A night at Chata Magurka shelter

After exploring the cave in the morning and having lunch we went into the Low Tatras area. We planned to stay in a real mountain chalet. We wanted to find an atmospheric place and it was spot on. The only difference compared to the shelters we knew from our youth was that it was accessible by car and no hiking was required. That was our choice because we were going there with 3 small kids.

We chose Chata Magurka located in the mountain village Magurka. We found it on booking.com, where the attractive price for the largest room caught our attention. This price was much lower than for a room in a larger city. Probably because access was much harder. This hut was located fairly high up in the mountains; access in winter was difficult due to the fact that all the roads were covered with snow. The owner's advice was to use a 4×4 vehicle or snow chains.

Fun fact: Magurka is an old mining village, founded as early as the 14th century. Gold, silver and antimony were mined here, and in the 19th century up to 250 miners worked in the area. The mine closed in 1923 because it was no longer profitable. The village lies at about 1,050 m above sea level and belongs to the municipality of Partizánska Ľupča.

The route led from the village of Partizánska Ľupča towards Liptovská Osada. The road ran along the stream valley. This area was used by the sawmill to transport cut trees from the forest. Loaded trucks passed us from time to time, and at times the road was covered with bark. We crossed from one side of the stream to the other. There was almost no traffic, we drove about 15 km and passed only 2 cars.

The drive through the forest was on a snowy road with a big slope. We had snow chains on, and there was light fog in the forest. It was a nice thrill for us. Driving in these conditions is not so common. Check out what it looked like in the video:

The hostel surprised us not only by the location. On site, we found that there was a restaurant (buffet). The owner was very friendly. The children liked the room's hunting decor and fireplace, and perhaps most of all the owner's dog - Susan.

In the afternoon we went sledging on a small hill we found nearby. We discovered that too much snow is not so good for sledging. There was about one meter of snow and we needed to compact it by sledging a few times. It was beginning to get dark, so we did one last sledge run and went back to our shelter with great joy. The result of our fun - all our clothes were wet.