slovenia road trip: Questions
 

Hi !
We are slowly planning our next summer trip. That trip of 24-26 nights would take us in the Dolomites, Slovenia and Croatia.

We will have 6-7 nights for the italian part (Venice, + dolomites+ Trieste). We are trying to figure how much time we would need for Slovenia. We want to see Llubljana, Vrsic Pass, thes Lakes (Bled and/or Bohinj) somes caves (still deciding which one would be he best for us and the 7 and 11 years old kids) and maybe eastern part (Maribor and Ptuj)

so help needed:

1) How many nights ?
2) We will have a car, and we like to stay in one place and do daytrip from ther. Is there a place that would allows us to see all those places from the same point ?
3) We will add Koper and/or Piran while travelling in or arond Croatia.
4) Any place we have not think about that would be fun or to see for kids but also for history and food lovers ?

big thanks !

That was not the question, but thanks anyways.

If you look at a map, you will see that the main roads in Slovenia are spokes out of Ljubljana. That means that Ljubljana would be the most logical single base.

Answers to your questions:
1) all depends on the places you want to see and on the things you want to do there. If - coming from the Dolomites - you really want to do the huge detour via Trieste, you will need much more time than for a direct ride to Krainska Gora.
If you want to visit Maribor, Pettau and most probably Varazdin, you will need at least 1 day more.
If you only want to "see" the lakes of Bled, Bohinj, etc, you will need less time (let's say about a full day less) than if you really want to visit these places.

2) It's not impossible to stay at Bled and to do daytrips from there to Vric Pass, Marburg-Ptuj-Varazdin, Ljubliana, Postojna or Skocian Caves, Trieste and its "suburbs" Capodistria/Koper and Pirano. But due to this continuous zig-zagging and backtracking, you would spend a lot of time in your car (up to 5 hrs per day). May be that you like that.

3) As said above, Koper and Piran are very close to Trieste (Skocjan too, BTW). But it's not forbidden to go twice or 3times to the Trieste area.

4) There are good restaurants all over Slovenia. I don't know what your kids are interested in, may be in the stud of Lippizza, in the cstle of Miramare or in the Isonzo Valley trails. The best sandy beaches in the area are around Grado. If they like commercial Fun Parks, check Gardaland, midway between Venice and Bolzano/Bozen.

Kja is right: Ljubljana may be a bit better than Bled. But the problem of the hundreds of additional miles du to the endless backtracking remains.

BTW: if you are not interested in the Eastern Dolomites and in the Italian part of the Julian Alps, you may go directly from Innichen/San Candido via Austria to Bled: all highway or motorway, about 2 1/2- 2 3/4 hrs by car (130 miles)

We did what you ask in about a week a few years ago. We rented an apartment in LLubljana, and used it as a base. Spent only half a day and 2-3 evenings in Ll. Spent one night at Bled and did some caves, both lakes you mention (we took a cable car at Bohinj and walked half a day on top - great). We went to the seaside but this you can do when coming Venice /: we went to Trieste and was it Piran ? small balnear city of Solvenia. .
Was a nice trip. Roads are excellent.

Thnaks for those answers ! For now we are fixed on 26 nights in Dolomites, Slovenia and Croatia, still have fine tuning to make, thanks for the help !