Happy Train is a tourist train that operates in Terchová all year long. (source: Ivana Adžić)
It was a rather cloudy Saturday morning – still, a hot summer day was ahead of us – as my Croatian friend Ivana parked her ageing Seat Ibiza outside an already hectic Lidl shop in Terchová, a resort town wedged into the valley that divides the scenic Malá Fatra mountain range to the south and the Kysuce Highlands to the north. I was slowly recovering from our 30-minute drive, after being steeped in fruit-flavoured vape fumes and the Heľenine Oči songs coming at me from the car’s speakers.
Eager to explore the town, we got out of Dragutin Tadijanović, as Ivana, a true book lover, has christened her car (for those unfamiliar with the name – as I was – Tadijanović was a notable Croatian poet), hit the popular store for nibbles, and ambled towards the neighbouring, rather conspicuous tourist information centre, Uteč Z Mesta (Get Out of Town), which is alongside the main road and the Varínka, the small river that runs through the valley.
It is the best place to start off and end a trip for several reasons.
Housed in the oldest brick building in downtown Terchová, visitors will almost always find bicycles and e-scooters for rent here, except in winter, when sledges replace the two-wheeled means of transport. It was a pleasant surprise to learn that they rent sledges for free, in addition to rucksacks, binoculars, baby carriers for hikers, and hiking poles! Hiring a regular bicycle or an e-bike at the centre costs between €7 and €40. (Another rental service in the town also provides e-bikes.) E-scooter rental is even cheaper.
Terchová has recently been connected with Žilina, a major city in northern Slovakia, by a 24-km cycle path with 18 bridges and several e-bike charging points along the way. Once you’re here, bicycles are a great way to move around this town of 4,000 people, and its 68 nearby settlements, many of them scattered through the surrounding hills. An interesting characteristic of their names is that each settlement refers to a family. The most famous one is U Jánošov, the family name linked to Juraj Jánošík, a local highwayman who lived in the 18th century and is regarded as a Slovak national hero.
A section of the new cycle path leading from the Žilina water reservoir in Žilina to the town of Terchová. (source: TASR - Daniel Stehlík)
People walk up to the Oravcové peak before a mass is held during the Cyril-Methodius Days in Terchová on July 5, 2023. (source: TASR - Daniel Stehlík)
It therefore comes as no surprise that many places in the town are named after Jánošík, including a local museum exhibition.
Terchová was once known as Kráľova Lúka (King’s Meadow). It is said that its founders believed a royal life would await them in the mountains. As time passed, and the sometimes difficult experience of highland life dawned, the village changed its name to Ťarchavá (Tough), which later evolved into Terchová.
The tourist information centre has a chill-out zone and a Jánošík’s Story escape room upstairs (are you starting to feel the Slovak hero’s omnipresence yet?), while the ground floor is occupied by the cosy little Folk Café stuffed with edible and non-edible souvenirs of all sorts, ranging from a pen in the shape of a shepherd’s axe to a can of radler bearing a print of Terchová. We were supposed to meet the owner, Marián Bardiovský, but had no idea what he looked like, so we started asking around.
“That’s me,” the Bratislava-born man smiled over the counter, while serving a small group of Czech visitors before showing us into a wide corridor to present a huge painted wall map by the entrance door and describe a bewildering array of hiking trips that Ivana and I could set out on from Terchová.
If only he had known that Ivana, a first-time visitor to the town, was not a hiker he could have saved himself some effort. But I loved his recommendations and cannot wait to go back – using public transport next time.
It’s extremely easy to do, as it happens.
A case in point: if you are coming from Bratislava, you can take the 5:27 train to Žilina and then (assuming the train is on time) hop on the 8:00 bus from the city to Terchová to reach the village before 9:00. Or take the 6:22 train. You will arrive in the village at about the same time.
Happy Train
From the tourist information centre, Bardiovský instructed us to head over to the large parking lot beneath the 7.5-metre-high statue of Jánošík (there he is again!), near the Hotel Gold. From there, where he also runs a small souvenir stand, Bardiovský operates a fairytale-style red motorised ‘train’ – the Happy Train – that provides hour-long tours of the village.
“Our mission is to make people happy,” he explains when we ask about the name.
