Mestská knižnica mesta Piešťany

Mestská knižnica mesta Piešťany


Where to go with kids in Piešťany and near

Region and Links / Piešťany and the surrounding area / Where to go with kids in Piešťany and near

Not only do patients and guests of the spa visit Piešťany, but so too do families with children who want to spend a few days resting and relaxing in our town. Apart from taking strolls in the streets and parks, they can spend time doing many interesting activities. The town and its surroundings offer visits to museums and natural attractions, as well as opportunities to enjoy the atmosphere of an adrenaline filled experience.

Culture

Museum of Military History

In September 2004, the Museum of Military History in Piešťany opened up a permanent exposition entitled “Weaponry of the Czechoslovak Army 1945 - 1992". In three halls and in the museum exterior, visitors can see more than 400 individual museum objects - weaponry, equipment and army technology. The exterior part of the exhibition consists of artillery, engineering, tank and armored machinery, as well as aircraft and anti-aircraft technologies.

Museum of Balneology

This museum specializes in the history of spas and spa care in Slovakia and features a generous exhibition of historical objects, archeological discoveries, first written documents, as well as architectural artifacts. A great attraction offered to children is a preserved peasant house with a straw roof and complete with furnishings. Archeology enthusiasts will be pleased to find mammoth tusks, a copy of the Venus of Moravany, and a miniaturized replica of a grave belonging to a Slav prince. Apart from the main exposition, the Museum of Balneology also administers the Ivan Krasko Memorial Room on the Váh River waterfront and the Dr. Liska Villa on Štefánikova Street.

Private Ethnographic Museum in Krakovany

10 km away from the town of Piešťany lies the village of Krakovany with a private ethnographic museum. The museum exhibition documents the life of people not only from Krakovany but also the surrounding villages. The farmyard part of the exhibition hosts tools and equipment used in the past in farming, food production, and in various jobs around the house and farm. In the residential part, visitors can find not only the usual furnishings, but also an impressive collection of ceremonial textiles, beautiful folk costumes, and bobbin lace. The type of bobbin lace made - in the past and in the present - by women from Krakovany and its vicinity is unique on a worldwide scale. A large part of the museum and overall attention is dedicated specifically to this delicate art form.

Miniature Park in Podolie

In the past, there used to be approximately 150 castles in Slovakia. A handful of them have been restored, quite a few of them had been reduced to ruins, and many of them disappeared completely. A number of these castles were still thriving only three to five hundred years ago, ruled by mighty feudal lords, nowadays remembered in legends and tales. If you wish to see medieval castles in their former glory, pay a visit to the grounds of the elementary school in the village of Podolie.

Great Moravian Magnate Court in Ducové

The Court is an important archeological site, only 6 kilometers away from Piešťany. This Great Moravian court is a fortified estate of a land magnate from the 9th century with a chapel (rotunda) and living and farm quarters. The reconstructed court documents the beginnings of Slovak national history. Illustrated descriptions are provided on information boards located directly on site, the area is public.

City Library

The city library is a cultural, informational and educational institution which obtains, processes, protects and provides access to its book collection and provides library-related information services. Young and adult visitors may borrow books, view exhibitions, participate in creative workshops, and attend meetings with writers. A specific program of individual events is published on the library website.

Fontána Cinema

The Fontána Cultural and Social Centre contains a large cinema with 3D technology. Lists of available shows are available on billboards and posters around the town.

House of Arts

The House of Arts hosts concerts and other cultural and social activities, such as theatre performances, movie screenings, recordings of TV shows, congresses, and exhibitions.

Children playgrounds

Karibik

A. Hlinku Street, Piešťany is open on workdays, from 8.00 until 12.00 in the mornings and from 15.00 until 19.00 in the afternoons. It caters to children up to 6 years of age accompanied by adults.

Multifunctional playground with artificial grass on the grounds of the elementary school at the A. Trajan housing projects contains a basketball court, mini-soccer goals, as well as a volleyball and tennis court (net poles, lines). In the evening, it is illuminated by four halogen lamps. It is fenced by a one meter high barrier, with protective nets at both goal ends. The playground is open all day long - it serves the elementary school for PE classes in the mornings, sports clubs in early afternoons, and then it is available to the general public.

Other reconstructed playgrounds in the town: Trajanáčik Playground at the A. Trajan housing projects, Inčučuna Playground on Potočná Street, Spa Island playground, playground on Javorová Street, and playground behind the Fontána Cinema.

