Slovenia in June

LadFromLimerick

Hi all,
My wife and I plan to spend a couple of weeks exploring Slovenia this June. We'll probably fly Ryanair to Venice and take a train to Ljubljana from there. We're both relatively young and fit and would like to spend a week hiking or trekking although we are not interested in doing a guided tour with a group, we'd prefer to do it independently.
After that we hope to spend a second week recovering on a beach or by a pool somewhere!
Can anyone offer any advice or suggest an itinerary?
Thanks a lot!

Sundew

Have you considered spending your second week in Croatia?
Might be worth checking out the Slovenia forum on T.A if you have not already done so
http://www.tripadvisor.ie/ShowForum-g274862-i501-Slovenia.html

siobhan.m

LadFromLimerick wrote: »

Hi all,
My wife and I plan to spend a couple of weeks exploring Slovenia this June. We'll probably fly Ryanair to Venice and take a train to Ljubljana from there. We're both relatively young and fit and would like to spend a week hiking or trekking although we are not interested in doing a guided tour with a group, we'd prefer to do it independently.
After that we hope to spend a second week recovering on a beach or by a pool somewhere!
Can anyone offer any advice or suggest an itinerary?
Thanks a lot!

We went to Slovenia last year, we were there for for 2 weeks in August and loved the place! We flew into Treviso and spent 1 week on the coast - we stayed with friends living there but there is plenty of accommodation. The coastline is very short so you could stay in any of the seaside towns and travel between them. Piran is beautiful, we would normally head to the beach there during the day. Portoroz is next to Piran and is a bit more like a 'beach resort' - it also has some sand, while Piran is all rocks.

We spent 2 days in Ljubljana, which was enough time - the city is quite compact and the 'touristy' part is easily covered in a day, e.g. the castle, the park and so on.

We spent a few days on Lake Bled which was amazing, it's a really beautiful alpine lake with a church on an island in the centre. We hired some bikes and cycled around the place - there are hiking trails around the town, the tourist office in the town have all the info you need. The lake is great for swimming too.

Doing it independently is very easy - the people are friendly and helpful and it's really easy to get around(we used public transport for the most). The food is great and pretty reasonable in price, as is the wine/beer. I can't reccommend the place highly enough!

Padraig Mor

Plenty of opportunities for trekking, etc in Slovenia (a very popular activity there). Off the top of my head popular destinations include Kranjska Gora, the Soca Valley and the Julian Alps (incl. Mt. Triglav, highest peak in Slovenia). There are also world famous cave systems in Postojna and Skojcan. slovenedream.com has some useful info.

For your second week, hop on the summer-only train from Ljubljana to Pula in Croatia, and take your pick of Istria's resorts. To top it off, take a catamaran back to Venice!

geuro

+ 2 for lake Bled. It's incredible, really beautiful scenery, swimming, trekking etc - and a lovely little campsite at the back of it. We went to visit for 2 nights and ended up staying and relaxing for the bones of a week when we travelled around europe. It's a gem.

electrogrimey

geuro wrote: »

+ 2 for lake Bled. It's incredible, really beautiful scenery, swimming, trekking etc - and a lovely little campsite at the back of it. We went to visit for 2 nights and ended up staying and relaxing for the bones of a week when we travelled around europe. It's a gem.

+ a million for Bled. I only wished I'd stayed a day or two shorter in Ljubljana and longer in Bled! We stayed in a great hostel called the Traveller's Haven. Great location, cheap, really comfortable, and the staff were lovely. Think it was the best hostel out of 10 we stayed in that trip!

maynooth_rules

Im going to Slovenia with the girlfriend in July so this thread is of help to me also. Flying into Venice, 2 days there, up to Ljubljana 2 nights there, up to Bled, 3 nights there and then home. Only problem is i can't really go over the €400 budget per person due to severe lack of money on my girlfriends side.

Was worried that we were spending too much time in Bled, and that there would be nothing to do, but delighted to learn thats not true

electrogrimey

maynooth_rules wrote: »

Im going to Slovenia with the girlfriend in July so this thread is of help to me also. Flying into Venice, 2 days there, up to Ljubljana 2 nights there, up to Bled, 3 nights there and then home. Only problem is i can't really go over the €400 budget per person due to severe lack of money on my girlfriends side.

Was worried that we were spending too much time in Bled, and that there would be nothing to do, but delighted to learn thats not true

That's actually an exact segment of my interrailing trip last year! We were around Italy before Venice, and went Eastern after Bled though.

I'd even say to only stay 1 night in Ljubljana, apart from the castle, and the town being generally very nice, there is little to do. We had to spend a day at the zoo to fill up time. Bled has an unbelievable amount to do though, and even if you're just sitting by the lake swimming, you'd be happy to do that forever!

