Slovenia
Slovenia is a beautiful country, there are hikes - day hikes, or multi-day hikes and also biking seems to be the thing of Slovenia. It's so beautiful and I think that most of the places you can reach by bus if you have more time to spare because of the bus schedules. If you want to have a good experience and your time is limited, it's better to rent a car and drive around. Slovenia is such a small country, you can move around pretty quickly.
Food is not that great for vegetarians and it's a pretty safe country to move around. I didn’t feel any racism but did not feel very much welcome there. If you have about a week, it is enough time to explore and with more time, you can hike multi-day hike. I don’t find anything more to do in Ljubljana for more than two days.
Racism
I am going to tell you about my experience in Slovenia, and you may have a different experience so don’t get upset. The people I met and dealt with in Slovenia, they were not very excited to have non-European immigrants and they didn’t even feel bad to tell a brown dude about their displeasure. While talking to our Airbnb host about the safety town, he mentioned that there are no refugees or immigrants from non-Europe in Slovenia, so we don't have to worry about the safety at all. So he was indirectly blamed. refugees for all the problems, In Ljubljana, one of the restaurant hosts even after knowing that I am originally from India, he was shitting on the Indian students in the city. He was talking about how in Ljubljana, suddenly there are 100 to 200 Indian students showing up in the university and there are not many people who are there from any other countries and wondering why they all showed up there in a more regretful way. And this host is very widely travelled and he even indicated that he met his wife in Mumbai. The other example. When we were standing in the museum entrance while it was drizzling, deciding whether to go to the museum or not, one of the guys who works for the museum (we could see his official name badge for the museum) asked us whether we were sleeping under the trees in the park right across from the museum. There was someone sleeping in the park with his shopping cart. The museum official was assuming or indicating that we were homeless and coming to the museum to take shelter. Even after answering him no, he was asking a bunch of other questions. Then when we asked him what his name is, he was basically asking us why he should answer us. I can go on with a few more examples but let me stop here. There were some bright spots too, one of our Airbnb host was very friendly and invested some time hanging out with us and shared some drinks with us.
Public Transit System
waiting for the bus before me. Someone from the bus station came out and informed us that the line for the bus is not only for the airport but also for another town whereas the bus stops in the airport first.
After sometime the same lady who works for the bus company came out and said something and a large number of people left the line to a different part of the bus station. We had no clue what was happening. And we had no clue when the bus was going to arrive. After waiting for some time, we decided to take a taxi to go to the airport. So we had to basically waste the bus ticket and then pay like €40 or €45 to get a taxi to the airport. This is not the first time it happened, the 2nd time when my daughter came, I told her about it. But she indicated that the bus station person assured her of the bus but the same thing happened - no bus but to take a taxi because there were more than 100 people standing in the line. There is only one bus every hour. I'm not even sure why in the world they have to sell more tickets.
Why can't they advise about the bus being full? This is a completely crazy stupid system.
From Kamnik, I was able to take the bus to go to Velika, it was easy in the morning but the return trip back from Velika hike was a different story. I had to wait for more than an hour even though the bus schedule published indicated there was a bus 45 minutes earlier. So the point is that there are public buses which are very good and comfortable, but the schedule is not reliable.
Eating Out and Right to Drinking Water
These are a few suggestions. If you want to eat out in Ljubljana, if you are planning to eat around 8 o'clock or somewhere close to 7:30, It's better to make a reservation. So even though it may feel, you go there around 7:30, that place may look empty when you walk by at 7:30, but the thing is that you have to have a reservation if you have to be seated.
Next thing is food. The food in Slovenia is overall, not spicy, and if you are a meat eater, you will be able to eat good food, but it's not even going to be spicy, so, carry some spices if you enjoy a flavorful meal. In most of the places, the tap water is portable, so you don't have to buy water, except in certain places like the Velika or mountain villages. This is because their constitution states "Everyone has the right to drinking water."
Parking
If you are planning to swim in places like Kanal ob Soči or similar places near Bovec, go there early. Otherwise, you will be spending hours trying to find parking. Also the cops are going around giving tickets left and right all over the place if parked illegally.
If you are planning to go to Peričnik Waterfall (Slap Peričnik) in Slovenia’s Vrata Valley—you can drive into the park early and will be able to find parking. You don’t have to drive all the way into the park to find the parking situation but there will be a sign at the entrance in the town that states the number of parking spots available in the park. If you can get there early by mid-morning, you have a better chance of finding parking. Else, you can park at Mojstrana and take the bus that runs every hour to the Vrata Valley. We walked from the Pericnik waterfall to the valley hoping to see some wild animals and amazing scenery, but we didn’t see anything on our way to the valley. Keep track of the shuttle time and plan your hike. There is a nice restaurant in the valley for food and drinks.
