2 weeks in Slovenia July 2024

We visited Slovenia last year and loved it.
From the airport we drove to the Lake Bohinj area and stayed there for several days. From there we explored the Lake Bled area, drove the Vrsic Pass and went on several hikes in the Lake Bohinj area.
We also stayed in Ljubljana for a few days. We enjoyed strolling around Ljubljana and also made a day trip to the Skocjan caves and the horse farm.

leeshao, I think I'd reverse your trip. Start off with a few days in Ljubljana, get your bearings, get over jet lag. etc. Then pick up the car and start visiting the other places

I've been looking at your itinerary the last few days. It seems like you might be passing through Ljubljana a lot on your current itinerary -- Day 3, maybe Day 6 (depending on roads you take), Day 9, and then back again on Day 11.

I like Andrew's idea of perhaps starting in Ljubljana and picking up a rental car after you finish your time there. You could do something like Ljubljana --> Kamnik on way to Logar Valley --> go north out of Logar Valley after your time there and drive through the Kamnik-Savinja Alps across a small piece of Austria toward Zgornje Jezersko on to Preddvor (road is a little narrow in places but was certainly doable for this highly anxious international driver and views are gorgeous) and on to your airport area B&B (or maybe just stay at Rdovljica or even Bled) --> Vršič Pass --> Kobarid --> Bohinj perhaps via the Motorail (train that carries cars) from Most na Soči. It's only about an hour from Lake Bohinj to the Ljubljana airport, so it's perfectly fine as a final stop before airport departure (it was my last stop before airport departure). I didn't find Predjama Castle to be a must see. If you haven't seen it, my 25-day trip through Slovenia: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/25-days-in-slovenia

Bled and Bohinj can certainly be done at the same time (though i did not do them that way).

Piran? I liked it a lot, but there certainly can be traffic issues especially on the weekend. I was fearful of the parking issue, but it looked like it was relatively okay when I visited. Most people looking for true beach stops in Slovenia go to the Croatian beaches.

Strong work on finding the underground kayak activity. That looks super cool!

Thank you so much for your response!

Bookgirl-Those are all the places we want to visit.

Andrew and Dave-I see you both vote for heading Ljub first. I was thinking going to Ljub last because (per RS book), it is a great place for shopping and walking around town, that waiting to fill our suitcases with ‘treasures” in the end might be better.

Before I reverse the trip, would you please take a look at the updated version? I put Piran in there.

Day 7-I broke the drive from Logarska to Kobarid by one night at Kranjsk Gora, I don’t feel strongly about kranjsk Gora, I picked it because it looks convenient. Is it necessary at all? Should we just drive to Kobarid in one go?

Dave-You are right about zigzagging on day 3, 6 and 9. Yes I did read your detailed trip report. It is fantastic. That is where I got the idea of putting Logarska Dolina on my list.

Day 1-arrive lju airport, pick up car, go to lake Bled , sleep in Bled
Day 2- walk around Bled area, maybe Radovljica (beekeeping museum) in the afternoon (sleep in Bled), kids can wonder on their own, luge ride, hiking, we can leave our car at our hotel so no worry about parking.
Day 3- Lake Bohinj (Sleep in Bled)
Day 4- drive to Logarska Dolina (sleep in Logarska Dolina)
Day 5-Velika Planina, hiking, the valley (sleep in Logarska Dolina)
Day 6-underground kayaking /biking in Peca (sleep in Logarska Dolina) (1hr drive each way)
Day 7-drive toward Vrsic Pass (sleep in Kranjsak Gora) or should we head to Kobarid for the night?
Day 8-Continue on Vrsic pass , walk around Kobarid town (sleep in Kobarid)
Day 8-WWI and hiking around Kobarid (sleep in Kobarid)
Day 9-drive (2 hrs) south to Skocjan caves, visit caves , drive to Piran

Day 10-Relax at Piran (sleep in Piran)
Day 11 –morning in Piran, return car in Lju (sleep in Lju)
Day 12 –Lju
Day 13- Lju
Day 14-fly home

Thank you so much!
Lee

I think the new itinerary looks better and would work well if you want to end the trip with some degree of shopping in Ljubljana. I don't know what you would like to do during the drive through the Vršič Pass, but I would think about leaving the Logar Valley around 9-10 am, drive 2 hours to Kranjska Gora, stop for lunch there (lots of options), and then go ahead and drive the Vršič Pass, arriving in Kobarid that evening. That saves you a one-night change of accommodations.

