Bratislava

A day trip.

Okay, I am biased. In 20 years of traveling to Budapest I have never heard enough good about Bratislava to make me want to give up a day or night in Budapest or Vienna. The few that I know who have "enjoyed" have done it as a day trip out of Vienna (pratically a suburb of Vienna).

hi from Wisconsin,
I posted on another request that Bratislava was forever changed when the Soviet era four lane bridge was built and went through old town. Additionally, the castle on the hill overlooking the city...built 1953. Or should I say resurrected from almost nothing to what you see. And not so far away is Budapest.

Now Budapest is ancient. But many of the 'must see' sites were started after the merger of the three cities in Budapest withthe hope that they would be completed by 1896 for the anniversary of the invasion of Magyars. The Parliament building (completed 1904), city park (1896), Szechenyi Baths (1913), the Great Market Hall (1897) and Saint Istvan Basilika (1905). But the city oozes activity. Obuda is old, old. The Turkish baths, old, old.

I have been to Budapest in every season of the year and want more. I was in Bratislava two nights and don't need to go back.

wayne iNWI

Bratislava is well worth a day, but not more. Take a morning train from Vienna (buy roundtrip excursion "Bratislava ticket"), walk or take a bus to the old town, go up the hill to the castle for the great views (but the castle itself isn't worth going inside), explore the old town, have lunch, visit the Bratislava Museum for civic history and view from bell tower, have a coffee, go back to Vienna.

Rick's Vienna book has a small section on Bratislava. See if your library has it.

The RS Budapest guidebook also covers Bratislava. His shorter version of the Vienna book ("Pocket Vienna") I found to be adequate for that city, but it doesn't include daytrips such as Bratislava.

I spent one night in Bratislava. We took an early morning train from Vienna. The next morning we had a private guide drive us to Cicmany village and we ended the day in Prague.

It all depends what you are looking for. There are more than enough things to see to fill up a full day. My husband's grandparents are from Slovakia and one of the buildings has his last name in the stonework, so it was special to us. If it wasn't for that personal connection, it isn't a must see destination.

We did an easy day trip by train from Vienna in Dec 2019. It was interesting enough for a day.

There was a Christmas market with heavy emphasis on food... too much meat and fried foods for our taste.

Architecture was a mix of old and boring Communist block .

Wandering around we came across a number of monuments and historical plaques relating to the former Jewish community. The most prominent was the site of the former synagogue which unfortunately the Communist government demolished even though there was a campaign to preserve the history. Also various former members of the Jewish community are memorialized. For us this area was the highlight.