A Weekend in Hrusov, Slovakia

When looking for fun things to do in and around Bratislava, we found a farm stay on Airbnb that looked wildly popular. Granted, there wasn’t a whole lot to do in the area, but the reviews looked phenomenal and we were looking for a fun weekend trip, so we reached out to the hosts. Initially, they told us there would be wine and food tastings, group breakfasts provided, horseback riding for all ages, and more–so it didn’t take long for us to commit to the weekend.

I’m pretty sure we were already booked for a small camper when we got a message from the host saying it was unavailable, but that he had a small cabin open for us. That wasn’t a huge deal (we likely would have had less space in the camper), but the kicker came when he also told us that there would be no wine tasting, which was the whole reason we booked the trip. When we asked if the wineries nearby would be open, he had little to no answers for us, saying it was unlikely because of the Easter holiday. We had to decide whether we wanted to cancel our rental car and find something else to do that weekend, or suck it up and make the most of what we’d already planned. We opted to stick with the original trip, giving it the benefit of the doubt–and I’m pretty glad we did.

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GETTING THERE

Hrusov was about a 2.5 hour drive from Bratislava, so we rented a car to drive over for the weekend. We had to take a bus to the airport which only took about 20 minutes, and once we had our car we stopped to get some groceries before the drive. Luckily Slovakia has right-hand traffic like the US so I didn’t have to stress about driving on the opposite side of the road, and it was pretty much all highway until we got to town, so it was a super easy ride. We stopped at a random restaurant closer to the main town since our farm stay was very secluded, and we got a quick lunch before finishing the ride to the farm.

We arrived to a long, bumpy dirt road that led to a collection of small houses on a huge plot of land and immediate puppy greetings. We met the owner who showed us around a bit, explained our lodging situation, and left us to explore the grounds, which included ostrich sightings and lots of scratches for Macchu the alpaca.

SETTLING IN

I have to note that, while there was a ton of space in the cabin with two levels and like 5 beds, we didn’t have a private shower, and the cabin was absolutely infested with ladybugs. Like, we had a specific vacuum to clean them up, there were so many. I don’t love bugs, and though ladybugs are arguably the cutest bugs out there, I still didn’t love having 50 of them clustered around each window, crawling up the walls, flying over to my bed… it was a little unsettling to say the least.

The shower situation was a whole different beast. We only needed to use it after our hike on our second day, so our host told us we could use the shower in one of the bigger (occupied) houses. They left for a while, so we had a window where the three of us could quickly shower–except there may as well have not been a drain in the floor, and it was a walk-in shower, so…you can see the issue that three back to back showers with no drain would pose.

Putting that gross experience aside, we were pretty tired after getting settled in, so we decided to drive a few minutes to the nearest (and only) restaurant in town, a small pizza place off the side of the road. It was pretty damn good, and really hit the spot after a few hours of driving and socializing with the huge family that was also at the farm.

HIKING TO ČABRAD' CASTLE

On our only full day in Hrusov, we initially were going to go horseback riding, but we soon realized that it was more of a “pony rides for the kids situation”, so we opted to go on a hike to a nearby castle. We drove maybe 10 minutes down the road and began our hike, which ended up being a few hours round-trip. It was really just a long walk until we got to the base of the hill, and then it got a little more intense, but still very doable for the average person.

Once we reached the castle ruins, we took some time to explore and take in the sights. It was beautiful, filled with little hidden pathways and crumbling castle walls overlooking the hills of the countryside. There was still so much character within the castle, and it was one of my favorite landmarks to see throughout all my travels so far. Plus there was a dog there who was very excited to see us, so that made the trip a 10/10 no matter what.

WEEKEND RECAP

After we explored the castle, we hiked back down to the car and headed back to our cabin. It was Easter weekend, so we made a nice brunch and dinner that day, and mostly just hung out when we weren’t hiking. We meandered around the farm grounds, seeing the animals and petting the dogs, catching up on episodes of The Last of Us and FaceTiming our family. Even though our plans didn’t play out like we originally thought they would, it was a really nice little weekend spent relaxing, exploring, and enjoying a totally unfamiliar part of the world!