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Slovakia: Červený Kameň Castle – A Day Out in the Small Carpathians
Červený Kameň: A Castle in the Little Carpathians, Slovakia
It was a fine September morning when I arrived at Červený Kameň, and the light through the trees was doing that autumnal thing where it looks like someone has turned the contrast up. I parked up in the car park and set off on foot for the ten-minute walk to the castle entrance. The approach is good — the trees gradually thin out and then suddenly there it is, this great hulking Renaissance fortress sitting on its quartzite cliff, with not a tourist-tat shop in sight. I crossed the stone drawbridge — a replacement for the original wooden drawbridge that once swung up to keep the riff-raff out — and walked into the castle courtyard.
🏰A Bit of History
Červený Kameň — which translates as Red Rock, a nod to the reddish Jurassic limestone of the cliff it sits on — has been here in one form or another since around 1230. It was originally built by Queen Constance of Hungary, daughter of King Béla III and widow of the Bohemian king Ottokar I, as one of a chain of frontier defence castles protecting the Kingdom of Hungary’s border with Bohemia. In 1296 it was snapped up by Mátyás Csák, the most powerful Hungarian magnate of his day, but after Csák died in 1321 it reverted to the crown, and for the next two centuries it passed between various noble families like a rather heavy parcel nobody quite wanted to keep.
The castle’s modern shape is really the work of two families. In 1535 it came into the hands of the Fuggers — the phenomenally wealthy German banking and merchant dynasty from Augsburg whose financial reach at the time made them something like the Goldman Sachs of the 16th century. Anton Fugger had the medieval fortress almost completely demolished and rebuilt as a massive Renaissance stronghold with state-of-the-art military fortifications, extensive underground cellars and a fortification system considered one of the most advanced in Central Europe. The original plan was apparently to use the cellars as a storage hub for copper and goods moving along the trade routes to Western Europe, though that commercial venture never really got off the ground. The wine trade, however, did — the Fuggers ended up storing wine from 32 surrounding villages down there, wine apparently good enough to ship all the way back to Augsburg.
The Fugger era ended when Anton died in 1560 and his heirs fell out over the estate. Between 1581 and 1588, the Pálffy family — a powerful Hungarian aristocratic clan — bought up the various shares of the property, in part through a conveniently timed marriage between Miklós II Pálffy and a Fugger heiress, María Fugger, in 1583. The Pálffys stayed until 1945, when the last family member departed, and the castle was declared state property. It was the Pálffys who turned what had been a rather severe military fortress into the Renaissance-Baroque residence you see today, adding elaborate stucco decorations, frescoes, richly furnished rooms and that wonderful Sala Terrena. The castle was declared a national cultural monument in 1970 and is now run as a branch of the Slovak National Museum.
🎟️The Tour
At the ticket office, I discovered that the only way to see the interior was on a guided tour. There were two choices: an hour-long tour of the main castle rooms, or a ninety-minute version that also took in the cellars and fortification systems. I was a bit pressed for time, so I went for the shorter option. The tours were conducted in Slovak, but I was handed a printed sheet in English with a brief description of each room, which was perfectly adequate. Off we went.
The Lower Hall
The Lower Hall is the first room you enter, and it sets the tone for what lies ahead. It served as a transitional space — a sort of airlock between the outside world and the grander rooms above — and the decoration here is emphatically masculine and aristocratic: the walls are lined with hunting trophies, antlers and mounted heads that speak to the Pálffy family’s passion for the chase, which was as much a social obligation as a leisure activity for Central European nobility of the period. The centrepiece of the room is a Berlinda-style carriage, a type of enclosed, sprung travelling coach that became fashionable among European aristocrats from the 17th century onwards and represented the last word in road transport for anyone of consequence. Seeing the actual vehicle up close, with its painted bodywork and leather fittings, gives you an immediate sense of how the Pálffy family moved through the world when they left the castle gates.
Sala Terrena
The Sala Terrena is the undoubted star of the ground floor and one of the most remarkable rooms in Slovakia, full stop. It was created in 1656 by the Italian master stucco artist Giovanni Battista Rossi and his workshop — some sources credit J. Tencalla — and the effect is extraordinary: the entire room is covered in elaborate white stucco relief work depicting plants, animals, hunting scenes and mythological figures, giving it the feeling of stepping inside a three-dimensional painting. The Sala Terrena was a fashionable feature of grand Central European and Italian residences of the period, designed as a cool, shaded summer room at ground level, often opening onto a garden. Červený Kameň’s version is one of the best-preserved examples in the whole region and it stopped me in my tracks. The craftsmanship is breathtaking — all that white plasterwork billowing across the walls and vaulted ceiling, and not a brushstroke in sight.
