TATRA

“TATRA LOOP” TOUR 2003

September 16 through October 2

Initial itinerary of the following countries and places:

CZECH REPUBLIC: Prague, Brno and Olomouc
POLAND: Krakow, Wieliczka and Zakopane
SLOVAKIA: Tatra Mountains and Bratislava
AUSTRIA: Vienna

(NOTE: a detailed itinerary will be sent one month before departure)

September 16, Tuesday (Day 1) Los Angeles to Prague

The group will depart in the evening from LAX on Lufthansa Airlines.

September 17, Wednesday (Day 2) Prague

Check-in the hotel - Orientation meeting and welcome dinner at the hotel.

September 18, Thursday (Day 3) Prague

After breakfast at the hotel, you will have a choice of exploring Prague on your own or joining a guided 3-hour morning tour of the city. This tour will start at the Strahov Monastery, and continue on to Loretto Square for a view of the Cernin Palace and the Loretto. Next stop will be at Castle Square, which is lined with numerous imposing buildings, the Schwarzenberg Palace, the Martinic Palace, the Archbishop’s Palace, and the Sternberk Palace. Next we will enter the Prague Castle for a view of St. Vitus Cathedral, the St. George’s Basilica, and the Golden Lane. We will then backtrack to walk down on Nerudova street to end the tour at the “Little Quarter” square after visiting the towering Church of St. Nicholas in Malá Strana. After lunch the tour participants will enjoy the walk over the famous Charles Bridge, and on to the Old Town Square. The rest of the day you can do some more sightseeing or go on shopping and/or attending one of the many concerts, operas, theater performances, shows etc. taking place everyday all-year-round.

September 19, Friday (Day 4) Prague

After breakfast at the hotel, you will have a choice of exploring Prague on your own or joining a guided 3-hour morning tour of the city. This tour will cover the Belvedere with its Singing Fountain, the Royal Gardens, Jan Palach Square, with the Rudolfinum and the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles’ University, the Jewish quarter (“Josefov”) with the very interesting Old Jewish Cemetery and the Old-New Synagogue, Paris Street, the birthday house of Franz Kafka, the Old Town Square, the historic Estates Theater, and the Bethlehem Chapel. The tour will end at the National and Laterna Magika Theaters on National street.
In the afternoon and evening there will be the same choice of activities.

September 20, Saturday (Day 5) Prague

After breakfast at the hotel, you will have a choice of exploring Prague on your own or joining a guided 3-hour morning tour of the city. This last tour will start at Republic Square and cover the Municipal House, the Powder Tower and Wenceslas Square, to end in Vyšehrad, the site of the Romanesque St. Martin’s Rotundas and the Cemetery-Pantheon, where many Czech Personalities are buried.
In the afternoon and evening there will be the same choice of activities.

September 21, Sunday (Day 6) Prague to Brno

After breakfast at the hotel, you will board a de-luxe motorcoach for the 3-hour ride to Brno. After the hotel check-in, there will be time for visiting the town and the attractions of your choice, such as the Spilberk Castle (the “Prison of the Nations”), the Capuchin Crypt, the Mendel Museum, the Janáček Theater, and the Moravian Museun.

September 22, Monday (Day 7) Brno to Krakow

After breakfast at the hotel, the motorcoach will take you first to Olomouc for a short tour of the town and lunch. In the afternoon the tour will proceed to the Czech-Polish frontier and to its final destination, Krakow, where the group will lodge for three nights.

September 23, Tuesday (Day 8) Krakow

This day should be spent visiting the Wawel with an English-speaking guide in the morning.
The afternoon can be spent at and around the Rynek, the huge market square, for sightseeing and/or shopping.

September 24, Wednesday (Day 9) Krakow

The motorcoach will be at your disposal for a highly recommended morning visit of the Salt Mines of Wieliczka.
In the afternoon the tour participants interested in history will have the motorcoach at their disposal for a visit to the infamous concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

September 25, Thursday (Day 10) Krakow to Tatra Mountains

The tour will resume and make a stop in Zakopane, Poland’s most famous mountain resort. After lunch and a visit of the town, the motorcoach will head for the Polish-Slovak border and then circle around the Tatra Mountains to reach the final destination of the day, Tatranská Lomnica, where the group will lodge for three nights in a beautiful Swiss-style 4-star hotel/resort at the foot of the highest mountain peak.

