Slovakia has great natural beauty. The north is forrested and mountainous and has great hiking and skiing possibilities. The countryside is dotted with castles that remind the visitor of the attacks the Slovaks suffered from Tartar invasions.

 Velka Fatra Mountains by Martin Hrouzek

Situated in the heart of central Europe and bordered by five different states, Slovakia offers a unique perspective on the old Eastern bloc, sure to confound all expectations. Slovakia is one of the two member-states of the former Czechoslovakian Federation. At the beginning of 1993 the two countries became independent nations, a split engineered by the two post-Communist governments that emerged from the revolution. It has widely been regarded as a peaceful and inevitable transition, which enjoyed the universal consent of Czech and Slovak civilians. The Velvet Revolution - the most peaceful and swift of the revolts that shook eastern Europe in 1989 - has given the Western traveller unprecedented opportunities to see this fascinating country, and the naturalist a chance to explore a country about whose ecology so little is known in Britain.