Arriving the small industrial town of Ruzomberok quickly makes you realise that this is not the top-spot of beauty in Slovakia. Even though the town have a few highlights it’s a place better used as jump-off point for skiing or hiking in the Low Tatra Mountains, the most frequented and popular mountain area in the country.

A year-round-open ski lift near the centre of Ruzomberok takes you some 600 meters up to the forest covered mountains and a spectacular and beautiful landscape. It is perfect for a couple of hours walking and it also adds some extra spice to the hiking, knowing that the forests are filled with brown bears, wildcats and other animals, probably checking you out as you walk by.

It is here you find the small mountain village of Vlkolinec, with its small, 15th century log houses. During WWII a third of them were burnt to the ground but 45 of them still stand and is remarkably well preserved. Mind you, this it’s not a museum but a living village. So if you decide to have a coffee or a sandwich in a small café you more or less visit one of the families in their home gardens.

My visit to Vlkolinec was an absolute perfect one but that also included a full-day mountain walk. You can easily visit the village by car or taxi but to get a true experience you have to include the nature and breathe the fresh air of the Low Tatra Mountains. Its first then you realise that, above all, beauty lies in simplicity…