Just looking at summer holidays and Slovenia’s been mentioned, we’d be doing a fly drive for 10-14 nights in July or August. I can see it’s had a few mentions on here as a good destination but what’s it like, where’s good to go and what’s good to eat? 🙂

Lake bled and the Julian alps are no doubt the highlight, I like Ljubljana and the town on the coast has the black horses that turn white in adult hood and dance on rear legs in Vienna. Lipizana ?

Loads to see and do. Vintgar gorge, Postajna caves, Lake Bohinj is nice, Rak skocjan, if you like bees there is a very good museum in Radovjica. My fave was the Idrija mercury mine.

We found the food in Slovenia was very good. Bled is nice but can get busy. The countryside, in general, is fantastic

I really liked the place – went trekking there a few years ago. I guess for MTBing a guide would be very useful as some mountain tracks would be great and some very tricky and no indications on the map really which would be good. Also regulations stop MTBing in some areas as I remember

Great place tho

The ice cream is surprisingly good 🙂

Ljubljana is nice, bovec is a good area to stay in. Was disappointed with bled and lake bohinj. Beautiful places but we went in August and it was insanely busy which ruined it completely struggled to find anywhere to park and the campsites were rammed full! Didn’t stop not that we could have if we wanted to. I imagine if you went in June it would be a different story!

Beautiful country, I was expecting ex soviet style building, but it was like Austria, lots of flowers in windows, immaculate lawns etc.. cheap beer too, and the coffee was ace

Bled is tourist central in the holiday season. Mountain biking is not welcomed although one or two or two should not cause a problem but a group would. Ljubljana was wonderful place to people watch and soak up the atmosphere, we stayed over at Ribcev Laz and there is a mini bike park next to the Vogel ski centre. The walking, food and the quality of the countryside is excellent and affordable. I am going back to walk the Julian alps.

As above, absolutely love the country. I would live there if I could! Beautiful mountains, some of the riding I’ve ever had, friendly people, good food, interesting history etc etc. Imo, much nicer than Austria/Italy.

nasher – Member

Beautiful country, I was expecting ex soviet style building,

there are parts like this. We found some 🙂

If you want to bike, I have a mate, Blaz, who is an mtb guide and all round great guy. Great tats as well!

Let me know if you want an intro.

https://www.kd-rajd.si/en/instructors/

I used to live in Ljubljana for about a year and then worked as an MTB guide for Jon at Ride Slovenia which is in a tiny village just north east of Kamnik.

I absolutely loved the place and the mountain biking is some of the best i’ve ever done, you’ve probably already guessed i’ve done quite a bit of riding there and would recommend getting in contact with Jon ad Ride Slovenia if you would like a guide, he does single days, a long weekend or a week. We sometimes had guests that stayed with us for the week and rode some days and went touristing others so might be worth asking him about that, although I think that might have been in lower season, worth a try anyway!

Regardless if you get in contact with him or not there are some great spots to visit in the area near Kamnik, Velika Planina has these fantastic old wooden farm huts all over it and great views (quite Lord Of The Ringsy), Logarska Dolina is an incredible lush green valley with a nice waterfall at the head of it and good access to hiking around Grintovec mountain!

In terms of areas to visit as a tourist I would really recommend the So?a valley, driving over the Vrši? pass is awesome and then the colour of the water down the So?a river is incredible and there are cool little gorges here and there, Bovec is a nice town to stop in on the way down. They have just been repairing the ski lifts and reopening the ski station here so it might be in use during the summer now too! Spent some time building this mountain refuge above Bovec two summers ago as well which you could go stay in which is fairly dramatic! There are quite a few of these around the country though. In general as others have said it is not soviet or ‘eastern European’ feeling at all, being bordered by several countries it has quite a lot of influences but the regions I was in felt quite like Austria and Italy and it really feels like everyone takes such good care of their own villages!

Here’s a couple little videos of some of the trails we rode in the Koroška valley…
https://anyexcusetoride.com/2017/06/28/slovenia-koroska-trails/
https://anyexcusetoride.com/2017/06/23/fresh-autumn-slovenian-singletrack/

BUT! Some of the best trails i’ve ridden in my life were around Ajdovs?ina!!! I’m afraid I don’t have any videos from that but my flippin god the trails there are good!!! If I find anything i’ll post up.

Hope that helps!

Zlatorog pivo is better than union, but both are good.

Agree with jmbobo zlatorag was the one for me, has anyone mentioned how good the little ice cream stalls our in Ljubljana , tonnes of flavours and cheap, not sure the train to Venice will still be £12 for two as it’s 11 years since I went , but still have good memories, it was pretty much like Western Europe back then although I expected to be a bit more Eastern European

anus, that cabin looks amazing!

Also regulations stop MTBing in some areas as I remember

Within the bounds of the Triglav National Park (there may be others too).
One of the places we rode was around Bovec. It’s outside the park, but only just. All the trails we found there were from some German MTB guide book.
Lots more to do there too, especially if you like canoeing/kayaking, canyoning, etc.

I was expecting ex soviet style building

tbf I was expecting the same of many places “behind the iron curtain”, but blame that on propaganda selling Eastern Europe in black and white. Slovenia is pretty colourful, especially the houses on the road to Mezica from the main Ljubljana-Austria/Hungary motorway.

Food is a bargain. Depending where you go there’s quite an Italian or Austrian theme.

curtisthecat – Member
… absolutely love the country. I would live there if I could!

You can (assuming you are an EU citizen) – they are in “European Union” and you still have free movement…

Thank you all, friends, tons to look into there – much appreciated! 🙂

Few of us went biking there last year and stayed at Jon’s place in Luce. Absolutely stunning country, we did his Alps to sea tour so got so see several different areas. Touristy stuff I’d have no idea what’s what but if your looking for hiking/biking its a fantastic country. Also food and beer is cheap!

Someone from my team went on the weekend – out on sat morning and back sun night

Pics looked amazing, mountains were gorgeous

Did a week riding there about 10years ago with a guide.

Brilliant, lovely country and really cool people.

Triglav National Park is stunning but unsure on cycling legalities. Some fantastic waterfalls and rivers. Bled is touristy and busy. Bohinj was better but still busy.

Would 100% recommend you go.

I’ll second Jon @ Ride Slovenia. Done 2 years and thinking of a 3rd. Best place.