Visited Košice and Poprad about a couple of months ago. I've been planning a visit to High Tatras (Slovak and Czech: Vysoké Tatry, Polish: Tatry Wysokie) for a while, and while I chose my time carefully, Europe was gripped by a heat wave when I was there.

Depending on your budget, you can rent a car, stay at DoubleTree. I stayed at a small local hotel just off the main square in Košice and was rather pleased with it and would recommend it. In Poprad stayed at a rather pedestrian hotel because the price was right.

Train takes you to High Tatra montains, but you do have to go up before it is really pretty, though the view of the mountains from distance is nice as well.

For small villages it is probably best if you do have a car. There are buses, but they will not run all that often and be a pain, though much cheaper. I was quite happy to use train when I could, though I did fly directly to / from Košice.