In my opinion the answer to the above question is YES. Two weekends ago myself and eight other friends including the stag headed to Bratislava from Edinburgh. We went from the Friday to the Monday and in hindsight that might have been a day too long. So why Bratislava? On arriving in to Bratislava our initial impressions were poor.
First it took what seemed an age to get through passport control and then the infamous taxi ride from the airport to the hotel. The taxi ride should have cost between 17 β 25 Euro, no more. Unfortunately in our haste to get to the hotel and start drinking and with no real knowledge of the city we jumped in to the first taxi we saw, without agreeing a fixed price.
Big mistake, 10 minutes later and 50 Euro shorter we realized we had been done over and felt rather stupid. Always agree a price with the taxi driver first!!!! Our hotel was called the 'Hotel Kiev'. A huge hotel right in the city center but very very basic but perfect for stag parties and there were plenty of those at the hotel.
Do not stay at this hotel if you want a quiet romantic break!. After dumping our bags we headed to the lobby bar where we started to relax and enjoy ourselves and at 1 Euro for a ml bottle of staropramen that was not really surprising. We then ventured in to the city to hit the bars. We had no problems getting in anywhere and the average cost of a beer was about 1. We had no hassle with the locals however you could tell that if you were looking for trouble you would find it.
The bars however did tend to be on the small side. On the first night we staggered back to the hotel at 5am and were still able to find street vendors open selling the usual junk food that is always irresistible after several beers. After a late start on Saturday we decided to do a bit of walking around the city to clear our heads before the start of the next drinking session. The city is actually quite picturesque and the castle was worth seeing and I am sure there was plenty more to see if you went looking properly.
