Natural Environment
Some 40% of Slovakia is covered with forests. Slovakia’s forests contain a wide biodiversity and animals include brown bears, wolves, foxes, wild boars, muskrats, chamois and lynxes. Slovakia features a high percentage of wildlife included in protected areas. There are hardly any mountain ranges and areas not under some form of protection.
One of Slovakia's main tourist attractions are the Tatra Mountains, (particularly the High Tatras), the highest part of the Carpathians. They feature many rare plant and animal species and offer numerous ski, hiking and mountaineering opportunities.
Rivers and streams in the mountains of Slovakia are often used for rafting and other white-water based activities and sports. The use of rafts has a very long tradition and especially rafts on the spectacular Dunajec river are very popular among tourists.
Slovakia contains numerous mineral springs and spas. There were 94 destination spas in 2007, which contained more than 11,900 beds. In 2007, there were 276,200 visitors in Slovak spas, which is a 9% increase from 2006. 35.2% of the visitors were foreign.
The spas include:
- Balneological spas: Bojnice, Brusno, Dudince, Lúčky, Piešťany, Sklené Teplice, Sliač, Smrdáky, Trenčianske Teplice, Turčianske Teplice
- Climatic spas: Nový Smokovec, Štós, Štrbské Pleso, Tatranské Matliare, High Tatras
- Mixed spas: Bardejovské Kúpele, Číž, Nimnica, Rajecké Teplice and Vyšné Ružbachy
New water parks are being built thorough the country. Recently built parks include Tatralandia in Liptovský Mikuláš, Aquacity in Poprad and Aquathermal in Senec.
Slovakia's karst areas offer an extremely high number of caves and their list is being expanded every year due to new discoveries. The number of caves per capita is the highest one or among the highest ones in Europe. Thirteen caves are open to the public, the longest one of which is 9 km long. Some of them have been proclaimed UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. Among them, Ochtinská Aragonite Cave is one of three aragonite caves in the world.
Read more about this topic: Tourism In Slovakia
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