Slovenians still unusually friendly to tourists?

Posted by Will (Columbia, SC) on 01/30/16 11:03 PM

I spent a long weekend in Slovenia in 2007 and a couple of service interactions come to mind: my first stop in Ljubljana was at a little cafe, I asked the waitress, "do you speak English?" She smiled and said, "Of course." And the waiter at the Skocjan caves restaurant who gave me a hearty pat on the shoulder when he saw my English-language guidebook. Minor, but just a level of warmth beyond the usual for Europe.

At the time I thought, "let's see if this survives through more years of heavy tourism." Are people still as nice today?

Posted by andi

franktown, colorado

01/30/16 11:57 PM

2252 posts

I spent a few days in Ljubljana a couple of years ago (2014) before joining a tour to visit other destinations in the country. Slovenia is now at the top of my list of places I want to which I want to return and spend a lot more time. I'm not sure what I expected but I got so much more. I really loved the city, the country and the Slovenians. So, to answer your question-in a word, yes, they are still that nice.

Posted by pat

victoria, Canada

01/31/16 12:18 AM

11507 posts

If those are exceptional occurances to you, you havent been to any of the places in europe that i have been. I have had happy smiling servers in Spain, France, Germany , Italy, Greece, England, Ireland and austria.

We have actually had way better experinces, been invited to stay for a lock in at a pub in London, manager and his wife had us in twice and bought a cake on our last day, in Dublin got comped drinks and invited to stay after closing there too, and in Paris we got totally lost in suburbs and had a bus driver use his cell phone to call the relative we were trying to visit and ask for directions, then a middleaged lady on bus walked us half way there.

There are tons of nice people everywhere! Just dont expect it from busy ticket takers etc.

Posted by Joel

Northeast Ohio, USA

01/31/16 12:31 AM

707 posts

In a (wonderful) pub in Utrecht, my wife and I were wondering why a couple of patrons were given a large, very fancy bottle of beer about the time they got up to leave. We asked our waitress, who said that those were regular customers, and that the owner just liked to do this for them. When we got up to leave (after no more than two small beers each), the waitress brought us a bottle! I was bowled over. Since we are now honorary regulars, I look forward to going back!