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Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

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Anyone been to Slovenia?

48 replies

ciderhouserules · 10/01/2023 09:59

I fancy Slovenia this year - anyone been? Is it easy to get from Ljubjana to Lake Bled? We are thinking 3 days in Ljubjana and a couple at Lake Bled, then back.
How's the language barrier? Is there much English spoken?

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beachshellshome · 10/01/2023 22:52

You won't struggle with the language most people speak English. It's a beautiful country and very clean.

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ciderhouserules · 11/01/2023 10:56

Wow thank you all! And the photos are amazing - so beautiful.
I don't think we will hire a car, we prefer to get the train or bus for a full 'local' feel but Lake Bohinj sounds interesting. If we can do a day-trip to Lake Bled we might have time to do that too.
We love City breaks - in fact we're looking at flying to Slovenia for about 6 nights, then train to Austria to see Vienna (never been!) and fly back after a few nights from there.

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Hannahthepink · 11/01/2023 11:06

We did it on the train, Ljubljana first, then on to Lake Bled. Totally doable, the only thing that we wished that we had a car for was getting some shopping in for our self catering apartment in Bled, but there were plenty of restaurants and some small shops. We really enjoyed hiking and biking further into the national park, so much is reachable without a car.

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FlamingoSocks · 11/01/2023 11:17

Yes, we went last year and are going back this year, we have two kids. It’s absolutely gorgeous, Lake Bled looks like something out of a Disney movie. It’s a compact country, very very easy to get around, everything’s really well organised and no language barrier. We hired a place right on Lake Bled which had a parking space. Ljubljana is a very small city and 2 full days there is (more than?) enough.
If you are going in summer I recommend you book restaurants if eating in Ljubljana as they can get busy
Wasps were a bit of a problem, we figured out if you put something they like on the edge of the table they congregate there, or eat a bit later.

Food isn’t amazing esp at Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj, lots of burgers/steak/chips. Wine is sold in 100ml measures!!!! Poor waiters were like yo-yos back and forth to our table with more wine.

The caves at Postojna are also an absolute must do, you will never see anything like it. Again it’s like a movie rather than real life. We drove here from Bled and it took just over an hour.

It’s a very easy holiday with kids. Get up, walk to lake shore, swim until hungry, eat, swim more or do some other easily accessed and booked activity. Plentiful supermarkets and pharmacies. Highly recommend.

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BarrelOfOtters · 11/01/2023 11:51

We had an amazing evening meal in the castle at Bled - more of an adults than a kid's thing and we had to book a long way in advance. But it was so romantic and we aren't really romantic types.

And food in Ljubljana and on the coast was really very good indeed.

Loved Zagreb in Croatia if you are aound that neck of the woods and the food there was amazing.

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MidtoLon · 14/01/2023 00:19

We have been to Lake Bled twice. Love it. Our daughter got married in the church on the island in the Lake. We did a day trip to Llublijana on the local bus. Very cheap. Also to Lake Bohinj on another day taking the cable car up the mountain. We did an organised day tour to the Julian Alps taking in Piran and the Lippizaner stud farm with the famous horses. We also did walks out of Bled to Vintgnar Gorge and also through the villages to Sava river like going back in time.

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aramox1 · 14/01/2023 05:59

What kind of places did you stay at? Would like self catering.

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FlamingoSocks · 14/01/2023 13:47

Found a lakeside apartment on air bnb

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CharlotteStreetW1 · 14/01/2023 13:56

We love it. Going for the third time later this year. We're doing three nights in Ljubljana (which is plenty) and five nights at Lake Bled.

Public transport is brilliant. I (personally) prefer Bled to Bohinj.

Enjoy!

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CoolShoeshine · 20/01/2023 17:11

CharlotteStreetW1 · 14/01/2023 13:56

This is what I’d like to do. Do you ever see flights from Luton or Stansted or is it always the bigger airports?

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CharlotteStreetW1 · 21/01/2023 14:59

I think the only direct flights are from LGW or LHR but I stand to be corrected.

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XelaM · 21/01/2023 16:13

We went on a day trip from Italy last summer and I absolutely LOVED IT!!!! Could not believe how beautiful and well-organised it is. It had a similar feel to Austria, which makes historical sense obviously. We went to the famous caves and castle and I cannot recommend it enough! Even my usually hard to impress 12-year-old loved it.

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XelaM · 21/01/2023 16:16

This is from our summer holiday

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FoodieToo · 22/01/2023 20:44

We went skiing in Kranjska Gora , twice . Absolutely loved it ! Great value , lovely people , anazing scenery .

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ciderhouserules · 16/02/2023 14:43

Wow @XelaM , that looks amazing!

So we've firmed up our schedule, we fly early morning to Ljubliana and I'm looking at 3 days in Lake Bled. Anyone know if the bus goes straight from Airport to Lake Bled? Or would we have to go to the city first?

We have to then get back to the city and spend a few days there. We're going in late June - early July.

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FlamingoSocks · 16/02/2023 16:01

There’s not loads to do in the city but something that we massively enjoyed as a family was the escape room! It’s called The Imaginarium or similar and was really fun and well run.
I think I said upthread but you must go to Postojna caves
Book restaurants in the city. Can recommend Supernatural food and wine.

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DominoRules · 16/02/2023 16:07

One of our favourite places! If you can get up to Vintgar Gorge it’s a beautiful walk

We also went to some caves but I can’t remember the name! They were very impressive though too

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DominoRules · 16/02/2023 16:09

@FlamingoSocks has mentioned the caves - Postojna! My DC loved learning about the Olms

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IkaBaar · 16/02/2023 16:19

We’ve been to Bohinj twice. It was easy to get the bus to Bled and Ljubljana (well this was a few years ago).

At that time of year I think the wildflowers in the meadows in the mountains will still be spectacular. When we went there was a wildflower festival in Bohinj. The lakes will be far too cold to swim in, in June. We have also been in late August when the weather was a bit more stable and you could swim in the lake.

We loved it, that’s why we went back a second time!

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XelaM · 16/02/2023 18:07

Postojna caves are definitely a must! Despite there being loads of tourists it was incredibly well-organised and tours started on time and were run in a number of different languages. Then the caves are very close to the Predjama Castle which was incredible so it's definitely worth doing both.

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garlictwist · 16/02/2023 18:57

I was hoping to go there this summer but it looks like the only direct flights there from the uk go from Gatwick which is not really feasible from where we live so we aren't going to bother. Quite annoying.