Padraig Mor

I dunno. Bled is gorgeous but there isn't really that much to do if you're not into hiking etc. I stayed there for 3 nights and thought it a bit too long. Personally I'd have another day in Ljubljana but I am a "city person".....

milkado

Definitely agree about travellers haven hostel! Really great hostel that can organise tours although not a party hostel..

We did a few tours from 3glav adventures, the best was the emerald river adventure tour which brings you hiking, white water rafting etc, we also did horseriding!! Sooo much to do in Bled!!

siobhan.m

maynooth_rules wrote: »

Im going to Slovenia with the girlfriend in July so this thread is of help to me also. Flying into Venice, 2 days there, up to Ljubljana 2 nights there, up to Bled, 3 nights there and then home. Only problem is i can't really go over the €400 budget per person due to severe lack of money on my girlfriends side.

Was worried that we were spending too much time in Bled, and that there would be nothing to do, but delighted to learn thats not true

We went through Venice on the way back to Ireland and found it to be extremely expensive after being in Slovenia. Gondolas were €80 for 15 minutes - we didn't go on one - a single one way journey on the water 'bus' was €6 and we wandered into (and straight out of) a late bar where the beers were €9 a bottle and water was €5 a bottle! After 2 weeks in Slovenia it was a shock, although you can find reasonably priced food and drink if you search for it.

fergpie

If your interested in hiking and the outdoors id recommend skipping bled and heading to a quiter region of the julian alps to a place called bohinj. Bled is very nice but too touristy imo.
In and around lake bohinj (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohinj) has spectacular scenery and theres and adventure centre called PAC sports where you can do all sorts of outdoor activities, canoeing, paragliding, cycling, ect.

I was there last summer whilst interrailing and it was the highlight of my holiday!

maynooth_rules

electrogrimey wrote: »

That's actually an exact segment of my interrailing trip last year! We were around Italy before Venice, and went Eastern after Bled though.

I'd even say to only stay 1 night in Ljubljana, apart from the castle, and the town being generally very nice, there is little to do. We had to spend a day at the zoo to fill up time. Bled has an unbelievable amount to do though, and even if you're just sitting by the lake swimming, you'd be happy to do that forever!

Thanks for the advice. How long would you recommend to spend in Venice? Not really my cup of tea but the girlfriend is dying to get there

maynooth_rules

siobhan.m wrote: »

We went through Venice on the way back to Ireland and found it to be extremely expensive after being in Slovenia. Gondolas were €80 for 15 minutes - we didn't go on one - a single one way journey on the water 'bus' was €6 and we wandered into (and straight out of) a late bar where the beers were €9 a bottle and water was €5 a bottle! After 2 weeks in Slovenia it was a shock, although you can find reasonably priced food and drink if you search for it.

My God:eek::eek:. That is a worry of mine. Have heard it is very expensive in Venice and overrun with tourists in the summer. But as i said above the girlfriend really wants to see the city and its the kind of place everyone has to see

siobhan.m

maynooth_rules wrote: »

My God:eek::eek:. That is a worry of mine. Have heard it is very expensive in Venice and overrun with tourists in the summer. But as i said above the girlfriend really wants to see the city and its the kind of place everyone has to see

Some of the prices are crazy. We did manage to book a pretty reasonable hotel at very short notice that cost €70 a night for 2 of us and included breakfast. It was a 2 minute walk from St. Mark's Square so quite central and comfortable. We also managed to find places that were doing 'menus' where you got 2/3 courses for a certain price, not the greatest food but Slovenia makes up for that! You can buy 12/18/24/etc. hour tickets for the water bus that work out a bit cheaper than singles.

It's a great city to see though - and walking around it is free! - so I don't want to run the place down. Just be aware that the prices in general are high and you'll have to search for a bargain.

maynooth_rules

Thanks siobhan;)

electrogrimey

maynooth_rules wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. How long would you recommend to spend in Venice? Not really my cup of tea but the girlfriend is dying to get there

Depends on your budget really. When me and the girlfriend went during the summer, our plan was to get a train into Venice from Rome in the morning, stay for the day, and get a night train to Bled. Got to Venice at 5am, after not sleeping on the train, couldn't afford any public transport in Venice, so walked into the centre, found out that sitting down in public is more or less illegal, gave up and left for Bled in the afternoon.

Venice is the kind of place that I'm going to leave until I can afford a fancy hotel, not the right place for interrailling!

Padraig Mor

You can always stay in a hostel in Padua and use the train to get to Venice for the day (short journey).

Currywurst

I have done that Venice to Ljubljana train 3 times now. Returning by train to Venice, remember there are two stops for Venice. If you are flying to Venice go to the last stop Venezia-San Marko. If you are flying to Treviso Venice with Ryanair, get off at the second last station Venezia-Maestro, as you have only a 15 min turn around between arriving there and the bus to Treviso airport.

The train stops at the Italy- Slovene border for one hour