Slovenia: Small But Mighty

By David Barclay | October 23, 2024

I recently returned from a trip to Slovenia, and it was a wonderful experience.  If you aren’t familiar with Slovenia (and maybe can’t exactly place where it’s located in Europe), that’s okay.  It’s still fairly under the radar for travelers, which makes it a great hidden gem for those looking for something new and not overrun with throngs of tourists.  To be honest, I was not that familiar with Slovenia until relatively recently.  Over the past few years, I’ve met with a few representatives from the Slovenian Tourist Board and a few in-country partners at various industry trade conferences.  Those meetings were always brief, my peers and I joke it’s like speed dating, you might have 30 meetings set up each day, each only lasting 5-10 minutes.  And it’s drinking information from a fire hose, you try to absorb as much as you can from each meeting, but usually only retain a few key takeaways.  The key takeaways I remember from my meetings were that Slovenia was a small and relatively undiscovered country for tourism, since it’s not as overrun with tourists it’s less expensive to visit than other more popular destinations, that pretty much anywhere in the country is within an hour’s drive of the capital, and that there’s incredible variety in the geography and associated experiences in this small country.

All of that was filed away in the back of my brain when last fall, traveling from our last stop in Croatia to catch our flight home from Venice, we drove through a tiny sliver of Slovenia along the Adriatic.  That put Slovenia back on my radar and prompted me to start learning more about the country, since technically I had visited it, if only for a short scenic drive.

Skipping forward to 2024, my wife and I were looking for somewhere new to visit for our fall trip.  We had a shorter travel window this year, as we could only travel for 6-7 nights (including international flight time).  This meant we needed a relatively small area to visit and needed direct flights in both directions.  Our initial thoughts were to visit either Ireland (Dublin) or Scotland (Edinburgh).  We’ve visited England several times but never traveled to other parts of the United Kingdom so one of those countries and capital cities seemed a good fit.  But having learned more about Slovenia, I proposed it as another option to the U.K.  When a few family members mentioned a desire to travel with us to the U.K. in 2025, that settled where we would travel this fall (and I’m glad fate led us to that decision as Slovenia was a perfect choice for this year’s trip).

Having decided on Slovenia, I reached out to my in-country partner, Luxury Slovenia, to discuss how much of the country we could pack into roughly 6 days.  As I mentioned, pretty much everywhere is within an hour of the capital, Ljubljana, so we knew we would use it as a home base.  But we didn’t want to just stay in Ljubljana, and decided we wanted to stay in one other region briefly so we could venture a little further from Ljubljana than we might otherwise have.  Even though Slovenia is a small country, with 6 days we couldn’t see everything.  Since we had visited Croatia the prior year and spent many days on the Dalmatian coast, we skipped the region of Slovenia on the Adriatic.  We also had to choose between either the alpine region bordering Italy & Austria, or the river land area to the southeast bordering Croatia.  In the end we thought the river land region had more interesting activities for us, so we left the alpine region for a future visit.  I’ll provide details on both the Adriatic region and alpine region at the end of this blog, as they are both great areas with lots to offer to visitors.

Otočec, the White Carniola, and the Bela Krajina Wine Region

There are no direct flights to Slovenia from the U.S., so most travelers will fly into a neighboring country and drive to Slovenia.  The two most popular airports for visiting Slovenia are the Venice airport in Italy (VCE) and the Zagreb airport in Croatia (ZAG).  While Zagreb was only about an hour drive from Otočec, our first destination, there were no direct flights.  American Airlines has a non-stop from Chicago to Venice, which determined which airport we would use.  But that meant we had a roughly three-hour drive to get to our first hotel, Hotel Grad Otočec.

Hotel Grad Otočec is a Relais & Chateaux property in a refurbished castle that sits on an island in the middle of Krka River.  It only has 16 rooms, and the castle layout gives it a very cozy feeling.  We arrived at night and the castle exterior was beautifully lit up.  We were greeted by the hotel staff and offered seats in a nearby lounge while they processed our check-in.  They also brought us sparkling wine and some snacks while we waited and relaxed after the long drive.  We had opted for a junior suite to have a little more space; our room had a separate living room from the bedroom, with a wonderful design and lots of wood surfaces that felt both historic yet also modern.  That night we dined at the hotel’s restaurant which is Michelin recommended (though it does not have a Michelin star) and had a lovely meal with a warm fire burning in the nearby fireplace.

