My wife is Slovak and I have been visiting Slovakia for over 20 years. Driving is generally no problem, the roads can be very windy in places in the tatras, but fine if you take it steady.

Around Bratislava the traffic can be heavy, but if you live in Bristol it shouldn’t be a problem.

For car hire, I can recommend a company called Abrix, we have used them many times and they are excellent.

https://www.abrix.sk/en/

If you're going only to the High Tatras I wouldn't drive at all. It is prfectly well served by trains.

Unfortunately, Slovakia still requires masks on trains so car is definitely the way to go these days.

I hate to wear masks too, that's why I took my first post-COVID trip to Czechia where masks are no longer mandatory and hardly anyone is wearing one.

That said I doubt the OP is leaving tomorrow and the measures could be relaxed in the meantime.

A rental car is a much better option than trains and will offer far more flexibility.

#5 - Based on current general psychosis I don't see masks going away from Slovakia anytime soon (Hungary is another matter, I'm happy to see locals are quite reluctant to wear them, so hopefully it won't be long). So while I agree the train would normally be much better option, it won't be the case anytime soon.

"I'm happy to see locals are quite reluctant to wear them, so hopefully it won't be long)"

Yeah, the rebel spirit! :-)

1) driving is OK. like in the rest of the central and eastern europe))) it takes some 4-5 hours from BA to poprad, depending on the situation in zilina, strecno and ruzomberok. trains are fine, but now with the hystery aroubnd face masks in the trains i wouldn´t bother to use train...

2) download "mapy.cz" application and then offline maps for slovakia. it is great application which shows you all the roads, hiking paths etc. i wrote more about the the hiking in tatras in another thread in slovakia, just check it

3) yes it is. tatras are small enought that every trip can be done in one day. stay in poprad, nova lesna (there are a lot of private appartmans and family houses offering the housing and the quality is quite fine), gerlachog, svit etc. there is a train goind from poprad to strbske pleso via stary smokovec, as well as to tatranska lomnica, the connection is very well and the train is far the best for moving around as many hiking paths start at the train stations. also, you can use buses, they are quite freqent and they can take you to the areas not covered by trains (e.g. to "biela voda", where you can take the yellow path to zelene pleso, which is the hike you might like a lot).