5 Days in Jasná

Biela Púť, at about 1,117 m, is the main base of the north side. The A6 gondola to Priehyba starts here, the customer center sits beside it, and the Maxiland area for children and first-timers has three magic carpets and a four-seat chairlift to Koliesko. Tickets load onto a chip card or work by the QR code on the ticket.

Ease in on the Biela Púť run (number 13 on the piste map), the one the resort lights for evening skiing. A beginner should stay at this level for the morning instead of riding up the mountain on day one; a confident skier takes one warm-up lap and goes.

The A6 gondola from Biela Púť to Priehyba went into service in December 2022. It had been planned since 2009, building began in August 2021, and its 15-seat cabins replaced the older Twinliner lift. The resort built it to move skiers toward the funitel much faster.

Priehyba, at about 1,342 m, is where the day branches: the funitel to Chopok starts here, a six-seat chair goes down to Záhradky, and the Funibar sits beside the station under a glass dome with views of Chopok on a clear day. Have a hot drink here before the summit.

The funitel from Priehyba opened on 1 December 2012, and a cable car from the south followed on 20 December, which rejoined the two sides after fifteen years. It lands at the Rotunda, the top station at 2,004 m. Chopok itself is 2,024 m, the third highest peak of the Low Tatras, with views of the High Tatras, Liptov and the Hron valley. The weather station beside the lift has recorded an annual mean of -1.1 degrees Celsius and an average wind of 9.3 m/s since 1954, with a gust of 51 m/s in 1988.

The Rotunda restaurant has a 360 degree view, a fireplace and about 100 seats, with a fast-food bistro below. Stop for the view and a warm-up, then ski the Vrcholová run toward Luková if the wind allows.

Luková, at about 1,670 m, was the middle station of the original Chopok lift. The Von Roll chairs ran from Koliesko to Luková from 1949, and on to the summit on 29 August 1954, with passengers sitting sideways to the direction of travel. The system was retired between 1994 and 1998. The old station was rebuilt as a restaurant that keeps the original machinery as its interior, with a preserved tower and a chair outside.

That is the reason to stop: a mountain lunch inside a museum piece, just above the Petra Vlhová run. The resort does not publish the menu or hours, so treat it as a simple lunch and check it is open.

Petra Vlhová was born in Liptovský Mikuláš in 1995, won the World Cup overall title in 2021 and the Olympic slalom gold medal in 2022, the first Slovak to do either. The run from Luková down to Koliesko carries her name, the former piste number 1 renamed for her. It is a red on the piste map and the FIS race piste of the mountain.

On the weekend of 23-24 January 2027 the women's World Cup returns here: a giant slalom on Saturday and a slalom on Sunday, starting at Luková and finishing at Koliesko. Public tickets cover both days and children under 6 enter free. If your week overlaps, expect fan zones at Koliesko and Priehyba and crowded lifts.

Happy End is the après-ski anchor of the north side, a wooden restaurant near the lower gondola station with a large terrace facing Chopok and an upstairs dining room. It serves pizza and regional dishes, and in the evenings it is the resort's club. The AUDI Crystal Bar at the bottom of the Biela Púť run is the other standard.

Jasná is a valley of hotels at a lift base, not a town, so après-ski means these two places and the hotel bars, and the big nights are the opening weekend, New Year's Eve and the World Cup. For an evening in a real town, day 3 takes you to Liptovský Mikuláš.

The Kamenná chata, called Kamienka by regulars, is the stone hut a few steps below the Rotunda at about 2,000 m. It began as a hostel for the men who built the Chopok lift, and it is now the third highest mountain hut in Slovakia, with a restaurant of about 100 seats and a dormitory of about 20 beds for ski tourers.

Start the south day here: step outside, look at the slopes below and decide whether the wind lets you ski the black runs. The hut has no reliable piped water, so water is bought.

Kosodrevina, at about 1,488 m, is the mid-station of the south side, where the cable car from Chopok, the Krupová gondola and the Srdiečko chairlift meet. From the summit the direct run down is black, and the easy way out leads west toward Dereše with flat stretches that are a walk for snowboarders.

The honest advice: if you are not comfortable on a black, ski the 3.3 km blue Panoráma toward Predné Dereše or take the A2 cable car down to Kosodrevina. If you are, the upper Zjazdárska run is the steep way down and one reason to cross to this side.

Predné Dereše, at about 1,646 m, sits on the long easy Panoráma run between Chopok and Kosodrevina. The resort sends beginners and committed freeriders to the broad powder plains of the south, while advanced freeriders prefer the steep couloirs of the north. A freeride zone starts here, and a drag lift serves Zadné Dereše.

The Panoráma runs are the best easy skiing on the mountain: long, gentle blues for practice, photos or the family.

