Central Slovakia Road Trip from Bratislava: Banská Štiavnica, Kremnica and Bojnice Castle in 3 Days

In the Middle Ages the hills of central Slovakia were full of gold and silver, and the mining towns built on them grew rich. This loop starts in Bratislava and drives into those hills: Banská Štiavnica, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its two castles and its old mining lakes, the baroque manor of Svätý Anton, and Kremnica, where the mint founded in 1328 still strikes coins. It comes back by Bojnice Castle and Trenčín, and makes about 489 km in three days.

Slovakia’s motorways and expressways need an electronic vignette, the e-známka, linked to the car’s number plate; there is no sticker. The D1 and the R1 on this loop are vignette roads, and the smaller roads in the hills are free.

Day 1 — Bratislava to Banská Štiavnica via Počúvadlo (176 km)

Pick up the car at Bratislava Airport and take the D1 to Trnava and the R1 east past Nitra. Leave the expressway and climb into the Štiavnica Mountains to Počúvadlo, one of the tajchy, the artificial lakes that miners built to drive the machines in the mines. About 60 of them were made, most in the 18th century, and 24 survive. Today they are used for swimming in summer, and Počúvadlo, with a path round its shore, is one of the most visited.

Drive the last 10 km to Banská Štiavnica. The town and the mining monuments around it have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993, and in 1762 a mining academy was founded here. Leave the car in a paid car park near the New Castle (Nový zámok), a white tower with four corner bastions built between 1564 and 1571 as a lookout against the Turks. Below it, the Old Castle (Starý zámok) began as a 13th-century Romanesque church and was later turned into a fortress. Both belong to the Slovak Mining Museum; check their opening days before you go. Sleep in Banská Štiavnica.

Day 2 — Svätý Anton and Kremnica to Bojnice (118 km)

Start a few kilometres south-east of town at the manor of Svätý Anton, completed in 1750. It belonged to the Koháry family and then to the Coburgs; the last of them to live here was Ferdinand I, the former Tsar of Bulgaria. The rooms can be seen only on a guided tour, and there is a large hunting exhibition. The park is free. Check the opening hours before you go.

Then take the R1 to Žiar nad Hronom and road 65 north up into the hills to Kremnica, the gold town of the region. The town became a royal town in 1328, and its mint was founded the same year; it still makes Slovakia’s euro coins. Its minting halls can be visited on a guided tour on weekdays, and in summer at weekends too; book ahead on the mint’s website. On the hill above the square stands the Town Castle, a walled group of buildings around the Gothic Church of St Catherine, whose tower has reopened after repairs. The castle and the Museum of Coins and Medals are run by the National Bank of Slovakia; from October to May they open Tuesday to Saturday.

Drive about 6 km north to Kremnické Bane. On the hill by its little church of St John the Baptist, a stone marks the geographical centre of Europe, one of several places in Europe that claim the title. Then continue over the hills to Bojnice and sleep there.

Day 3 — Bojnice Castle and Trenčín back to Bratislava (195 km)

Bojnice Castle is first mentioned in 1113. Its fairy-tale look comes from Count Ján Pálffy, who rebuilt it between 1889 and 1910 after the castles of the Loire, the papal palace in Avignon and the Gothic castles of the Tyrol. Today it is a museum of the Slovak National Museum, seen on a guided tour; one tour also goes down into a natural cave 26 m under the fourth courtyard. It opens all year: every day in the main summer season, and outside it usually closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. The schedule changes with the season, so check the current hours at bojnicecastle.sk before you go. Slovakia’s National Zoo is right next to the castle.

Drive west to Trenčín, Slovakia’s European Capital of Culture in 2026. Its castle stands on a rock above the River Váh, and on the same rock a Roman inscription from 179 names the place Laugaricio. The inscription is best seen from the terrace of the Hotel Elizabeth (the former Hotel Tatra) below the castle. Park in the centre and walk up to the castle. Then take the D1 back to Bratislava.

Costs

Use the cost calculator to price fuel and nights for your dates. Slovakia has no motorway tolls for cars, only the e-známka: in 2026 a 10-day vignette costs €10.80, bought at eznamka.sk before you drive on the D1 or the R1. Budget for accommodation, fuel for about 489 km, car rental, parking in Banská Štiavnica, and entry to the castles in Banská Štiavnica, the manor at Svätý Anton, the museum in Kremnica, and Bojnice and Trenčín castles.

This trip is also in the free Roadcut trip planner: change the number of days and where you sleep each night, pick your vehicle to see the fuel cost, check the weather on the road, and open each day in Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze.