I highly encourage day trips while traveling. Doing day trips allow you to experience and see new things and places without having to bring your along your luggage or finding a new place to rest your head.
Getting There
I was staying in Vienna, Austria and decided to take a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia! I took a train to get to Bratislava since it wasn’t expensive and it only took an hour, but obviously there are other ways to get there like a bus or a rental car if you don’t like public transportation.
Things to Do
- It was December when I took my day trip to Bratislava so if you’re there November – January, DEFINITELY check out the Christmas Markets. I went to two Christmas Markets: Hviezdoslav’s Square and Hlavné námestie.
Both were basically right next to each other, but if you don’t have time to see them both, my favorite out of the two was Hlavné námestie for sure. There were SO MANY delicious food options that I had a hard time just choosing one thing so my fiancé and I bought one of everything and split it so we got to try it all!
Left: Christmas Stew (Cabbage soup with kielbasa and smoked meat), sausages and punch. Right: A GINORMOUS potato pancake with cabbage and sour cream on top.
Left: Food stalls in Hlavné námestie. Right: Strudels
2. Bratislava Castle – If you’re not in Bratislava to see Christmas Markets, head up to the Castle! No matter what time of year it is the Bratislava Castle is always going to be beautiful and offers a great city overlook.
It doesn’t cost anything to walk through the Gate or wander through the Castle gardens, but if you want to take a tour of the castle it cost a few euros. *Sidenote – a plus to traveling in winter is that you avoid the crowds and can get the Castle garden to yourself!
3. The Blue Church – Just about a 20 minute walk from the main square you will find the Blue Church or known as Church of St. Elisabeth.
The whole church is blue, including the inside!
4. Bratislava Presidential Palace – One building I stumbled across on my walk back to the train station was the Presidential Palace. There are guards outside the building and if you’re lucky enough, you can see them do “Changing of the Guard” and by the way their uniforms are really cool!
I had a lot of fun in Bratislava between eating the delicious food, checking out the empty castle, and seeing the cool buildings around town! There was also some delicious, warm, and boozy drinks!
If you have any favorites or awesome places that weren’t listed feel free to leave a comment, its much appreciated!
I usually recommend people to do the opposite, to stay in Bratislava and do a day trip to Vienna 🙂
Nice to see that you found your way to what we once called home, we lived in Bratislava for a year and a half before moving back to Sweden 🙂