Strbske Pleso, Slovakia, is the highest settlement in the highest mountain range of eastern Europe. The High Tatras, with mountains reaching 2600 m, are for more than 100 million people their nearest real mountains, they have to go to the Alps to come higher up. Along the southern rim of the Vysoke Tatry you have several small villages where people earn most of their income from tourism: Nova and Tatranska Polianka, Sibir, Stary, Novy, Horny and Dolny Smokovec, Tatranska Lesna, Tatranska Lomnica... All of them are at ca. 1000 m, except for Strbske Pleso at around 1350 m. As the moutains have a national park status, there will never be any settlements higher up here. Strbske Pleso is therefore, and will always be, the unique starting place for hikes into the most beautiful mountains of Eastern Europe.