How to hike the Sucha Bela gorge in Slovak Paradise National Park

On our recent train trip around Europe we stayed in the High Tatras mountains for a few days. While there, we visited the Slovak Paradise National Park to hike the Sucha Bela trail.

When researching things to do in the area I read up on this incredible national park and plans started to slot into place.

The Sucha Bela trail is the most popular one in the park and I was unsure whether it would be suitable with our kids at first but we were really glad that we went for it.

Expect waterfalls, ladders and one of the most unique trails we have ever been on. A reasonable level of fitness is needed though and it’s not suitable for everyone.

Where is the Sucha Bela trail?

Sucha Bela is a trail through a gorge in the Slovak Paradise National Park (Slovensky Raj). This National Park is in Eastern Slovakia.

We travelled to the area by train on our trip through Europe and visited while staying in the High Tatras nearby. The nearest major train station is Poprad, although it’s also reasonably accessible from Kosice.

The National Park covers a large area but the closest village to the Sucha Bela trail is Podlesok.

Like us, many visitors to Slovak Paradise go for the day while staying in nearby Poprad or Kosice. However if you would like to explore multiple trails and see all that the park has to offer it is worth staying in one of the villages within the park. 

How to get to Slovak Paradise National Park

The closest towns in which to base yourself are either Poprad or Kosice. Alternatively, like us, you could base yourself in a village in the nearby High Tatras National Park.

There are airports at both Kosice and Poprad (Poprad is closest) if you are flying in from overseas. If, like us, you have been exploring other parts of central Europe, it is possible to get a train to Poprad from Bratislava or Budapest.

The Polish town of Krakow is another possible arrival point, with transfer by bus over the Tatras mountains from Poland.

The starting point to the trail is the village of Podlesok. The best way to get there is by car. Most people hire a car and drive there like we did. The other option would be to try and arrange a taxi from Poprad with an arrangement to be collected later in the day.

If you would rather not drive the nearest train station is at Vydrnik, but from there it is around a 3 mile walk.

To get closer by public transport there is a bus from Spišská Nová Ves which gets you as far as Betlanovce which is around 1.5 miles away from the trailhead.

What is Slovak Paradise National Park?

Once I started researching our Slovakia trip and read about this place it was very quickly on the ‘must see’ list of things to do in Slovakia.

It’s a place unlike any other national park that I have been to in that most of the walking trails are through gorges within the forest and each one is almost like it’s own mini obstacle course!

It’s a protected mountain area which is mostly limestone meaning that there are lots of gorges throughout the valleys. To make these gorges accessible for climbing/ hiking, ladders, chains and bridges have been put in place.

Sucha Bela is just one of the many trails there so if you have more than one day there is a lot more to explore in Slovak Paradise.

Where to stay in Slovak Paradise

Many visitors come for a day trip from nearby towns of Poprad, Kosice or Levoca.

I had very nearly booked to stay at Chalets Dedinky, within the national park. This small village is right next to a lake, which I had imagined to be perfect for a swim or SUP in the summer.

In the end we didn’t do this and instead visited for the day from our cabin in the High Tatras mountains.

Dedinky is the other side of the national park to Podlesok (the beginning of the Sucha Bela trail). There are some accommodation options in and near Podlesok if you would prefer to stay in the national park and closer to the trail head.

Many of the other gorge trails begin from near here too so it is a good base if you would like to do a few of these. 

Is the Sucha Bela gorge trail suitable for kids?

This is a question I had asked myself a lot before going and tried to research intensively. Some trails are more challenging than others and the Slovak paradise website has details of most of these.

Obviously individual families will be able to make the best judgement on whether they think the trails are suitable for their family.

I had originally intended for us to walk the Zejmarská Roklina trail as it is a shorter distance than many of the other trails and I had read that the ladders were shorter and easier.

As we neared our visit I decided that we could attempt a longer trail and so we opted for the popular Sucha Bella trail. I made this choice since I had read that it was one of the most beautiful trails in the national park.

For context our children were 9, 11, 13 when we did this trail. They are quite active kids and were absolutely fine on it.

Everyone was pretty tired by the end but the fact that the trail is so much fun means that there isn’t much chance to think about getting tired!

Our nine year old is a bit of a loose cannon so I was slightly concerned for him being safe on the ladders and places with longer drops but he was absolutely great the whole time.

In contrast, I was much more worried for safety on some of the mountain trails we had done when hiking in Madeira which had really steep drop offs.

The one issue was when he was running through the stream trying to rock hop and went in the water. He sulked for a little while that his foot was now wet but this is something that could happen on any walk!

It’s not just kids that need to think about suitability though! Adults will need to assess your own physical fitness. The trail is around 9km altogether with a fair amount of ascent and clambering over rocks and obstacles.

What to expect at Sucha Bela?

The trail travels up a gorge within the forest. To get up the gorge a series of ladders, ropes and stepping stones have been added to the trail.

Following a stream uphill the whole way means that there are multiple waterfalls along the way too.

Although physically demanding we thought it was a lot of fun. The trail up the gorge is one way and once you reach the top there is a different path meandering down through the forest in order to get back to where you started. 

When is the best time of year to hike the Sucha Bela Trail?

Overall the best time of year is between May and September when the weather is warmest. Within that time period there are advantages and disadvantages to different months.

The waterfalls are most impressive in spring when the snowmelt fills the rivers. April or May is best for this, although it does mean you are more likely to get wet!

The quietest time is September so if you want to avoid the crowds and not get wet aim for then.