Pharmacy
The castle pharmacy — known as the Golden Eagle — is a genuine rarity. Housed on the ground floor of the south-west wing, it was a working apothecary serving the castle household and, presumably, the wider estate, and it remained in use until the 19th century. The room still contains its original shelving, rows of ceramic and glass apothecary jars, wooden drawers with hand-painted labels and the various instruments of the period pharmacist’s trade. The furniture and cabinetry show the same exquisite marquetry work found throughout the castle, which tells you something about the Pálffy family’s priorities — even the room where they stored their remedies for gout and melancholy had to look good. It is a wonderfully complete survival of everyday aristocratic domestic life.
Upper Hall
The Upper Hall served as a formal reception and waiting room on the piano nobile — the principal floor — where guests and petitioners would be received before being admitted to the grander rooms beyond. It is a substantial, well-proportioned space, and the ceiling is the first of the tour’s genuinely jaw-dropping Baroque painted ceilings: a swirling composition of celestial beings, angels, allegorical figures and religious scenes that fills every inch of the vault overhead. The marquetry on the doors and furniture here reaches another level of ambition, with elaborate inlaid designs in contrasting woods creating almost optical effects. The room would have been staffed by livered household officials, and the general intention — judging by the effect on a 21st-century visitor — was clearly to make everyone waiting here feel suitably impressed before they’d even got through the door.
Renaissance Dining Room
The Renaissance Dining Room is where the Pálffy household would have gathered for meals in the earlier centuries of the family’s tenure, before the grander Grand Dining Room further along the tour took over that function. Rather than one long formal table, the room was arranged with a few smaller tables and dressers — a more intimate and practical setup that reflects the less ceremonious dining habits of the Renaissance period, before the full Baroque taste for theatrical banqueting took hold. The dressers would have been used to display and store the household’s plate and tableware, which for a family of the Pálffys’ standing would have been considerable. The ceiling decoration here edges towards the Baroque with painted panels and moulded plasterwork, and some of these painted ceilings include portraits or allusions to members of the Pálffy family themselves, worked into the religious and allegorical scenes — a neat way of reminding everyone at dinner exactly whose house they were eating in.
Renaissance Hall
The Renaissance Hall dates from the earlier phase of the Pálffy family’s occupation, when the 16th-century fortress was gradually being softened into a more liveable aristocratic residence. The room reflects the Renaissance taste for order, symmetry and classical proportion, with coffered or decorated ceilings more restrained than the full Baroque excesses elsewhere on the tour. The furniture here includes fine examples of Renaissance-era marquetry, with intarsia panels depicting architectural perspectives and geometric designs — a technique that was enormously fashionable among Central European aristocrats of the period and required extraordinary skill to execute. The hall gives a good sense of how the castle looked in its earlier incarnation before the Baroque makeover swept through and replaced sobriety with spectacle.
Weapons Exhibition and West Bastion
This section took us out into the more military part of the castle, where the Fugger-era fortress character is still very much in evidence. The West Bastion was part of the 16th-century fortification system that made Červený Kameň one of the most formidable defensive structures in the Little Carpathians, with walls of enormous thickness and gun positions covering the approaches. The weapons exhibition housed in these spaces includes an impressive collection of armour, swords, halberds, crossbows, firearms and other military hardware spanning several centuries, much of it originally belonging to the Pálffy family, who produced several distinguished military commanders and were loyal allies of the Habsburg emperors. It was a useful reminder that for all the Baroque ceilings and marquetry furniture, this was also a place built and maintained to withstand a siege.
Neobaroque Bedroom
The Neobaroque Bedroom belongs to the later phase of the castle’s decoration, when 19th-century aristocratic taste reached back and reworked earlier Baroque styles with a slightly grander, more theatrical flourish — the Victorians were not alone in being very keen on neo-this and neo-that. The room is handsomely furnished with a large canopied bed, draped in the kind of fabrics that look extremely uncomfortable to launder. The marquetry on the wardrobe and side tables is characteristically meticulous, and the ceiling carries painted and stucco decoration in the revived Baroque manner. It gives a good picture of how the Pálffy family continued to invest in the castle’s appearance well into the 19th century, updating and refreshing rooms in line with changing fashions rather than simply leaving everything as it was.
