We had a good holiday in Slovakia.
The size of the house etc. was as expected.
In general, the communication before and during the stay was fine. However, we were a little disappointed by several things that we would have liked to have known about beforehand:
-The parking options, as we had to pay to park near the house. We therefore parked about a 10-minute walk from the house, in order to park for free. It was difficult to find out if there were other places closer to the house where we could park for free.
-The 1st floor of the house (which we had not expected to exist) was rented out through
booking.com, which meant that during almost our entire stay there were people, who had access to the garden. The stairs to the 1st floor were outside, but right by the covered terrace, which we enjoyed using. This meant that we could constantly expect people to come and go. Including cleaning staff. This made the use of the entire home less relaxed. Had we known this, we would not have approved the exchange. We were first made aware of this when we were on our way down there.
- The family gets a visit from a homeless person who comes and gets food every now and then. (Very nice of them!) They hadn't told us that. So when he stood there ringing the doorbell and calling/looking in through the window, it was a bit of an unpleasant experience. Especially for the children, who were scared by him.
We know that cleaning and preparation before a home exchange is of very different standards. But we appreciate that you can see that the host family has thought about making the house welcoming. For example, it would have been preferable for the trash cans to be emptied throughout the house and for a slightly cleaner refrigerator.
Our children loved the bikes, scooters and trampoline in the garden. There were lots of toys and a fun swing in the living room.
In general, there were many fun details in their home, which clearly showed, that it was built with the heart and not just a standard house. It was delicious to have fresh tomatoes and apricots in the garden. On the hottest days, it was nice to have air condition in the house.
The house was within walking distance of the city center and shopping opportunities. There is a nice little kiosk on the other side of the road, which was nice for picking up small stuffs.
There was a pizzaria “Bon Giorno” that made good pizzas. We didn’t use any other places to eat in the city. The city center offered an online “treasure hunt” that started and ended at the tourist information. It guided us around the entire city center. There was a nice market in the city on Thursday and Friday mornings.
We used the beach by the lake in Senec - about 25 minutes drive from the house. It was a nice place.
Bratislava was a 35 minute train ride away. It was easy. There was a busstop with a bus to and from the train station very close to the house.