Winter is just around the corner. Sports fans will soon be able to ski and snowboard again on the sunny side of the Tatras in Slovakia.

The mountains guarantee excellent views and skiing conditions on well-prepared slopes in Slovakia's largest skiing area. The Slovak Tatras offer some major skiing resorts such as Jasna in the Low Tatras, and Tatranska Lomnica, Stary Smokovec and Strbske Pleso in the High Tatras.

"We are just completing a huge investment project worth 10 million euros that will considerably expand the facilities we offer to skiers coming to Tatranska Lomnica," says TLD brand manager Juraj Chovanak. "One of the largest Slovak developers has invested in building broad and safe ski trails and lifts here. The new runs will be 60 meters wide and will have a total length of 4.5 kilometers. As a result, we will be able to double the number of skiers. Thanks to new snow-making technology, people will be able to ski on the 'Slovak glacier' until May."

In the 2008/2009 season the Slovak Tatra Skipass offers:

• more than 50 kilometers of ski runs,
• 28 lifts, eight chairlifts, three gondola lifts, one funicular railway, and five ski resorts,
• four fun parks for children (Fun Park on Hrebienok),
• apres-ski bars, snow attractions, night tobogganing on a lit-up trail of 2.6 kilometers,
• accommodation close to ski slopes,
• excellent conditions on red and blue carving runs,
• broad blue runs for beginners from the Start station above Tatranska Lomnica,
• black run for advanced skiers from Lomnicky Pass, the highest located-2,192 meters above sea level-and steepest run in Slovakia,
• new aerial lift for four passengers with a capacity of 2,400 people per hour,
• comfortable gondola lifts to the Start and Skalnate Pleso stations.

After skiing it is worth visiting the town of Poprad, 20 kilometers from the slopes, to relax in AquaCity, the winner of the World Travel Award for the most environment-friendly spa complex in the world.

AquaCity offers:

• swimming in hot-spring pools with waterfalls, slides and whirlpools,
• sophisticated pools with a romantic atmosphere: Blue Diamond and Blue Sapphire pools with sound and light effects, laser shows, and stimulating massage whirlpools,
• Vital World spa center: inhalation and relaxation rooms, saunas, a solarium, snow cave, body building gyms,
• two three-star and four-star hotels in the complex (AquaCity Seasons and Mountain View), bars and a restaurant,
• Olympic-size swimming pool of 50 meters,
• business and conference rooms for 350 people.

Barbara Deręgowska