czzzd

My friend and I (we are both 19) are trying to plan a trip to Slovenia this summer (early June), but are having trouble with a working itinerary. We plan on arriving in Ljubljana and spending a day or two there to explore and settle in, and will end up back in Ljubljana to leave for home as well. We definitely want to go to:
Lake Bled
Soca River (for rafting and adventure activities)
Julian Alps (for hiking)
and Portoroz for more of the beachy nightlife.
(and if it isn't too much crammed in, some of the caves (Postojna?))
My question is: does this seem like a plausible itinerary? And are there easy public transportation methods to travel from place to place without having to rent a car? Will we be able to make day trips to Soca or the Alps from Ljubljana or Bled so we don't have to switch hotels again? And how many nights is recommended in each of these places? And is it worth it to stop in Croatia for the beaches or is Portoroz somewhere we will be able to relax and tan in?

We plan on staying for around a week, and aren't too fussed about too much touristy stuff, we are mainly into the adventure and nature aspect of Slovenia. However we don't want to dive in headfirst without a plan since it will be the first time we'll be traveling alone without any tour group. Therefore we're trying to make it as uncomplicated as possible.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

jpie

We spent about a week there last July but we had a car, so I can't give you much advice on travel without a car. Ljubljana is great and of course, no problem to visit without a car. Lake Bled is only about 45 minutes from there and I believe we saw buses on the roads to and from there.

I was surprised the lake Bled area is smaller that I thought-not so much to do but might be fun if you want to camp or even go for the day just to go hiking.

Andrew

Lake Bled is a developed resort; if you want to hike and camp, you'd want nearby Lake Bohinj, which is more of a "back to nature" experience. Bled is still neat and worth seeing; if you want to hike nearby, most people would suggest the Vingar Gorge area not far away.

Slovenia has a good bus system - not much of a train system but there are some local trains (e.g. from Ljubljana to Koper and to Postojna I think; my train to Croatia stopped in Postojna). I had a car for part of my longest trip to Slovenia - to get from Ljublnana to Bled, over the Julian Alps and into the Soca Valley, and down to the coast. Getting Bled from Ljubljana by bus is relatively easy it seems. Getting to Postojna and to Portoroz should be easy too. Google and you can find the Slovenia train and bus websites and/or try Rome2Rio.com .

I'd google for some tour companies that do daily excursions from Ljubljana to the Soca Valley and/or Triglav National Park. This is the kind of info a hostel would surely have on hand if you were staying at one. Perhaps you can email the Ljubljana TI (Travel Information agency) and ask them.

I stayed in Piran not Portoroz (where I dropped my car off). I did go swimming in the ocean in Piran but it was the end of September; not sure how warm the water is in June or what the sunbathing scene would be like then. Piran is probably more boring than Portoroz for young people...but I absolutely loved Piran with its beautiful Venetian bell tower and lovely town square. Portoroz looked dull to me, so I was glad to have dropped the car off and left. But you might feel differently.

If you want to visit Croatia near Slovenia, the highlights would likely be Plitvice Lakes National Park (about 2.5 hours by bus from Zagreb, which is about 2.5 hours from Ljubljana by train...so you'd probably want an overnight in Zagreb at least one night) and probably Croatian Istria, which is somewhat similar to the Slovenian part to the north. I spent a few nights in Rovinj in Istria - another lovely town (reminded me of Piran). I also saw some of the interior hill towns in Istria, but without a car they are kind of a challenge and, in my opinion, not really worth it.

Try www.buscroatia.com and Rome2Rio for Croatia bus times and schedules.

I found the Rick Steves Croatia/Slovenia book extremely useful in planning my trips to Slovenia and Croatia, and the book covers all of the areas you mention. You can watch his PBS TV shows for free on YouTube as well, if you want to see what some of these places look like.

kja

If you are starting in Ljubljana, you might want to end in Bled or vice versa – the airport is halfway between Ljubljana and Bled.

Definitely consider a walk through the Vintgar Gorge, outside of Bled. Walk through the gorge in one direction, and back to your starting point along the walk high above the gorge.

I didn’t vist the Postjana Caves, but thought the Skocjan Caves magnificent.

As Andrew suggested, you might want to use rome2rio.com as a way to identify your transportation options. It’s a great starting point, but do check your options a bit more thoroughly, as rome2rio is not always fully up-to-date or accurate.

I don’t think you have time for Croatia on this trip -- a week is perfect, IMO, for Slovenia! If you do decide to try to include Croatia, please check back in so I (and others) can offer suggestions.