Indoor and Outdoor Swimming Pools

The course on the Spa Island in Piešťany was opened on 21 July 2004, on the anniversary of the opening of the first golf course on the Island, established 90 years before. The course provides another opportunity for quality free time activities in the town not only to professional golfers but also to other - current and possibly future - aficionados of this sport.

The Hotel Balnea Esplanade on the Spa Island boasts a luxurious water and sauna world with outdoor and indoor swimming pools with thermal water and several types of saunas.

Apart from these opportunities to enjoy thermal water, the right bank of the Váh River is home to several hotel facilities with their own pools with regular water. In the Hotel Sorea Sĺňava, you can find an indoor half-size (25 meters) Olympic pool; hotels Park, Magnólia, and Sandor Pavillon also open their smaller-sized swimming pools to the public, and Penzión Diana offers a heated outdoor pool..

Golf Course

The course on the Spa Island in Piešťany was opened on 21 July 2004, on the anniversary of the opening of the first golf course on the Island, established 90 years before. The course provides another opportunity for quality free time activities in the town not only to professional golfers but also to other - current and possibly future - aficionados of this sport.

Free time activities

Water Skiing in Ratnovce

The water skiing facility is located on the left bank of the Sĺňava Lake on the River Váh, near the village of Ratnovce. The water skiing tow area also provides slalom buoys, a jumping ramp, and a wakeboarding ramp.

Bayer Aviatik Club

For those who enjoy surging adrenaline and views from up above, the club offers sightseeing flights as well as tandem parachute jumps.

Sandor Cart

This rickshaw cart is a closed, man-pulled vehicle which was once used in Piešťany to transport spa guests from houses, hotels, and guest houses to their treatments and back. Nowadays, visitors can relive the experience and ride in a replica of the original rickshaw. It is available for rent at the Sandor Pavillon Hotel.

Piešťany Express

This tourist train cruises through the streets of Piešťany and the Spa Island. It stops at appointed stops where passengers can get on board or leave the train at will. A full circuit takes approximately 30 minutes. The train usually operates from mid-April until the end of October, with the exception of rainy or bad weather.

Horseback Riding

All equestrians and horseback riding fans can order riding lessons at the riding location beyond the Iron Bridge. Phone orders can be placed at the following contact numbers.

Boat Ride on the River Váh

A ship moored by the Colonnade Bridge is used for sightseeing trips on the River Váh and the Sĺňava dam lake. It is possible to choose from two cruises of either 55 or 85 minutes - the shorter one will take you to the Bird Island and back, whereas the longer one will take you on a circuit around the Bird Island, into the Ratnovce Bay, by the Drahovce Dam, to the Rybársky Dvor restaurant complex and back to the Bridge. Passengers are free to negotiate or order a stopover during the cruise. The ship also provides sale of refreshments.

Furman Restaurant

Should you feel like spending time away from the rush of the town in a beautiful mountainous environment, you can find it just a mere 5 kilometers away from Piešťany, at the Bacchus Villa turn off the road to Havran mountain pass. This is where the Furman Restaurant is located, living up to its waggoner heritage - the restaurant and its well-kept grounds are decorated with wagons, carts, and wheels, overflowing with flowers. The complex consists of, not only a restaurant serving traditional Slovak specialties, but also a wine cellar, a winter garden, and a seasonal summer terrace with an excellent view of a playground and a game sanctuary with fallow deer, roe deer, and horses. Your children will no doubt appreciate just how close the animals are and that they can simply watch or take pictures of them.

Zoo Farm Modrová

The Zoo Farm is home to all farm animals raised in New Zealand but also houses a sample of animals from all continents: Boer goats from Africa, Bactrian camels from Asia, Tasmanian kangaroos, emus from Australia, Scottish highland cattle from Europe, domesticated guanaco llamas from South America, Romney sheep native to New Zealand, American buffalo from North America, as well as crocodiles. All animals are kept in a natural environment where you can pet them or take pictures with them. The farm also boasts a rare specimen - a new addition to its kangaroo family, a white baby wallaby (an albino). The farm offers refreshments, resting areas in pavilions, a terrace, a camp fire, sun loungers, and generous views of beautiful natural scenery.