Our first full day in Slovenia focused on the White Carniola region in the southeast, bordering Croatia.  For most of its history, this region was fairly isolated from the rest of Slovenia by two mountain ranges, and received its name from the traditional white linen clothing the locals wore until the early 20^th century.  We started our day learning how to make a traditional flatbread called Belokranjska Pogača.  The bread is fairly simple to make and doesn’t take too long to rise, making it a prefect option for a quick class.  The standard recipe calls for topping with coarse salt and caraway seeds, but since returning home we’ve substituted the caraway with both thyme and rosemary, and both are great topping options.  The bread is traditionally made just before guests arrive at a Slovenian home and served warm as a wonderful welcoming tradition.  Since the bread is scored after flattening and before baking, it is not cut with a knife but instead shared in a wonderful traditional way of breaking off pieces.  We also had our first experience with the local white wines, as our instructors also served us a delicious local sparkling wine while we baked.

Next, we kayaked down the Kolpa River through the Kolpa Regional Park.  This was a wonderful outdoor experience, the skies were clear, the weather warm, and lots of bird and aquatic life to see.  What we didn’t see was anyone else on the river until the very end of our trip, we had the whole river just to ourselves.  This is something we would experience several times on the trip, the very uncrowded spaces, feeling removed from tourism, and able to explore the country like a local.  The river current was fairly strong, and we only had to paddle when we wanted to (e.g. to cross from one side of the river to the other to explore).  This is a good thing as our guide surprised us with another bottle of sparkling wine soon after boarding our 3-person kayak (we quickly learned the Slovenians love their wines). 

After a wonderful lunch at a local restaurant, we were off to visit the Bela Krajina wine region.  Our driver dropped us off with our guide at the top of a hill in this small wine region so we could explore by foot.  After a quick walk through a few of the vineyards, we started heading towards our planned wine tasting at Vinska Klet Prus (one of the famous wineries in the region).  Along the way, we happened upon the owners of Strum (another famous winery) celebrating the last day of the harvest with family and friends.  Being Slovenia, we were of course invited to join them in the celebration and try some of their wonderful wines as well.  We also got to see a great vintage car pull up with more family & friends coming to the harvest celebration.

Our visit to Prus was equally enjoyable, we were hosted by the owner Jozef Prus.  Along with a wonderful charcuterie board (we learned the Slovenians eat a lot of prosciutto) and freshly baked Belokranjska Pogača, we sampled many of the winery’s award winning wines.  As my local partner had warned me, we ate and drank a lot on this day and skipped dinner as we were still full when we arrived back at our hotel that night!

Ljubljana

The next morning, we said goodbye to Otočec and the Hotel Grad Otočec, embarking on our roughly 40-minute drive to the capital, Ljubljana.  A city of about 300,000, it doesn’t feel overly crowded and has a lovely and sizable pedestrian-only zone in the historic part of the city below the castle and along the river.  My partner offered two hotel options, the larger Intercontinental or the smaller AS Boutique Hotel.  The Intercontinental has what you would expect from a large international hotel brand.  It’s in a tall building, has a restaurant on top with commanding views, and a full gym, spa and pool.  It’s outside the pedestrian zone so a good choice for anyone with mobility issues who wants their car service/taxi to come directly to the hotel.  We opted for the AS Boutique Hotel, and it was a wonderful choice.  Only about 100 meters into the pedestrian zone, it was easy to get to our cars/transfers each day but felt quainter being in the pedestrian zone.  The hotel is perfectly sized, with only 30 rooms, and the staff was so diligent I would have had no idea it just opened about a year ago if I hadn’t asked.  We opted for the Junior Suite to have a little more room and an outdoor terrace.  Our suite was on the corner of the hotel with commanding views of the castle and a lovely outdoor area (I worked outside for a few hours, and it was a great workspace in addition to being lovely for a glass of wine in the evening).

After getting our luggage stowed in our room (the hotel provided an early check-in for us), we started a brief tour of the historic district to learn its history and see the major sights.  This was the first time we encountered any tourists, as September brings many large tour groups to the country (in the summer months it’s mostly individual, family, and small group travelers that visit Slovenia).  We visited the Prešernov Trg, the public square which includes the famous pink church and the first department store in Ljubljana.  Next, we crossed the triple bridge, one of the famous works of architect Jože Plečnik.  We made a brief stop at city hall, and even saw the city mayor walking out as we walked in.  Last we saw the famous Dragon Bridge, as the dragon is the symbol of Ljubljana and dragons can be seen around the city (and in the gift shops).

