Slovenia fits in a week. Bled comes first.
Which Bled day gets you the island and the gorge. What the Soča costs in a raft. Whether the cave train is worth the ticket. Every tour in the country, reviewed.
The six days a Slovenian trip gets built around.
A lake with an island church, a river the colour of glass, a cave you ride into on a train, the country’s only national park, a Venetian town on the Adriatic, and a castle above the capital. Everything else fits around these.
Lake Bled: pick the day that fits.
All Lake Bled tours →
A pletna across to the island, the 99 steps and the bell, the castle terrace, then Vintgar’s boardwalk or Bohinj’s quieter water. The three below carry the most people; the full list splits the rest by how long you have.
The island, the castle and a pletna oar
Twenty minutes of standing-oar rowing to the island, the climb to the church, then the castle terrace for the view everybody comes for.
Vintgar Gorge on the boardwalk
A wooden walkway pinned to the rock above the Radovna, 1.6km of it, ending at a waterfall. Numbers are capped and slots sell out in July.
Bohinj, Savica and the far valley
Bled’s bigger, emptier neighbour inside Triglav National Park, with the Savica waterfall at the head of the valley and no queue for the water.
The Soča runs green, and Bovec sells the ride.
Snowmelt off Triglav turns the river a colour photographs argue about. Bovec puts you in it: rafts through the Trnovo rapids, canyoning down Sušec, ziplines over the Učja. The season runs April to October and the water is cold in all of it.
Under the Karst, two caves and a castle in a cliff.
Postojna runs an electric railway 3.7km into the rock, then hands you to a guide on foot; Predjama is wedged in a cave mouth twenty minutes away and the two are sold as one day. Škocjan is the other kind entirely: a UNESCO canyon underground, walked on a bridge above the river, no train and no gift shop at the bottom.
The tours more travellers take than anything else in Slovenia.
Every review →Eight days that fill up first, and what each one actually gets you.
1
Postojna Cave & Predjama Castle Tickets and Tour
Review of Ljubljana’s Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle tour, with train ride, guide tips, pricing, timing, access, and honest advice.
From · $115
Read our review →
2
Trip to Lake Bled and Bled Castle
from $78
3
Savica Waterfall, Lake Bohinj, and Lake Bled Tour
from $94
4
Whitewater Rafting on Soca River, Slovenia
from $87
5
Slovenia in One Day: Lake Bled, Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle
from $151
6
Adventure Rafting with Photo Service in Bovec
from $71
7
Castle Entry Ticket with Optional Funicular Ride
from $17
8
Lake Bled & Postojna Cave with Entry Tickets
from $173
What a day out in Slovenia costs.
Three price bands, cheapest first. The country is cheaper than its neighbours and the best day here starts at the price of lunch in Venice.
Castle tickets, funicular rides, city walks, a wine tasting and the shorter rafting runs.
The everyday spine: Bled day trips, Postojna with entry, canyoning, food walks with tastings.
Private drivers, the two-cave-and-a-castle marathons, and the guided days deep into Triglav.
Slovenia gets 46 kilometres of Adriatic, and Piran takes most of it.
Venice ran this coast for five centuries and Piran still looks it: a marble square where the harbour was, salt pans down the road, and a campanile you climb for the whole gulf. Koper is the working port next door and the place cruise passengers land.
- 1Piran Walking Tour with Local Wine and Food Tastingfrom $42
- 2UNESCO-Listed Škocjan Caves and Piran Day Tripfrom $111
- 3Škocjan UNESCO Caves and Piran Full-Day Tripfrom $101
Three things you can only do in Slovenia.
Alpine lakes and old towns are everywhere in this part of Europe. An underground railway, a gorge walked on planks and a park named after the mountain on the flag are not.
The Cave Train
Postojna is the only cave in the world you enter by railway. The line was laid in 1872, pushed by hand at first, electrified in 1959, and it still carries you 3.7 kilometres in before a guide takes over on foot. The temperature underground sits at 10°C in August, so bring a layer, and the last departure moves earlier in winter.
- 1Postojna Cave & Predjama Castle Tickets and Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,146 reviews
- 2Slovenia in One Day: Lake Bled, Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 879 reviews
- 3Lake Bled & Postojna Cave with Entry Tickets★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 694 reviews
The Gorge Boardwalk
Vintgar is walked, not viewed: 1.6 kilometres of wooden galleries bolted to the rock above the Radovna, crossing the water again and again to a 13-metre waterfall at the end. It was built in 1893 and rebuilt many times since. Daily numbers are now capped and entry is timed, which is why it is the one Bled add-on worth locking in early.
- 1Lakes Bled & Bohinj and Vintgar Gorge Small-Group Day Trip from Ljubljana★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 279 reviews
- 2Self-Guided E-Bike Tour to Vintgar Gorge★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 254 reviews
- 3Day Trip to Bled and Vintgar Gorge★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 166 reviews
Triglav
Slovenia has exactly one national park and it is named after the peak on the national coat of arms. Locals will tell you that you are not properly Slovenian until you have stood on top of Triglav, though most of the park is valley country: Bohinj, the Radovna, the upper Soča and the Vršič pass with its Russian chapel.
- 1Triglav National Park : The Original Emerald River Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 270 reviews
- 2Full-Day Triglav National Park Tour from Ljubljana★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 166 reviews
- 3Day Trip in Triglav National Park from Bled★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 130 reviews
Book these before you fly to Slovenia.
Most of the country can be arranged from your guesthouse the evening before. These cannot: they run on capped entry, fixed departures and a river season that closes.
- 01Lakes Bled & Bohinj and Vintgar Gorge Small-Group Day Trip from LjubljanaEntry is timed and daily numbers are capped. Midsummer slots go days ahead.
- 02Postojna Cave & Predjama Castle Tickets and TourThe cave train leaves at fixed times and the last one is early out of season. Turn up between departures and you wait.
- 03UNESCO-Listed Škocjan Caves and Piran Day TripYou can only go in with a guide, on a set schedule. There is no walk-up route into the canyon.
- 04Whitewater Rafting on Soca River, SloveniaSnowmelt sets the season, roughly April to October. Outside it the river runs but the trips do not.
Rain on the lake is a good day for the cellar and the cave.
Weather off the Julian Alps arrives fast and leaves the same way. The answers are underground or indoors: a cave that never changes temperature, a tasting room in the Vipava, a kitchen in Koper with someone else doing the hard part.
Ljubljana empties out by day and fills up at night.
All Ljubljana tours →Most of what sells here leaves the city in the morning. What stays is a river lined with bars, a market hall, a castle funicular and a walking city small enough to finish before dinner.
Guided Walk & Funicular Ride to Ljubljana Castle
Read our review →
By base — where you actually sleep
Lake Bled132 tours
Soča Valley & Bovec80 tours
Ljubljana120 tours
Piran23 tours
Koper29 tours
Maribor4 tours- Every tour in the country →
Seven days, six stops, one small country.
Bohinj
PostojnaJust added to the Slovenia list.
All recent →
Lake Bled: Canyoning Adventure with Free Footage
Read our review →
Half Day Stand-up Paddle Boarding on the Soča River
Read our review →
From Zagreb: Postojna Cave, Lake Bled, Ljubljana Day Trip
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From Zagreb: Postojna Cave, Bled Lake & Ljubljana – Private
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From Zagreb: Highlights Day Tour to Bled and Ljubljana
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