We took a trip to Slovenia from Italy in July and discovered the most hospitable people and gorgeously green countryside packed with peaks, lakes, hikes and waterfalls. We loved Slovenia, the food was delicious and the countryside majestic.  

Here are a few curious things about Slovenia, plus a brief descriptions of the places we explored:

• They love their self service vending machines! Kiosks/cafes at roadside stop are all vending machines and in the Ljubjana town square we saw a vending machine selling fresh eggs in cartons!
• the toll roads are smooth, less busy and less congested than in other countries – this is probably due to the absence of toll booths and gates. If you drive on highways in Slovenia you must buy an étage/ vignette before hand which automatically debits a toll as you pass e-gates.
• the language is tricky – there’s not enough vowels in the words (Hello is Zdravo and goodbye is nasvidenje and thank you Hvala vam) and to add to the confusion they sneakily change the endings of words, ( there are 17 different possible ways to end words, by adding ski or ama i.e. Predjama castle, might be Predjamski Grad on a sign)
• There are small Casinos in the shopping centres
• There are hayracks (kozolec) everywhere! These are freestanding vertical drying racks made of wood, for drying hay or maize and many have been left as historical markers of a time gone by

Ljubljana

We stopped in Ljubljana for one night to explore this pretty town before hitting the hills.  It was a tad wet when we visited in July but that didn’t dampen our spirits. We donned raincoats and popped brollies and set off following the statues of the dragons (the towns symbol) to discover important sites around town.

We climbed up to the castle terrace for a beautiful vista over the turrets of the town and to get our bearings then explored what we’d seen from above. We loved the ‘organic’ feel of Ljubljana from its many vintage recycle-up stores to its bio-organic wine bars and green parks and musicians in the streets.

We had dinner at Ljubljana’s oldest restaurant Sestica established in 1776 and were served by a lovely old waiter of about the same vintage! The capital of Slovenia is small and you can cover everything in a couple of days but definitely worth a visit.

Postjona

We spent two nights in a glorious little hamlet called Dovcje about 15 mins north of Postojna,  in the traditional region of Inner Carniola, in southwestern Slovenia.We stayed at a most delightful apartment in with beautiful views over the valley and were treated to the hosts own welcome spirit and fresh warm croissants and spreads for breakfast. You can find it on Booking.com under ‘Spacious apartment in nature with Sauna”.

We explored the nearby Šcocjan caves going deep underground and then scaling around the edges of the vast, cavernous stalactite-dripping caves. You were not allowed to take any photos (I took some from their tourist book later) but the limestone (called karst) was truly majestic. Šcocjan caves are on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites and are one of the largest underground canyons in the world. Interestingly, the famous Lippizaner horses are also from this area and are the symbol of the Karst. The Lippicia Horse stud in. this area is the oldest stud farm in Europe. Curiously, the Lippizaner foals are born as black foals and then grow into beautiful white horses that are well known for their elegant gait.

Bled

We stayed three nights in the little village of Spodnje Gorje on the edge of the Triglav National Park just 10 mins drive from the town of Bled. It was quieter (and more affordable) to be a little bit out of Bled which is a busy tourist town. Spodnje Gorge had two little bistros for dinner but we also went into Bled for walks around the lake and dinner. There are strict controls around accessing the lake with only two small areas where you can swim, and lots of signs everywhere saying no pic-nics, no going near waters edge, no sitting on the grass! The only exception is for fishing – you can fish anywhere, so people exploit this loophole by holding a rod while they enjoy a beer as they sit by the lake!

There were a couple of delicious food trucks and a music stage set up in July and we enjoyed baked potatoes while we listened to live music as the sun went down. We also walked around the old parish church and parts of the lake. The town itself has lots of fancy hotels and restaurants that were a little out of our price range and gets very busy especially at night.