Outdoor Music
And also, if you happen to be traveling during summertime, there's a bunch of music, festivals happening, all the music happening in the city centers, some plazas, you can go and enjoy the music after dinner, free outdoor concerts. They were amazing.
Car Rental Scams
Do not assume anything when renting a car and take plenty of pictures/videos of the rental car condition. One of the scams these companies do is charging you for insurance and if you don’t take insurance, they will find a way to charge you for the “damages”. In my case, they tried to charge me for the “damages” at the bottom of the front bumper. So take the video or pictures of the car to cover all the views and if possible ask them to flip the car to take pictures of the car underneath 🙂
Kamnik
After arriving in Slovenia, I went to Karnik and stayed 2 nights there. I arrived there around 9.30pm, on the way to my Airbnb, I heard some music coming from downtown. So after dropping off my bags, I went back to the city square, and there was a nice music was playing, and I enjoyed it for some time, and got back to my room.
The next morning, I went to the bus stop to make a trip to Velika plains and to the Shepherd's Village. At the bus stop I met a young couple, Martin and Carla, from the Czech Republic, near Prague, started talking to them and became very good friends. They are hikers and they hiked/walked from Prague to Croatia (about 1000km) during their earlier years, and Martin doesn't like to fly. They had a hiking plan in Velika and decided to follow them..
We arrived at the gondola station very early around 8am and there’re already 25 people waiting in line for the gondola station to open. I was told if we arrived during the mid-day, there would be a much longer line about half km. The plan was to take the gondola up and spend some time there before hiking back to town.
There’re two stages of transportation to go up to the plains. Once the first gondola drops you at the station (climbs up 850m), you can take another ski chair lift to the top closer to the plains (250m climb). If you want to go even higher, you can hike up. We just took the first gondola and started hiking up to the restaurant, Restaurant Zeleni rob, near almost the halfway point to the top ski chair lift station. We came across shepherds’ cottages and cows on our way up. So, after walking around, around, until 1:30pm snapping pictures of the nice views of the plain, we reached a restaurant where we had lunch. Initially, Martin was saying that he wanted to walk back to town, but changed his mind and decided to hike down to the nearby town Skokka. When we arrived at Skokka, there were 2 other people waiting for the bus and they told us that they'd been waiting for the bus for more than an hour. So, according to the timetable, the bus was supposed to show up at 3:30, even though we reached at 3:25, we ended up waiting there another 35 minutes before the bus showed up. After reaching Komnik, we had some beers before we were returning to our places and we planned to meet after dinner at the city center to listen to the music.
And in the evening, after dinner, I met them up in the city center music event to have a few drinks and listen to the music.
Triglav NP
Taverna Rayan
Met Sharada and Kareem at the Ljubljana bus stop the next day, and we bought the bus ticket, but could not get on the bus so took a taxi to meet Shabina and Kyle at the airport and start our rental car journey to Lake Bled. Please pay attention to my topic on car rental scam. On our way to Lake Bled, we wanted to stop for lunch and we found our ancestral tavern in the town Škofja Loka, Rayan Tavern :-), so we took the scenic route to have our lunch there and spent a little time exploring the town before driving towards Lake Bled.
Arrival at Lake Bled
Our Airbnb host at Lake Bled was really nice and he used to be an avid traveler and now runs Airbnb to meet people from different countries to come to him instead of going there. He spent about 30 minutes explaining things around Lake Bled and how to explore Triglav NP efficiently after serving us Smrekovec (an alcoholic drink based on honey and pine). We had the drink, and then we drove to a close-by town, Radovljica, to spend the evening and have dinner. We had to pick up our snacks and breakfast items today because the shops are closed on Sunday, the next day.
Vintgar Gorge
We left to visit Vintgar Gorge early in the morning so that we could avoid the crowds. We arrived just before the opening of the entrance and there were already some people there and we were glad that we went there earlier because you have to walk along the narrow path and with the crowd taking pictures and you want to take pictures without the crowd getting more painful as more people show up. Also, to control the number of people walking along the gorge, they have implemented the timed entry. Go early and enjoy it with less crowds, it is a really nice beautiful gorge with awesome views. At the end of the gorge walkways, we took the trekking route to Zasip, which is located at the hilltop ridge with beautiful surrounding views and a good old church. After enjoying the music and scenery at the hilltop, we hiked back to our Airbnb through some local villages from Vintgar Gorge.
