Trying to plan surprise 50th for my hubby who wants something"experiential" a/k/a bucket list type of trip. We love adventure (have been canyoneering in Costa Rica, class V rafting, etc but that was a few years ago so I no longer want to risk my life). The trip needs to include hiking and good local food. Leaning towards Slovenia, but hard to get to and would like to know if anyone has been on either REI or Austin Lehman tour. He also wants to see Iceland- I know this is a rambling post- but I really need some great ideas. Coming from ATL, willing to spend 10-12k for 10-14 days. Thanks.

A friend took a hiking tour in the Spanish Pyrenees. Or you can look for hiking tours on the French side of the border. Once past the main tourist areas, the central Pyrenees are quite wild.

I spent ten days in Slovenia in September - self-guided though, a solo trip. I highly recommend Slovenia: a wonderful country. Nice cities and towns, terrific scenery, great outdoor activities, but not nearly as touristy (especially by Americans) as Italy and Austria.

It sounds like you might enjoy time near Lake Bled, Lake Bohinj, and the Soca Valley, which is in the western part of the (small) country. You can rent a car and drive through the Vrsic Pass up through the Julian Alps along a windy road. (If you're adventurous you could do it by bike - some people do.) If you go "counterclockwise" from Bled (look on a google map), you go up through the Vrsic and down into the Soca Valley. By car it takes only about three hours. All of this area is full of hiking opportunities and even kayaking down in the Soca River (which has a kind of turquoise color).

The eastern part of Slovenia is often overlooked but there are things to see over there, too. I spent a couple of days in Maribor, the 2nd biggest city in Slovenia, and did a day trip from there to the beautiful old town of Ptuj. In Maribor I ran into a group of Americans who were doing a week-long bike tour including the area around Ptuj (this part of the country is flatter than the western part which is more hilly).

Pick up a Rick Steves book on Croatia/Slovenia to get more details. (There's no need to limit your time to just Slovenia; you could see parts of neighboring Croatia too if you have time e.g. Istria which I did not see.) Slovenia is a very accessible country for Americans and easy to get around, if by chance you want to do your own tour vs. REI, etc.

www.mountainlodgesofperu.com awesome journey might have a look
Might add a nice Ecuador/Galapagos Cruise experience if time
www.guanguiltagua.com [email protected] www.ecoventura.com great "bucket list" combo.

www.affordabletours.com for best deals on Slovenia pretty
small place pretty though especially Lake Bled but Croatian
coast Trogir Plitvice NP Dubrovnik Montenegro combo added
would be great. www.zicasso.com can custom design a package.
Have flown into Venice-tourism.com and done this in the past
self guiding by nice trains or car rental it is pretty easy
though expensive for upscale hotels.

In fact am doing this in April/May 2012 and going on into
Hungary self-guiding to some upscale places we have not been.
My wife prefers Italy/Croatia I prefer Peru/Galapagos far
more exotic adventurous but I am obliging her this spring.

I have been to Iceland thought the blue lagoon neat but got
old fairly quickly sort of stark not as nice as the other
places.Might be worth a few days en route. skyscanner.net
has econo flights to/from or Iceland Air on your way across
the pond.

Good luck!

Since you are in Atlanta, it seems likely you'd fly Delta to Europe? I flew Delta too. I know what you mean about Slovenia seeming hard to get to. In my case, I chose to fly into Munich and out of Milan and take a few extra days on each side to see a little of Austria and a little of Italy before/after Slovenia. That wound up saving about $500 of airfare (and made connections easier). But you could train from Munich directly down to Ljubljana if need be instead. The connection between Ljubljana and Milan is not as easy - no direct train.

I think Air France (Delta partner) has several direct flights a day between Paris and Ljubljana. easyJet also flies between Paris and Ljubljana I believe. Another option is the Slovenian national airline Adria Airlines which flies between the big European cities (Paris, Amsterdam, etc.) and Ljubljana. You could book the Delta part on your own and book other segments separately, or if you book the Delta flights on KLM's website they may sell you a single ticket that includes the Delta and Adria segments (I looked at that option) whereas Delta won't on their website.