Baroque Bedroom
The Baroque Bedroom is the authentic article — a 17th or 18th-century aristocratic bedchamber in the full Baroque style, with a suitably imposing bed and furnishings that lean heavily into the period taste for drama, gilding and the suspension of all sense of restraint. The ceiling is another outstanding example of the castle’s painted decoration, with angels, cherubs and celestial scenes tumbling across the vault in the confident manner of painters who knew their patrons wanted to fall asleep looking at something impressive. The marquetry work on the doors and furniture panels is particularly fine here, with elaborate floral and foliate designs inlaid in contrasting light and dark woods. The overall effect is one of considerable opulence, which was, of course, entirely the point.
Pink Parlour
The Pink Parlour takes its name from the large Baroque fireplace that dominates one wall, its surround made from a warm-toned pink marble that gives the room a distinctive and rather welcoming character, particularly if you imagine it in winter with a fire going. Marble fireplaces of this kind were a significant status symbol in 17th and 18th-century aristocratic interiors, and the choice of coloured marble — imported at considerable expense — was a deliberate display of wealth and taste. The rest of the room lives up to the fireplace, with painted ceiling panels featuring the usual cast of angels and allegorical figures going about their celestial duties, and furniture with the fine marquetry work that runs consistently through the entire castle like a connecting thread. It is one of the more intimate and appealing rooms on the tour.
Ladies’ Bedroom
The Ladies’ Bedroom was the private sleeping chamber of the female members of the household, positioned away from the more public reception rooms as convention demanded. The room is furnished with the kind of careful attention to feminine taste that 18th-century aristocratic households applied to their women’s quarters: lighter fabrics, more delicate furniture proportions, and decoration that leans towards the pastoral and the sentimental rather than the martial and the allegorical. The ceiling here carries a painted scheme of particular delicacy, with softer-toned figures and garlands worked into the Baroque composition. The marquetry on the dressing table and other furniture pieces is as accomplished as anywhere in the castle, and the overall room gives a thoughtful picture of how the private domestic space of an aristocratic woman was conceived and decorated in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Small Parlours
The Small Parlours served as informal sitting and withdrawing rooms where family members could retreat from the formality of the reception rooms, receive close friends or simply read. In the hierarchy of castle spaces, these rooms occupied a middle ground between the grandeur of the state rooms and the purely functional servants’ quarters, and they were furnished and decorated accordingly — comfortable and elegant without being quite as theatrical as the formal rooms. The marquetry furniture in these spaces is consistently fine, the workmanship undiminished even in the less prominent rooms, and the ceilings carry painted decoration that, while smaller in scale than the great halls, loses none of the craft. Several of these intimate spaces also include family portraits and personal objects that give a more human sense of the people who lived here.
Knights’ Hall
The Knights’ Hall is the largest single room in the castle, occupying the full width of one entire wing, and it is suitably impressive in scale. Historically, rooms of this kind served as the venue for formal gatherings, banquets, ceremonies and the general business of running a great noble household. The Pálffy family’s Knights’ Hall is lined with armour, weapons and heraldic decoration celebrating the family’s long military tradition — the Pálffys produced distinguished soldiers across several generations, and their service to the Habsburg emperors was a central part of their identity and their claim to status. The ceiling here is one of the most ambitious in the castle, a great painted and stucco composition of figures, scenes and ornament that fills the vault from end to end. From the hall you could also see through to the castle’s historic library in the adjacent space.
The Chapel
The Chapel of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary sits in the southern corner of the palace and is a beautiful piece of early Baroque sacred art in miniature. Above the entrance, the stucco coat of arms of the Pálffy family includes episcopal insignia, a reminder that the family’s influence extended into the church as well as the military and political spheres. The interior is a compact but richly decorated space, with an altar, painted panels and stucco decoration of high quality — a private family chapel of the kind that marked the piety, and the wealth, of Counter-Reformation Central European aristocracy. The Pálffys were prominent supporters of the Catholic cause in Hungary during and after the upheavals of the Reformation, and their chapel at Červený Kameň reflects that commitment in every inch of its decoration.
