Having just returned from holiday in Slovenia, I thought I'd share my experience and encourage you all to visit :-)
Firstly, Slovenia is fairly small - about the size of Wales. The airport is near Ljubljana (about 20 minutes drive). Like Wales, Slovenia is also made up of a lot of hills and mountains - just to set the scene. Unlike Wales, the weather is a lot warmer and generally less rainy.
We started out in an AirB&B in the Julian Alps near Lake Bled. The Lake itself is beautiful with plenty of opportunity for swimming, hiking and kayaking. We did Crystal Kayaks around the lake at night - these are see through with LED lights on the bottom to help you look for fish and see the bottom of the lake (well the shallow bits anyway). It also has a little island in the middle with a church, and there is a castle nearby. Slovenia has many castles and former castles. Lake Bled itself can get *very* busy. There are some huge campsites, hotels - it's a real tourist centre - but very pretty.
We stayed in an area called Gorjuse which is a Slovenian farming village half way up a mountain (or at least that's what it felt like). To get to it involved mountain roads with hairpin bends - usually wide enough for two vehicles and usually with safety barriers, so not too terrifying. That said, because there were 6 of us, our hire care was a Toyota Versa (8 person van with room for luggage) so not the most nimble or narrow of vehicles.
Our next stop was the old city of Peran. Peran is a (mostly) pedestrian city on the coast of Slovenia. Many of the streets are too narrow for cars, although we did see plenty of motorbikes and scooters. Our AirB&B host met us at a property on the outskirts where we could park, and then drove us all to the apartments in a golf cart. These were amazing (Gloria Holidays for the interested). We had our own pool, hot tub, garden kitchen and 3 lovely apartments - One was four single beds in a bunk arrangement but not bunks - these were built in with a staircase up the middle. Another was a king bed and then an upstairs floating floor with a wall to wall bed big enough for 3 adults (the adult kids slept there although only two of them). The third apartment was the kitchen and lounge but the sofa could pull out into a bed. Absolutley immaculate - anway I digress...
Piran is beautiful with amazing seafood. I very much recommend visiting the church and the city walls. Also Pirat - a seafood restaurant with a good vegetarian menu also. The first place I've ever had seafood Tapas. It's run by a very loud and hospitable Slovenian who is reminiscent of David Harbour. We ate there a few times - "I brink you ice cream and figs from my garden, and my special ice-cream! No Charge - you try! You enjoy!". The fish was AMAZING. There are numerous other good restaurants available. Piran was once ruled by Venice so there is a heavy Italian influence on food - lots of pasta, seafood (did I mention seafood?) etc. Lots of shops selling "souvenirs" but *many* of them actually hand made or hand painted by the residents.
Our third stop was Pliskovia in the wine region. Slovenia mostly produces white and orange wines and I'd recommend a visit to the Lepa Vida vineyard. Matjja does a wonderful tasting paired with Slovenian food - cheeses, charcuteries, breads etc. We also visited the Postojnska Jama (Cave) and Castle (the castle is built into a huge cave). This is another absolute tourist trap (we probably had the worst food of the holiday here) but it's pretty much a much see. Postojnska is about 24km of caves - you get a little train into the caves, spend an hour walking around some of the caves, then get a train back out. We also drove up into the mountains again to go bear watching - the conservators have a couple of hides where you can spend a few hours watching wild black bears come and forage for corn put out to attract them. There is also a wonderful restaurant nearby where you can also try bear steak or roast bear (it's very nice) should you wish - most of their meals are based on the forests, so lots of Venison, mushroom etc.
Slovenians are generally speaking wonderfully friendly. Anyone under 30 speaks English as well as Slovenian as well as a few other languages. It's also a great place to base yourself for a wider triup in that you can easily get to Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia from Slovenia.
Finally, although we didn't cycle at any point, Slovenia appears to be superb for cycling. Most main roads have a route for cyclists separate to traffic, and the non main roads tend to be slow anyway as Slovenian road designers seem to have no understanding of straight lines. On the down side, all roads are going up or down. Almost nothing is flat. Many people - particularly locals - were using e-bikes to zoom uphill. However because the roads are so curvy and hairpin bound, the traffic is seldom going fast. You get the odd Slovenian farmer in a hurry, but that's about it. Also because Slovenia only has a population of about 2,000,000, the traffic outside of the major highways is almost always light to non existent. Many villages were built around the horse and cart, so going through a village usually involves a series of places to give way and wait, and lots of mirrors on poles.
