Slovakia may not be the first location that comes to mind when you think of Europe, it is an often-overlooked destination for ESL teaching. It provides many great teaching opportunities for TESOL\/TESL\/TEFL certified teachers, combined with beautiful landscapes and ancient tourist attractions and world heritage sites. I\u2019ve had the pleasure of living in Slovakia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":2953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[348,66,343],"tags":[8,325,108,102],"class_list":["post-1242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bachelors-degree","category-eastern-europe","category-travel","tag-culture","tag-europe","tag-slovakia","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1242"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3741,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions\/3741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxfordseminars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}