What a wonderful place! 🙂
We will definitely have to come back for a longer vacation, so consider this a fist first scouting mission. A very successful one. My friend Claus and me went for 5 days, from Thursday to Tuesday the first week of September. Apologies for posting this late, but Frankfurt Book Fair and Wooster’s injuries got in the way … .
So, Slovenia. We decided to base ourselves in Bled, because it’s rather central and has good transport options to various trailheads. Plus, in September the crowds are already gone, so no worries at all. I can imagine that Bled must be horribly overcrowded in July/August, though, and I’d probably stay elsewhere in high season. But for us, it was fine. We stayed in a very nice apartment at Vila Marjetica. Very clean, comfortable, super spacious, nice balcony with mountain view, and super friendly host. Recommended!
Bled itself is right on (or around) Lake Bled and offers all you would expect from a major tourist town. Lots of restaurants, cafes, supermarkets, and transport options. Good thing about Slovenia: You don’t need a car, we could use buses and the occasional taxi to get to the trailheads easy-peasy. They have special tourist buses during summer time to encourage people to leave their car at home, they’re only 1€ per trip, so well done, just what we needed! So there was love in the air immediately:
They have great infrastructure for dogs, too: Cafes with special dog treats and areas, „dog parking“ at the supermarket … very cute!
Part of our mission was to taste the local specialty „kremsnita“ in at many places as possible. We started with the place where it was supposedly inventend millions of years ago, the very nice „Park Restaurant & Cafe“, right on the lake with great views from the terrace. And lovely kremsnita indeed! Plus great ice cream at the stall next door … .
I personally found Slaščičarna ZIMA even better, they had other nice stuff as well:
And apparently they’re using beagles as watchdogs, hahahaha:
So much for this cute little town. But we came for the hiking, of course. And while we had a fair bit of rain, we managed to get out and about quite a bit. Unfortunately, we had to scrap Triglav itself, too much rain and unstable conditions, Friday we stayed in our apartment and only ventured out for (lots of) kremsnitas and pizza. But the other days, we got a nice glimpse of the beauty of this country and we absolutely have to come back for a longer trip soon!
The day we arrived we basically just dumped our stuff at the apartment, jumped into our hiking boots on took off toward
Soteska Vintgar (Vintgar Gorge), walking from Bled via Podhom, through the gorge, and then back to Bled via Zasip.
By Saturday we had gotten so restless, we needed some mountains. There was still a lot of rain forecast and thunderstorms in the afternoon, so we still had to take it easy. We took the bus to the
Pokljuka plateau and did a nice leg stretcher from there. And yes, there is a cafe at the Rudno Polje trailhead, they do pancakes and kremsnita, so we didn’t mind waiting for the return bus.
Sunday, still raining and more thunderstorms forecast for the mountains, so we stayed low and walked around the lake, taking a few detours left and right. Plus, there was the Lake Bled Triathlon on that day, which was fun to watch, starters from all over the world, too!
Monday, finally, it had cleared up again. So off to nearby
Bohinjsko Jezero (Lake Bohinj), which is more quiet, more beautiful, and more diverse than Lake Bled. Bit of a longer trip this time, finally some workout for our tiny legs … a nice roundtrip with
Mostnica gorge and waterfall as the highlights. Since it had rained for three days straight, there was lots of water falling and running down, very impressive. 🙂
I can’t find any negative points about Slovenia: Great hiking, lovely countryside, wonderful people, good public transport, great food. What’s not to love?!?!?! 🙂 Will be back for sure!