We continued with a food focused market tour of Ljubljana.  In addition to stops at a wine bar, an indoor food market and an outdoor market, we got to experience a few more unique food vending options.  With a focus on farm-to-table and the ultimate in freshness, vending machines offered locals (and visitors) fresh dispensed milk and farm fresh eggs!

We also learned about the history of honey and its importance to Slovenia.   Just as wine regions in Europe have rules around how wine can be made (and with clear differences in wines from different regions), Slovenian honey is treated in a similar manner.  There are multiple protected geographical designations of origin for honey.  Beekeeping is only allowed with the indigenous honeybee, which are very peaceful as we found out in our many encounters with them.  Depending on the region, the bees may collect pollen from a variety of plants, including acacia, flowers, linden, spruce, forest, fir, and chestnut trees.  Each source of pollen gives the honey a distinct flavor.  Some of the honey tasted similar to honey we get in the U.S., others had very rich and earth flavors.  Honey is not only used in its pure and raw form, but also mixed with pollen or turned into various strengths of honey liquor and spirits. 

Our last stop was to visit the Ljubljana Castle at the top of the hill.   Thankfully, the city built a funicular, so we did not have to climb the hill ourselves.  Inside, we toured the castle grounds, watched a short 4D movie about the history of the castle, went to the highest tower for a picturesque view of the city, and saw a cutting from the oldest grape vine in the world.  The oldest vine is in Lent and is over 450 years old, but cuttings have been planted at Ljubljana Castle and Castle Bled (as we discovered later in our trip).

At the end of our tour, our guide introduced us to a wonderful ice cream shop, Vigò, which we frequented several times during our stay in Ljubljana!

Škocjan Caves & the Goriška Brda Wine Region

The next morning was our earliest and busiest day, we departed our hotel at 8am to travel to the Škocjan Caves, one of two famous cave systems in the country.  The other, Postojna Caves, is a little more touristy and even has a 3.7km double-track cave railway running through it.  The Škocjan Caves, on the other hand, are a UNESCO protected heritage site and have minimal human modification.  Unfortunately, photos were prohibited in the cave system, so I could only take pictures of the exterior and cave entrances.  But I’ve included links to a few professional photos of the caves.  We started in the “Silent Cave” which was the last part of the cave system to be discovered and is accessed through a man-made tunnel.  This part of the cave is beautiful and alien, with many colorful stalagmites and stalactites.  The silent cave extends for about 1 kilometer and the sections range in size from relatively small to massive caverns with huge overhead ceilings.  They are called silent as the underground river that formed the caves no longer runs through this part of the cave system, so they are silent except for the noise from visitors. 

One of the most magical parts of our tour was that it was completely private, just me, my wife, our guide, and a park ranger (who led us through the caves and taught us about each section).  During our roughly 2-hour tour of the caves, we didn’t see or hear anyone else.  This was truly impressive as the normal group tour can take up to 150 visitors through in 4 smaller groups each hour.  Experiencing the caves alone was incredible and I’m grateful my in-country partner, Luxury Slovenia, had arranged with the park office for us to have a private tour.

At the end of the Silent Caves, we started to hear the rumble of the river and soon entered the “Murmuring Cave.”  This part of the cave system overwhelms the senses, with a gorge carved by the river that’s over 350 feet deep and high vaulted ceilings that almost disappear into the darkness.  Looking up gave a small sense of vertigo, as what our eyes and inner ears told us conflicted.  Most of the Murmuring Cave is crossed on a path built along the north side of the cave, but one section must be crossed on a metal bridge built over the gorge.  After about another kilometer of navigating the path through the Murmuring Cave, we finally arrived at the cave entrance.  The Škocjan Caves are truly a natural treasure and I highly recommend visitors to Slovenia take the time to visit the caves (and arrange for a private tour if possible).

