HOME TOUR

Slovenia has long been on my bucket list. I studied in Vienna in college and I remember friends traveling there and loving its “fly under the radar” status. Everyone that goes feels like they’ve found a hidden gem. Far from well-visited destinations elsewhere in Europe (although admittedly far more popular than in times past), Slovenia felt quiet and reserved to us, except for Lake Bled which was nutty.  Similar to Austria, the architecture was familiar yet distinctly Slovenian. The national symbol of Slovenia is a beautiful covered hayrack. We saw them dotted all over the countryside. The diversity of the terrain, delicious wine and meals and reduced tourist crowds made sweet Slovenia my favorite part of our summer trip.

White Dress | Belt (Similar) | Sandals

PLANNING THE TRIP

I fully planned this June road trip unlike our trip to Peru last year. I bought guidebooks, read blogs, and Google mapped the heck out of this trip. My favorite guidebooks are always by Rick Steve and I bought this one and used it throughout our trip. We knew we wanted to see the big 2–Slovenia and Croatia but also knew we could easily make this a 5 country road trip if we so desired. And that’s exactly what happened but only because we accidentally found ourselves in Italy on our drive from the Julien Alps to the Croatian Coast. We popped into Bosnia and Montenegro as we went through Croatia, more on that in a different post. We tried to make it feel more relaxing by staying 2-3 nights in each place and day tripping out.

Last summer we rented a French Farmhouse and explored the French countryside. This summer we rented a car and drove three different countries’ countrysides. This trip was WAY more work, rewarding in every possible way, just overall less relaxing. We literally saw everything I wanted to see and I hit my 46th country. Montenegro was supposed to be number 45 but after Matt recounted, we realized I had been miscounting by one for years. I have no idea how I forgot the Maldives, an anniversary trip we took sans kids back in 2017.

RENTAL CAR

With much research comes many options. I learned quickly that renting a car in one country and then dropping it off in another can come with hefty fees. To avoid that entirely we chose to fly into Zagreb, Croatia (instead of Ljubljana, Slovenia) even though we wanted to start our trip in Slovenia and end in Croatia. Zagreb was only about an hours drive from the first stop on our summer trip–a castle hotel. We knew we were ending in Dubrovnik and would drop the car off there. They gave us a bright orange 5 seater car that the kids affectionately named Clementine. When all was said and done we logged over 1400 km in Clementine.

stripe skirt | tank top (similar) | sandals

DAY 2 — A CASTLE HOTEL

Staying at Grad Hotel Otoćec was a non-negotiable for me. I had been dreaming of this castle stay since I found it during the planning process and oriented the entire trip around room availability. Worth it? YES, all my Cinderella dreams came true! We stayed one night in Zagreb, the day we flew in, only because the castle hotel was booked. It ended up being nice to explore Croatia’s capital while distracting ourselves from jetlag. We stayed at Hotel Esplanade in Zagreb which was lovely, originally built for passengers of the Orient Express. The kids loved this breakfast. We woke up slowly, lingered over breakfast, wander through a Sunday antique market in Zagreb before heading to Slovenia. Although part of the EU, you must stop at the Slovenian border to purchase a toll sticker. Our only stop, besides the toll plaza, on the way to the castle was Kostanjevica na Krki, the smallest town in Slovenia and on an island in the Krka river.

KOSTANJEVICA NA KRKI

Quaint, tiny and sweet are the perfect words to describe this stop. And it seemed completely off the beaten path which was lovely. You drive over a small wooden bridge, from either side, over the Krka river to access this town. We parked by the church, walked the full circle of the little town in 15 minutes and had a glass of wine at a cafe along the river. Young people were swimming, kids running about and the occasional bike group rode through. It was charming and low key.

GRAD HOTEL OTOČEC

This charming castle hotel, part of the Relais & Chateaux brand, was our home base for most of our trip through Slovenia. We stayed three nights and wandered out for day trips. It’s between Zagreb and Ljubljana and although most destinations seemed to be closer to or above Ljubljana, the extra drive was worth it to stay here. The food was spectacular. The breakfast buffet, lovely but dinner, dinner is where this castle shines. We ate both dinners outside in the courtyard. When dusk falls they light the torches and you feel like you should have on a Cinderella dress and be waltzing while eating their famous truffle gnocchi or savoring their homemade forest berry sorbet. Admittedly not a wine connoisseur, every glass of local wine I had in Slovenia I loved.

DAY 3 — LJUBLJANA

We spent a full day, leaving the castle around 10 am for a 50 minute drive to the capital of Slovenia. We parked near the old town and wandered the streets, took the funicular to the castle, an afternoon canal ride and meandered. Highly walkable, highly enjoyable, it was a beautiful capital and like all of Slovenia–low key.

