Early stage of planning a week away in September. EasyJ fly to Split in Croatia and Venice which is closish to Slovenia.
Anyone been to either? How hard is it to get to the hills? Is it worth getting guided? Who by?
I have been to slovenia trekking. I loved the country and very geared up for outdoor ports. However I think guiding or at a minimum good advice from someone with local knowledge of the trails would be essential. Many of the walking trails simply would not be cyclable from what I saw.
Been to Croatia biking with Neilson and stayed on Korcula - The island of Mijet is lovely and loads of riding on it for a small island - get there by water taxi with bikes 🙂
ta. So did you fly to either Venice or Split?
Direct to Dubrovnick as it was a Neilson Charter 🙂
Been to Slovenia, beautiful country and lovely folk.
Lake Bled and the Julian Alps are well worth a few days spent. Regular buses from Ljubjana (SP?) and only about 2 hours away if my memory serves.
I flew to lubjiana (sp) easy jet
I'll follow this thread as I asked about Croatia and biking recently. We're off there next year, climbing, biking, camping but knowledge is a little thin...
pulls up a chair also.......
Croatia is lovely - Was the British 2nd Riveria once - Neilson pulled out as work visas were becomming very difficult to acquire 🙁 Would def go back again 🙂
Motorcycled down to croatia a few summers ago and spent a few weeks island hopping. Didn't find too much camping but accomodation with locals (they mob you when you get off the ferrys) was cheap and cheerful.
Slovenia Dave.
Fly into Llub or Trieste.
We can put you in touch with local knowledge :o)
Ta Dave. I'll be in touch...
2nd FoxyRider
I was very disappointed when Neilson closed down in Croatia
Had a great few weeks there a couple of years ago, would gladly go back
great riding and water sports centre
I am in Maribor, Slovenia right now. Mail me if you have a any questions.
Questions are at the top of the thread, Pete..
take a look here, if if you don't use sacred rides it will give you an idea of what to expect.
[url= http://www.sacredrides.com/tours/croatia/alpsandadriatic/ ]http://www.sacredrides.com/tours/croatia/alpsandadriatic/[/url]
Got back from Slovenia last week, 2nd time ive visited. Julian Alps in the NE - Kransjka Gora or Bovec, lovely part of the world. As already said, buses are regular and cheap from Ljubjlana, couple of hours at most.
Cheaper than the UK, nice and clean, very green and friendly people. Shame flights there are limited from the UK.
The Soca valley in Slovenia seems to become popular with bikers recently.. it may just become the next hot destination for all those who have done their fill of transalps and want something new - i'll be going there myself in autumn for the first time.
There's plenty of information about trails there available on the net, but a lot of it is in German. There's a new trail guide book, see here.
http://www.schymik.de/wordpress/?p=120
Alternatively, download a shedload of GPS tour files for free here, which also solves the language problem 😉
http://www.mtb-slowenien.de/gps/
Soca Valley rocks!
+1 for Bovec / Soca Valley.
+1 for the mtb-slowenien guide + GPS files (knowing German helps)
back out there in a couple of weeks 🙂
Here's a cool video to give you a taste of what you can expect in Slovenia. As far as I know, not all the trails those guys ride are legal though.
http://video.mpora.com/watch/5qeKuG5MV/
andytherocketeer, do you have the mtb slowenien guide book? would you recommend it?
my brother bought the German "Bike" magazine's tours special a couple of months ago that touted info about slovenia and ended up simply advertising that bloody book - so we didn't buy it yet just out of spite 😛
tamworthcrowd, yep I have the guide.
My Review in 1 paragraph: you get the book itself (2-3 pages per route iirc), with a separate clear jacket, plus 30 (iirc) separate route "card" strips (with a mini-map, direction instructions, plus an elevation profile indicating road/gravel/singletrack/etc.). We found that the pull out instruction strips have a map that's a bit small to read, and were a bit "flimsy", but they survived. Still found it useful to have the book in the rucksack rather than rely on the route strip.
If you can read German, and don't mind having a guide book of 30-odd routes of which you'd probably only do a few, then I'd recommend it. If not, then maybe the free GPS files will have to do, but you lose all the info about whether a section of route is singletrack, gravel, road, etc. plus all the waypoint instructions.
We didn't do whole routes as such, and probably won't this time - probably will take sections from different routes and stick them together. At least with the guidebook, we had some starting points for trails - without it, then you'd need to rely on someone local and maps that don't have half the trails marked, etc.
I found it only because I read mtb-news.de forum (there's a long thread dedicated to Soca Valley, and the author of this guide and some locals are regular contributors to it).
http://www.mtb-news.de/forum/showthread.php?t=322432 (95% german, 4% pictures, 1% english)
Excellent everyone, thanks. Looking forward to meeting the green and friendly people.
Dave360... lookee here..
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/biking-in-croatia-brac
Planning on going in september as well - Bristol to Split then foot ferry to Brac/Bol
Can't wait seeing as i've just seen a mates photos of the Mega!
Not been to croatia but slovenia is awesome.
lake bled is a must for the biker.
i did a little research before i went & asked lcal people which was surprisingly easy.
a guide would be an option as costs are a heck of a lot lower than the alps.
full all inclusive 5 day packages are a bargain book flights job done.
porteroz is a cracking family day out without the bike aswell.