Kosodrevina is a refurbished self-service restaurant with 80 seats inside and 120 on the terrace, near the top of the Srdiečko chairlift. It serves hearty food from the local offering, and part of it is the Lift Operator's Room, a small museum about the history of the chairlift.

It is a quick lunch beside the slopes. For a sit-down plate of bryndzové halušky, the dumplings with sheep cheese, wait for Chata Koliesko on day 4.

Krupová, at about 1,084 m, is the base of the south side: the gondola to Kosodrevina starts here, a Maxiland carpet is next to it, and a 520-space car park charges 10 EUR a day. Srdiečko, just up the road, has the chair to Kosodrevina and the TMR Hotel Srdiečko. The Panoráma Srdiečko-Krupová and Kosodrevina-Srdiečko runs are easy blues down to either base.

Buses reach the south side from Brezno, and a Horehronie ski bus serves it in winter. By car from the north it is a long way round, so use the lifts.

Chata Zázvor is a newly built lodge at about 1,160 m in Trangoška, opposite the P2 car park and at the start of the trail to Ďumbier. It has rooms, a restaurant and bar, and a ski-touring rental. The restaurant is open Monday to Friday 8:00 to 21:00 and Saturday and Sunday 7:00 to midnight, with burgers, soups, hot meals and a hot breakfast.

It is the south side's answer to après-ski: low-key and local. If you sleep on the north side, make it a coffee and be back on the lifts to Chopok in time, because dinner here means the 78 km drive home.

Vrbické pleso is the largest natural lake in the Low Tatras, a glacial lake at 1,113 m in the upper valley, 115 m long and 62 m wide with a maximum depth of 8 m. A moraine holds it, left behind when the glacier retreated from the north slopes of Chopok and Dereše.

It is about 500 m from Biela Púť and a good way to fill the hour before the cave opens. In winter expect a frozen, snowy pond rather than a viewpoint, so keep the visit short.

The Cave of Liberty, discovered in 1921, is the most visited show cave in Slovakia and part of its longest cave system. The traditional tour is 1,150 m long, takes 60 minutes and covers 913 steps and an 86 m height difference, through flowstone, an underground stretch of the Demänovka river and clear pools, at 6 to 7 degrees Celsius. The long tour (2,150 m, 24 EUR) leaves at 13:00 for at least 10 people.

The warning is the winter calendar. Tours leave at 9:30, 11:00, 12:30 and 14:00, but on 16 October the online calendar showed the cave open only until 15 November 2026. Last winter it was shut from mid-November to late December and ran Tuesday to Sunday from 2 January, so expect the same, but check the calendar first; if it is shut, the speleology museum in town is the fallback. The Demänovská Ice Cave nearby runs only from mid-May to September, and holds no ice.

The Lodenica is a hotel restaurant on the Váh embankment, about five minutes from the center, with traditional Slovak cuisine and an international touch, a daily menu and an à la carte menu. Look for bryndzové halušky, pirohy with sheep cheese or kapustnica if they are on that day's menu.

Hours and dishes were not published, so call ahead or check the website.

Liptovský Mikuláš was first mentioned in 1286, and the Church of St. Nicholas, first recorded in 1299, is the oldest building in town. It was a town of craft guilds, the shoemakers' guild is recorded in 1508, and in 1713 the outlaw Juraj Jánošík was condemned and executed here, the Slovak Robin Hood of legend. The 1848 Demands of the Slovak Nation were signed in the town, and the Janko Kráľ Museum on the main square has an exhibition on them.

Walk the square and the church, then pick one museum. The Janko Kráľ Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 to 18:00 and Sunday 10:00 to 12:00, the Liptov Gallery of Peter Michal Bohúň Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 to 17:00, and the Slovak Museum of Nature Protection and Speleology Monday to Friday 9:00 to 16:30 and weekends 10:00 to 16:30 (last entry 15:30), with an exhibition on the caves of Slovakia (about 7 EUR for adults, including the lookout tower).

Bešeňová is the thermal water park of Liptov, about 31 km from Biela Púť and 18 km from Liptovský Mikuláš. It has nine pools, four thermal and five with clear water, all open year-round. The thermal pools run at 28 to 30 degrees for swimming, 30 to 36 for relaxing, and two at 36 to 40 degrees, one with a pearl bath.

A hot pool is the right end to a ski week. In autumn the park was open Sunday to Thursday 10:00 to 20:00 and Friday and Saturday 10:00 to 21:00, with the pools closing 15 minutes earlier. TMR hotel packages include entry.

Lúčky, at 943 m, is the lowest station on the north side and the second way into it. A six-seat chair climbs to Vyhliadka, the Lúčky runs are easy, and a Maxiland carpet is here. The free Lúčky P4 car park (70 and 250 spaces) had a shuttle to Biela Púť at the opening event, and the P5 park-and-ride at Pavčina Lehota (450 spaces) is also free.

