A love letter to Slovenia, and a full review
Slovenia is my favourite country out of the ones I’ve visited so far in my life. And it easily wins. I recommend visiting Slovenia so fully. If you want to hear me passionately talk about travel, ask me about Slovenia.
On my post A level trip I visited Slovenia for about a week. On this trip I spent 10 days living with a family (see my Slovenian workaway post for more on this) and 10 days travelling around. Here is my ranked list of places I’ve visited.
Velika Planina
I did a day trip to this herdsman settlement when on my workaway, so all of the details are in that post. It was such a unique experience, and I really wasn’t expecting it to be as beautiful and fun as it was, so that made it even more unforgettable. It’s my favourite thing I did here.Details: Day trip from Ljubljana. Can be done by public transport but requires some funky logistics. Only cost is the cable car and chairlift ticket which was 16EUR for students.
Hiking Krn
Slovenia has some truly epic hiking, and lots of people who visit are here for this. The Julian alps run through Slovenia and are in the Triglav national park. Triglav is the highest peak at 2864m. There is a great set up of mountain huts which means you can easily do a 2+ day hike, which is needed if you want to summit Triglav for example. I didn’t know about the mountain huts until I was already here so didn’t end up using them, but next time I definitely will! I still wanted to do a challenging hike, and decided to hike Krn mountain which is 2,244m (my first over 2000m peak!). It felt like a surprisingly good achievement! The views from the summit were absolutely insane, because Krn sits a bit separate from the rest of the Julian alps, giving you a great view of Triglav and the neighbouring peaks. The hike up is also easy in a technical sense, no climbing or even scrambling (just a lot of extremely steep zigzag paths). I did a loop on my way back, taking in another peak and descending down into a mountain valley, and then down the mountainside. It was all just so beautiful, and I genuinely couldn’t believe my eyes at certain points.Details: I stayed in Kobarid for this hike, which is a nice little town in of itself. In the summer months a small bus runs from Kobarid to Planina Kuhinja which is the starting point for Krn. From here it’s 1200m in elevation to the summit, and it took me 3.5 hours.
Bovec (and just anywhere in the Soca valley)
My favourite part of Slovenia is the Soca valley in the North West of the country. To get there from Ljubljana the bus has to go through the Vrsic pass which is the zig-zagging road that goes up and over the Julian alps. It’s the most insane and beautiful bus ride I’ve ever done (all though I did throw up when I did it 5 years ago, luckily this time around my stomach was more used to bus journeys!). I also stopped off at Lake Jasna in Kranjska Gora on my way to Bovec which was very pleasant. The Soca valley is named after the Soca river, which is the most distinguished turquoise colour. In places it’s more of a pastel tone, and others it’s electrically blue. The water is very cold, as it’s running straight from the alps, but that makes it even nicer in my opinion, especially in the summer heat. Bovec is the main town in the valley and a nice place to stay, with two nice hostels and lots of nice pubs (one serving a beer-wine hybrid that I was not a fan of at all, but the person I was with loved). From here you can walk to the Soca river, explore waterfalls, and do all sorts of water and adrenaline activities.Details: Any of the towns in the Soca valley would be lovely. A bus runs from Ljubljana via Bled to all of them. It takes a few hours, but the amazing views means it flies by.
Ljubljana
Ah the capital city. The nature and the scenery is why Slovenia is my favourite country, but I also really lovely the capital. It’s a very small city, with the old town and market on one side of the river along with the castle on a hill, and the main square and more modern stuff on the other side. The river is flanked by two beautiful streets with restaurants and cafes, lined with drooping trees. There are lots of pretty bridges over it, including the infamous triple bridge. The river is very open and creates this spacious and nature filled zone in the centre. The old town is filled with little independent shops and restaurants. The market is huge and has both indoor and outdoor areas; boasting a section for flowers, fruit and veg, meats, and cheeses and other dairy products. There are even milk and yogurt vending machines! The castle is my favourite out of the city castles I’ve visited (which is quite a few now). It’s free to enter and it’s so much more than just a historical ruin. It acts as an art space with a gallery, there’s a jazz bar and a Michelin star restaurant, a lovely open courtyard and a maze of underground parts. All of these components seamlessly sit in the architecture of the ruined castle - against the bare rock. Overall, Ljubljana is a city that I could wander around quite happily in for hours. It reminds me of Bristol in its vibe, and its plethora of arty coffee shops. I would quite like to live here at some point…Details: If you’re going to visit Slovenia I’m sure you’ll end up in Ljubljana just because of transport. I stayed at Hostel Celica which is an old prison. It was very cool, and had a great free breakfast buffet!
Bled
Obviously if you visit Slovenia you should visit Bled. It’s like visiting Italy and not going to Rome. And Bled is actually very beautiful, unlike Rome, so it is worth going to! The famous island with the church in the middle of the lake is as pretty as it looks in pictures, especially with the mountains behind it. It’s fun to hire a rowing boat to use on the lake, something I did on my last visit with Sam and Louis (and it really was quite hilarious). The walk up to the several viewpoints is very pleasant. The castle seems nice, although not free to enter and I didn’t pay to do so. You can visit the beautiful Vintgar gorge easily. The Bled cream cake is delicious (but just buy it from a supermarket rather than a cafe to save money!). BUT it is very busy! Mostly with interrailers who are 18/19 years old. So just keep that in mind, and don’t forget the beautiful Soca valley which is much quieter.
There are still lots of places I didn’t manage to see in Slovenia that I’d love to visit, so I’ll briefly include these for completeness:
- The coast - Koper or Piran look like great beach towns.
- Predjama castle and Postojna cave - can be done as a day trip from Ljubljana very easily.
- Podzemlje Pece - a cave system in the North East that you can kayak through.
- Krajinski national park - a national park in the North East, close to Austria and Hungary.
- Lake Bohinj - can be reached from Bled.
Luckily I definitely plan on coming back to Slovenia again and again, so I’m sure I’ll get to cross the others off eventually! Slovenia really does have everything: mountains, beautiful rivers and lakes, luscious green nature, great hikes, all of the water sports, and a lovely capital city.
It’s not all perfect all the time
I planned to hike Krn on a certain day, and I prepared everything the night before. I set my alarm ready to catch the one bus there at 6:35am. I woke in the morning and checked my phone to read 6:45am… I’d missed my alarm somehow and also missed the bus. Luckily I could do it the next day instead but it was quite annoying.
Not something that went wrong, but an interesting logistical note: I decided that I wasn’t going to need my jeans or jacket for the foreseeable future (or wooly hat) so sent them back to England. A potential future issue perhaps, as the post office man couldn’t seem to grasp that my house has a name and not a number and so I have little faith in the parcel ever arriving. This meant I now had a little bit of spare space in my bag… which I quickly filled with a nice dress and skirt from an independent shop and a vintage shop in Ljubljana! And a needed pair of shorts and vest top from less exciting H&M and Mango…