Hiking in Slovakia : Green Lake / Zelene Pleso in the High Tatra Mountains

Hiking in the Slovakia High Tatras mountain range is simply breathtaking… and the hike to Green Lake Slovakia (Zelene Pleso) is the best-of-the-best.

Slovakia’s High Tatra is jewelled with towering peaks, green lakes, vast views and spectacular hiking. Hiking in the Slovakia High Tatras is so awesome, it was designated the #1 Summer Destination in Europe by Lonely Plant in 2019… so get there before the crowds do. But even with additional people…. there’s a lot of space on this mountain range and the hikes will still be unforgettable.

The smallest of the Alps (aka alpine mountain range), the High Tatras are part of the Carpathian Mountain range, span the border of Poland and Slovakia and can be accessed from either side, although Slovakia holds the bigger piece of the pie.

The Slovakia High Tatras are located only a mere two hours away from Kraków, Poland. We left Krakow in the morning and struck out for the adorable town across the Slovakia border, Zdiar, where we made our home base for a couple nights.

We stayed at the lovely family-run Pension Katarina in this sweet little mountain town, where the young owner and staff made the guests breakfast, and if you chose dinner, of delicious traditional Slovakian food. I can’t recommend this town and this guest house enough.

Zdair is also the location of the Ginger Monkey, rather renowned and adored hostel in Slovakia — but book ahead as it was full months in advance when we checked.

Tatranska Lomnica resort: the hiking base for Green Lake Slovakia (and other trails for hiking in Slovakia)

In the morning we drove to the resort area of Tatranska Lomnica, one of the largest settlements in the High Tatras. If you wished you could stay in this town, although the drive to Zdair is only about 15 minutes (17km) away.

Not only can you start the hike to the Green Lake Slovakia here (as well as other hikes), you can also take a cable car to Lomnicky Stit (8.642 ft/2.634 m /) one of the High Tatras peaks. On the top is Slovakia’s highest situated Astronomical and Meteorological Observatory. You can buy tickets for the cable car (for a fairly hefty price at the base ticket stand by the parking lot).

Hiking in Slovakia : The Green Lake / Zelene Pleso Hike

Details and Hot Tips

• The hike takes you to the Vel’ká Svišt’ovka mountain peak and then down the other side of the mountain, to Zelene Pleso/ the Green Lake Slovakia ) and Chata pri Zelenom plese (a restaurant and lodge next to Green Lake).
• The entire hike is about 15-16 km from the start to the parking lot where a bus can pick you up…significantly longer if you make the poor choice to walk it, as we did.
• It takes 6-8 hours, depending on your speed and stops.
• The hike is fairly difficult, with steep rocky areas, and a steep downhill decline, one area with a chain for balance. That said, in true Eastern European style, we saw lots of families with kids hiking the route, doing just fine.
• The Green Lake Slovakia hike is only open from mid-June to November 1st due to weather conditions. Hiking in Slovakia, particularly in the High Tatras can be very dangerous in winter.
• Be prepared for intense weather as there are often insane thunder storms mid-afternoon… which we experienced.
• Bring some money, so you can have lunch and a beer at Chata pri Zelenom plese AND so you can catch the bus at the end of the trail (personal fail) so you don’t have to walk a thousand miles back to town after your hike.
• The hike to Slovakia’s Green Lake is fantastic. Trust me. You see the views from a mountain peak, then go down into the valley you were just overlooking before walking back towards town. Hiking in Slovakia’s High Tatras is worth going for.

Step 1: Take the cable car

• Go to the cable car in Tatranska Lomnica resort area. There is a large parking lot and ticket booth, as well as a cute ski-hill store.
• The Green Lake / Zelene Pleso hike starts from Skalnaté Pleso, a lake part way up the peak. Buy a one- way ticket at the ticket booth for the cable car to Skalnaté Pleso. The cable car also has the benefit of fabulous views of the valley and mountains.
• Some crazy people hike this part, but…. don’t…unless you are training for a marathon or for hiking Everest or something equivalent.
• If you want, and if you strike out early enough, you could take the cable car all the way to the Lomnicky Stit peak to check out the views from the top, and then go back down, stopping at Skalnaté Pleso on your way down.

