The picturesque Lake Bled

Ljubljana is a great city, small enough to explore on foot and yet classically European, and with enough small streets to get lost.

Triglav is Slovenia's highest mountain and is spectacular, but so are the rest of the mountains here. Slovenia is the endpoint of the Alps and offers everything in the way of activities.

Quick Tips:

Walk as much as you can in the mountains; they're wonderful and unspoilt. Visit Ljubljana, a quiet, very European, modern and wonderful city - far too underrated as a great place to go. It should be up there with Vienna, Prague, etc.

Best Way To Get Around:

Public transport is superb. In the summer, tourist buses run to places such as the gorge and Bohinj, but the regular bus service is also great. Large air-conditioned buses with comfy seating and tickets that list the times of the return buses - you can't go wrong with these.

Hotel Kompas is an imposing building in the shape of a classic ski chalet. Each room has its own balcony either overlooking the carpark at the rear or at the front which is slightly noisy and overlooking the outdoor pool. Each room is spacious with a large clean bathroom and a good hot and powerful shower. Both breakfast and dinner are buffet style and are occasionally on the terrace outside dependant on the weather. Over dinner several times a week you can expect live Slovenian music and once a week a served set meal of Slovenian local cuisine.

The pool is clean but cold despite the sun, but apparently the lake is warmer! Our package gave us free tea or coffee in the cafe or on the terrace at 5pm which just encouraged us to have a slice of the delicious cakes that are in the cafe. All the cakes were light and not too sweet with fruit often being part of them--I can recommend them all.

It's a five minute walk from the hotel to the local supermarket, shops, cafes, bars, and of course the lake, though there are about one hundred steps between you and the lake so those with limited mobility might find this hard.

This is a great place for lunch. The pizza selection is vast and they are huge. The best idea for lunch is to share a regular size pizza with someone. All the pizzas are cooked on-site and freshly made. They provide a good range of drinks, including a lovely apple juice. Beware when ordering lemonade that you ask for Sprite, otherwise you'll get a glass of water and fresh lemon juice with a pot of sugar--very nice but not what we were expecting.

The staff are friendly and helpful. The place can get very busy at lunchtime, especially if it's wet and the outside seating is therefore unavailable. Overall, a good meal at a sensible price.

Bled Castle is hard to miss, perched on top of 100m clifftop overlooking the lake and has all the attributes a castle should==towers, ramparts, terrace, etc. Access to the castle via road is the long way round and for those who can walk the best bet is to take the path number 1 labeled Grad (Castle) from behind the church and climb up the switchback path to the top. It's quite strenuous, but the views alone are worth it.

After paying your 600SIT entrance fee you can collapse in a cafe on the terrace or wander around the museum. There is a large collection of swords, armour, coins, etc from Bled's historic past as well as a small gift shop. There is also a small chapel containing a painting of Henry II and his wife. The views from the castle are amazing and offer a good view over the whole of the lake as well as further back into the valleys behind. It's best to go up as soon as you have a clear day as in the afternoon the clouds can start to roll in.

Bled Island stands in the lake and looks stunning and enticing from the shore. There are several ways to get here. Firstly you could rent a rowing boat and row here but you need to be fit as it's a lot further than it looks. Secondly you could swim--now you really need to be fit for this option and you can't go in the church once here unless you manage to bring some clothes with you. So really the only sensible option is to pay a small fortune to the pletna (flat gondola) and be taken there. It cost 1800 SIT for the ride to the island and back, but it has to be done.

Once on the island you have 30 minutes before the pletna leaves again, and this gives you just enough time to visit the Church of the Assumption, a pretty place inside and out. Then there is the Chaplain and Provost houses and the wishing bell. You make a wish and ring the bell which bascially everyone does. Then you just have time to buy an icecream or trinket, back around the island on the tiny path around the edge and back onto your pletna.

A visit to the island isn't essential, but it is fun.

A walk around the lake can be a nice evening stroll after dinner or a quick hike round for some serious exercise. I found it seemed less strenuous if walking clockwise, however that might just have been the beer!

Starting at the Hotel Toplice and going clockwise, you pass through the hamlet of Mlino with its bars and cafes. Then the path leaves the road to continue closer to the shoreline. At the far end of the lake is Bled campsite, and this end tends to be noisy and crowded on warm days as they all rush to swim in the lake. Just past the campsite are the stands for the boat racing and you will often see them practising on the lake for the regatta in June. Further round you will see the Castle Baths--small pools and a roped off area of lake. Then you pass the path to the castle and also the parish Church of St. Martin before strolling through the park and back arouond to where you started.

It's pretty much flat all the way round and for the fitter you can walk it in an hour the less fit might need one and a half hours. It's pretty and there are lots of trees, ducks, lillies, swans, and fish to see on the way.

The Mercator is the local supermarket company and can be found all over Slovenia. It has a wide range of products, including a good array of local produce. It's a cheap and useful way to have a packed lunch or cold drinks. The local wine is interesting and some bottles have a money for bottle return system in place, though we never did work out how to identify these.

