We are booked on the 14 day GAS tour mid May 2018 staying over 3 or 4 days at the end of our tour and are looking for recommendations. We are active adventurous people and prefer hiking, biking, nature type activities as opposed to big city touring. We were thinking of Lake Bled/Lake Bohinj area and departing from Ljubljana. We like the local scene and don't need 5 star accommodation. Never been to this part of the world so totally open to all suggestions!
I think you have answered your own question. Lake Bled.
Thanks David! We were just wondering what other options might be available.
We were in Lake Bled at the end of the RS Eastern Europe tour this fall and loved it! It is a very active place. Due to limited time, we walked around the lake which was beautiful. I'm sure you can do real hiking in the area. And based on a 2 hour tour (in the rain) of Ljubljana, I would say spend a day there. Yes, it is a city, but it is charming.
Thank you padams!
We are on a mid May GAS tour as well and we are staying a couple of days after in Prague. You could also easily do Budapest. But I see you'd prefer hiking. I wonder how long it would take you to get to the Alpi di Susi area.
If you take a look at the Slovenia forum, you'll find lots of posts by Dejan on outdoor activities in Slovenia. You can figure on around 6 hours for a train from Vienna to Ljubljana.
Bolzano, the largest valley city near the Italian Dolomites, is a bit farther away, and you'd need a bit of additional time to get up in the mountains, where you'd want to stay.
There might be some great possibilities in western Slovakia, much closer to Vienna, but I am not familiar with that area at all.