Step 2: Go to the trailhead

Once you get off the cable car, go towards the Observatory. The trailhead is on the other side of the lake. (see picture above).

The trailhead is well marked with sign posts with red roofs, and yellow sign markers with the names and distances for various hikes.

For Green Lake, follow the red markers to Zelene Pleso.

Start hiking…straight up. The start of this hike is a steep uphill hike that seems like it goes on forever. But it really is only 10-15 minutes.

Then you reach a red marker to go right, thankfully.

Step 3: The boulders and the hike to Vel’ká Svišt’ovka

At the red marker on the rock, strike out across the rocks.

You go on a fairly horizontal , across the mountain path, where you clamber over and around rocks. This path goes for some time as it takes you around the mountain. Its fun, and pretty and the views of the valley aren’t to be sneezed at.

Once you round the mountain you can see  Vel’ká Svišt’ovka  peak, the top / highest point of your hike, in the distance. Start trekking.

Step 4: Vel’ká Svišt’ovka

After a steep switchback, you reach the peak of Vel’ká Svišt’ovka– the highest point of your hike. Oh wow. This is the view you were waiting for. Time for some photos…. (like ours in the cover photo!).

The hike from the trail head to here is just under 3km, although it takes a while as the boulder section takes some patience.

Many people turn around here and go back the way they came. Don’t. The second half of the hike is amazing. It is much more beautiful of a hike than the first half, and the second half of the hike is far less crowded.

At the top of Vel’ká Svišt’ovka, you look down over Zelene Pleso/ the Green Lake and Chata pri Zelenom plese… far far below. That is your next goal. It is about 5 km away.

Step 4: Head down hill to the Slovakia Green Lake / Zelene Pleso and Chata pri Zelenom plese

From the top of Vel’ká Svišt’ovka, take the path down the other side of the peak. You will know where it is because the top of the peak is actually quite a sharp ridge– and there is only one path on the fairly steep other side.

The path starts at the giant rock “thumb”. Head towards it and make sure to get a photo of this cool rock.

The downhill path is quite intense in places. It is steep, and covered in shale in many places. But man-oh-man is it beautiful.

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Part way down to the Green Lake, you hit a steep area where there is a chain built in so you can guide/ support your downhill climb.

After this is starts to flatten out. Around here, the thunderstorm and rainclouds that were threatening us started to spit out massive water drops. We trail-ran the next part of the path…. and by the time we came to this ever so pretty green lake, it was really starting to rain.

We sprinted into the lodge area at Chata pri Zelenom plese just as the clouds literally opened up and dumped rain down in buckets like a shower. We made it under the building’s awning without a single second to spare… damp but not fully doused…. many others didn’t.

After some time, we managed to get a spot in Chata pri Zelenom plese restaurant, and had an extremely fulfilling hot meal and beer in the very full little chalet overlooking the green lake.

After about a 1/2 hour or so, the thunderstorm stopped. Outside was fresh as could be and the brilliant Green Lake was picture perfect.

Step 5: Walk back toward town

The rest of the hike from Green Lake Slovakia back to the base– around 8km– is on a flat-ish easy downhill, wide dirt path. You walk along a river, for a long but nice stroll.

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Step 6: TAKE THE BUS… I can’t stress this enough

At the bottom of this long path is (apparently) a bus that takes hikers back into Tatranska Lomnica (and your car). We had read some other posts that talked about an alternate route– a walking path at the fork in the path. We decided to try that, thinking it was another 1/2 hour. Maybe we took the wrong path, maybe we didn’t , but it was not a 1/2 hour. We ended up walking a nice path back toward the resort, but when we got to the first part of the resort area, that area was defunct and overgrown.

We ended up having to walk along a path on the side of the road , for what felt like forever at this point and after 8 hours of hiking, before we made it back to town and our car.

The day was long… but so very good. After a long day of hiking in Slovakia’s Tatra Mountains it was nice to get our hiking shoes off and eat some homemade Slovakian food back at our B&B and have a good solid sleep before heading off to explore more of stunning Slovakia.

For more hiking in Slovakia….. wait for my next post…