The Library
The castle library is a room that could easily make you want to sit down and stay for the afternoon, if only the tour were not moving on. The shelves hold around 2,000 volumes, a collection that was assembled and added to by various generations of the Pálffy family over several centuries and includes works in multiple languages. Among the volumes is an 18th-century French edition of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe — a detail that for some reason I found rather charming, the idea of a Hungarian nobleman in his Little Carpathian castle settling down with a good shipwreck story in French. The furniture — reading tables, chairs, the shelving itself — carries the same accomplished marquetry work that runs through every room of the castle, and the ceiling decoration here is appropriately scholarly in tone, if no less elaborate.
The Grand Dining Room
The Grand Dining Room is exactly what it sounds like: a large, formally furnished dining space intended for significant occasions and important guests. The long table is set for a formal dinner, with period crockery, glassware and silverware giving a good impression of how such occasions would have looked in the 17th and 18th centuries, when entertaining on a grand scale was both a social obligation and a political tool for families like the Pálffys. The ceiling here is one of the most elaborate on the tour, a full Baroque composition of painted celestial scenes with angels, religious figures and allegorical representations that fill every corner of the vault. The walls are hung with portraits and the furniture, including a magnificent sideboard, displays the finest marquetry work in the castle — inlaid panels of extraordinary complexity and precision.
Empire Style Parlour
The Empire Style Parlour belongs to the early 19th century, when the Napoleonic era brought a new fashion for a cooler, more restrained classicism inspired by ancient Greece and Rome — a deliberate reaction against the exuberance of Baroque and Rococo. The room is furnished in the characteristic Empire manner: clean lines, dark mahogany veneers with brass mounts, and ornamental motifs drawn from antiquity — wreaths, laurels, sphinxes and the like. It is noticeably more sober than the Baroque and Rococo rooms elsewhere on the tour, which rather makes it stand out as you move through the castle’s various periods. The Pálffy family, like most Central European aristocrats of their generation, kept up with Parisian fashion even from their fortress in the Carpathian foothills, and this room is the evidence.
Oriental Room
The Oriental Room reflects the European aristocratic fascination with East Asian art and culture that ran through the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries and is generally known as Chinoiserie. Collecting Chinese and Japanese porcelain, lacquerwork and textiles was a mark of sophistication and cosmopolitan taste among the European nobility, and the Pálffy family were enthusiastic participants. The room displays a collection of East Asian objects alongside European furniture decorated in the Chinoiserie manner, with painted motifs and lacquered surfaces that were enormously fashionable at the time. It is a reminder of just how connected the great aristocratic houses of Central Europe were to global trade networks and cultural fashions even in what might seem like a rather remote corner of Slovakia.
Rococo Style Parlour
The Rococo Style Parlour dates from the middle decades of the 18th century, when the heavier drama of the Baroque gave way to a lighter, more playful aesthetic of curves, pastel colours, asymmetrical ornament and a general air of elegant frivolity. The furniture here is in the Rococo manner, with cabriole legs, curved profiles and surfaces decorated with the delicate marquetry work that lends itself beautifully to the style’s characteristic lightness. The ceiling decoration is correspondingly lighter in mood than the great Baroque compositions elsewhere in the castle, with more pastel-toned figures and garlands. It is a graceful room, and it represents the Pálffy household at its most fashionably up-to-date in the mid-18th century, when this style was the height of European aristocratic taste.
The Golden Parlour
The Golden Parlour is, as the name suggests, the most gilded and glittering room on the tour — the kind of space that leaves you slightly dazzled and wondering how anyone ever got any useful thinking done in it. Gold leaf, painted ornament and elaborate stucco decoration cover the walls and ceiling in a display of aristocratic confidence that pulls no punches. The Baroque ceiling here is among the finest in the castle, with angels, cherubs and celestial figures occupying a swirling, richly coloured composition that runs from wall to wall. The furniture is correspondingly grand, with marquetry panels worked in gilded and contrasting woods. This was a room for formal reception, for impressing visitors and for making absolutely sure that everyone who entered knew they were in the home of one of the most powerful families in the Kingdom of Hungary.
