Poprad, Slovakia

It would be difficult to dream up a more unprepossessing town than POPRAD (Deutschendorf) to accompany the Tatras' effortless natural beauty, with a great swathe of off-white high-rise housing encircling the town. A tiny old town centre, a museum and a couple of art galleries go some way to counterbalance initial bad impressions. And while it's no great joy to hang around, Poprad is refreshingly free of tour groups and a lot less pretentious than the higher resorts. It's also not a bad place to organize accommodation for the rest of your stay in the Tatras.