Farm Life In Central Slovakia

We had a lovely four-night stay in a small town in Slovakia called Zajezova, near the “bigger” town of Pliesovce, in the Banska Bistrica area. Our Airbnb was part of a farm owned by a Dutch woman who fell in love with Slovakia almost ten years ago, moved there and bought some properties. We all fell in love immediately with this place! The apartment was spacious and bright, there was a pool, a big area for the kids to play (which included a sandbox, a rocking horse, and some kids’ toys), big fields to run through, lots of apple and plum trees bursting with fruit, some goats, and two small pigs that we could feed!

After the hustle and bustle of Budapest, it was great to relax at the farm, surrounded by fields of flowers, trees, and the sounds of nature.

These are some of the things we did during our time at the farm:

• The farm had a lot of apple trees, so we went apple picking in our own backyard, and Joe baked delicious apple crisp that same day. Doesn’t get any fresher than that, right? This was especially fun because this is about the exact same time we’d be going apple picking back in California, so it felt like we continued the tradition!

• We visited Stary Zamok, the old castle in the town of Banska Stiavnica (which is the oldest town in Slovakia). The castle used to be a church but it was transformed into a fortress due to fears of a Turkish invasion. The castle was super fun for the entire family. The kids especially enjoyed visiting the (quite spooky) dungeons and climbing up the towers. It was one of the coolest castles we’ve seen so far on this trip.

• After visiting the castle, we followed a recommendation from our Airbnb host and went to Terra Permonia in Banska Stiavnica, which was a really neat place for kids to work on craft and wood projects. At Terra Permonia, Hugo was able to cut through thick cardboard (with Joe’s assistance) to create a castle. When the cutouts were done, he painted it all black and was super excited with it! While Hugo was working on his project, Valentina spent her time at a Lego room, which was an awesome room full of Legos of all sizes and kinds. Both kids had a lovely time and we could’ve easily spent more time there! If you are in Banska Stiavnica, this is a must-do with kids!

• We asked our host about kid-friendly hikes in the area, and she recommended a short hike in an old oak grove not too far from our place. We spent a couple of hours one morning walking around huge old oak trees, picking up sticks, pretending we were knights, and looking for bugs (and ogres)!

In general, we spent a lot of time hanging out at the farm, playing in the awesome yard, watching the kids play together in the sandbox, feeding the pigs, going for walks on our dirt road, and swimming in the pool. It was a great time to relax and unwind.

On our way from Slovakia to Poland, we stopped at Donovaly, a wintertime ski resort and the gateway to the Low Tatras mountains, to go for a hike. We went up the mountain on a chairlift and, by the time we got up there, the kids were too tired to do any hiking (just one of those days…). Also, the hike turned out to be a bit more challenging than we had imagined, with a steep and slippery downhill that we didn’t think was worth attempting with tired kids. But at least the views were great! Before getting back in the car to continue our drive to Poland, we stopped at a restaurant in Donovaly that had an awesome kids’ playground. Win win for everyone!

We will write about our time Krakow, Poland in the next couple of days. In the meantime, we hope you are doing well!

And a few more pics from the farm!