DAY 4–CAVES & CASTLES

Day 3 of our trip, we left the castle for a full day of exploring magical castles and the famous caves of Slovenia. The first stop was Grad Žužemberk and to be honest, we did not have high hopes for this stop. It seemed like it was under construction, from what I read, closed to the public. The exterior was so charming that we added it to our google map anyways and made the 30 minute drive. And it was under construction but there was a tour bus full of Slovenian school children touring it, so we walked right in and no one said anything.

To get a viewpoint of the castle we drove through the town and over the river, pulling over on the other side of a bridge. It was here in this charming spot, without us knowing it, Aubrey lost a shoe. We didn’t notice until we were 1.5 hours away and exhausted from driving those 1.5 hours on windy roads. Before making that long drive to the next castle though, we stopped above the town of Žužemberk at Cerkev sv. Roka, a beautiful church high on the hill. We pulled in with no one around and ran through the meadow, picking wildflowers and marveling at the beauty of it all. All while not noticing Aubrey’s one shoe situation in the tall grass. All you New England mommas are probably thinking about ticks. We didn’t see a single one the entire time.

GRAD SNEŽNIK

A castle with an unclear date of construction, first mentioned in 1263, it was the only castle we were allowed to go inside. Owned by a German prince, the castle was nationalized to Slovenia in 1945 after WWII and the inside is beautiful because the caretaker, during WWII, scared away looters. With a lovely arched bridge and pretty facade, I loved this one. The staff wasn’t the friendliest and we had to join a Slovenian school field trip in order to tour. Nothing like touring a castle with a distracting one-shoed child, flimsy piece of paper translating rooms into English, all the while every single school child stared at Cade’s prosthetic legs, ignoring their tour guide and teachers in order to periodically play with Aubrey. We felt like a circus.

POSTOJNA CAVE & PREDJAMA CASTLE

Part of the same admission ticket and with quite a few sites, this is a major attraction in Slovenia and very touristy. Still wonderful and worth it. This particular cave has a train that takes you 10 minutes deep into the cavern and then a guide walks you around. Perfect for kids, it’s why we chose this one. It was chilly (bring a coat) and we had to hold Aubrey the entire time since she was missing a shoe. I can’t tell you how many sweet people stopped us by this point in the day to point at Aubrey’s feet. The entry guy announced loudly that this was the first real Cinderella he had ever admitted to the cave complex. Congratulations Aubrey!

A CAVE CASTLE

We had no intention of going inside this one as everything I had read seemed to indicate there wasn’t much to see. So it didn’t matter to us that it was closed by the time we made it to the castle following the cave tour. We had the castle entirely to ourself which was magical. With three little kids, getting places early has never been our strong suit, but after things close, twilight magic hour, and keeping kids up long past bedtimes–well we’re really good at that, haha!

We drove a few minutes back to the town of Postojna and had a lovely dinner at Pizzeria Minutka. Our one-shoed socialite delighted nearby meal goers by playing peak-a-boo and randomly making the rounds between tables. For two rather introverted parents, we sure got a wild card with that child. It was an hour and a half drive back to Grad Otočec and the kids were asleep by the time we got there.

DAY 5 — LAKE BLED

We checked out of our castle hotel, much to my chagrin, and drove the 30 minutes back to Žužemberk (which happened to be on our way to Lake Bled) and miraculously found Aubrey’s sandal right where she said she left it, next to the road where we had pulled over the day before. We were relieved because I only packed us in carry-ons for the entire trip and brought one pair of sandals per child. Such a relief!

The plan had been to tour Vintgar Gorge, an elevated boardwalk hike above a rushing turquoise river but we missed the turnoff and found ourselves in Lake Bled. So we switched around our itinerary and headed to the castle to grab lunch. It was unseasonably hot and miserable this particular day and the crowds were insane. This IS the place to be in Slovenia. We popped into a hotel to see if they could call us a cab up to the castle because we had already parked our rental car and knew the kids would never make it up if we hiked in the heat. It took 30 minutes for the cab driver to come through all the traffic and for a ridiculous 20 euros he drove us 5 minutes up the hill to the castle. We had been warned that there would be no table at the lovely Bled Castle Restaurant but we risked it anyway. And wouldn’t you know it, they set up a lovely table on their patio overlooking Lake Bled. Get reservations or risk it, but eating here is a must. Their cream cake is famous and delicious.

PLETNA BOATS AT LAKE BLED

By the time we ate lunch up at the castle and hiked down, strolled along the lake to the Pletna boat docks, we realized we were cutting it close on time. They stopped rowing out at 5 pm. I had wanted to take a Pletna boat out to the Assumption of Mary Church on Bled Island to ring the wishing bell AND hike the Vintgar Gorge which closed at 6. We found a closer Pletna boat dock to the island and were able to come back on a different boat than we took to the island, cutting down the time significantly. There isn’t much to do on the island after you ring the bell.

