10 days Slovenia itinerarary – an unknown gem in Europe

• Day 1: Driving from Belgium to Lake Bled
• Day 2: Mostnica Gorge with Voje valley and Slap Voje + drive the scenic route 907
• Day 3: Explore Lake Bled + viewpoint mala Osojnika for sunset
• Day 4: Pericnik waterfall + Zelenci Nature Reserve + Kransjka Gora with Lake Jasna + Vintgar Gorge + boat tour Lake Bled
• Day 5: Hike Mt. Golica, mountain of daffodils + sunset Lake Bohinj
• Day 6: Explore Lake Bohinj + random driving around + sunset at Vodnikov lookout point (hidden gem)
• Day 7:  Soça river
• Day 8: Kozjak waterfall + Kanalski Most
• Day 9: Skocjanske Jama + Postojna cave + drive on to Piran
• Day 10: Piran
• Day 11: Piran to Italy (or home if your time is limted)

In June of 2021, my girlfriend and I traveled to Slovenia by car. I already fell in love with the country on my first visit in 2018, my girlfriend fell in love with it during our trip. This definitely wasn’t the last time that we visited this gorgeous country and I’ll show you why in this blog as you will fall in love with it as well. Slovenia isn’t that big which makes it pleasant to travel around. In the North-West you will find Triglav National Park where there are tons of outdoor activities to do: hiking, rafting, climbing, canyoneering,… and it’s all relatively close to each other. Slovenia has it all: beautiful landscapes, high mountain peaks, cute towns, massive caves, coastline,… Down below you’ll find our 11 days Slovenia itinerary.

Best time to go to Slovenia: from May – September in the summer months. We went in june and had 25-30 degrees. The weather in the mountains can be somewhat unpredictable though.

Why do we love Slovenia so much?

• I’m not going to say it’s a hidden gem, but it’s far less traveled than other surrounding countries like Croatia, Italy and Austria. Around Lake Bled and in Ljubljana you’ll find quite some tourists but when you leave these places, you’ll find lots of beautiful spots almost all to yourself.
• Affordable. Slovenia isn’t expensive to travel. It’s not cheap either but it’s somewhere in between.
• Beautiful scenery everywhere you go.
• The water is so blue, there’s not many places where you’ll see such clear water as here.

Day 1: Driving from Belgium to Lake Bled

The drive from Belgium to Lake Bled is around 10 hours and 30 minutes. We left Belgium early in the morning and arrived in the afternoon. We had plenty of time to set up our tent, enjoy the late afternoon sun and go for a short stroll to the lake. We went to bed in time so we could start exploring the next day.

We spent the first 6 nights of our trip at Camping Bled. We chose to stay here for a longer period of time because we did not want to move the tent after a few days. The distances to the places we wanted to visit weren’t long (max 40 minute drive) so we decided this would be a good base for exploring. If you want more variation, you can spend a few nights around Lake Bled and the next few nights around Lake Bohinj (we did this with some friends in 2018). Camping Bled is a wonderful camping, probably one of the best we’ve ever stayed on. It’s located right in front of the lake, the viewpoints are only a short walk from the campsite, you can lay by the lake, go swimming, rent a boat,… Facilities were super clean and there was a baker coming by every morning with fresh bread rolls, there’s a restaurant,… If you don’t like camping, there’s plenty of hotels and Airbnb’s in the area.

Day 2: Mostnica Gorge with Voje valley and slap voje + drive the scenic route 907

We got a tip to drive the scenic route 907 in Triglav National Park so we started our day just driving this route and enjoying the scenery. The start of the route isn’t far from Bled. We barely met any other cars whilst driving this road so we could fully enjoy the views and being surrounded by the mountains. Afterwards it turned out that Waze sent us via this route quite often the next few days. You’ll drive past fields full of wild flowers and high grass when seeing the mountains in the back with little wooden huts everywhere.

From there we drove on to the Mostnica Gorge. Coördinates for parking close to Mostnica Gorge: 46.290745007707216, 13.886861691898586.

After a short walk, you’ll pass a small hut where you have to pay an entrance fee. It’s only a few euro’s and you’ll be given a map as well. You have 2 options here:

• Either you explore the gorge, which is around 1h30 maximum

• Or at the end of the gorge you keep walking to the Voje Valley, which is a real hidden gem. In the Voje Valley you can find a 21m waterfall as well. I highly recommend exploring the valley as it is absolutely stunning and there aren’t many people here. Near the waterfall there’s a scenic little restaurant where you can get something to eat and/or drink. From the beginning of the gorge it’s about 2 hours until you reach the waterfall.

After getting a drink, we walked back to the car (another 2 hours) and drove back to the campsite. We had a few more hours but decided to enjoy the sunshine and read a book. The next few days would be sunny as well so we had plenty of time to visit all the places we wanted to. We did go to the lake to catch sunset and blue hour after dinner.

