After the Košice Peace Marathon: Slovak Paradise National Park

The Route: Košice → Spišská Nová Ves → Čingov / Podlesok (Slovak Paradise) → Košice Logistics: Train to Spišská Nová Ves, then a short local bus or taxi to the park entrance villages; a hire car makes the whole trip more flexible. Marathon Month: October Duration: 2 nights

Košice ──(train, ~1 hr 15 min)──> Spišská Nová Ves ──(local bus, ~15 min)──> Čingov / Podlesok
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                                          Košice ◄──(return via same route)─────────────┘

Slovak Paradise is a limestone plateau of narrow gorges, wooden ladders, and streams cut into rock, and it is worth being straightforward about this upfront: it is not a gentle recovery walk. The park's signature routes involve chain-assisted scrambles, vertical ladders bolted to rock faces, and river crossings on stepping stones, none of which suit legs that finished a marathon 48 hours earlier without a genuine rest day built in first.

October in Slovak Paradise: early autumn brings clear, cool weather most years, and the beech forests covering much of the park turn colour through the month, though wet rock in the gorges makes the ladder sections more demanding regardless of season, and some gorge routes close for the winter from around 1 November, so early October still falls within the open window.

Reaching the park from Košice means a train to Spišská Nová Ves, the nearest sizeable town, followed by a short local bus or taxi to one of the two main entrance villages: Čingov, closer to Spišská Nová Ves, or Podlesok, near Hrabušice. A hire car removes the need for the connection and makes moving between trailheads over two days considerably easier.

Night One: Čingov or Podlesok

Given the honest physical demands of the park's best-known routes, the first day is better spent on the plateau's flatter forest paths rather than attempting a gorge scramble straight off a marathon. Both entrance villages sit at the edge of gentler woodland trails that follow the Hornád River on largely flat, packed-earth ground, with benches at intervals, offering a genuine option to walk without ladders or chains involved.

Hotel Flora, at Podlesok, sits directly at one of the park's main trailheads and is built for hikers rather than city tourists, with straightforward rooms and a restaurant serving hearty Slovak dishes suited to a day of walking. Hotel Encián, near Čingov, offers a similar setup closer to Spišská Nová Ves, useful if arriving by train without a car.

Night Two: Deeper Into the Park

By the second day, most runners will have enough recovery behind them to consider one of the shorter gorge routes, such as the lower section of Kláštorisko, which involves less ladder work than the park's more demanding canyons like Sokolia dolina or Suchá Belá. Even the gentler routes involve uneven wet rock and short climbs, so this is a call to make on the day based on how the legs actually feel, not a fixed plan. For anyone who would rather not risk it, the plateau above Kláštorisko, reached by a longer but flatter forest track, gives sweeping views over the gorge country without the ladders.

Dinner both nights is most easily taken at the hotel restaurant in either village, since neither Čingov nor Podlesok has much beyond hotel dining within walking distance, a point worth knowing before arrival rather than discovering on the ground.

Getting Home

Return to Košice retraces the outbound route: local bus or taxi back to Spišská Nová Ves, then the train, a combined journey of around 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on connections. Košice International Airport (KSC) is a short taxi ride from the city centre, so the park adds two nights without complicating a departure later the same week.