Tourist Activities in and around Košice

Con­fer­ence par­ti­cip­a­tion offers an excel­lent oppor­tun­ity to dis­cov­er Košice and east­ern Slov­akia. Con­sider arriv­ing a few days early or extend­ing your stay after IMWA 2027 to explore the region’s his­tor­ic towns, moun­tains, caves, castles and vine­yards.

Discover Košice

Košice has one of Slovakia’s largest and best-pre­served his­tor­ic centres. Most prin­cip­al attrac­tions are loc­ated along Hlavná Street and can eas­ily be reached on foot from the con­fer­ence hotels.

High­lights include:

• St Elizabeth’s Cathed­ral, Slovakia’s largest church and the dom­in­ant land­mark of Košice
• St Michael’s Chapel and Urban’s Tower
• State Theatre and the Singing Foun­tain
• Lower Gate archae­olo­gic­al com­plex
• Crafts Lane, known loc­ally as Hrnči­arska Street
• East Slov­ak Museum
• Slov­ak Tech­nic­al Museum
• Numer­ous cafés, res­taur­ants and small shops in and around the his­tor­ic centre

Climb­ing the north­ern tower of St Elizabeth’s Cathed­ral provides excel­lent views across the old town and sur­round­ing hills.

Fur­ther inform­a­tion about attrac­tions, guided walks, cul­tur­al events and res­taur­ants is avail­able from Vis­it Košice.

Explore the Košice Region

Košice provides a con­veni­ent start­ing point for day trips through­out east­ern Slov­akia. Fur­ther ideas, maps and prac­tic­al inform­a­tion are avail­able from Košice Region Tour­ism.

Slovak Karst

Loc­ated west of Košice, Slov­ak Karst Nation­al Park is known for its lime­stone plat­eaus, val­leys and extens­ive cave land­scape.

Jasovská Cave is among the most access­ible caves from Košice and can be com­bined with a vis­it to Jasov Mon­as­tery. Oth­er not­able caves include Dom­ica Cave, Gom­basecká Cave and the unusu­al Ocht­in­ská Arag­on­ite Cave. Sev­er­al caves in the Slov­ak Karst form part of a UNESCO World Her­it­age prop­erty.

Open­ing peri­ods vary and some caves are closed out­side their vis­it­or sea­son. Cur­rent inform­a­tion is avail­able from the Slov­ak Caves Admin­is­tra­tion.

Tokaj Wine Region

Slov­ak Tokaj lies south­east of Košice near the Hun­gari­an bor­der. Vil­lages such as Malá Tŕňa, Veľká Tŕňa and Vin­ičky are known for vine­yards, his­tor­ic wine cel­lars and region­al food.

Inform­a­tion about winer­ies, accom­mod­a­tion and loc­al attrac­tions is avail­able through the Tokaj Wine Route. Vis­its and tast­ings nor­mally require advance book­ing.

Zemplínska Šírava

Zem­plín­ska Šírava is a large recre­ation­al reser­voir east of Košice. Sur­round­ing areas offer walk­ing, cyc­ling, water­side recre­ation and views towards the vol­can­ic Vihor­lat Moun­tains.

Nearby attrac­tions include Vini­ansky Castle, Vin­né Lake and the pro­tec­ted land­scape sur­round­ing the Vihor­lat Moun­tains.

Day Trips in Eastern Slovakia

Sev­er­al of Slovakia’s best-known cul­tur­al and nat­ur­al attrac­tions can be reached from Košice dur­ing a full-day excur­sion.

Spiš Castle and Levoča

Spiš Castle is one of the largest castle com­plexes in Cent­ral Europe and forms part of a UNESCO World Her­it­age prop­erty.

Nearby Levoča has a well-pre­served medi­ev­al centre, his­tor­ic town walls and the Basilica of St James. Both des­tin­a­tions can be com­bined dur­ing a full-day trip from Košice. Fur­ther region­al inform­a­tion is avail­able from Košice Region Tour­ism.

Slovak Paradise National Park

Slov­ak Para­dise Nation­al Park is char­ac­ter­ised by wooded val­leys, water­falls, nar­row gorges and hik­ing routes equipped with lad­ders, foot­bridges and met­al plat­forms.

