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Help with anniversary trip to Slovenia

My husband and I are planning a trip to the Dolomites and Slovenia in early September...a gift from our 5 children for our 50th wedding anniversary. We will fly into either Milan or Munich...depending on which is cheaper for airfare. We will rent a car. We have visited Italy previously and flew into Bergamo and drove east to Verona before turning south, so we are somewhat familiar with that route. We are not familiar with the Germany /Austria route...but we use google maps, so hopefully no problems. We are trying to determine how many days and where ...so that when I find good airfare and book it, I will not have made the mistake of not having enough days in any given place and have to fit everything into a certain timeline...and regret it.

After searching on the internet and looking at guidebooks, we are thinking of staying 6-7 days in the Dolomites and perhaps 10 days in Slovenia. We like to stay at least 2 days or longer in an area to explore. Since we will be coming from the Dolomites...what would be the best route from the Dolomites to probably Kranjska Gora and Triglav National Park. We want to visit:

Vintner Gorge, Bled and lake Bohinj and possibly stay in Radovljica for 2 days.

next to Ljubliana for 2 days ,

the Logar Valley for 2 days,

Maribor/Ptui for 2 days

I have not studied Southern Slovenia yet...and don’t know if we want to go as far as Piran as we have previously spent time in Cinque Terre or to the caves ...but would love to see the Lipica stud farm. Would you recommend that we see Piran, the caves as well as the stud farm ? What other sites would you recommend to see in this southern area? Would you decrease the amount of time that we have allocated for other areas or should we increase our time. We can extend our time a couple of more days. Would you suggest that we take a short excursion into Croatia? Sorry that I have lots of questions...but will narrow everything down as I research more. But trying to determine the total amount of days for this trip.

We would appreciate any and all help that you can give us.

Posted by
17417 posts

We spent two nights in Piran as part of an REI Adventures hiking trip in Slovenia. We thought the town was charming (and nothing at all like Cinque Terre)

Piran was part of the Venetian Empire before it became Austrian, and the architecture reflects both. We spent one morning walking to the next town (Portoroz) which felt like a miniature and undiscovered Riviera. Piran has a nice sidewalk along the sea wall that forms two sides of the peninsula, with stairways providing sea access for swimming. We took advantage of the nice September weather to enjoy a swim in the crystal-clear water.

It is not very far from the Lipica stud farm, probably less than an hour’s drive. You could spend the night there after visiting Lipica.

In Ljubljana I highly recommend this place for accommodation:

http://www.mescanka.si

I do not know if they provide parking, however. It is in the pedestrian zone.

In Bled we chose Penzion Kaps for our 3-night stay and were very happy with it. They do have parking, a friendly welcome, free bikes to borrow (we rode to Vintgar Gorge) and a great breakfast.

Posted by
8 posts

Lola...thanks so much for your insights. I think that we may add Piran to our itinerary....especially since it is close to the stud farm. Interestingly...I had previously seen the website for Mescanska in Ljubliana and had listed it as a possible place to stay when we visit there. I’m glad that you had a positive experience at Mescanska as I may now just choose it. It is reasonably priced. I will check out Pension Kaps in Bled....we were hoping to ride bicycles while there too. And a great breakfast would be “ the icing on the cake”!