NealCS wrote:
I’m open to better suggestions in Slovakia
LZTT, Poprad Tatry. Very nicely located in the Tatras, and a GA friendly airport.
AVGAS not available from the airport, but from the aeroclub.
Nurnberg is really nice and not very expensive (about 40 euro landing fee + overnight parking). We stayed at the very reasonable Movenpick hotel at the airport and took a metro to the city center for dinner ending up at the quite good O-Sha (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187310-d1917249-Reviews-O_Sha_Thai_Restaurant-Nuremberg_Middle_Franconia_Franconia_Bavaria.html) Thai restaurant only 300 meters from the metro station. I can highly recommend it.
A while ago I planned Kosice in Slovakia, which looked nice and had all the facilities for a UK flight. I didn’t go for unrelated reasons, but they were nice and communicated well.
If the purpose of landing in Bratislava is going to Vienna, there are indeed nearer and cheaper alternatives:
Stockerau (LOAU): closest to Vienna, is even said to have a courtesy car (I never tried it). VFR approach only, limited parking/hangar space.
Vöslau (LOAV): main GA airfield for Vienna, RNAV approach
Wiener Neustadt (LOAN): further to the south than LOAV, but excellent train connections to Vienna, RNAV approach
Wien-Schwechat (LOWW): depending on the exact time of arrival, going there may not cost that much more than Bratislava
Enjoy your flight and stay in Vienna. BTW,don’t miss out on the VFR route from Klosterneuburg to Freudenau. It takes you straight through Vienna along the Danube in max. 2500 ft with great views of the city.
Kosice LZKZ is rather expensive (north of 100€), it is run by the same company that runs Schwechat LOWW (if I’m not mistaken). No AVGAS from the airport, but available from the aeroclub. Complicated procedure, though. To get to the aeroclub, one has to taxi the whole runway length, then through a gate which sameone has to open (for a fee), then to the aeroclub. To get back the same in reverse. Taxiing alone takes half an hour or so.
Other than the expense, service is good and opening hours are long.
Kosice has a rather nice city centre, but apart from that I fail to see what one can do there. I used it as a fuel+overnight stop on my way to Uzhhorod UKLU
Thanks everyone for the incredibly helpful responses – I shall surely try the low level VFR route over Vienna :)
Does anyone know the consequences of having a PLB rather than an ELT in Luxemburg/Austria/Bratislava ?
NealCS wrote:
Does anyone know the consequences of having a PLB rather than an ELT in Luxemburg/Austria/Bratislava ?
Well, if you don’t crash, probably none :-)
The proper way would be to contact Austrocontrol and ask about an exemption.
You need to specify if you have an ELT on the flight plan formular, which you need to file for entering airspaces C and D (eg. the LOWW CTR for the Vienna VFR route) in Austria.
Looking at your planned route, I see you carefully avoid Belgian airspace. There is little reason for that, the more so that ELLX is in the same FIR – Belgium handles several aviation matters for the Grand Duchy. Fly higher than 4500 AMSL and you’ll be in controlled airspace all the while, with the reputedly very good service of Belgian enroute ATC. And don’t be put off by the complicated airspace – most of the R and D areas are rarely activated. If they are, it is in the Notams, and ATC will tell you about them, too. www.belgocontrol.be has a graphical representation of active Notams for today and for tomorrow.
And the scenery of Belgium is much more attractive than Northern France to look at, especially the Ardennes part.
NB Luxembourg being under the same rules as Belgium, it doesn’t require an ELT either, nor even a PLB.
I agree with Jan about the scenery compared between France and Belgium but I can relate as to the reasons why NOT to overfly Belgium.
Just looking at a map gives you nightmares !
In reality it’s simpler than it looks, most of the areas being inactive most of the time…
I confess I still avoid it when going to Lille for example.
But I flew to Kiewit for their 100th anniversary fly in and I survived ! 
@NealCS : as for Luxemburg, I am sorry but I don’t know for PLBs (should be the same as Belgium as most of the AIP is shared)
I only found this page (in french) which seems to say all CDN aircrafts (COA ? as in non Annex2 EASA) must have an ELT.
I am surprised by the prices announced by everyone in ELLX. Light GA (“Sportive aviation” in their handling request form) should benefit from a reduced handling fee of 60 EUR + landing tax (6,xx EUR), so quite far from the 90 EUR.
Contact the GAT to have more info (see on this page )
To be honest I have also been surprised about the fuel being cheaper in ELLX than anywhere else. I regularly find out it is not true when compared to some airfields in France (not he bigger airports though…)