Gentlemen’s Study
The Gentlemen’s Study is a more private and functional space than the formal reception rooms, a working room where the male head of household would deal with correspondence, manage the estate’s affairs and receive business visitors in a less ceremonious setting. The desk and bookshelves are substantial and practical in character, though the marquetry on the furniture is no less accomplished for that, and the ceiling carries painted and stucco decoration appropriate to a room associated with learning and authority. Maps, documents and writing implements complete the picture of aristocratic estate management, a reminder that the Pálffy family were not only decorative grandes but serious landowners and political operators managing substantial interests across the Kingdom of Hungary throughout their time at Červený Kameň.
The Succession
The final room on the tour — the Succession — deals with the castle’s dynastic history and the passage of ownership through the various branches of the Pálffy family across more than three and a half centuries. Family portraits, documents, heraldic displays and objects associated with specific generations of the family trace the line from the first Pálffy acquisition of the castle in the 1580s down to 1945, when the last member of the family departed and the long chapter of aristocratic private ownership came to an end. It is a thoughtful conclusion to the tour — a reminder that all the marquetry furniture, painted ceilings and gilded parlours were not museum installations but the lived-in home of a real family across many generations, and that the Pálffy story at Červený Kameň only ended because of the upheavals of the Second World War, not through any natural conclusion.
Heading Off
And with that, the tour was done. I made my way back across the courtyard, over the stone bridge and back down the path to the car park. The whole thing had taken a very satisfying hour, the information sheet had done its job admirably, and I was back on the road for whatever came next. Červený Kameň is genuinely one of those places where the reality exceeds the expectation — a castle that manages to be both a serious historical monument and an absolute pleasure to walk around. If you find yourself in western Slovakia with a morning to spare, it is very well worth the detour.
Planning Your Visit to the Červený Kameň
📍 Location — 900 89 Častá, Malé Karpaty, Slovakia
| 🕖 Opening Times | April–October: Tuesday–Sunday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM; November–March: weekends and public holidays only, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM; closed Mondays year-round | 🌐 Website | cerveny-kamen.sk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📞 Phone | +421 33 690 5803 | info@cerveny-kamen.sk |
🎟️ Entry Fees
| Adults | Concessions (Students/Seniors) | Children (under 6) | Family Ticket |
|---|---|---|---|
| €10 | €7 | Free | €25 |
ℹ️ Notes — Guided tours are compulsory; the castle interior cannot be explored independently. Tours run in Slovak, with English and German guides available on request or with advance booking. The castle also hosts seasonal events, medieval markets and wine-cellar tastings — check the website for the current programme.
🚗 Getting There
By Car — Červený Kameň is around 35 kilometres north-east of Bratislava via the D2 motorway and Route 502 through the Small Carpathians. Follow signs for Častá from the Stupava or Pezinok exits. Parking is available at the castle.
By Bus — Regular buses run from Bratislava’s Mlynské Nivy bus station to Častá village, from where the castle is a short uphill walk or taxi ride. Journey time is roughly 50–60 minutes.
By Train and Bus — Take a regional train from Bratislava to Pezinok, then a connecting bus towards Častá. Check current timetables at cp.sk.
The Best Time to Visit Slovakia
Slovakia sits at the heart of Central Europe, and its seasons are genuinely, almost theatrically, distinct — deep-winter ski slopes in the High Tatras, blossom-filled castle courtyards in spring, long sun-drenched summer days across the national parks, and copper-gold forests in autumn. Each season has a compelling case to make, and the right time to visit depends almost entirely on what kind of trip you are after.
❄️ Winter — December to February
Slovakia’s winter is proper and unapologetic. Temperatures in Bratislava hover between -5°C and 2°C through January, and the High Tatras receive heavy snowfall from December onwards, making the country one of Central Europe’s most accessible and affordable skiing destinations. The ski resorts at Jasná in the Low Tatras and Štrbské Pleso in the High Tatras are the main draws, with well-maintained pistes, reliable snow cover and lift queues that rarely match the queues at comparable Alpine resorts. Away from the slopes, Bratislava transforms beautifully in December: the old town’s main squares fill with Christmas markets selling mulled wine, trdelník and handmade ornaments beneath the castle walls, and the city’s bars and restaurants take on a particularly warm, candlelit character. Hotel rates outside the Christmas and New Year fortnight are at their lowest of the year, and the main sights — Bratislava Castle, Spiš Castle, the Slovak National Gallery — attract a fraction of the summer crowds. The main downsides are the very short daylight hours, icy pavements in the cities and the closure of some mountain roads and hiking trails due to snow.