September 26, Friday (Day 11) Tatra Mountains

Today’s tour will head first for Kežmarok, a town with a rich history dating back to the Upper Stone Age. It will then proceed to town of Stará L’ubovña, which has a castle that houses a historical museum as well as an impressive open air folk architecture museum. The motorcoach will then head north and traverse the Spišská Magura region to reach the Pieniny National Park. In this park - currents permitting – it is possible to run the Dunajec river rapids from Cervení Kláštor to Szczawnica on wooden rafts, skillfully steered by experienced local Gorals, a unique attraction in Europe.
In the evening, a Goral Music ensemble will play at a camp-fire session while goulash or ram roasts on a spit are being prepared.

September 27, Saturday (Day 12) Tatra Mountains

On this second day in the Tatra Mountains we will first head south-east to the town of Levoča, the best preserved medieval town in Slovakia, by some considered the jewel of the Spiš historic territory. It was in Levoča’s Evangelical Lycée where The lightnings over the Tatras was sung, to later become the national anthem of the Slovak Republic; and its Church of St. Jakub boasts a 60-foot high main altar which is one of the largest Gothic carved altars known and probably the tallest of its kind in the world. The town’s main source of income is the textile industry.
We will then proceed to the next main town east of Levoča, Spišské Podhradie to visit the nearby Spiš Castle, the largest in Slovakia, which has been on the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage Monuments since 1993.
The tour will now head west for a short stop in the city of Poprad, the “Gateway to the Tatras,” being the main road and rail junction in the area. From Poprad the tour will head north to the town of Starý Smokovec, the main Slovak tourist center below the High Tatras.
After a short visit of the latter town, the motorcoach will return to the hotel in Tatranská Lomnica.

September 28, Sunday (Day 13) Tatra Mountains to Bratislava

Before leaving the beautiful Tatra Mountains area we will be visiting the village of Strbské Pleso, an altitude resort on the shore of the lake by the same name, from which there are magnificent views northward of the Tatra peaks.
The road to Bratislava will now follow for the most part the Vah River and its beautiful valley, dotted with quaint villages, historical towns and ruins of castles, some being restored, as in Trenčin, where a Latin inscription of A.D. 179 on the castle rock records a victory of the Roman legion stationed there over a Germanic tribe.
The tour of the day will end in the Slovak Capital of Bratislava for a 2-night stay in a centrally located 4-star hotel.

September 29, Monday (Day 14) Bratislava

The day will be spent sightseeing in the Capital of the Slovak Republic. Of particular interest, among many other sights, are the Bratislava Castle, offering a superb view of much of the city below, the SNP Bridge over the Danube River, the Roland Fountain and the Old Town Hall in the Main Square of the Old Town, the Primatial Palace which houses the Muncipal Art Gallery as well as the historic Hall of Mirrors and famous tapestries, the Franciscan Church, the St. Michael Gate, the Pharmacy at the Sign of the Red Crayfish, and the Grassalkowich Palace.

September 30, Tuesday (Day 15) Vienna

After crossing the border with Austria and a short motorcoach ride, the group will lodge in the heart of the historic center for the last two days of the tour. From such central location a stone’s throw from St. Stephen’s Cathedral, you will be able to cover on foot many of the culturally and historically interesting sights of the Austrian Capital, such as the Imperial Palace, the Spanish Riding School, the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Fine Arts, the State Opera House, the Old City Hall, the Jewish Museum and the Old City Hall.
You will also enjoy strolling along the nearby pedestrians-only Kartner Strape, Singer Strape and the famous Graben.

October 1, Wednesday (Day 16) Vienna

The morning should be spent visiting the splendid Schönbrunn Castle. The afternoon will be for more sightseeing, strolling or shopping, according to one’s interest. On the last evening of the tour there will be a farewell dinner with Old-Vienna show in the quaint, world-famous wine village of Grinzing.

October 2, Thursday (Day 17) Vienna to Los Angeles

The group will be transferred to the Vienna Airport for the morning flight home on Lufthansa Airlines, arriving the same day in Los Angeles.