Here are some of our favorite spots in this beautiful and interesting country:
Skocjan Caves: So awesome they get their own post. But don’t confuse these caverns with Postonja Cave, which you’ll see posters for all over Slovenia. Postonja is highly commercial and touristy, with an electric train running through the cave and musical performances and live nativity scenes staged there. Reportedly, the focus is on bringing in the masses, not minimizing the impact of human presence on the delicate cave ecosystem. If you want the real deal, go to Skocjan instead.
Velika Planina: Hiking in this wonderful spot is like walking through a living outdoor ethnographic museum. The mountainous parts of Slovenia have long been dairy country, and traditionally, as in the Swiss alps, herds were taken to the high pastures for the summer. But unlike in Switzerland, where summer herding was a solitary occupation, in Slovenia whole little villages of summer huts and barns were built in the same area. There, families would tend the cows, make butter and cheese, and while away the long summer nights visiting with each other.
Alpine dairying is dying out in much of Slovenia now; near Lake Bohinj, there’s a museum that documents the old ways. But at Velika Planina, they’re still being lived. And the mountain backdrop is stunning. Just north of the town of Kamnik, you can get a (somewhat rickety) cable car up to Velika Planina and spend a day on the walking trails that criss-cross the meadows.
You’ll see fabulous mountain views; beautiful rolling plains, studded with sinkholes; lots of cows (in the summer); a pretty little wooden church; huts in a style unique to that area; and people going about their daily lives doing something very different from what most of us do. There are a few spartan mountain inns dotted around the plain. If you stop at one during the summer, you can get the freshest milk or struklji (a dessert of cheese curds and dough) that you may ever taste.
Ljubljana: Slovenia’s capital has a reputation for resembling Prague or Budapest before the tourists discovered them. We haven’t been to those cities, so we can’t say, but we found Ljubljana charming.
It’s a city that feels like a small town. The center is very walkable, with interesting architecture, pretty churches, and a picturesque, cafe-lined river. The castle that looms over the city looks better from below than up close. But the produce, flower, and craft market next to the cathedral is to die for (almost enough to make Melissa move to Ljubljana permanently). And the ethnographic museum provides a fascinating look at traditions of life in Slovenia, with lots of signs in English. We highly recommend it.
Lakes Bohinj and Bled: These two lakes in the northwestern part of the country are some of Slovenes’ favorite vacation spots. Both have clear blue water, beautiful mountain views, and lots of places for swimming, boating, and hiking. Bohinj is quieter and much less built up (it’s inside Triglav national park). The water is also a bit colder (20-21C). Bled is much more touristy, with big hotels, casinos, and shops lining one side. But the water is warmer (23-24C), and the views include a castle high on a rock and a tiny island with a pretty church.
We preferred Bohinj to stay at (we rented an apartment in the village of Ribcev Laz) and Bled to visit on day trips. But why not go to both lakes and see which one you like better?
Vintgar Gorge: One of our Couchsurfing hosts told us about this beautiful hike, and some other hosts took us there. The gorge is just a few kilometers from Lake Bled. It features a 1.6-km trail that follows the Radovna River on walkways through a leafy gorge that narrows and broadens at intervals. The river is lovely: in some places amazingly clear, in others tumbling over rocks in a flurry of white water. It’s a wonderfully cool spot on a warm day.
Like the paths around Lakes Bled and Bohinj, this is one of the prettiest flat hikes that we encountered in Slovenia. In typical Slovene fashion, there’s a snack bar/cafe at each end of the trail.
Logarska Dolina: As you may have gathered, northern Slovenia is richly blessed with mountains and water. One place where they come together beautifully is the valley of Logarska Dolina, which our fabulous Couchsurfing host Niko took us to see. It’s a picture-postcard place: a green glacial valley of meadows and forests surrounded by high mountains and sprinkled with waterfalls.
At the far end of the valley is the long ribbon of Rinka waterfall. It’s a quick walk to the base of the waterfall, where you can soak in the pounding spray, and then a steep, rocky climb to the top. Beyond that, the trail leads upward through pretty woods to a little spring that is the source of the Savinja river, where you can stop for a very cold drink.
Vrsic Pass: Some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in Slovenia can be seen by driving (or, better yet, taking the bus) from Kranjska Gora up the twisting road over the Vrsic Pass. At the top of the pass, there’s the usual mountain inn/restaurant and numerous trails leading off in different directions. We did one of our hardest and most rewarding hikes here: a 5.5 km walk with almost continuous mountain views on all sides, ending on the little knobby summit of Slemenova spica, where you could look straight down into the valley far below. The trail had a lot of ups and downs at the beginning and end, including scrambles along some skree slopes that tested Melissa’s recently healed ankle. (It passed the test pretty well, thank goodness.)
Piran: This picturesque little port town is crammed onto a point sticking out into the Adriatic Sea. It’s the jewel of Slovenia’s tiny (just 47 km) coastline, the rest of which is mainly devoted to casinos, big beach hotels, or industry. Coastal Slovenia feels Mediterranean; the hills behind Piran look Italian, with cypresses and stone pines. Piran has a pretty curving shoreline with little marinas full of small sailboats and fishing boats. There are some grand 19th century public buildings and some old houses and a bell tower built by the Venetians, who controlled Piran for centuries.
Unfortunately, Piran didn’t impress us much when we arrived. Fresh from two and a half months in Italy, we were a little jaded. Narrow cobbled streets had lost their novelty, and the occasional Venetian-style house wasn’t as impressive since we’d seen a city full of them. Still, it’s a nice place to spend a few days looking out to sea, and a must if you’re not going to Venice.
Skofja Loka: Our first Slovenian Couchsurfing host took us to this little town near Ljubljana for a few hours to look around and eat cakes at one of her favorite bakeries. It’s one of the oldest towns in Slovenia and still has some interesting 16th century houses and churches, as well as the requisite hilltop castle. It would be a pretty place to spend a bit longer: at least a full day and night. Alas (or not), we just missed Skofia Loka’s medieval festival.
Thermal spas: Slovenia has lots of thermal springs, and as a result, it’s dotted with thermal spas. Although most offer saunas and massage and other spa amenities, their main attractions are big indoor and outdoor swimming pools. Some, such as Terme Snovik outside Kamnik, can be reached by bus. We spent a fun day there on one of the hottest days of June, shooting down the waterslide and going back and forth between the warmer and colder pools. Melissa practiced her floating meditation while Chris pretended to be an otter.
Bakeries: This isn’t a place per se, but no list of the highlights of Slovenia would be complete without an entry about bakeries. This is a country that loves baked goods, and it does them really well. Bread comes in many different varieties, all dense and flavorful, especially the buckwheat bread. And the cakes! You know those creamy, fruit-covered or chocolate layer cakes you see in bakery windows that always look so good, but when you try them, they’re dry and disappointing? Here, they taste as good as they look, as fresh as if they’d just been made a few hours ago—which they probably were.
Bakeries are also a good source for a cheap and delicious Slovenian (technically Albanian) fast food: bureks. Those are long ropes of thin, phyllo-type pastry stuffed with meat, cheese, spinach, or sometimes fruit and coiled into an oval, which you eat wrapped in paper. Delicious, filling, and, at just a few euros, economical.
You can find pictures of most of the places mentioned above in our photo galleries (except Velika Planina, where Melissa decided not to bring the camera because she was tired of lugging it around, and she has regretted it ever since).