Rybárska Bašta Restaurant Bašovce

Do not forget to visit Rybárska Bašta in the village of Bašovce. Out in the open, on the bank of a fish pond, you can spend pleasant moments with your loved ones on a terrace with a dance floor, a private lounge, in the grass by the grill, or fishing. The extensive grounds of the fishing resort offer, not only opportunities for fishermen, but also pleasant walking paths and entertainment for children, including a trampoline and a playground. To get to the Rybárska Bašta Restaurant in Bašovce from Piešťany, drive in the direction of Veľké Orvište, at the centre of Veľké Orvište turn right in the direction of Pobedim, and once you get to Bašovce, take a right turn in the centre of the village. Navigation is made easier by road signs.

Natural and archaeological attractions

Thermal Ponds

The idea to build thermal ponds in the Spa Island Park occurred to the Bulgarian ex-tsar Ferdinand I of Coburg during a walk around the park with the former owner of the Spa, Imrich Winter. The ponds were constructed between 1928 and 1930 and became home to green water frogs, red-eared slider turtles, aquarium fish, and Japanese Koi carps. Ruling over the ponds is Victoria Regia – a water lily from tropical rainforests considered to be the largest and the most beautiful water lily in the world. Its flower lives for only 18 hours, and its bowl-shaped leaves float on the water and grow to a diameter of as large as 2 meters. In the ponds of the Piešťany Spa Park, the Victoria Regia lilies bloom from July to October.

Čertova Pec Cave

The “Devil’s Furnace” cave is located at the foot of the Nad Lipovcom Hill, approximately 8 km away from Piešťany, next to the road to Topoľčany, at an altitude of 253 m above sea level. It is a former cave dwelling from the Paleolithic era. It was inhabited by Neanderthal-type humans and it is the oldest known cave settlement in Slovakia. In 1981, it was declared a protected natural landmark. The cave is 27 meters long and accessible from both ends. You can reach the cave by a 3-minute walk along a marked path leading from a roadside restaurant located by the road between Piešťany and Radošina. Free admission.

Ruins of Castle Beckov

Towering above the village of Beckov are the massive ruins of a former border sentry castle, first mentioned in Anonymous’s Chronicle published between the 12th and 13th century. Each of its owners (Matthias Csak of Trenčín, the Ctibor family, and the Banfi family) carried out significant constructional alterations to the castle, the remnants of which - also due to a fire in 1729 - can be admired to this day as preserved ruins.

Ruins of Castle Čachtice

A walk up to the Čachtice Castle is one to be remembered. The first mention of the castle dates back to the 13th century when it was part of a chain of border sentry castles. Each of its owners enlarged and developed it until 1708 when it was seized by the armies of Ferenz Rakoczi and began falling into ruin. Nowadays, all that is left are ruins of the upper, center and lower castle with fortifications and fragments of renaissance attic gables and plaster. The castle of Čachtice was made famous by the blood-thirsty countess Elizabeth Bathory (1560 - 1614). The ruins are open to visitors.

Town and Spa Parks in Piešťany

The spa park spreads across the Spa Island from the Krajinská Street bridge to the outskirts of the golf course at its northern end. In the east, it is bordered by the bypass of the River Váh. Right across the river, on its right bank, is the town park. When the parks were established, numerous Asian and American species of trees found their way into their groves and this variability of species has been gradually and purposefully cultivated since. Most of this greenery thrives in its new environment and it is not rare for some of it to reach the ripe age of 150 years. In both parks tourists can find informational signs describing individual rare trees and the town park signs also describe the various species of birds living there.

Trenčín castle

It soars from the steep rock above the town of Trenčín. A famous sign carved into the castle rock proves that its origin stretches back to the Roman Empire. In the 11th century it was a royal guard castle. At the turn of the 14th century the castle belonged to Matúš Čák, who made various improvements. He built a residential palace and the Matúš tower, which still dominates to this day. The present day shape and appearance of the castle is due mostly to the additions made during the 14th and 15th centuries and the further building activity carried out by the Zápoľský family in the 16th century. At the end of 18th century the complex was destroyed by a fire, and since the 19th century there has been continual renovation and preservation work being done. Along with the aforementioned tower, the contemporary castle also consists of a complex of palaces. The legendary Well of Love has also been preserved, which, according to legend, was dug by the love-sick Omar with his bare hands, to free his love, Fatima, and to eventually buy her from the lord of the castle. The interior of the castle also houses many valuable, historical collections. It is 45 kilometers from Piešťany.