Why Your Next European Road Trip Should Be in Slovenia

Thanks! We are going in September, this year. Really looking forward to it!

Yeah, I've been on two road trips in Slovenia (one only a day though). It's awesome. Beautiful scenic drives but easy to drive. Renting a car is relatively cheap. September is a great time to go.

If you have enough time, Slovenia combines well with northern Croatia: Istria, Plitvice Lakes National Park, maybe Zagreb, though lately border crossing times between Slovenia and Croatia have been creeping up, I hear. Or you can spend some time in eastern Slovenia (Maribor and Ptuj).

One thing I love about Slovenia - which has gotten much more "discovered" in recent years - is that it's still off the radar of many American tourists. People ask me about places I've visited. No one asks me where Italy or France is - but more than one person has looked at me inquisitively when I mention Slovenia. "Where is that, again?" I like visiting places that not everyone else visits.

What a lovely article. I applaud the author for shedding some light on the undervisited eastern half of the country in addition to the standard destinations of the west. However, there is an odd error - the Zlati Gric estate is on the other side of the country, in the area around Slovenske Konjice, around 20 miles southwest of Maribor, NOT in the Goriska Brda region.

I agree with the article but reluctantly and am hoping Slovenia does not become "overrun" like parts if Italy have become. I was secretly happy to see my favorite corner of Slovenia (Logarska Dolina) was not in the article. That may be selfish on my part so forgive me.

My son and I are traveling to Eastern Europe (Central) in September and I need some advice. We arrive in Prague 14 Sept. depart 18 Sept by plane to Budapest. We would like to visit Slovenia before we depart Venice on 24 September. How do we travel from Budapest to Venice and visit Slovenia in between? One person suggested traveling by train. My son thinks we should try BlaBlaCar, ride sharing to travel from Budapest to LjubljanaI and then rent a car. Should we travel by train to Slovenia and then rent a car in Ljubljana. I understand it is affordable to rent a car in Slovenia and return it at the same place but it would be very expensive to rent it in Budapest and drop it off in Venice at the airport. Looking for suggestions. Could we take a train from Budapest to Ptuj Slovenia and then rent a car to tour the country?

Sure, you can take a train to Slovenia from Budapest and rent a car. If you have limited time (six days between Budapest and Venice isn't much time!!!), you might want to limit your time in Slovenia to Ljubljana with a few days trips. You don't even need to rent a car - just take the train from Budapest all the way to Ljubljana. Or you could rent a car just in Ljubljana for a few days once you get there.

Ptuj is a small town - I'm not even sure you can rent a car there. You might need to connect to another train to Maribor, a bigger town. But if you are simply trying to break up the time, you could stop in Ptuj for a few hours and explore the town (the oldest in Slovenia I think, worth a few hours at least) and take a later train to Ljubljana. You could also stop in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, on the way to Ljubljana, if you want to break up the train time and spend a night there.

We just got back from a month in northern Italy, Slovenia and Croatia (Istrian penisula) driving most of the time. Border crossing from Slovenia to Croatia and back, no big deal. Sometimes the lines in the car were a bit long, but no more than 30 minutes, and they just look at your passport quick and let you through