Note: The most logical day 1 activity would be to explore Lake Bled itself but we chose to have a relaxed day in nature as our first day because we would have more than enough time on these 6 days to see Lake Bled in all it’s glory.

Day 3: Explore Lake Bled + viewpoint mala Osojnika for sunset

On our third day we wanted to take the time to explore Lake Bled and the town of Bled itself. We walked around the lake for a while starting from the campsite and afterwards we took the car to drive to the town of Bled (you can do this by foot as well but it will take some time). Here we strolled around, had a drink and went to the tourism office to see if they had any recommendations for us that we didn’t include in our itinerary. We had hoped to do the Seven lakes hike the next day but apparently there still was too much snow so they gave us another option (I’ll talk about it later in the blog). Since we had some time left, we decided to visit the ‘amazing animals’ indoor zoo. This was quite a cool experience as they had a lot of different reptiles, insects etc.

We had a pizza at Pizzeria Rustica in Bled (decent pizza) and went back to the campsite because we wanted to catch sunset over the lake. The best viewpoints to watch sunset over Lake Bled are Mala Osojnica and Mala Ojstrica. There isn’t a very big difference between the 2 but we chose Mala Ojstrica because it’s higer. We watched the sunset and went back to the campsite to enjoy the rest of our evening. I let out the drone as well for a short flight since I’ve been dreaming to get a drone shot of the island in the middle of the lake for a very long time.  

Day 4: Pericnik waterfall + Zelenci nature reserve + Kransjka Gora with Lake Jasna + Vintgar gorge + boat tour lake Bled

I know it looks like there’s a lot on the agenda on day 4 but since most of these places only require a short walk it’s not a very exhausting day.

We started our day by driving from the campsite to the Pericnik waterfall, or as they say in Slovenia ‘Slap Pericnik’. The drive is only 45 minutes and we got to do route 907 again so our day started great. Coördinates to Slap Pericnik: 46.43916042191971, 13.89377895513616.

You can park your car up close and the hiking trail only takes you around 15 minutes to get to the Pericnik waterfall. The cool part is that you can walk behind it. I really recommend this one as it’s a cool experience and doesn’t require a lot of effort to get there.

After the waterfall, we visited the Zelenci Nature Reserve. It was only a 30 minutes drive from the waterfall and once again the parking is really close. Coördinates parking Zelenci Nature Reserve: 46.49458793798632, 13.734303877713218. I thought this place would take some time to explore but apparently it’s really small. You can enjoy sitting by the water, climb the (small) watch tower and that’s it. It was a sunny day so we enjoyed sitting here for a while until we continued to our next stop.

The third stop of the day was the Lake Jasna in Kransjka Gora or in Slovenian ‘Jezero Jasna’. Once again, you can park your car near the lake and just stroll around a bit. We just walked around the lake, got some lunch and enjoyed the sunshine. The views are wonderful with the mountains in the back. Coördinates of the lake: 46.4738771858482, 13.784237979978027.

After visiting Lake Jasna, we drove back in the direction of Lake Bled but first we’d make our last stop of the day at the Vintgar Gorge. The Vintgar Gorge is located north of Bled and is a must visit. For entering the gorge you’ll have to pay an entrance fee of 10 euros per person. Even though the weather was beautiful, we only passed a few people here so I guess we were lucky. A wooden walkway leads you through the gorge and it’s crystal clear water. This place is spectacular, look at this! At the end of the gorge’s walkway, you will find Slap Sum (the Sum waterfall). The route itself is simple and flat but extremely beautiful. It’s about 1,5km to reach the waterfall.

Important note: The Vintgar Gorge is only open in the summer months so do your research if you’re going there. Normally they’re open from end of May until somewhere in September.

In the beginning when you pay the entrance fee, they give you a map and tell you there’s 2 routes back: the short one and the longer one. I did both and highly recommend taking the longer route back. For the shorter one you walk mostly on a muddy path through the trees. The longer one will take you higer up with impressive views over the area. For some reason I did not take many photos but believe me when I say it is worth it. If you have some energy left, make sure to take the longer route back. From beginning until the end it will take you about 2 hours and 30 minutes to get back to the parking.

When we reached the car we drove back to the campsite. It was 3 or 4 PM and we decided to rent a boat to explore the lake and the island in the middle. Near the campsite there was a boat renting office called ‘Rent A Boat’. Coördinates: 46.36178044857931, 14.083943912280752. The next hour we just chilled on the lake and went to explore the island itself.

After that, we decided it had been enough for one day. We had a chill evening and went to bed in time because the next day we had a heavy hike waiting for us.