Lake Bohinj
We went to Bohinj town to have our lunch before heading to Lake Bohinj, where we spent the whole afternoon swimming and chilling at the lake shore. After that, we decided to go to the town of Lake Bled to have dinner where we had to wait for long to get into any restaurant for sit-down dinner, so ended going to a shawarma fast food place, and even there we could not find a table to sit and eat, we had to wait there for the food for 30 minutes. So set your expectations on where and how you want to spend your dinner. After dinner, we walked around Lake Bled for some time looking at different shops and the Bled caste at night. We were expecting a lot of more crowd at town but it was not that crowded though it is lively. There are only a few restaurants, so a lot of waiting, and the other problem is parking in the town. It is a pain to find parking in the town of Lake Bled.
Mala Osojnica Trail
We left Airbnb very early in the morning to hike up the Mala Osojnica Trail and Velika Osojnica. The hike was not bad at all, but it had a lot of slippery places, and we hiked along counter-clockwise so that instead of going up the stairs, we were coming down the stairs. The views are really great and we decided that the Lake Bled and the church look more beautiful from the eagle eye point of view than going into the church. Decided not to take the boat ride to the church but walked around the lake for sometime driving up to the castle to have a view of the city from the castle area. After that we parked the car a mile away from the city because there’s no parking available in the city area, and went to have lunch in the town. The pizza place that we wanted to go to last night was almost empty in the afternoon, so we had lunch there. While Kyle and Shabina went to pick up the car, I slept on the lakeshore and Sharad&Kareem went to visit a graffiti museum at the lakeshore.
Peričnik Waterfall
We left early in the morning around 7:00 to spend time in Vrata Valley, north face of Triglav National Park. So we parked the car at Mojstrana park and ride area which was totally empty at that time and took the 8am shuttle bus to the waterfall. Not many people were there at the waterfall and the hike up to the falls was slippery and steep. The waterfalls was really nice, we were able to walk behind the waterfalls too, it was pretty narrow ledge, not bad at all, looked bad, but it is not bad at all, walked along and took a lot of pictures, came back, and instead of waiting for the bus, we decided to walk to the valley near the north face of Triglav. Soon we realized that it was a mistake because we didn’t find any good scenic views or any wild animal sightings during the long walk.
We spent about an hour and a half there walking inside the valley enjoying the views of the mountains around us. We talked to a few people who were going on long hikes (helmets are recommended because of the rock falls during the hike). We had our lunch and beer at the restaurant at the valley, before catching the shuttle bus back to the parking lot.
Kranjska Gora
Then we drove to the Kranjska Gora side near Lake Jasna for a one-night stay, where we stayed closer to the skiing area. I and Shabina went for a hike to Jasna Lake, going up the hill and going through the woods to the lake, where Kyle went to read his book away from us, having a peaceful time. So we walked around, went to Jasna Lake, where one could swim and kayak. We went to disturb Kyle after that and picked up Kareem & Sharada from their hotel to go for some hike, but it started to rain heavily. So we all went to the pub near our Airbnb to play Cambio.
Bovec
We started in the morning towards Soca Valley and on the way, stopped near the Russian church, which was built by World War prisoners of war, and it's a nice wooden church with tree barks as plasters. The church was located in a very nice area and looked beautiful among the trees. The road to Soca Valley is very windy, scenic and a great bicycling route with a lot of bicyclists. There is not much place to pull over to take pictures but the scenery was really beautiful and on the day we were traveling, there was a lot of traffic. When we were hiking in the valley the previous day, we saw a nice big window in the mountain (Prisank’s Front Window
) and we were able to see the same spot while driving on the road at Vršič Pass in Slovenia's Julian Alps. There were a number of places we wanted to pull over to hike or take pictures but not much space or luck for us, and finally we found a parking space on the side of the road where we parked to hike up the hill to see some views and pet some goats.
Kareem had found a TikTok video where there is a nice river point where you can jump from the rock and swim and everything, just before Bovec, and we were trying to get there, but the parking situation was so bad.
So people were parking on the side of the road, and the cops were giving tickets there. We spent almost half an hour to 45 minutes trying to find a parking spot without any luck. So we gave up on that river spot and tried to find another river spot a couple of miles away. After parking the car, we hiked for about a mile or more to find the river but couldn’t find a trail to get to the river bank. After following a trail, we were able to reach the river bed after whacking some bushes. The river was cold, there were not any people there except a group of people coming by their kayaks in the river and it was sunny. After soaking in the sun for about 2 hours, we decided to continue towards Bovec. By the time we reached Bovec, most of the places were closed for lunch and we decided to buy some groceries and wanted to cook an early dinner at our Airbnb place. And it happened to be the best decision and we ended up having the best meal that day after a long time. The Airbnb was in an old town with one way narrow streets, alleys and it was very close to the stone bridge built by Napoleon. Kareem made awesome spicy fish and shrimp, Sharada cooked vegetarian pasta and Shabina made some zucchini dish. Kyle drove to the town to get some olive oil which made all of the cooking possible. What did I do??? The lunch/dinner is for my birthday, so I didn’t do anything but serve beer and wine to keep the team going :-) During the dinner, Sharada indicated about her pregnancy and we all thought that she was joking but she was not and that news was the best part of the dinner and the trip.