And please rest assured that it is easy to visit Slovenia independently – no need for a tour! You might want to consult the <i>Rough Guide</i> -- IME, it provides excellent coverage of Slovenia. In contrast, the Rick Steves guidebook to the area is the only guidebook I’ve ever used – and I’ve used well over 100 for various trips! – that I ever considered a true waste of my money. JMO.

Hope that helps!

FlyDriveHike

I agree with Kja that Skocjan caves is worrh visiting. I am not into caves and used to think they all looked similar, but Skocjan was something else! Did not visit Postojna, so cannot give my opinion on that. We chose Skocjan over Postojna because it was closer to where we were staying and people said it would be less crowded.

Slovenia is awesome and you have a great trip ahead of you

Andrew

I too visited Skocjan caves not the Postojna caves, but I had a car, and as I understand it, the Postojna caves are easier to get to by public transportation.

kja

The Skocjan caves can be visited easily by public transportation. From Divača, it's a 3 km walk or an easy and inexpensive taxi ride. Per the official website,
http://www.park-skocjanske-jame.si/e...ow-to-reach-us
"Get off the train at the Divača railway station. There is a map at the station showing a footpath to the Škocjan Caves. The path is around 3 kilometres long and well marked. It will take you around 35 minutes of walking."
According to rome2rio, a taxi from Divača should take only minutes and cost somewhere in the range of 4 to 6 US $.

czzzd

Thanks all!
We have some more questions now that we've tried to flesh out our itinerary. We now plan on arriving in Ljubljana, staying a few days, then taking a bus/train to Lake Bled and making that our home base for 2-3 days where we can bus for a day to Lake Bohinj, go hiking, rafting, etc. And then we want to take a bus to Portoroz and finally bus from Portoroz back to Ljubljana.

We were wondering if it were possible to stop by Skocjan Caves on the way back to Ljubljana from Portoroz because we saw that it was in between the two and the bus route goes right through. However, since we're taking a bus, either Bus Fils or Bus Avtobusna, we're not sure if we would be able to get off near Skocjan or Postojna for an hour or two and then still have another bus to get back to Ljubljana.

Does anyone have any advice? Thanks again.

Andrew

I doubt you'll want to be dragging your bags 3km to and from the bus stop and Skocjan caves (unless you can find somewhere to leave your bags near the bus stop), so I'd plan on the taxi, and I'd also plan to have a mobile phone with me that works in Slovenia in that case. Even then, you'd then have to leave your bags at the caves entrance - you can't really take them in with you, unless you have very light bags you could take on your backs. I drove to Skocjan caves so I didn't have to deal with any of that.

The bus websites show you the intermediate stops - maybe Rome2Rio does too. Then it's just a matter of checking for buses on to Ljubljana from that stop later on.

Postojna has train service, so you might have more options there. There is train service between Koper (near Portoroz - catch a local bus) and Ljubljana. Sometimes train stations have lockers or a left luggage area where you can drop bags, but I'm not sure Postojna station is big enough for that. You'll have to check.

It might be easier to do one of the caves as a day trip from Ljubljana. You might even be able to find a specific tour or shuttle that will drop you at the caves and pick you up, etc.

rtt0921

With regard to visiting the Skocjan Caves on your way from Portoroz to Ljubljana, there are luggage lockers in the train station in Divaca, so you could make use of those. If you check the bus timetables at the Ljubljana bus station website www.ap-ljubljana.si it should provide you with all the stops the bus makes on that route.

Do not count on asking the driver to drop you off near the caves. While they are sometimes accommodating and willing to drop passengers outside of designated stops, they will only do so if it is along their route. In your case, if the bus does not have a scheduled stop in Divaca, it is almost certainly taking the highway, where the driver cannot drop you off safely. That said, there are enough buses that stop in Divaca for you to be able to visit the caves, if not out of Portoroz, then certainly out of Koper, where you could take a train to Divaca, too (see www.slo-zeleznice.si ). Koper is connected with Portoroz by local bus, which runs every 30 minutes or so.

From Bled, I strongly recommend you look into going on an excursion with a tour company in order to visit the Soca Valley, it is simply not practical going there by public transport. There are plenty of tour companies that have excursions tailored to young adults with fun activities and adventure sports. Lake Bohinj, on the other hand, is easily accessible by bus. If you want to go hiking in the Julian Alps, it might be a good idea to join a group hiking tour as well, especially if you are not experienced hikers.