Thank you all very much. I am having a hard time getting tickets on points into Paris this time but might try more dates once I pinpoint a tour. I have emailed Mountain Lodges of Peru to try to find out if it'd be too arduous. Leaning towards tour so we have guided tours whole time and less planning to do on our own, but we typically travel on our own. Is it easy enough to hike on your own? Also, is the food good? I have narrowed down short list to Slovenia or Peru (possibly lodge to lodge hiking)- both would be awesome but if food is much better one place more than the other, might win out. Thanks

The western part of Slovenia was part of Italy between the two world wars, and you find a lot of Italian influence in the whole region - including the food. (Some towns are even bilingual.) So if you like Italian food...

I didn't do long hikes in Slovenia - I hiked the Vintgar Gorge near Bled (maybe 2 hours total) and a few shorter hikes in the Soca Valley interrupt my drive from Bled to Kobarid. I found those easy enough. But you can do much longer hikes all over the region.

I haven't been to Peru, but had some wonderful meals in Slovenia. For my comments, see:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rant-notes.cfm

You originally mentioned Iceland and Slovenia. Interesting - I just booked flights for my trip to - Iceland and Slovenia. I'll admit you and I are probably the only two people on this board considering a trip to those two countries, and I've gotten some strange looks when I tell people where I'm going, but I think it's a good idea.

Here's how we are doing it.We are flying Iceland Air which allows stopovers of any time length in Iceland. So we are stopping for just two days, but long enough to take the Golden Circle Tour and to explore Reykjavik. Iceland air doesn't fly to Slovenia but it does fly to London where you can get an Easyjet flight to Slovenia (Ljubljana). Due to the timing of the flights we are spending about 24 hours in London which some people might find a bother but I don't. I love London and have no problem spending the afternoon wandering around and evening in a pub before flying to Slovenia the next day. We haven't planned the details of what we'll do in Slovenia but obviously want to explore the Lake Bled area. And we are going to Croatia (Istria - Rovinj) also. I don't think Iceland Air flies out of Atlanta so you'd have to get to New York or Orlando but their flights are extremely reasonable compared to just about any other I've looked at so even with add on flights it will still be probably less than other airlines.

thanks for the tips- sounds like a great trip. To be honest, I was thinking Iceland OR Slovenia- now leaning towards Peru though b/c I think it's the toughest hiking and want to do it sooner rather than later (we are almost 45 and 50). However, Slovenia is a close runner up....albeit much harder to get to! (non-stop to Lima pretty enticing).

I wish I had my Slovenia trip report done and some of my thousands of pictures posted to help persuade you to try Slovenia! ;-) It's wonderful. But I'll bet Peru is great too. Have a great trip whatever you decide!

Based on your initial post (adventure, hiking and good local food), I would definitely recommend Slovenia. You can combine hiking with several other adventures (underground mtb ride in a disused mine, kayaking on Krka river, white water rafting on Soča or Sava river, canoeing on lake Bohinj or Kolpa river, tandem paragliding, etc.), visit beautiful small towns, enjoy local food with superb wine tasting and stay in either small, boutique hotel or visit some spa or wellness centres.

Contact www.slovenia-explorer.com and ask them for a custom-made tour for the 2 of you ... they can also arrange airport transfers from near-by airports (Venice, Milan, Vienna, Munich, etc.). Or perhaps you could do a 2-week Vienna to Venice tour, spending most of the time in Slovenia.

Enjoy your stay, wherever you go!

> now leaning towards Peru though b/c I think it's the toughest hiking and want to do it sooner rather than later (we are almost 45 and 50)

I fully appreciate your thinking, jdp080367 - its something I consider when planning trips, too. I wish I had visited Peru when I was your age, because if I ever do get there, I don't think I'll be able to manage the hikes that I had always hoped to take. (I still hope to visit Peru, especially Machu Pichu, but it will be a very different kind of trip than the one I had once envisioned.) In contrast, the "hikes" I did in Slovenia - really, a pair of walks that each took about 2 hours, as I recall - were very manageable, even with aging body parts - most were through fairly flat terrain (even if the surrounding vistas were not). But I didn't do any truly challenging hiking there.

Hope that helps!