As you can tell - we very much enjoyed it :-)
Firstly, Slovenia is fairly small - about the size of Wales. The airport is near Ljubljana (about 20 minutes drive). Like Wales, Slovenia is also made up of a lot of hills and mountains - just to set the scene. Unlike Wales, the weather is a lot warmer and generally less rainy.
We started out in an AirB&B in the Julian Alps near Lake Bled. The Lake itself is beautiful with plenty of opportunity for swimming, hiking and kayaking. We did Crystal Kayaks around the lake at night - these are see through with LED lights on the bottom to help you look for fish and see the bottom of the lake (well the shallow bits anyway). It also has a little island in the middle with a church, and there is a castle nearby. Slovenia has many castles and former castles. Lake Bled itself can get *very* busy. There are some huge campsites, hotels - it's a real tourist centre - but very pretty.
We stayed in an area called Gorjuse which is a Slovenian farming village half way up a mountain (or at least that's what it felt like). To get to it involved mountain roads with hairpin bends - usually wide enough for two vehicles and usually with safety barriers, so not too terrifying. That said, because there were 6 of us, our hire care was a Toyota Versa (8 person van with room for luggage) so not the most nimble or narrow of vehicles.
Our next stop was the old city of Peran. Peran is a (mostly) pedestrian city on the coast of Slovenia. Many of the streets are too narrow for cars, although we did see plenty of motorbikes and scooters. Our AirB&B host met us at a property on the outskirts where we could park, and then drove us all to the apartments in a golf cart. These were amazing (Gloria Holidays for the interested). We had our own pool, hot tub, garden kitchen and 3 lovely apartments - One was four single beds in a bunk arrangement but not bunks - these were built in with a staircase up the middle. Another was a king bed and then an upstairs floating floor with a wall to wall bed big enough for 3 adults (the adult kids slept there although only two of them). The third apartment was the kitchen and lounge but the sofa could pull out into a bed. Absolutley immaculate - anway I digress...
Piran is beautiful with amazing seafood. I very much recommend visiting the church and the city walls. Also Pirat - a seafood restaurant with a good vegetarian menu also. The first place I've ever had seafood Tapas. It's run by a very loud and hospitable Slovenian who is reminiscent of David Harbour. We ate there a few times - "I brink you ice cream and figs from my garden, and my special ice-cream! No Charge - you try! You enjoy!". The fish was AMAZING. There are numerous other good restaurants available. Piran was once ruled by Venice so there is a heavy Italian influence on food - lots of pasta, seafood (did I mention seafood?) etc. Lots of shops selling "souvenirs" but *many* of them actually hand made or hand painted by the residents.
Our third stop was Pliskovia in the wine region. Slovenia mostly produces white and orange wines and I'd recommend a visit to the Lepa Vida vineyard. Matjja does a wonderful tasting paired with Slovenian food - cheeses, charcuteries, breads etc. We also visited the Postojnska Jama (Cave) and Castle (the castle is built into a huge cave). This is another absolute tourist trap (we probably had the worst food of the holiday here) but it's pretty much a much see. Postojnska is about 24km of caves - you get a little train into the caves, spend an hour walking around some of the caves, then get a train back out. We also drove up into the mountains again to go bear watching - the conservators have a couple of hides where you can spend a few hours watching wild black bears come and forage for corn put out to attract them. There is also a wonderful restaurant nearby where you can also try bear steak or roast bear (it's very nice) should you wish - most of their meals are based on the forests, so lots of Venison, mushroom etc.
Slovenians are generally speaking wonderfully friendly. Anyone under 30 speaks English as well as Slovenian as well as a few other languages. It's also a great place to base yourself for a wider triup in that you can easily get to Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia from Slovenia.
Finally, although we didn't cycle at any point, Slovenia appears to be superb for cycling. Most main roads have a route for cyclists separate to traffic, and the non main roads tend to be slow anyway as Slovenian road designers seem to have no understanding of straight lines. On the down side, all roads are going up or down. Almost nothing is flat. Many people - particularly locals - were using e-bikes to zoom uphill. However because the roads are so curvy and hairpin bound, the traffic is seldom going fast. You get the odd Slovenian farmer in a hurry, but that's about it. Also because Slovenia only has a population of about 2,000,000, the traffic outside of the major highways is almost always light to non existent. Many villages were built around the horse and cart, so going through a village usually involves a series of places to give way and wait, and lots of mirrors on poles.
As you can tell - we very much enjoyed it :-)