Thank you for the input, we will just head over to Kobarid then instead of breaking up the drive on Day 7. We are not long distant hikers, a couple of miles here and there, we also don’t have a ‘must see’ list during the drive through Vrsic Pass but certainly want to make plenty of stops, probably just follow RS recommendations? would love to visit a bee farm though.
I am considering staying at Radovljica instead of Bled the first three nights, we will end up doing the same thing but Radoljica looks so much prettier than Bled via google street view.

Radovljica is a really lovely little town. I visited for only a few hours as a day trip.

I stayed a few nights in Bled on a trip years ago. It's a practical place to stay - nothing wrong with it. But it's not an especially charming town like Radovljica is.

However, personally, I love Ljubljana and love returning to it in the evenings after daytime excursions. Staying in Radovljica will get you closer to things and save you some driving time for sure vs driving into Ljubljana and parking, etc.; Ljubljana is not a car-friendly place. There are big pedestrian-only areas, and you may have to park in a garage on the outskirts.

We spend two weeks in Slovenia in July last year. Stayed in Kranjska Gora, Bled and Portoroz. Piran was busy in July but not overcrowded. Our accommodation in Portoroz had bicycles so we cycled to Piran, which was very easy to do. It seemed pretty busy with cars trying to find a parkingspace near Piran. We did the Vrsic Pass from Kranjska Gora and returned via Bovec and Lake Fusini. Absolutely beautiful! Also we really enjoyed Slap Peričnik near Mojstrana and did a bit of hiking a little bit further down the road. Lake Bohinj is also very beautiful although finding a parking spot wasn’t very easy. We went to the Tomlin Gorge and put our car on the train at Bohinjska Bistrica to Most na Soci to get there. Also a great thing to do ! There are so many things to see and do in Slovenia!

Thank you for sharing your experiences, so now I am looking at hotels in Slovenia and accommodations in small villages are very confusing to me.

I choose Barbo Palace Apartment in Ljub and Lenar Tourist Farm in Lgarska-easy pick. But smaller villages are challenging; I mostly use booking.com for trips, many charming old buildings do not have AC, we are going in July, should I insist on AC at places such as Kobarid and Radovljica? The apartments that offer AC look like they definitely need them-additions in attic that have multiple sunroof windows, the place would be like an oven in summer. The place I have my eyes on is an old building in Radovljica, second floor, not attic, looks like one of those oldies with walls that are foot thick, a few reviewers commented no AC, but they still loved it and gave it a 9/10. Does it get buggy in Radovljica? It gets down to low 60’s at night; can people sleep with window open?

In Kobarid, most of the accommodations are not available, am I too early? As RS book said, there is only one real hotel there, it got 8.1/10 on booking.com, rest are apartments scattered here and there with mixed reviews. Tourist Farm Kranjc requires 5 nights minimum, we only need 3.

Any pointer is appreciated.

Radovljica would be a great place to stay!

The 5-night rule at Tourist Farm Kranjc is new since I stayed there in 2019. Unfortunate.

I often using booking.com to narrow my search on lodging in any given place. I'm amazed at how helpful it can be.

If Piran makes the cut, I would highly recommend Memento B&B, which has a/c.

Oh, yeah... bee farm is definitely worth a visit... especially if they let you do a sampling of honeys made from different pollens. Great experience!

I went to this one in Hum in the Brda region... https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063027320706

The farm had olives, too, and they made olive oil.

To answer your question about Predjama Castle. I spent very little time inside and would have been satisfied with the view from the outside. It was part of a combined tour that I was on with Postojna Caves (which I really liked). I liked the castle too. It is just that if it was a stand alone event, outside would have been enough for me.

I will only answer one question since you have gotten great advice from Dave and Andrew. Unlike Carol now retired, I really enjoyed clambering around inside Predjama Castle. It made for a great photo; but if you don’t have a couple of hours to go in (and making choices is fine), I wouldn’t detour just to see the outside.

Thank you everyone, your advice are all included in my notes.