After the upfront post-glacial splendour of the High Tatras, the low-key pine forests of the Slovenský raj (pronounced "rye" – meaning paradise, www.slovenskyraj.sk), 20km or so to the southeast of Poprad, might seem more than a little anticlimactic at first glance. No hard-slog hiking or top-of-the-world views here, but, if your inclination is towards more frivolous outdoor pursuits, such as scrambling up rocky gorges and clinging onto chains and ladders beside shooting waterfalls, then the Slovenský raj may not be far from nirvana after all.

Covered in a thick coat of pine forest, the terrain – covering just twenty square kilometres – is typically karstic, with gentle limestone hills whittled away in places to form deep, hairline ravines and providing a dank, almost tropical escape from the dry summer heat of the Poprad plain. To the north, the Hornád river has made the deepest incision into the rock, forming a fast-flowing, snaking canyon flanked by towering jagged bluffs that attract some of the country's dedicated rock-climbers. The most dramatic ravines climb up to the grassy plateau of the Veľká poľana at the centre of the region. To the south, the geography becomes more conventional in the hills around Dedinky, and in winter the whole area turns into a popular ski resort.