Must Love Festivals is brought to you by the Budget Traveller with lead partner Expedia and in association with the Slovenian Tourist Board. All opinions, as always, are my own.
Does Slovenia look like your kind of destination?
Adventurous Kate (to be continued) / Photo: Janin
Perhaps I would have felt differently if I had visited the coastal town of Piran, which looks much more Balkan and more my style.
Adventurous Kate (to be continued) / Photo: Janin
Adventurous Kate (to be continued) / Photo: Janin
And to be fair, I love Austria. But I hadn’t expected Slovenia to be like that (even though I’d previously seen parts of Croatia that looked like Austria).
Adventurous Kate (to be continued)
Yeah. After a long week of busy travel, you know when you’re done. I think we both felt that way.
Day Four Essential Info: Since we were flying out early the next day, we stayed at Dvor Jezeršek, a hotel home to a culinary school in Brnik, right by Ljubljana’s airport. The hotel was nice and the food was terrific. Rates available upon request. You can find other hotels in that area.
After getting a few photos of the lake, it began to downpour once again. And by that point, we were exhausted after a busy, nonstop week in Slovenia. There was no point in taking a cable car or going kayaking in rain that hard.
Adventurous Kate (to be continued)
Entry to Bled Castle is 9 EUR ($12 USD) for adults.
Rates at Garden Village start at 80 EUR ($107 USD) for tents, 90 EUR ($121 USD) for apartments, and 160 EUR ($214) for treehouses and glamping tents.
On day four, our weather luck ran out — we awoke to a downpour. Oh well. At least we got the beautiful photos of Bled the day before.
Adventurous Kate (to be continued)
A 10-minute drive from Bled is the town of Radovljica, so we drove up to check it out. While most of the museums and attractions had closed by the time we arrived, it was certainly a pretty town with some nice cafes and cute shops.
After leaving Radovljica, we drove back to Bled and visited Bled Castle for the view over the lake.
Adventurous Kate (to be continued)
Next came the ultimate view of Lake Bled: the church-topped island with the castle in the background.
Of course, the distance is short enough that you can swim if you want to. Some teenagers did! In fact, Peter loved the idea so much that he swam back!
Adventurous Kate (to be continued)
Rates at Garden Village start at 80 EUR ($107 USD) for tents, 90 EUR ($121 USD) for apartments, and 160 EUR ($214) for treehouses and glamping tents. You can find other hotels in Bled.
Day Three: Bled and Radovljica
A full day in sumptuous Bled, the most beautiful place in Slovenia — and thankfully the weather cooperated! A cloud-streaked blue sky made for a bright teal lake and magical photos.
Adventurous Kate (to be continued)
(And it was a huge contrast to the last place I stayed at that was called Garden Village: a hostel in Cambodia where you could rent a mattress out in the open for just $1.)
Adventurous Kate (to be continued)
The accommodation for the night was at Garden Village, a green resort just a short walk from Lake Bled. I was absolutely blown away by this resort.
It was beautiful, natural, and the accommodation was a mixture of treehouses and luxury tents. It had a “swimming pond” that was built into the landscape and its own stream in the back. They grew so much of their food, including several varieties of mint for mojitos.
And look at their dining tables! That is GRASS!
They switch out the grass panels periodically to keep the grass as fresh and green as possible.
Adventurous Kate (to be continued)
A second shimmy through the mountains brought us to the Skocjan Caves, Slovenia’s second World Heritage Site. These caves are gargantuan, spooky, and an absolute must-visit if you’re traveling through Slovenia. I’ve never seen a few caves before (and even swam through one in the dark), but none of them have been as impressive as the Skocjan Caves.
There’s also an excellent viewpoint on a trail behind the caves’ visitor center. Don’t miss it.
Adventurous Kate (to be continued)
It’s too bad, because the hotel was nice otherwise. Just know that they close early.
Day One Essential Info: Visiting the mercury mine (Anthony’s Shaft) costs 9 EUR ($12 USD) for adults. It includes a tour of the mine and a short movie.
Admission to the Mestni Museum is 3.50 EUR ($5 USD) for adults.
The tasting menu at Hotel Kendov Dvorec costs 70 EUR ($94 USD) for six courses with wine pairings.
Rates at Hotel Jožef start at 98 EUR ($131 USD). You can find other hotels in Idrija here.
Adventurous Kate (to be continued)
Urban took us back to the Mestni Museum, which has some fantastic lace displays, lots of mercury and minerals, and a moving memorial to those who lost their lives in the Idrija mercury mines.
Next up was dinner at the Hotel Kendov Dvorec, a pretty oasis up in the mountains just outside Idrija.
I loved this place. It was fancy enough to host a small wedding, yet small and friendly with a wonderful staff. And the food? Superb. The best food that I had in all of Slovenia.
Best of all: a main dish of venison and chanterelles that absolutely rocked my world. And yep, those are more žlikrofi underneath!
Adventurous Kate (to be continued)
On the quirky end, Idrija also happens to be home to the largest wooden wheel in Europe - 13,6 m. It used to power the whole town.
Idrija is also famous throughout the world for its lace, which is on display throughout the town.
It’s interesting seeing how Idrija’s lacemaking style evolved over time with political and geographical changes. Pre-World War I, Idrija’s lace clients were mostly Austrians, who preferred large, country-style lacework.
Adventurous Kate (to be continued)
In today's festival, groups of kurents wear traditional sheepskin garments, boar fangs, leather tongues, holding wooden clubs with prickly hedgehog skins,
Around the waist they are wearing huge cow bells, the noise of which is believed to "chase away winter".
In this way, the presence of kurenti announces the end of winter and beginning of spring.
Being a kurent was at first a privilege offered only to unmarried men, but today, married men, children and women are also invited to wear the outfit.