The next day, we got up early and had breakfast prepared by Kareem before heading to the Tolmin gorge. It is an amazing gorge which is carved by Tolminka and Zadlaščica rivers. After that we wanted to go to the waterfall Kozjak which is about an hour away from our place. This waterfall area seemed to be a major attraction because there were a lot of people, also, it is closer to the town Kobarid. The hike to the waterfall passes preserved WWI trenches and a suspension bridge along the way. On our way back, we saw a lot of people waiting to see a girl jump from the suspension bridge to the river. We waited for about 15 minutes and the girl was just looking around talking without jumping, and as soon as we left the place we heard a huge clapping noise and saw that the girl was safely landed in the water and swimming. When we reached close to the waterfalls, it started to rain and the waterfall looked a lot more beautiful in the cloudy and rainy background. By the time we reached Kobarid to have lunch, all of us were hungry
and especially Kyle seemed to be very hungry because he was about to run over an old lady who was standing in a parking spot to reserve the spot for her husband who was lost somewhere in the town looking for the spot :-) and not even responding this lady’s phone call. I never saw Kyle getting upset with anyone like that :-) and the old lady left the parking spot for Kyle to have :-) and then we had lunch in a Chinese restaurant. Everyone except me was interested in visiting the museum in town and I left them at the museum and I was walking around the town for an hour or so. We wanted to cook and eat at home tonight too, so we got some fish to eat with the pasta that we cooked the previous day. It started to rain so heavily that night, like so much lightning and thunder, it's wonderful to see that town come to flash in front of our eyes with all the lightning.
Lubliana
So when we reached Lubliana, we booked an Airbnb in the center of the town. So we were not able to park the car closer to that apartment or on the street, but we had to park it in the grocery store parking lot paying about 4 euros an hour. By the time we checked into the apartment and were ready for lunch, it started to rain pretty heavily, so we went to a closeby Japanese ramen place.
After lunch, instead of paying for parking the next two days, I decided to return the rental car early. As soon as I started to drive, my eSim didn’t get the signal and I was not able to find directions to the airport. That’s when my offline maps that I saved in Maps.me came to rescue me :-) It was sending me to all of the small roads and not taking me to the highway or toll roads, but I am a true believer in Maps.me, so I completely trusted it and followed the directions provided and reached the airport. Found out the reason why it didn’t take in the highways was that there were major traffic delays there. The car return was not pleasant because the rental agency was trying to charge me for some scratch under the front panel (bumper) and they were not ready to give any paperwork or previous pictures. I decided to deal with my credit card company and walked out of the rental company pissed off.
After arriving at my apartment by bus from the airport, we all went out to the city center and played Cambio in one of the bars before starting hunting for a classic watch shop that Kyle was interested in looking at. While Kyle was exploring different classic watches in the shop, we were walking around that old part of the city taking pictures and exploring. Then after that, we were trying to look for a place to eat but unable to find a place that would seat us without reservation. On our way back to the Airbnb, walking around looking for places to eat and not finding one, one of the restaurant guys came running towards us telling us that he could seat us in the bar area. That’s the good part and after that he was making all kinds of racist comments on Indian students in Slovenia.
The next day, no one showed any interest in going on the walking tour of the city but we went on the museum hopping in the city. I didn’t visit any museum but visited the museum coffee shop and chilled there while others were getting educated at the museum. And after that, we all got together and we went to some place to eat our lunch.
And then walked around and then went to the classical watch shop where Kyle bought a watch, and he told us that it is a pretty good deal. Kyle mentioned that the watch shop was selling watches with Saddam Hussein's face, as well as some other watches with the Nazi signs. The watch store salesguy told a story about a Russian guy who comes there every year to buy classical pens for thousands of dollars. So there are people who are into this kind of antique watch, antique pens, etc..
Then that night, Sharada made a reservation to go to a Thai place for dinner, and the food was okay there but the ambience was good. Then next day morning, I, Sharad and Kareem, took the flex bus to go to Italy, and a little bit later, Kyle and Shabina went to the bus stop to take the bus, bought the bus ticket, but the line for the bus was so long and it's so disorganized, they had to take a cab to go to the airport, and so wasted their money on the bus ticket as we did too.
Conclusion
We had an amazing trip in Slovenia and it all worked out perfectly except the car rental scam and a few racist people encounters. As always, nature is so nice and beautiful. In some countries, the interaction with people is a lot more enjoyable than places we visit, but in Slovenia, it was not the case, except an amazing friendly hanging out with Martin and Carla from Prague.