Lake Bohinj

We explored the area around the lovely Lake Bohinj (30 mins drive from Bled)  on a couple of occasions to swim and hike around the lake. It is very popular with families who spread out their rugs on the grass under the trees for the day and swim and picnic till sunset. It has a feel of true Slovenian life.

There’s a hiking trail all around the lake and many people hike or ride along to their favourite little hidden spot away from the crowds. There’s a café at the main beach area (where I discovered a delicious drink for a summer day called a Radzler which is a grapefruit flavoured light beer just 2% and icy cold) and also a few drink huts and port a loos as you walk further around. There are two parking lots – one about a 700m walk from the lake, which is fixed price day rate and quite expensive and a smaller one on the road into the lake about 200m from the lake which you can pay by the hour. It’s definitely worth checking out if there are spots at this one first!

We also did the Mostnica Gorge walk to the Slap Mostnica (Mostnica Waterfall) which is 21 m high and tumbles down the rocks at the end of the gorge. The starting point is from Stara Fužina, a few kms further on from Lake Bohinj. The 6km loop hike follows the Mostnica river which has carved a rather deep in some places gorge and has 6 bridge crossings. There used to be a lot of iron ore and many iron foundries in the Iron Age in the 8th century in the area. One of the highlights of the walk is wandering through the mountain valley past many of the old timber grazing huts – there are two larger mountain huts that serve warm fresh strudel and hot Turkish coffee. We stopped at the second, farthest one along and enjoyed delicious blueberry and apple strudel with whipped cream. The huts only accept cash so make sure you pack some Euros – you need euros for the entry fee for the walk as well.

Bovec: Soča valley

We drove 1.5 hrs from Bled to Bovec in the upper Soča valley to explore the waterfalls tumbling down the karst mountain range of Mt Kanin. Our daughter and her boyfriend also took a waterfall-bouldering – canyoning adventure where they hiked up then abseiled, jumped or floated down the waterfalls in some of the side rivers in the valley. They loved it! Jamie and I visited the two main waterfalls – the Verje and the Boca waterfall. You can hike 2hrs to the Verje waterfall from Bovac but as it was a hot day we drove part of the way then hiked the last 20 minutes or so down a gravel road. It is a wide, fan-shaped waterfall about 15 metres high, that falls like a silver curtain over the green mossy rocks into an emerald pool below. The water here is icy and we were lucky to be there early, around 9.30 am before the crowds and it was so peaceful.  We walked a little further on to see Plužna Lake which is actually a reservoir where they have dammed the Glijun stream to capture water for a small hydro-electric power plant.

We also drove to the Boca waterfall carpark and then hiked up a steep rocky trail to the viewing platform. In spring, this is a 106 metre high waterfall and the mightiest slap in Slovenia. The water pours out of a cave from the karst underground set deep in the Kanin mountains. When we visited it was just a small stream of water falling into a trickling Soča river – which was rather torturous as it was so hot we desperately wanted to cool off and swim. Instead, we headed back to Bovec and stood in the refrigerator section of the supermarket choosing cool drinks to cool off!

We had breakfast, and later, lunch in the little town of Bovec and you can’t miss the delicious food trucks in Bovec village that serve the deliciously gooey dish of polenta, potatoes and local Tolminc cheese with chive sauce which goes down a treat with an ice cold kombucha! Be warned if going from Bled to Bovec you cross into Italy near the town of Tarvisio – so take your passports (the Italian police were not happy that we had forgotten ours!). If its hot when you take the drive there’s a lovely lake called Lago dei Pradil Rabeljsko to swim in and cool off on the Italy side just before you cross back in to Slovenia.

Radovljica

This ‘sweet’ medieval town 40 mins from Bled is known for its chocolate festival, honey and gingerbread museum. We had coffee and cake and explored the long Linhart Square, which has lovely preserved buildings from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries and at the end of the square there are a couple of view points where you can see the Sava River valley and the Julian Alps. There’s also a neat alchemy museum worth exploring.