Slovenia/Northern Croatia in September – any advice?

We’ve got 2 weeks in September where we plan to go to Slovenia/Northern Croatia, flying in and out of Zagreb and picking up a hire car. Nothing else booked so far, what would those who’ve been there recommend in terms of where to stay, what to do/see, what to avoid?

Current rough plan is a day/night in Zagreb to do a bit of wandering, then head up to the hills and spend ~4 days around Lake Bled, then ~4 days in Bovec, then head down to Pula for a bit of seaside fun. Anything else we should consider?

We generally like outdoor activities and scenery and don’t like crowds (though appreciate it’s summer and they’re fairly unavoidable). We’re planning to do some decent sized walks when up in the hills, if I can get a day (or 2) at a bike park or somewhere I can ride solo easily then that would be great.

I really like both places.

Ljubljana is legendary in anti-car Twitter for pedestrianising the city centre. Slovenia can be surprisingly expensive in places, but mostly it’s hugh quality and affordable.

The tourism market there is very seasonal. Once German etc schools go back, it gets quieter – I don’t think it will be as busy as you fear. It’s a really nice time of year to go

We bike packed in croatia/bosnia late Sept last year, albeit further south.

We were supposed to wild camp but realised how cheap we could find lovely spartments for about 30-50 euros a night on booking.com.

Plitvice Lakes National Park is a must visit. Rovinj is beautiful, far nicer than Pula.

Zagreb is lovely. The centre is full of grand old palaces from the Austria-Hungarian Empire. Lots of fab coffee shops too. The suburbs are Soviet Bloc concrete monstrosities full of litter and graffiti. They have just switched to the Euro so prices of everything seems to have gone up according to the media.

Plitvice Lakes are  stunning but start as early as possible as it gets very busy

If you like mountains the Julian Alps are amazing but tough walking. The Karawanken mtns on the border with Austria are a bit easier terrain and have fantastic views in every direction – Stol is worth walking up.

Recommend the Julians. Unfortunately our visit was cut short (August) by a big dump of snow. Really enjoyable scrambly hill bashing,

I’ve been 3 times to Slovenia it’s lovely.

You biking or just site seeing?

Thanks all, think we’ll tweak our itinerary to Rovinj instead of Pula in that case and see if there’s anywhere near Plitvice to stay on the way back to Zagreb. Definitely planning on doing some walking in the Julian alps, will need to take a look online and see what the best options are depending on where we stay.

We’ll primarily be sight seeing, not taking a bike so would need to be somewhere I can hire one if I end up doing that. Wife doesn’t ride but she enjoys a day without me to read her book and drink coffee in peace!

Last June we stopped in Slovenia for ten days as part of an interrail trip spent a week of that at a place called Stara Fuzina by Lake Bohinj. It was fantastic, the walking is stunning (trail marking is not as good as in French/Swiss alps), swimming in the lake, hiring boats etc., idyllic. Lake Bled looked a bit hectic for us. Llubljana is a great wee city.

Argh I posted a really long response and STW shat the bed! In summary:

Slovenia in September = great
Lake Bled v touristy, Lake Bohinj much nicer
Triglav National Park just ridiculously beautiful wherever you look
Piran v nice, kind of similar to Rovinj, either of which are well worth a few days
Velka Planina (aka ‘Big Pasture Plateau’ on Google Maps) was really interesting too
Local wine and food generally very good (this is true for Croatia too)
You’ll love it

We generally like outdoor activities and scenery and don’t like crowds

Yep, we like to get away from people also. But have to say the Emerald River Adventure day tour we did in Slovenia with 3glav Adventures was a highlight.

You’ll be in time for the car-train bit as well
*Car-train experience that we usually incorporate into original Emerald River Adventure™ operates from last Saturday in April till last Sunday in September every year.

Couple of suggestions
Predjama castle – built in a cave, has its own bat cave
Triglav national park

Rovinj is beautiful

Interesting past history if you are near any. Fascinating architecture too.

https://www.spomenikdatabase.org/

Rovinj is beautiful and there are marked up bike trails. Good campsite just out of town.

Agree with others, Bohinj is much more relaxed than Bled. Great for a dip and also a trip up Vogel in cable car and chair with MTB for a good long run down (follow the path markings on the trees from bottom of chair/after bikepark).
Postojna caves are huge and worth a visit. Castle there too, so a good day out with family.

In Croatia, Pula has a good Amphitheatre, Plitvinci lakes are just amazing and well worth the 4hr drive.
Fazana beach and town a closer to Pula than Rovinj, but both lovely.

Argh I posted a really long response and STW shat the bed! In summary:

This happened to me too, CBA to re-write, sorry.

Key point is, September is a good time to go, because even the honey-pots like Bled and Piran are pretty quiet, so nice even for the crowd-averse like us.

The walk up to Debela Peč and it’s neighbouring peaks on the ridge is a cracker (Walk 52 here in the Cicerone guide book).

It starts at a hotel then goes through woodland and beautiful high level pastures and you end up on a lovely ridge line. The views of the larger Julian Alp peaks are stunning and the view north to the Karawanken ridge is pretty special too.

It’s similar  to this walk:

https://www.10adventures.com/hikes/julian-alps/debela-pec/

You need to spend some time in the river when you’re in Bovec. the Soca is the most bewitching river I’ve ever come across. We decided we’d spend a morning canoeing from Prijon Sports, down the hill from Bovec, on the river itself. We turned up as effectively beginners, both done little bits here and there over the years, probably less than a day in total ever.

Started in the flat calm section just by the Prijon Sports, expecting to spend the whole morning there, but after half an hour of showing we weren’t morons and could roughly point ourselves in the right direction, he said “right, let’s go!” and headed on downstream. bit of whitewater, great blend of looking at the scenery, travelling, stopping at features and practicing techniques. Went back the next day, and the day after that. Class 3 whitewater on the last day. Would thoroughly recommend Prijon Sports – proper set up. I think they rent bikes, too. https://www.prijon-sportcenter.si/en/kayak-school/

Take a drive up to the Mangart Saddle. We went up an hour or two before sunset and didn’t want to leave. The refuge had a room free, so we stayed!

we had bikes with us, rode a fair bit up and down the valley but only did one “proper” mtb day. So limited experience, but would heartily recommend the ride we did do: Drive to Livek, climb to top of Mt Matajur, ride miles and miles and miles of flowy singletrack to Savogna, have a beer. Send the least tired person up the road to get the car from Livek (obvs that’s you if you’re on your own!). Big day out!

Ha, yes, that river really is the colour it appears to be in all the photos. Spectacular!

Awesome, exactly the kind of suggestions I was after 😃. Bohinj seems much more our speed, and the Emerald river trip and kayaking are definitely things we’d want to do!