Slovenia

Son went to Lake Bled in 2022. Amazing place and scenery, very affordable and within a comfortable train ride from Prague or Vienna.

OMG! My happy place! Slovenia is the most beautiful country (well, Norway, Austria and Switzerland might have something to say about that) in the world. My favorite trip evah.

We spent ten days there after touring Croatia. Spent the first part of the trip in Ljubljana, the capital and largest city of Slovenia. Then spent a couple of nights at Lake Bled. The most "touristy" of sites in the country, but well worth it.

Later based in Kobarid and toured the battlefields of the Isonzo Front in WW1. Hiked trails in the Soca Valley, then to "Slap Kojak" (watefall).

I stay in touch with someone there, and his daughter is a GREAT tour guide. I could give you some hotel and restaurant suggestions later on if needed in the places we stayed. Attaching some links to albums and a couple of photos below.

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Did you drive or train? Hotel recommendations please!
How would you split 10-12 days between Slovenia and Croatia.

Just saw the Croatia thread below. Looks like great advice.

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As noted, we're going back and traveling to Bosnia next May, so those are some great recommendations.

Happy to help.

We flew into Venice and rented a car and drove with another couple for over 2 weeks. Pretty easy to get around driving. I will say I have a phobia about toll booths in foreign countries. At least then, they didn't have chipped booths like they did in France. Try figuring out which lane, how to pay, all while people are honking at you from behind!

Clearly go to Plitvice National Park. One of the great wonders of the world. I'll share what we did. We use Booking.com or Trip Advisor a lot, so you'll want to fine tune your search.

Just outside park. Plitvice Miric Inn.




As noted, we have contacts in Ljubljana, so I'd be happy to emaila them specific questions for you later on down the road. We hired his daughter as a guide and she was great.

Using VCE Venice airport is probably wiser as there are many flights there, and some are even direct flights from USA (or at least Delta was flying there directly). VCE is only 2 hrs 15 min by car from Ljubljana.

We were staying at the City Hotel in Ljubljana. Nice place. Central to the old town area.

Lake Bled is all about tourism and lake. My contact didn't fancy Bled as town where he would need to overnight; parking is a bitch there and after sunset not much to do. 2-3 hours max for this location, IMO. But once there visit to Lake Bohinj is obligatory.

Note: We did spend two nights there. Caveat: assume it depends on the season in terms of crowds. We were there in November.

Vintgar Gorge should be open. Both Soca Valley and Lake Bled/Lake Bohinj are doable as day rips from Ljubljana.

I'll try to add more later.

Had a trip all booked there for April of 2020, which was obviously cancelled and we haven't been able to make that particular place work yet. It's still quite high on the list though.
Our plan was 1.5 days in Ljubljana, few days at Bled (used as a base for the area) with a full day hike along the river/Triglav (can't recall name of the trail off hand) + some river floating, then a day or so in Piran.

Last part of the trip was spent in Kobarid. About my favorite place in the world.

Stayed in Farmhouse Kranjc. Really cool inn out in the country.


Got to tour the amazingly beautiful Vintgar Gorge.




Hiked to "Slap Kojak".



Kobarid has an amazing WW1 museum. Most probably don't know about the Isonzo Front, one of the bloodiest fronts of World War I, and it was fought largely on the territory of present-day Slovenia. The front stretched from the Julian Alps to the Adriatic Sea, along the Isonzo River (now known as the Soca River). Over 1.7 million soldiers were killed or wounded on the Isonzo Front, making it one of the deadliest fronts of the entire war.

Background Info

Touring the museum and the battlefields were probably the highlights of the trip for me. The "Kobarid" link above has more pictures of the battlefield and museum.

We didn't even get to scratch the surface of this beautiful country. Things we missed: going into the Julian Alps, which are spectacular. And Slovenia's wine regions!

The Grand Tour included Slovenia in an episode of their show on Amazon Prime Video. Beauuuutiful.

I’m considering Slovenia and Croatia for a year or two from now. Interested in reports on food & wine. Always heard great things about the food but would like some specific recommendations.