Day 5: Hike Mt. Golica, mountain of daffodils + sunset lake Bohinj

As I told you before, originally we wanted to do the 7 lakes hike but apparently there still was too much snow and in the tourism office they told us we could hike mount Golica. You can walk the mountain ridge which literally is on the border between Slovenia and Austria so you can see both countries. The Mount Golica hike is also well known for it’s famous hills full of Daffodil flowers. Normally you only see those late April, early May but because they weather had been so bad, they were still there mid June.

From our campsite we drove to Planina Pod Golico, which took us 50 minutes to get there. Once we arrived we had to look for a while to find the right parking spot and there were no signs we could find to start the hike so it took us quite a while to find the right trail. We got the tip to put ‘Planina Pod Golico 42’ in Waze to drive and park the car but once we arrived we had to drive on for a little while longer until we parked the car. For the hike, it is best that you use maps.me for tracking the route. After a while you’ll find signs that will show you the way but in the beginning it wasn’t clear to us where to start.

The hike itself will take you 4 hours in total and it’s not the easiest one as you have about 700/800 meters elevation gain. We walked from Planina Pod Golico to a mountain hut where you can get some food and drinks, coordinates: 46.48602293961718, 14.061888133636739.

At the hut you can go 2 ways:

• Either you go right to the Daffodils mountain ridge (takes about 1 hour in total)
• Or you go left to extend your hike with a 40 minute walk to the peak of Golica (1835 meters high)

We decided to just do the Daffodils ridge which was one of the most beautiful and unique sights we have ever experienced. The ridge was fully covered in thousands and thousands of Daffodils.

The weather was great so we spent some time on top enjoying the magnificent views over Slovenia on one side and Austria on the other before we went back down.

We were quite exhausted from the hike and didn’t want to do anything too active anymore so after dinner we decided to drive to Lake Bohinj or as the Slovenians say ‘Bohinjsko Jezero’ to enjoy sunset there. Too bad we were too late as the sun already had disappeared behind the mountains. Nonetheless we had some nice views there.

Day 6: Explore lake Bohinj + random driving around + Vodnikov lookout point

Our sixth day we visited Lake Bohinj. We didn’t really have a plan and just drove there and parked the car at this spot: 46.278437, 13.836616. It seemed that a nice and not too long walk started really close to where we parked the car. It looked more like a walk for people with children because you had to find the troll statues along the way but we had a good time as the scenery was stunning! Coördinates to start the walk: 46.279058513297876, 13.83496904648296 in total it was only 1 hour and 30 minutes or something. You can also choose to walk around Lake Bohinj which will take you a lot longer. Here are a few impressions.

There are tons of other things to do around Lake Bohinj, like renting a canoe, visiting Slap Savica, go swimming, do some other hiking trails,…

After our hike we got in the car and just drove around the area and enjoyed the scenery. This way we found some nice unexpected places.

In the evening we decided to watch sunset at the Vodnikov Lookout point. Coördinates of the viewpoint: 46.3021899273987, 13.977127998131163. Coördinates of the parking: 46.305315, 13.983599. The walk to the viewpoint isn’t long and will only take you 30 minutes. I suggest you use Google Maps or maps.me. After a while you’ll also find some signs. The great thing is that not many people know this place whilst the views are gorgeous. We were there all alone, except for some furry friends that came to enjoy the sunset together with us. This is also one of the hidden gems in the area.

Day 7:  Soça river

After 6 nights at Camping Bled, it was time to move around. When I went to Slovenia in 2018, I really loved the Soça river and had to go back. We spent 1 night at Camp Soça where we arrived before noon (1h45 minutes drive from camping Bled). We set up the tent and explored the area of the campsite. The camping was located right next to the river and had a bridge to cross it. There were multiple spots to go for a swim as well. If you don’t want to camp, it’s recommended to stay in or near Bovec as it’s a very good base to explore the area. There are lots of adventurous activities such as canyoning, rafting, canoeing,… We wanted to walk a part of the Soça river and just left from the campsite. The Soça river has many beautiful places to rest and enjoy the scenery but I will give you the coordinates to my favorite spots:

• No name for this viewpoint, it was right at the campsite. Coördinates: 46.34033605410182, 13.64892440211402

• Great Soça Gorge (my favorite). Coördinates: 46.34094974027703, 13.651057402979502

• Small Soça Gorge. Coördinates: 46.34179793344555, 13.684284835199835

If you want to see the same spots we visited, then you just park your car at Camp Soça and walk the trail until you reach the Small Soça Gorge and go a little further beyond it. You can walk the same trail back to the car. It will take you 1 hour each way if you go slow like us and take a lot of photos.

What I can also recommend if you don’t want to hike a long part is just take the car and drive along road 206 which runs next to the river and stop whenever you see a beautiful spot. You can leave the car and explore a part of the trail. There’s plenty of authentic wooden bridges along the way which give beautiful views.