Professional Photos:

• Silent Caves
• Silent Caves 2
• Murmuring Cave Bridge & Gorge
• Murmuring Cave
• Murmuring Cave 2

We left the caves to drive about an hour to the Goriška Brda Wine Region, a famous wine region in the western part of Slovenia.  We had a lovely farm-to-table lunch at one winery followed by a visit to another winery, Radikon.  The owner and 3^rd generation wine producer, Marko, showed us his operations and told us the story of how his grandmother rescued the winery during WWII when she was only 18 years old.  We spent about 1.5 hours discussing wine, drinking wine and learning about this part of the country with Marko and his wife.  Radikon, like many Slovenian wineries, produces many small batches of multiple types of wines instead of large quantities of only a few types of wines.  This small production strategy, while beneficial for locals who can enjoy the variety, is the reason very few Slovenian wines can be found in the U.S.  We also learned that the grape, Sipon, used for the famous Tokaji sweet wines in Hungary actually came from this region in Slovenia.  It was brought to Hungary back in the days of the Austria-Hungarian Empire as part of a dowry.  Wine producers in Slovenia can’t use the name Tokaji for their wines made with this grape, so they instead call it Sauvignon Vert.

Lake Bled and the Alps

The next day we left as a free day to explore Ljubljana on our own.  We visited the Intercontinental (to see the hotel and get massages at the spa) and that evening we had dinner at the Michelin star Strelec Restaurant, which is in one of the towers in the Ljubljana Castle.

Our last full day was a daytrip to the foot of the Slovenian alpine region and Lake Bled.  Lake Bled is one of the most visited parts of the country and is famous for both the Church of the Assumption of Mary on the only natural island in the country, and for the Bled Castle. Our visit started with a stop at Vila Bled, the former summer home of President Tito and now a famous hotel, to try the famous Bled Cream Cake.  We then boarded a traditional Pletna boat and were rowed by the boatman across the lake to visit the island & church.  The church gained fame as a popular spot for Christian pilgrims and the Pletna boats and their boatmen were an outcome of the pilgrims needing assistance getting to the island.  Inside the church we pulled the rope extending up into ceiling to ring the Wishing Bell.  Our guide had told us she was informed by doctors she could never have children but rang the Wishing Bell every time she visited the church, and was eventually blessed with the birth of her daughter.  So she was a firm believer in the power of the Wishing Bell to grant visitors’ wishes.

We next visited Bled Castle and were treated to a printing demonstration on a replica of a Gutenberg printing press.  We also enjoyed wonderful views of Lake Bled and the church.  Unfortunately, it was an overcast day, so we were not able to see the Alps which were hidden in the clouds.  We toured the small  museum which provided the history of the castle and the region, and on our way out we say another cutting from the oldest grape vine in the world.

Our last activity of the day was a Slovenia cooking class.  Our hosts, Niko and Petra, taught us to make a traditional barley stew, buckwheat pockets, and Štruklji, a rolled cheese dumpling that can have a variety of fillings and be either savory or sweet.  The food was very good and filling, and we plan to make the dishes again at home (thanks to the cute mini cookbooks we received as part of our class souvenirs).  As our cooking class ended, we bid farewell to Niko and Petra and returned to Ljubljana for our last evening before flying home.

Alpine Region, Istrian Coastline, & the Lower Carniola Region

As I mentioned, there were several regions we didn’t visit.  In the North is Lake Bohinj and the breathtaking Julian Alps.  Visitors can take a cable car ride to the top of Vogel Mountain, within the Triglav National Park.  Or they might want to visit Logar Valley for scenic hiking and biking. 

We also didn’t visit the Istrian coastline along the Adriatic.  The town of Portorož in Piran Bay is a popular stop for visitors.  Several resorts are located in this area and offer guests access to their wellness spas and the healing properties of the region’s mud and saltwater baths.  Visitors can enjoy the seaside town or venture out to the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park to see the centuries-old tradition of salt-making utilizing Mediterranean salt-pans.  They may also want to tour Piran, considered the most beautiful town on the Slovenian coast.  And a visit wouldn’t be complete without trying some of the local seafood or visiting an oyster farm.

Last, though we stayed in Otočec, we didn’t visit the Lower Carniola Region, which is to the north of the White Carniola.  Here guest can visit Kostanjevica na Krki, Slovenia’s only town on a river.  Known as “Venice of Lower Carniola” due to frequent flooding, the entire town is protected as a cultural monument.  While visiting the town, guests can see the Božidar Jakac Art Museum.  The region around the town is famous for its hayracks and the Land of Hayracks is the first open-air museum of hayracks. Visitors to this region will also want to try the local wines and cheeses, and potentially a farm-to-table dinner at a local winery or cheese farm.