MarciaR

My husband and I (age 72) are looking into Slovenia and Croatia for 2 weeks. We like to have 1 or 2 bases and do day trips every other day. Is that possible--we see from the forum that everyone seems to keep moving after 2 or 3 days. We don't have to see everything, rather just take in the beauty and enjoy a few places. What would be the 1 or 2 bases recommended for us to explore as well as relax, and what would be the recommended musts? Does someone have a recommendation for an apartment overlooking a pretty river, lake, or something like that. We're thinking of going sometime at the end of July or beginning of August. Any recommendations for car rentals as we'll rent a car.
Any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
MarciaR

Kodmania

Hi!

We recommend you hire a car in Ljubljana from Atet (www.atet.si) and stay somewhere like Most Na Soci where you can explore the Soca Valley and beyond.
Check out the Apartma Most for example
Http://www.sloveniaforyou.com/Accomm...tmentsMost.htm
They have views of the Soca\Idrijica river. Great place to relax and stunning scenery.

Cheers

MarciaR

I'm still interested to know what day trips to do that would be considered musts. Even though we'll be renting a car, we enjoy taking a ferry to see some sights. We especially enjoy scenery and are not interested in eating in restaurants. We prefer to buy simple food which we can buy in a supermarket. Does someone have a recommendation for a lakeview apartment which has parking close by and ferries similar to those in the lake region of Italy.

aleksander57

In SLO you can visit Postojna or Skocjan Caves, Lake Bohinj and Bled, Logarska valley, Ljubljana, Piran. From Piran you can go on ferry to Venice for a day.For apartments look at slovenia. info for all sorts of info.

MarciaR

Thanks for the very good information. It seems that Lake Bohinj would be suitable for us for a base since it has a lake and is less touristy than Lake Bled although we wouldn't rule out Lake Bled. Our main concern is to find an appropriate apartment very near to the lake and possibly a small terrace with lakeview. We don't want to stay in a hotel. Has anyone personal experience or a recommendation for a privately owned apartment very close to either lake Bohinj or Lake Bled? Do the lakes have walkways around the lake?
Also what's the weather like in August--we prefer temp. not hotter than about 26 or 27.

isabel

Why did you choose Slovenia? You also mention Croatia. You can't see both countries from one base (or even really from two). Are you coming from the US? If you are, I'm not sure why you would go all the way to Slovenia to spend two weeks on a 'non-touristy' lake. Everyone has different reasons to travel but it's costly and time consuming to go all that way just to have a lake vacation. While Slovenia is a fairly small country it would be difficult to find several day trips from one base. The capital Ljubljana is a fabulous small city, Lake Bled is beautiful (and really not at all touristy by most standards), the coastal city of Piran is very pleasant. Neighboring Croatia has several beautiful cities/town (mostly coastal) including several interesting islands, etc. Do you not have any interest in seeing any of those places?

MarciaR

Actually we are open to suggestions and mainly enjoy scenic places, and want to stay near a lake and walkway around lake and then do leisurly day trips by car or ferry. We're also interested in a cool place, and now I see that the weather in Slovenia in Aug. can be up to 30, so that's too hot for us. We always go to Italy, and wanted to try some place that we've never been to. From travel forums, it seems as though Slovenia is somewhat more scenic than Crotia. Now that the weather seems a bit too hot, maybe we'll try another place, maybe Switzerland for cooler weather. ???

isabel

I loved Slovenia and Croatia but in summer it can be hot. So if you don't like that I'd suggest going somewhere north of the Alps. Switzerland is incredibly scenic and has lots of lakes and there is so much to see that day trips from a base would be great. There are tons of threads here on Switzerland. The two main lake areas are Lake Thun (between Interlaken and Bern) - Interlaken is at one end, and is the 'gateway' to the Bernese Oberland (classic Swiss mountain area) but there are many less touristy towns around the lake. Lake Geneva of course is the other famous lake, and while Geneva is a large city there are many small towns around that lake as well. And the "Lakes" of Italy extend into Switzerland, many possibilities there.

Andrew

Marcia, click on my name and you can read my trip reports from 2011 (Slovenia) and 2009 (mostly Croatia) plus lots of pictures. I especially loved Slovenia but would go back to Croatia on a future trip for sure to see more.

Other than Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia (essential if you are nearby), most of the scenery in Croatia seems to be on the coast. (Istria though is supposed to be beautiful countryside; I haven't been there.) Slovenia has very little coastline (the coastal town of Piran in Slovenia is delightful). So most of its great scenery is inland in say Triglav National Park/Soca Valley. Ljubljana is also a most beautiful (little) capitol city. There are plenty of little towns you can visit e.g. Skofja Loka (between Ljubljana and Lake Bled). Renting a car makes things a lot easier and is pretty easy, but Slovenia and Croatia both seem to have good bus systems (limited rail especially in Croatia).

MarciaR

Thanks to all for all the great info!
Andrew, I just finished reading your trip report--amazing! How do you manage all that on your own? We used to "wing it" as far as accomodations, but now we see that it takes alot of time and energy to get accomodation that we feel comfortable with, so we prefer to get that settled in advance. Of course, we never go to all the places that you do in just one trip. I'm going to review more of your trip reports later. Thank you!

Euromania

Hello! I highly recomend Croatia, two weeks is almost enough to visit main attractions, Dubrovnik which is the most popular destination in CRoatia can be a bit overcrowded, but it's worth the visit. I from personal experience recomend Zadar, which is astonishing ancient city. For people of your age the best part of Croatia would be Istria, which is in north Croatia, the temperatures are lower than in Dalmatia and the air is more humid, I recomend especialy Opatija an old summer getaway for Habsburg emperors, it has a lot of walks, beautiful hotels and it's not overcrowded and tourists are mostly senior citizens. Be sure to visit Pula which is nearby to see the sixth largest Roman Arena.

Also there are PLitvice national park, Krka national park, and both of them are just breathtaking, there are a number of places to visit in Croatia, but it would take a lot more than two weeks to see them all.
Cheers.

Hopefully I was helpfull.