We decided to just walk a part of it but if you want you can do the Soça trail, which is 27km. You can get a bus to drop you off or get a taxi. Another great walk is to go to the source of the Soça river (I did this in 2018). There are plenty of options depending on how active you want to get.

In the afternoon we drove to Bovec to have dinner and found a really good cocktail place: Bar Gouf.

Day 8: Kozjak waterfall + Kanalski Most

This day we drove further down south. First we went to see the Kozjak waterfall (we parked our car at parking Kozjak: 46.249698158361475, 13.587481663395405). From where it was around 30 minutes to the waterfall. There’s a small entrance fee to be paid (just a few euros). The parking is only 2 minutes walking from the Napoleon’s bridge which is also a nice place to take some photos.

The walk to the waterfall wasn’t long but gave some nice views along the way.

From there we drove further south with a stop at the Tolmin Gorge, also very impressive but I don’t have much photos of that place as we’d seen so many gorges by that time.

The Tolmin gorge is beautiful as well and not that expensive either. Afterwards we continued down south with a short stop at Kanalski Most because I really wanted to get a photo of these houses by the river.

From there it was not that long anymore until we reached our stay for the night, Ošterija Na PlaninciB&B (via Airbnb). This place wasn’t that special but we were looking for a place to stay close to the Skocjanske Jama and Postojna cave. The people here were very friendly and the food was great so if you’re looking for a low budget stay I can recommend this one.

Day 9: Skocjanske Jama + Postojna cave + drive on to Piran

The 2 most famous caves in Slovenia are Skocjanske Jama and the Postojna cave. We couldn’t choose which one to do so we did both because they’re not that far from each other. I was not allowed to take photos in Skocjanske Jama so the only photos I have are from Postojna Cave. Both were impressive so it’s hard to choose one but I think I’ll go with Skocjanske Jama if I had to choose one. It left a bigger impression on me but maybe that’s because it was the first we visited. There’s a few tours going each day so it’s perfectly doable to do I cave in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

After exploring the caves we drove on further south to Piran for our last 2 nights in Slovenia.

Day 10: Piran

Piran is one of the 3 port cities that Slovenia has on it’s short coast line. Piran itself is a lovely town but very small so it won’t cost you a lot of time to see everything. You can’t park the car in the city itself unless you have permission but you can drive to the hotel to drop off your bags and then park the car outside the barriers. The most used parking garage is this one: 45.51992640895593, 13.569678614876246. It’s just outside the city barriers.

Our last full day in Slovenia was dedicated to exploring the town. We walked through the cosy streets, chilled by the water and went to see the walls of Piran where you have a great view over the city. We did not go to the beach but there are several beaches in the area if you like to soak some sun.  

We stayed at Hotel Piran which was a lovely hotel. Great room (we had sea view), food was great, staff was very friendly. I would recommend going here.

Day 11: Piran to Italy

We were sad that our stay in Slovenia was over as we really, really enjoyed this country. It has so much to offer and there’s still so many places we did not even see yet. The good thing was that our trip wasn’t over because we still had a short week planned in Italy but the details of that trip are for another blog post.

Important notes:

• It’s easiest to travel Slovenia by car so if you don’t own a car or travel by plane, I recommend you rent one. If that’s not an option then you can use the bus but you will need to do good research up front to plan your trip accordingly.
• Would we follow the same itinerary again? Triple yes! The only thing we would change is adding 2 more days to visit Ljubljana. I visited it in 2018 and loved it but it wasn’t a must for us to include it in this trip. Ljubljana is only a 1 hour drive from Bled so definitely worth checking out as well.

Other things to see/do in Slovenia that are not included in this itinerary:

• If we were to go back we’d love to do the 7 lakes hike.
• In 2018 we did Slap Boka and Slap Savica, both beautiful waterfalls we did not visit in this itinerary but worth checking out if you have the time. We saw Slap Boka from the car when driving south but you can also hike up and see it from other viewpoints.
• Visit Ljubljana as mentioned above.
• Apparantly the Martuljek waterfall hike is beautiful as well but we didn’t have time for it.
• When you’re in the Bohinj region you can add a trip to the Pokljuka Plateau. It’s one of the less known places in the area but apparently it’s also gorgeous.
• We stayed in the North-West and South of the country but there’s plenty of beautiful regions if you go to the south. This is interesting if you like wine because it’s the wine region of Slovenia and Slovenian wine is really good!
• Since Slovenia has a big national park there are lots of adventurous activities to do. In 2018 we went canyoneering and it was awesome! You can also go rafting, canoeing, mountaineering, do multiple day trekkings in the mountains, do via ferrata’s,… Enough to do for everyone!

Equipment used:

• Camera: Sony A7 III
• Lenses: Sony 24-105mm f4 & Tamron 70-180 f2.8
• Drone: Mavic 2 Pro with Polarpro filters 8,16,32

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