Use Lúčky as an alternative to Biela Púť, with no paid car park. Take the chair up, then the easy Turistická route toward Záhradky and the upper chairs.

From Záhradky, at 1,028 m, a six-seat chair climbs to Rovná Hoľa at 1,491 m, and from there an old two-seat chair continues to Konský Grúň at 1,843 m, the highest lift on the north side outside Chopok. The slope above is open and exposed, and the wind is real. The FIS Rovná Hoľa-Záhradky run (red) is a good long descent, and the FIS Konský Grúň-Rovná Hoľa is black.

The Ski Bar at Záhradky serves draught beer, hot Tatra tea and mulled wine, and is a good place to wait out weather.

Chata Koliesko is a family-run lodge right on the slope at 1,235 m, built in 1948 as a hostel for the workers of the Jasná-Luková cable car, damaged by fire in 2007 and reopened in December 2009. You can ski to the door. The restaurant serves traditional Slovak food, including bryndzové halušky, the national dish of potato dumplings with sheep cheese and bacon, and kapustnica, the sauerkraut soup.

This is the lunch to plan around. Order the halušky if you have not had them yet and give them time; it is a lodge, not a canteen.

The north side's blacks are short rather than long. Majstrovská, at the Zrkadlo drag lift above Otupné, is marked advanced on the map, Slalomák on the Záhradky side is the same, and the FIS run from Konský Grúň completes the set. In total the resort has six black runs and about 8 km of them.

Use them as a pair of fast laps, not a destination, and leave the rest of the afternoon for the freeride zones. By the resort's own numbers black is the smallest share of the area, so experts should expect to run out of runs before the week does.

Jasná lists 12 freeride zones off the Chopok ridge: steep couloirs in the north, powder plains in the south. By one rating, five zones are easy, six medium and one difficult. The Freeride Centre at Biela Púť, run by Tatry Motion, is the place to ask about guides.

The rules that matter are simple. Check the avalanche level on the boards at the lift stations or in the free mountain rescue app, which also has an SOS light and GPS location. Carry a transceiver, a probe and a shovel and know how to use them, or go with a guide. Mountain rescue is on 18300 and the Biela Púť medical center on +421 911 403 985.

Fresh Track puts you on groomed slopes before the lifts open to the public. In 2025/26 it ran from 7:15 to 9:30 on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday depending on snow. Guests took the A6 from Biela Púť and met the ski guide at 7:10, with coffee from 7:00 at the Crystal Bar, and ended with a breakfast at the Rotunda at 2,004 m, served from 8:30 to 9:30. The price was from 79 EUR online, 87 EUR at the ticket office, plus a day ski pass surcharge.

It is for skilled skiers, and it is the one time the corduroy is empty. Ask whether it runs in 2026/27.

After breakfast, walk the last few meters to the summit of Chopok from the Rotunda. It takes a few minutes and can be done in ski boots. Ďumbier, the highest peak of the Low Tatras at 2,043 m, is roughly an hour's walk along the ridge, which is also the way to the Chata M. R. Štefánika.

In winter the ridge is mountain terrain, not a promenade: wind, cold and avalanche risk apply. Go as far as you feel safe, then come back.

Brhliská, at about 1,423 m, is the top of the eight-seat Grand Jet cabin lift from the Grand hotel. The ski cross course here is free to enter and open daily in the season, with slalom and giant slalom gates and cross features. The Magical Forest, an Alice in Wonderland world for children, is also here.

The long Chaletová run starts here too, the run the resort lights at night. Ski it once in daylight to know where the turns are.

Eat before the lit runs, not after: the kitchen closes at 20:00. The Mikulášska chata is a hotel in Jasná with a restaurant of about 60 seats, a terrace for 30 with a view of Chopok and a fireplace room, open daily from 12:00 with home-style cooking from quality local ingredients. After 17:00 it asks you to call (+421 918 371 702).

Ask what the kitchen does with bryndza, the sheep cheese, and zemiakové placky, the potato pancakes.

Chaletová, number 10 on the piste map, is a 2.7 km blue that the resort calls the longest floodlit piste in Central Europe outside the Alps. Vrbická (10a), Padák (10b, a 570 m red that was new in 2025/26) and the Biela Púť runs (13 and 13a) are lit too, 5.7 km in all. The lifts are two cable cars, including the eight-seat Grand Jet, and two sledge lifts.

Hours and days depend on snow and are not fixed, so call the information center. A daytime pass does not include it: the resort sold a separate evening ticket (27 EUR online) and includes it in season passes. Parking at Biela Púť and Otupné was free during evening skiing.