We are restricted to summer holidays so visited in peak season of August. The water levels were lower meaning it was relatively easy to cross rivers without getting wet feet!

What should you wear for hiking the Sucha Bela trail?

This may depend on the time of year and the weather on the day. We all wore shorts and T-shirts although we did have jumpers too.

The main thing needed on the trail is shoes with a decent grip. In our family some had walking boots, I had trail running shoes which have a good grip.

Be aware that there are many places where you need to cross the river so if you have waterproof boots or trainers these may be worthwhile.

We had left some spare clothes in the car in case anyone got soaked and we all took waterproof coats too.

The Trail Head in Podlesok

On arrival at Podlesok there is a large car park close to the village area. The first car park you pass is the overflow car park so unless you can see that it is particularly busy, drive past this to get to the next car park.

From the car park it is a short walk to the village area where most of the trails start. Since this is one of the main hubs in the national park there are plenty of bars/ restaurants to grab a drink or some food.

Getting tickets for Sucha Bela Gorge

In order to maintain the trails there is a small per person fee for walking most of the trails within Slovak Paradise.

Once in the village area there are some electronic information boards which outline all the trails, the level of difficulty and length of trails.

When we visited there were also some very friendly staff that were available to ask questions and talk to you about the trails. You can pay the entry fee at a machine here (by card).

There is also an indoor information centre a little further up the road where you can pick up a map of the area or speak to national park staff if there is nobody around by the information boards. 

There are also some toilets within the village area too, always needed in our family!

Entry to Sucha Bela Gorge

After buying our tickets and making sure everyone had been to the toilet we continued walking up the road, following signs for Sucha Bela.

As we left the road and arrived at the start of the trail proper there was a national park attendant to check our admission tickets.

What is the Sucha Bela trail like?

We really loved this walk. Since I am the one in our family that does most of the research into our travel destinations, Adam didn’t really have much idea what it was we were doing.

The kids in particular really enjoyed the ladders and rungs which line much of the climb up the gorge. 

Sucha Bela is the most popular trail in the park for good reason! It’s got some of the most beautiful waterfalls and is shorter in distance than some of the other trails.

We had read recommendations to get there early to avoid too many crowds. It was around 10:30 when we started the walk- later than we had planned but then we often aren’t that good at getting up, organised and out when on holiday!

For some of the ladder sections there was a slight queue to get up since obviously people are slower and need to wait for others to get up first. However I had read reviews of people waiting an hour to get up some ladders and it was thankfully nothing like that!

We didn’t feel like the trail was ever too crowded and at some points couldn’t see anyone else at all.

What kind of features are on the trail?

The bulk of the trail is following a stream with lots of horizontal wooden walkways to go along or metal steps that are often jammed into the rocky sides of the gorge.

Other parts were more natural with fallen trees used as bridges to cross the stream or simply crossing using rocks as stepping stones.

The most exhilarating parts of the trail though were the long, near vertical ladders that take you up the cliffs beside waterfalls. I loved this, Adam not so much and the kids thought it was really exciting. 

You don’t need to be a climber or even amazingly agile to be able to do this walk. You do need a reasonable level of fitness and to not be terrified of heights!

The last section of the trail is less steep and so it more like a normal walk through the gorge. This was the part for us that the children started to get a little tired.

You’re still going uphill (after around 2 hours of walking uphill) but without any of the exciting parts anymore.

Although it did feel like this section dragged it’s really not that long and we had planned to have our picnic lunch at the top so the lure of food was enough to get everyone happily to the top. 

Summit of the trail

Once at the top of the trail, we emerged onto a broad track which goes along the ridge.

There are some (very smelly) toilets here and picnic benches so it’s a good place to have lunch or even just a drink and snack before making the journey back down.

It’s a bit of a shame that we were still surrounded by trees so there is nowhere to get a view of where we were.

There isn’t anywhere to get food or drink once you leave Podlesok so really do need to take food and drink with you.

Getting back down to Podlesok

Getting back down was always going to be the least interesting part of the walk since it is on a normal gravel track through the forest.

Compared with the trail we came up the kids found it pretty boring. It is however downhill all the way so much easier on the legs.

There is an information board at the top of the hill but when emerging from Sucha Bela we turned left and followed the track along the ridge for a little way before turning left again along a track that snakes its way right back to Podlesok at the bottom.

If you would like to return to the start quicker there is the possibility of hiring mountain bikes at the top to get back down. This would certainly make the return much quicker!

It is a gravel downhill track the whole way so you would need to be confident riding on bumpy trails to enjoy this.

Once back in Podlesok we celebrated our adventure with drinks and snacks in one of the bars in the village.

What are the best other things to do in Slovak Paradise National Park?

The national park covers a large area so there are plenty of other things to do in the area if you have more time to explore.

Other Gorge Walks

The National Park Website has information on all the other trails within Slovak Paradise. You can filter by distance or degree of difficulty to find the perfect trail for you.

Exploring Ice Caves

The Dobinksa Ice cave looks really interesting and this would have been top of our list of sights to explore if we’d had more time in Slovak Paradise.

We had debated trying to fit both this and Sucha Bela into the same day. However it’s around 40 minute drive between the two and we decided the day would be too rushed if we did this.

Relax or hire a SUP at Palcmanska Maša reservoir

Unfortunately the weather was fairly cool (for summer) when we visited. With warmer weather we would definitely have visited here although I hear the water is pretty cold!

The reservoir is next to village of Dedinky. I hear the water is pretty cold so boating or hiring a paddle board are the most common water activities.