VINTGAR GORGE

FAIR WARNING: This is now a one way trek. Which I’m sure helps with congestion on the trail, supposedly implemented for COVID, but makes it incredibly difficult to pull off at the end of a long day with little kids. We did not know this and because we got there right before closing time, the alleged shuttle they have that drives you back during the day didn’t seem to be anywhere in sight. Lovely as this easy hike is, it is MUCH less convenient now that you can’t backtrack to your car. A local saw us at the end of the trail and gave us a ride back for 10 euro but that’s only after we sat there for 20 minutes trying to figure out what to do. The car ride back to the parking lot was over 20 minutes.

THE JULIEN ALPS

This day was always going to be our long day because after Lake Bled and after the Vintgar Gorge, our plan had been to drive up through the Vršič Pass in the Julien Alps, stopping at the Russian Chapel and eventually making it to our alpine lodging. We didn’t leave the gorge until 7 pm so we were apprehensive as we approached the pass and prepared ourselves for over 50 hairpin turns at dusk with thunderstorms moving through. Ominous yes, but nothing a little Sound of Music soundtrack couldn’t fix.

It just got more and more beautiful and there was no one around. Clearly. Thunder, alpine flowers, towering mountains–all the things that make you feel small and remind you of how glorious this life is. We were all in awe and no one got car sick. A miracle in and of itself.

PRISTAVA LEPENA

Our lodging was a cabin at Pristava Lepena, a Rick Steve’s recommendation. The location was perfect, on the other side of the Vršič Pass. It was about 8:30 pm so we were worried about finding dinner for three tiny, hungry kids. Luckily our lodging advertised a restaurant open until 10:30 pm. Matt parked and went to check us in, I headed the kids to the restaurant where instead of being greeted, I was curtly told that the kitchen would be closing at 9 pm. We were left feeling like we were a nuisance but out of options. So we ordered as fast as we could. Shortly after us, an Italian family arrived for dinner and were given equally the same treatment but they argued back using the restaurant’s own posted hours as logic. We found the cabin to be adequate and clean, just with bizarre decoration and the jacuzzi was broken. I’d give it a meh but we were also coming from a castle, so take it with a grain of salt.

DAY 6 — EXPLORING THE SOČA RIVER VALLEY

We woke up and headed out of Pristava Lepena, making a stop at the Austro-Hungarian Military Cemetary, a church painted with nationalistic imagery and the Great Soča Gorge where we bounced over a suspension bridge and took a quick hike.

This was the day we dove deep into WWI history with our kids. The beauty of traveling is not just seeing beautiful places but how much you learn about places and people. We drove a short ways to Fort Kluže. It was so hot, once again today, that we followed the kids to a trail along the edge of the fort just to find shade. The metal staircase down into a forest of green was too enticing. This ended up being a stroke of providence because this hike ended up being SO beautiful and fun, and zero crowds.

A metal staircase down leads you to what appears to be a tunnel system beneath the fort. It’s gated off and looked scary. We followed the path a short ways further and crossed a suspension bridge.

From that point on it got better and better, multiple suspension bridges criss-crossing crystal clear to windex blue waters, eventually ending with us wading out into the river at a shallow point *thinking* we were going to go for a family swim in our skivvies. The water couldn’t have been more than 40 degrees and straight ice run off. I’ve never had my feet go instantly numb in water before and we live in New England.

KOBARID ON OUR WAY TO THE COAST

After finishing the hike, our plan had been to stop in Kobarid for lunch. If you’re a foodie then you’ve heard of Hiša Franko, a Michelin-starred restaurant constantly named one of the best restaurants in the world. Oh how we wanted to eat here. But with three little kids and no babysitter we knew it wasn’t in the cards. Ana Roš’ husband has a restaurant in Kobarid that is more low key while supposedly equally delicious, called Hiša Polanka. This was our choice but it happened to be closed when we arrived, not opening until dinner. Rats. So we settled for whatever was open at the time, I don’t even remember the name of it. What I can tell you about is the frozen soft serve place called Kravka across the street that had homemade forest berry sauces to top your treat with. THIS was spectacular.

From Kobarid we drove through Kanal Ob Soči on our way down to Piran, Slovenia.  It was here that GPS took us through Italy rather than continuing down through Slovenia to the small Slovenian coastline. I’m going to combine Piran, Slovenia with Croatia’s Istria Penninsula in another travel guide coming up tomorrow. Slovenia was such a magical country to explore. Start planning your trip today!

 

I fully planned this family trip. All opinions are my own and we weren’t given any special treatment, discounts or free anything. I do have links to outfits and travel gear which I love. Clicking any link on this blog may give me a small commission which I use to keep this site up and running with NO ads and I greatly appreciate your support.