Beautiful Central Slovakia: Žilina and Terchová

When my partner and I spent a few months travelling in Europe in 2023, we started off in Bratislava, Slovakia's capital on its western border with Austria. Then, we ventured east into Slovakia’s mountainous northern region. We spent a week in Žilina, the country's 4th largest city, near the borders with Czechia and Poland. Then, we headed to the nearby village of Terchová to explore the Malá Fatra mountains.

Žilina

Žilina is a city of 80,000, about a two-hour train ride northeast of Bratislava. The city is a manufacturing hub, although there’s little indication of nearby industrial activity within the charming city center or the quiet residential neighborhoods. In fact, the locals are remarkably well-dressed, in surprising contrast to the rather simple personal presentation style we observed in Bratislava.

Žilina has a large, lovely central square, several impressive churches, and panoramic mountain views. Gorgeous nature surrounds the city, with fast access to mountains, forests, and lakes.

Besides access to the nearby outdoor recreation areas, there isn’t much in Žilina to attract foreign tourists. It’s a pleasant and pretty city, but not more so than countless other European cities and towns that lie along more-traveled routes. So, there isn't much of a tourist industry there and we were able to enjoy our visit without receiving any special attention.

It’s special to travel so far from home and visit a place where not many outsiders are present.

Terchová

From Žilina, we caught a one-hour bus ride headed east into Malá Fatra National Park, to the town of Terchová. This village of around 4,000 residents is situated in a valley of the Malá Fatra mountains. The local history is rich — Terchová was established in 1580 and is the birthplace of the folk hero Juraj Jánošík, a highwayman with a story similar to Robin Hood.

The village is picture-perfect. The houses are absolutely gorgeous, and mostly all made in a uniform peaked-roof style (as shown in the photo above). The locals take great pride in the appearance of their properties, with immaculate landscaping and detailed ornamental gardens. Everywhere we went, folks were out trimming their hedges and working on their veggie gardens.

From Terchová, we had easy access to Malá Fatra National Park. The park is only 87 square miles in size but lies within a vast region of forested mountains. Gray wolves, European otters, lynxes, and brown bears roam the Malá Fatra mountains.

We took the Jánošíkove Diery hike, an absolutely gorgeous trek along streams and through a gorge. The park, and the region in general, is full of life — chirping birds, blooming wildflowers, and an abundance of bees and bugs.

Once we leave this area, it might be a long time before I happen to meet someone else who’s been here. Nobody recommended this part of the world to us. We selected the region almost randomly and didn’t have super clear information to guide our plans. We were hoping to experience a beautiful place that felt out-of-the-way and unfamiliar — we found exactly what we were looking for, and I’m so glad that we pushed our journey this far east.

This story was originally published on Medium, here.