The range of local meats and cheeses was wonderful and allowed for some fantastic lunches. Although just a supermarket, it's a useful place for those last minute essentials.

This gorge is a short distance from Bled and accessible either on foot, by local bus or in the summer months by tourist bus. We took the tourist bus, which is just 200 SIT each way. It's a nice run from outside the Grand Hotel Toplice as the bus runs around the lake and then up to the castle before going to the Gorge. Entrance to the gorge is about 500 SIT each.

The gorge itself is a wooden walkway that is built into the rock of the gorge and built rather amazingly in 1893. It's 1600m long and follows the Radovna River. The walkway crisscrosses the river several times giving great views of the falls and rapids. The walkway can get wet and slippery so good shoes are required. At each end of the walkway is a small snack bar and some picnic tables.

This is a superb place, if not for the rapids (which in summer aren't so spectacular), then for the walkway, which is pretty impressive.

Strata is actually a chair lift and ski run that is on the side of the mountain opposite Bled Castle. There are numerous ways up to the top. You can begin from the very bottom at lake level, walk up a small lane, and then up the criss cross path up the mountain--this is a steep path and hard work in the full sun. A better option is to follow the road up past the Hotel Kompas and Golf Apartments and follow the brown signs for Strata. Theses signs give a far cooler walk through thick trees, with nice views on the way. At one point the path splits--one path is labeled hard and actually entails several fitness points to do some press-ups or bunny jumps. We opted for the path not labeled hard, which was indicated by a white circle with a red dot in the middle. This path took a more leisurely route to the top. The view down over the lake is wonderful, and someone has thoughtfully built a bench here. You can also sit on the chairlift in the summer when it's not running, which is rather comfortable! The route down is then down the ski slope, finishing down by the lake, making a nice circular walk.

The climb is quite hard but it's not a long route, it depends how long you sit taking in the view at the top.

Lake Bohinj is an ideal day trip from Lake Bled. The easiest way to get there is by bus, which takes about an hour through pretty villages and flat valleys. A return bus ticket is about 1500 SIT. The bus stops in the towns by the lake, but it also travels alongside the lake to the final stop near the campsite at the far end of the lake and this is a good place to get out for the Savica waterfall and the Vogel.

Vogel is a ski lift cable car -- it's very steep and costs 1600 SIT return. Simply get off the bus and walk up the steep road on the left. Once at the top, the views across the mountains and towards Triglav are amazing. There is a café, as well as chair lifts and walking routes. Some of the chair lifts are active during the summer too to allow you to travel into the mountains and walk back. The ground is uneven, rough and steep, but it's lovely to walk around taking in the mountain air.

After Vogel, you might want to hike to the Savica waterfalls, which are clearly signposted from Vogel and from the lake. Unfortunately, during the summer, they aren't very impressive. There are plenty of other activities to do at Lake Bohinj, but it is much less developed than Bled and so you need to focus on the villages in the area for the amenities; however, this gives the lake a charm of its own and is really worth a visit or stay.

We visited the Vrata Valley on a small tour from our hotel. There were six of us and a driver in a small minibus which departed about 9am on a Sunday morning. Firstly we drove through the mountains to Mojstrana and on to the Perenica waterfalls. These falls are in two parts and the climb to them is steep. The first part is moderately easy and the view impressive as the falls cascade down and you are able to walk right behind the falls, giving you a great view of the route you have just climbed. Then it's an even steeper trek with huge steps up to the next part of the falls and little collecting pool; here you can drink icy fresh mountain water and see the water tumbling down into the falls you have just come from. After a brief rest it was back down to the minibus and on to Triglav. We parked up and took a walk into the National Park area, which is the start point for those climbing Triglav from the north - not a good idea as it's the second most difficult climb in Europe after the Eiger. After that we took a short walk along the valley and back to the little restaurant for our "surprise"...apricot pancakes and alpine tea. Both were beautiful, the pancakes hot and sweet with the tea being similar but made from herbs found in the local mountains, a very unique but pleasant flavour.

If you like walking or the outdoors, then this is a good trip to do before you start out on some day hikes yourself, as you can get an idea of the sort of environment you are going to meet. The guide is incredibly well informed and had himself climbed Triglav.

You can't go to Slovenia and not visit Ljubljana -- it is a typically European city with lots of Austrian influence, but is small enough to feel great. The people are friendly and the streets full of activity. Getting there from Bled is easy -- the simplest way is by bus. Once in Ljubljana, there is lots to see and the best way round is on your feet. Several places give an outline of a walking route, but you could just as easily do your own -- make sure you include the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation, the Triple Bridge, the central market, the Bishops’ Palace, the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, and the Dragon Bridge. In my mind, climbing or paying for the tourist train up to the castle on the hill is a waste of time. It’s new and modern, held up with steel and concrete; admittedly, there has been a castle of sorts there since Celtic times, but the rebuild has destroyed the character of the place. It does offer good views though, so if you have time, go; if not, don't bother because there are plenty of other places to see. There are numerous cafes down near the river and great little places for a beer and cake. In fact, it's hard to explain how wonderful the city is in only 500 words, but visit it and you'll see exactly what I mean.