Považie — castles above the Váh and the Piešťany spa
Three castles above the Váh, the painted houses of Čičmany and the spa island in Piešťany — Považie takes five days in a motorhome. The route follows a single axis along the river, so the drives stay short and most of the day is left for walking. Trenčiansky hrad can easily fill half a day, Čachtický hrad has to be climbed on foot, and the Kúpeľný ostrov in Piešťany is explored on foot or by bike. If you fancy a detour into the mountains, take the Rajec valley up to Čičmany, where log cottages stand painted with white ornaments.
From Prague you drive via Brno and Uherské Hradiště, cross the border at Starý Hrozenkov, and just past Drietoma the Váh valley opens up in front of you. You reach Trenčín in the afternoon, so there is still time for a first walk below the castle rock and around the main square. The campsite lies on an island between an arm of the Váh and the Kočkov canal, with a view of the castle.
The castle rises directly above the centre and a visit can easily fill half a day — Matúš Tower, the Louis Palace and the Well of Love. Carved into the rock below the castle is a Roman inscription from the year 179, commemorating the victory of a Roman legion over the Germanic tribes during the Marcomannic Wars; the tourist information centre will tell you where and when it can be seen. Admission and opening hours are published on the castle website, and summer weekends tend to be busy. The afternoon suits a coffee in the centre or a ride along the cycle path beside the Váh.
Heading north, it pays to take the longer but comfortable route via Považská Bystrica and Rajecké Teplice — the direct mountain road over Zliechov is narrow, twisting and unpleasant in a motorhome. In Čičmany you will find log houses painted with white geometric ornaments; the lower part of the village has been a heritage reserve of folk architecture since 1977 and Radenov dom holds an exhibition about life in the village. On the way back you can stop at Manínska tiesňava, a limestone gorge with an easy path along its floor. Take your overnight stop right there.
Beckov stands on a limestone crag above the village and has been a ruin since the fire of 1727, visible from a long way off; you park down by the church and a surfaced but uneven path leads up. It is open daily from April to September, with the last entry half an hour before closing time. Čachtický hrad can only be reached on foot — about half an hour up from Višňové, a little longer from Čachtice. Outside July and August it is mainly open at weekends and closed on Mondays, so check your date in advance; restoration work is also under way at the castle. The car park below the castle is small and the road up to it narrow, so in a motorhome head straight for the car park in the village. In the evening you move on towards Piešťany.
In the morning you cross the Kolonádový most — a glazed pedestrian bridge by the architect Emil Belluš from the 1930s, with a bronze crutch-breaker standing at its entrance, the symbol of the Piešťany spa. The Kúpeľný ostrov is a pedestrian spa zone, so the motorhome stays at the campsite and you set off on foot or by bike around the loop along the Sĺňava reservoir. After lunch you head back home via Trnava and Brno.
Slovakia, vehicles up to 3.5 t: an electronic vignette is compulsory on motorways and expressways and is bought for the registration plate (eznamka.sk) — ten days costs roughly €10.80, thirty days €17.10 and a year €90. Vehicles over 3.5 t do not buy a vignette at all; they fall under electronic tolling charged per kilometre driven through an on-board unit, which has to be collected and registered before you enter the country (emyto.sk). The same split applies in Czechia: an electronic vignette up to 3.5 t, distance-based tolls above 3.5 t. There is no toll tunnel, mountain road or ferry on the route, so budget only for parking below the castles — around €1 an hour or €5 a day in Beckov, and about €3 per car below Čachtický hrad.
Autocamping na ostrove, Trenčín — on an island in the Váh with a view of the castle rock, pitches for motorhomes, caravans and minibuses, electric hook-ups, open seasonally from roughly May to mid-September · Camping Manínska tiesňava, Považská Bystrica (Záskalie) — right at the entrance to the gorge, about 25 pitches for tents and caravans, 16 A electric hook-ups, open in season from May to September · Camping Pullmann, Banka near Piešťany — beside the cycling loop around the Sĺňava reservoir and the Váh, restaurant on site, season from roughly mid-April to mid-October
You spend the nights at campsites and on designated pitches; wild camping is banned in Slovakia's protected areas and Manínska tiesňava is a national nature reserve. Neither in Trenčín nor in Piešťany will a motorhome fit into an ordinary car park in the centre, but both local campsites are within walking distance of it, so you can leave the vehicle standing all day. The campsites along the route only run in season, roughly from May to September, so outside it check both your overnight stop and the castle opening times by phone in advance.
Autocamping na ostrove in Trenčín has a drinking-water point and a chemical toilet disposal point. Camping Manínska tiesňava offers, besides drinking water, a chemical toilet disposal point and a separate waste-water drain, which makes it a good place for a full service before the drive home. Camping Pullmann near Piešťany has electric hook-ups and a place to empty waste water. Filling stations with LPG and servicing can be found along the main road through Trenčín and Piešťany.
Adria Compact
Narrow village roads lead up to Beckov, Čachtice and Čičmany, and you park on small areas below the castles, so the shorter low-profile layout of the Adria Compact gets you where a longer vehicle has to reverse out. At the same time it has a full bathroom, which counts over four nights at campsites and daily walks uphill.
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