Packing: A well-insulated winter coat, thermal base layers, waterproof boots with grip, gloves, a hat, a scarf and hand warmers for extended time outdoors; ski hire is readily available at the main resorts if you do not want to travel with equipment.
🌸 Spring — March to May
Spring arrives gradually in Slovakia, beginning with cool, unsettled weather in March and warming steadily to genuinely pleasant conditions by May, when daytime temperatures in Bratislava regularly reach 16–18°C. The snowmelt in the mountains makes this a spectacular season for hiking — waterfalls run fast and full, the high valleys are green and empty, and the summer crowds have not yet arrived. Bratislava’s castle gardens come into colour from April, and the city’s café terraces begin to fill as the weather improves. Easter is a particularly good time to visit, with folk festivals, decorated markets and regional traditions that feel more authentic than much of what Central Europe offers at Christmas. The spa towns of Piešťany and Trenčianske Teplice, well known to Slovak and Czech visitors but still largely off the international tourist trail, offer excellent value for a day trip or overnight stay before the summer season lifts prices. Showers are frequent throughout, especially in April, and snowfall is possible at altitude into May.
Packing: Layers that can be added or removed through the day, a waterproof jacket, comfortable walking shoes and a compact umbrella; light fleece or merino base layers for cooler evenings and higher altitudes.
☀️ Summer — June to August
Summer is Slovakia’s busiest and most accessible season, with long daylight hours, warm temperatures across the country and every attraction open and fully operational. Bratislava hums with outdoor concerts, riverfront bars and day-trippers from Vienna — the two cities are just an hour apart by train, making the Slovak capital a popular side trip from Austria. The High Tatras are at their most dramatic and walkable, with well-marked trails leading up to mountain lakes, glacier-carved valleys and ridgeline paths with views into Poland to the north. Slovakia’s castle-per-square-kilometre ratio is one of the highest in Europe, and the long summer days make it easy to combine two or three — Spiš Castle, Bojnice and Oravský Podzámok are the most visited — in a single road trip across the country. Folk festivals run throughout the season, with the Východná Folklore Festival in July widely considered the most important in the country. The downsides are the price premium over other seasons and the humidity in Bratislava and the southern lowlands during July and August, which can make sightseeing in the middle of the day uncomfortable.
Packing: Lightweight, breathable clothing, a sun hat and sunscreen for open hillsides and castle grounds, comfortable walking shoes or hiking boots depending on your itinerary, a light layer for mountain evenings and air-conditioned interiors, and a refillable water bottle.
🍂 Autumn — September to November
Autumn is arguably Slovakia’s most underrated season and, for many visitors, its most rewarding. September retains much of summer’s warmth — temperatures in Bratislava often reach 18–20°C in the first half of the month — while the summer crowds have already dispersed and hotel rates have eased noticeably. The wine regions of the Small Carpathians and the Tokaj vineyards in the south-east are at their best during the harvest, with wine festivals running from late September into October and village markets selling fresh grape must, roasted chestnuts and seasonal produce. The High Tatras put on a vivid display of autumn colour into October, and hiking conditions remain excellent until the first significant snowfall, which typically arrives at altitude in late October. November brings cold, grey, frequently rainy weather across most of the country, and some mountain attractions, boat services and seasonal restaurants close for the winter from the end of October.
Packing: A mid-weight jacket, layers for variable daytime temperatures, waterproof footwear, a compact umbrella and comfortable walking shoes; warmer layers become important from October onwards, especially at altitude or in the north.
Overall Best Time to Visit
June to September offers the most dependable combination of warm weather, long daylight hours and a full programme of festivals and open attractions, and is the easiest window for first-time visitors who want to cover both Bratislava and the mountains in a single trip. That said, Slovakia rewards those who look beyond the obvious peak season: December brings genuine Christmas atmosphere and excellent skiing at prices that undercut the Alps considerably, April and May offer the mountains at their most dramatic and the cities at their least crowded, and September delivers warm weather, harvest festivals and the year’s best value rates all at once. The one window most visitors would do well to avoid is November, when the combination of short days, frequent rain and widespread closures makes it the least rewarding month for most itineraries.
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