The statue of Juraj Jánošík was created in 1988 by Ján Kulich. (source: SME - Jozef Jakubčo)
The tourist information centre Uteč Z Mesta in downtown Terchová. (source: Ivana Adžić)
To make people even happier, passengers receive a discount coupon with each train ticket they purchase. The coupon can later be used at Bardiovský’s stand or the tourist centre to buy a souvenir or a cup of coffee for less. As for the ride, it is educational and entertaining at the same time. The train might be the only place that you get to hear about a camel that reportedly wished to stay in Terchová, or a dinosaur called Terchosaurus, which allegedly escaped from a local dinosaur park.
On our trip, the train also had to make two extra stops due to roadworks but our guide, Katka, quickly made up a story about the workers trying to dig out an old treasure from below the road to keep us entertained.
The train has several stops, where visitors can hop on and off at various points in and around Terchová, such as the Hotel Diery, Štefanová and the Vrátna Dolina valley. The train ride is thus a huge time saver. People are told to hail the train if they want to get on. It only refuses passengers if it’s already full. And if it is nowhere in sight, tourists can ring a phone number to find out if it is coming.
At the Hotel Diery, in the town’s Biely Potok neighbourhood, is a traditional Slovak restaurant, Terchovská Koliba Diery, where swarms of people start their trips to Jánošíkove Diery – the inauspiciously named “Jánošík's Holes”. With more than 20 waterfalls, chains, ladders and three different hiking trails – Dolné Diery, Nové Diery and Horné Diery – this is one of the top attractions in Terchová. Hikers, if they do not want to come back to the starting point, can end their adventure in another neighbourhood, Štefanová. From here, walkers frequently set out to hike up to Veľký Rozsutec, a dramatic nearby 1,609-metre peak. Legend has it that Jánošík hid treasure near the top.
At Vrátna, another stop on the train’s itinerary, tourists can first take a modern cable car and then continue on foot to the peaks of Chleb, Veľký Kriváň – the highest peak in the Malá Fatra (1,709 m) – Poludňový Grúň and Stoh, or just enjoy a meal and the view from the terrace of the self-service Panorama restaurant in the upper cable car station Chleb, which is what we did for a while on comfortable loungers before a rather chill wind reminded us that we should head back to the village.
Veľký Kriváň in the background. (source: TASR - Daniel Stehlík)
Chleb. (source: TASR - Daniel Stehlík)
The Chleb cable car station. (source: TASR - Daniel Stehlík)
Heart of Terchová
In the centre, and close to the tourist information centre, we decided to grab our lunch – we went for bryndzové halušky, a hearty Slovak meal – at a tiny hotel called Kúzelná Špajza, which can be translated “Magical Pantry”. They even offer massages in the pantry, which I am eager to try out one day.
All over Terchová, visitors can find plenty of hotels to stay at, such as the Drevenice Terchová Resort in between the Jánošík statue and the local amphitheatre, which hosts the annual folk festival Jánošíkove Dni (Jánošík Days) in mid summer. In 2023, the international event will take place from August 2 until 6.
There is no shortage of restaurants either. Pizzeria Italy and Haluškáreň are among the venues popular with tourists. A local brewery, Vŕšky, is located in the village, too. Its beers can be found at several local hotels and the tourist information centre.
Terchová attracts many Slovaks, but also people from Czechia, Israel and Poland. According to Bardiovský, Polish people are starting to return because they have noticed the big differences between Terchová in the Malá Fatra and the mountain resorts on the Polish side of the Tatras.
“They say there are too many people in the Polish Tatras,” Bardiovský, for whom Terchová has been home for many years, told us.
Haluškáreň restaurant in Terchová. (source: SME - Jozef Jakubčo)
We met several Czech visitors during our one-day trip to Terchová. Some of them decided to walk up the short but steep educational path to a 30-metre-high pyramid-like lookout tower, which is a stone’s throw from Lidl and the tourist information centre. From the top of the three-storey tower, visitors can enjoy panoramic vistas over Terchová and several Malá Fatra peaks. With free binoculars borrowed from the centre, the views get even better.
The tower’s name, Terchovské Srdce (Heart of Terchová), is said to be taken from a folk song: “That heart of Terchová is divided in two, one side cries, the other rejoices…”
Well, our hearts were full of joy, especially after a delicious blueberry lemonade at the Folk Café. And we look forward to a return trip, to explore the northern, rather untouched side of the village – but we may swap the Happy Train for e-bikes on that occasion.
The article has been brought to you thanks to a partnership with the Žilina Tourism Region - www.zilinskyturistickykraj.sk. Implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Transport of the Slovak Republic.