Routes vary con­sid­er­ably in dif­fi­culty. Suit­able foot­wear and care­ful plan­ning are essen­tial, par­tic­u­larly when enter­ing the gorges. Cur­rent trail con­di­tions, warn­ings, maps and sug­ges­ted routes are avail­able through the park’s inter­act­ive hik­ing inform­a­tion.

Bardejov

Barde­jov has a remark­ably well-pre­served medi­ev­al centre. Main attrac­tions include the mar­ket square, Basilica of St Giles, his­tor­ic town hall and pre­served sec­tions of the town for­ti­fic­a­tions.

Bardejov’s his­tor­ic centre is lis­ted as a UNESCO World Her­it­age prop­erty.

Wooden Churches

East­ern Slov­akia con­tains numer­ous his­tor­ic wooden churches rep­res­ent­ing Roman Cath­ol­ic, Greek Cath­ol­ic and Ortho­dox tra­di­tions. Sev­er­al form part of the UNESCO-lis­ted Wooden Churches of the Slov­ak Carpath­i­ans.

Inform­a­tion about indi­vidu­al churches and sug­ges­ted routes is avail­able from Slov­akia Travel and Košice Region Tour­ism.

Extend Your Stay

Par­ti­cipants with addi­tion­al time may wish to travel farther into Slov­akia.

High Tatras

High Tatras offer moun­tain scenery, marked walk­ing routes, cable cars and well-known des­tin­a­tions such as Štrb­ské Pleso, Starý Smokovec and Tatranská Lom­ni­ca.

Inform­a­tion about hik­ing routes, cable-car oper­a­tion, accom­mod­a­tion and loc­al trans­port is avail­able from:

• Vis­it Tatry
• Moun­tain Res­cue Ser­vice
• Tatra Moun­tain Resorts, includ­ing cable-car inform­a­tion
• Slov­ak Hydro­met­eor­o­lo­gic­al Insti­tute, for weath­er fore­casts

Moun­tain weath­er can change rap­idly. Cur­rent con­di­tions, route clos­ures and warn­ings should always be checked before set­ting out.

Banská Štiavnica

Banská Štiavn­ica is a his­tor­ic min­ing town sur­roun­ded by vol­can­ic hills and arti­fi­cial min­ing reser­voirs known as tajchy. Min­ing her­it­age, pre­served archi­tec­ture and under­ground vis­it­or attrac­tions make it par­tic­u­larly rel­ev­ant to IMWA par­ti­cipants.

Places of par­tic­u­lar interest include:

• Slov­ak Min­ing Museum
• Open-Air Min­ing Museum
• New Castle

Bratislava

Brat­is­lava can be included at the begin­ning or end of an exten­ded jour­ney through Slov­akia. Slovakia’s cap­it­al offers a com­pact his­tor­ic centre, Brat­is­lava Castle, museums and views across the Danube.

ZSSK, the Slov­ak nation­al rail­way com­pany, oper­ates dir­ect rail con­nec­tions between Brat­is­lava and Košice. Jour­ney times and timetables should be checked when plan­ning onward travel.

Plan Your Visit

Open­ing times, admis­sion arrange­ments, trans­port con­nec­tions and sea­son­al access may change. Please con­sult offi­cial tour­ism web­sites and attrac­tion oper­at­ors before trav­el­ling, par­tic­u­larly when vis­it­ing caves, moun­tain areas or loc­a­tions requir­ing advance reser­va­tions.

Use­ful plan­ning resources include:

• Vis­it Košice
• Košice Region Tour­ism
• Slov­akia Travel
• Slov­ak Para­dise Nation­al Park
• High Tatras Tour­ism
• Pub­lic trans­port in Košice
• UNESCO World Her­it­age in Slov­akia

IMWA 2027 is not respons­ible for inde­pend­ently organ­ised tour­ist activ­it­ies. Par­ti­cipants should veri­fy travel times, access­ib­il­ity, weath­er con­di­tions, open­ing peri­ods and book­ing require­ments dir­ectly with the rel­ev­ant pro­viders.