Oravská Polhora: Accommodation for Skiing, Nature and Culture

Oravská Polhora combines a family-friendly ski area in the town centre with a varied winter offering. SKI Oravská Polhora has five lifts and around two kilometres of runs in total. Ski touring and cross-country skiing are also offered there as activities. The facilities also include ski equipment rental, a ski school, ski service, ski touring equipment rental and e-bike rental. This means that different forms of winter sports and suitable equipment services are available side by side in the town, without the individual areas being combined into one unified terrain.

Winter

The SKI Oravská Polhora ski area is located in the town centre and is described as having five lifts and around two kilometres of runs in total. The size stated is therefore an approximate figure. In addition to alpine skiing, the offering includes ski touring and cross-country skiing. Practical facilities on site include ski equipment rental, a ski school and ski service. Equipment for ski touring can also be rented; e-bike rental is available as well. The services mentioned are part of the SKI Oravská Polhora offering.

Nature

At Slaná voda, there is an iodine-bromine spring that is freely accessible to visitors. It is located in a pavilion on the site of the former spa. The moor, which is accessible via an educational trail, is also called Slaná voda. It is considered the best-preserved and most accessible to tourists of the three protected moors in Oravská Polhora. The moor can be explored via a wooden walkway. Visitors can observe round-leaved sundews, orchids and dragonflies.

Activities

A seven-hour circular hike to Babia hora begins and ends at Slaná voda. The circular hike uses Slaná voda as its access point; there is a bus stop and a car park there. This should be distinguished from the Slaná voda–Babia hora educational trail: it begins in Oravská Polhora at the Slaná voda hut and comprises 13 stations. Another landscape route is a cycle route to Modralová. A moderately difficult hike to Modralová begins in the Píla district. The two routes therefore have different starting points and modes of transport.

Culture

The cultural sites of Oravská Polhora range from literary exhibitions to the regional bagpipe tradition. Hájovňa pod Babou horou houses a literary exhibition of the Oravské múzeum about Hájnikova žena by Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav. There is also a literary exhibition about Milo Urban there. The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus contains a 5.2-metre-high statue of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Európske centrum gajdošskej kultúry houses a museum of bagpipe music and its history. Various types of bagpipes and other related artefacts are on display. The centre also provides space for various cultural events, workshops, concerts and exhibitions that are not limited to bagpipe music and culture. The international GAJDOVAČKA festival in Oravská Polhora featured concerts, workshops, lectures, a gala programme and a ceremonial mass with bagpipe music from various European countries.

Modralová is also known as Gajdošská strunga and connects three regions with vibrant bagpipe traditions: Orava, Silesia and Lesser Poland. For further destinations in the same area: Novot, Sihelne.

For the higher-level travel overview: Okres Námestovo.