Description: As we were only planning to spend one night in Velenje we didn’t wanted to spend too much time looking for accommodation when we arrived there so we decided (unusually for us) to book something in advance. Eventually we came up with Prenocišca Mraz but not before a considerable amount of false starts and exchanged e-mails.
The town council’s website has a useful section on accommodation but failed to show email addresses for the smaller concerns. The national tourism office has a site that listed the same accommodation but only provided a booking facility through the website and I wanted to make my initial enquiries directly with the owners rather than through a third party. After much googling I was able to find email addresses for several of the accommodations listed. One that had been listed as having rooms turned out to be only a restaurant. Another bounced back as unrecognised and two others responded.
The first to respond quoted me a price of €60 for two people for one night including breakfast which, even by Slovenian standards (prices can be high for accommodation), I considered expensive for what is essentially a room in the owner’s home. I said I thought it was expensive and suggested that I would be happy to pay €50, especially as one of the more central hotels charged only €68 including breakfast and had additional facilities. The reply came back that the price of that hotel was of no interest to her and besides it was empty most of the year. Now, I don’t care how full or empty the accommodation is so long as the price is right so that information meant nothing to me. She offered a rate of €50 but that would not include breakfast and here our discussions ended.
The other response came from Prenocišca Mraz; the friendly owner Zlatko informed me that, for a cash payment, the price of the room plus breakfast would be €50. I said that I would contact them by phone when I arrived in Slovenia and had decided which night I’d be staying in Velenje. The evening before we departed for Velenje I telephoned to let them know the approximate time of our arrival and was informed that there would be someone there to greet us.
The house is situated on the outskirts of town on a quiet and secluded road on the edge of the forest and at the top of a fairly steep hill. If you come by car, there is plenty of parking. The house is a ten minute walk from the town’s bus station. The guest house is signposted just before you turn off the main road that climbs the hill but it is not clear where to go when you turn off. We telephoned the guesthouse and were told we were almost there and in just another thirty seconds we were ringing the doorbell.
The house is situated on its own and is surrounding by trees; it is a traditional chalet-style house with steps leading to the front door. A reception desk was just inside the door but it was just a small corner of the large room which is predominantly the breakfast room although it does have a small seating area with television set in one corner. This room is homely with lots of wood panelling and it’s quite dated in the European ski chalet kind of way. Along one wall was a ledge on which were tens of pennants for volleyball tournaments held all over eastern and central Europe in the 1908s; I never got round to asking whether these belonged to the owner but I suspect they did.
We were greeted by a young lady who was presumably the owner’s daughter; she was friendly and helpful and spoke very good English. We arranged a time for breakfast for the following morning and were given a key which would be for our room and also the front door. The rooms are situated off the breakfast room but they are arranged so that there is a small hallway between the door of the bedroom and the breakfast room thus minimising potential noise.
Our double room was quite large containing just a large bed, a dresser on which stood a television set, and bedside tables. The wardrobe was in a small hallway as you came in off the corridor and our private bathroom was off this. Even during the day the room was quite dark because of the style of the building. However in January this didn’t matter much as it meant the room seemed cosier. We had a balcony which was shared with the next room although we didn’t use it as it was too cold. Looking out from the balcony onto the forest you really felt you were in the middle of nowhere, rather than on the edge of a large town. There were tables and chairs on the balcony and I’m sure that in summer this would be a lovely place to sit (though probably a place with plenty of midges!).
The bathroom was small but not cramped and contained a shower, washbasin and toilet. It was spotlessly clean and the towels were lovely and soft and fresh-smelling. There were some sachets and shampoo and shower gel provided.
Ordinarily we would be very unlikely even to turn the television set on but as Velenje is not the liveliest place on a Monday night we were back in our room quite early and were pleased of the distraction (of live English Premiership action!). We had brought beers back from the supermarket but what I would really have liked was a hot drink. There was a bar a few minutes walk from the house but it was freezing and, besides, I wanted a drink in bed not in a bar. As the place is a little way from town, facilities to make hot drinks in the rooms would have been nice.
We had decided during the course of the day to leave early the next morning to visit the National Museum of Coalmining and so we wanted to change the time of our breakfast. It was only around 9.00pm when we got back to the house so we thought it was fine to phone and request this change. Unfortunately we didn’t know who exactly we should phone. The names of three people were listed with extension numbers but of course we picked the wrong one and ended up with a family member who didn’t speak English. The next number just rang out unanswered and the final one led us to someone who spoke English. Our change to an earlier time was not a problem and in all likelihood probably better as another guest was having breakfast at the same time.
We slept very well, perfectly cosy in our comfortable room. The following morning we found there was plenty of hot water but we did have to wait a couple of minutes for it to really heat up. Two tables had been laid out for breakfast and a selection of items such as cereal, yoghurts, fruit, bread, toast and jams had been laid out along with jugs of orange juice and flasks of tea, black coffee and coffee with milk on a separate table. The young lady who had greeted us when we arrived was cooking breakfast and we were offered a choice of fried or scrambled eggs. We chose scrambled and were presented with something more like a very thin omelette which had tasty pieces of ham mixed in with the eggs. It may not have been scrambled eggs as I know it but it was very good and our breakfast was certainly excellent fuel for a morning’s sightseeing.
We paid our bill on leaving and found that the tourist tax had been added at the end; it’s only a couple of Euro but it’s worth asking when checking prices whether the price includes the tax. Some places specifically waive tourist tax if you are staying more than three nights while others offer a slightly cheaper nightly rate for stays of over three nights.
A prenocišca is really just a place where overnight accommodation and (often) breakfast is offered. They don’t have additional facilities and sometimes you may need to wait until the owner comes home from work before you can check in. Mraz is slightly more formal than others I have used in Slovenia with its large breakfast room and dedicated reception. On this occasion we only wanted a bed for the night and for our purposes Prenocišca Mraz was ideal.
This is reasonably priced, comfortable accommodation in a useful location and scenic setting. There is ample car-parking but it is easily accessible from town on foot. Having seen the hotels in the centre of Velenje they don’t appear to me to offer any special advantages other than an adjoining restaurant so I would recommend Prenocišca Mraz without reservation.
http://www.slovenka.net/mraz/
prenocisca.mraz@telemach.net
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