Touring Slovenia on a Van

Have you ever been around Slovenia? If you like outdoor adventures like trekking, climbing, or just traveling around on your mountain bike surrounded by pine trees, crystal blue lakes and perfectly clear rivers, then this amazing country is definitely one that you should consider putting on your bucket list!

Soca river near Kobarid

In this short guide I will tell you about a 10-day tour through the Slovenian countryside, sleeping in a van in fantastic, nature surrounded camping areas (and one stop at the capital city of Ljubljana.)

To travel on the Slovenian highways you shall get a Vignette (1 week or longer) but you won’t actually need it. Indeed you can go around most of Slovenian spots just on standard roads; it’s just a matter of travel time.

We started our tour from Italy and our first stop was Kobarid. Kobarid is a very nice, small village where you can get a first taste of Slovenia. I would definitely opt for a walk around the village and maybe stop for a beer or a slice of kremna rezina cake in a local bar. I also suggest you to have a look at the big supermarket Planika where you can buy any kind of local food for a good price.

But the real reason to visit Kobarid is to go for a mountain bike ride or a trekking tour, or even better some rafting on the beautiful Soča river!

If you want to stop for the night in Kobarid, you have several camping sites around the village. We stayed at the Camp Lazar: it is really beautiful, located just a few meters above the Soča river. From this camping you can also get to a stunning bridge over the river: just walk 2 minutes on the road after the camping reception and you will see a sign.

Bridge over Soca river

A very special spot on Soca river, on the road to Tolmin

Leaving Kobarid, the second must-do stop is Bohinj lake: you can see several pictures on the web showing the incredibly transparent water characterizing this beautiful basin. And, to be honest, it is exactly like this in person. The only downside here is that it gets really crowded and it’s not easy to find a spot in the only campground on the lake, Camp Zlatorog Bohinj.

Bohinji lake

Anyways, if you are reading this article, here’s a tip for a very good workaround: if you go to the Pod Voglom Hostel and you explain to them that you need a camping area, they will let you stay inside the hostel parking, use the toilets, and taste an amazing Slovenian breakfast for a very reasonable price. You won’t have electricity and the space won’t be reserved for you, but we found it as a great solution for what we needed ;)

Ready for the night!

Also, the hostel is just 20 meters from a very nice spot on the lake, they rent canoes and organize various sport activities and tours around the basin.

The lake, 20 meters from the hostel

As we had a couple of pretty bad weather days we decided not to go to the top of the Vogel gondola. Anyways, it must deliver an amazing view of the lake and its surroundings.

The following stop on our trip was Bled. Once again, it was impossible to find a pitch at the Bled camping, so we decided to get a bit out of town to the Camping Sobec.

This campground is great: right in the middle of the forest, with a river surrounding it. Perfectly clean and modern toilets, a mini market, a local restaurant, a small lake, and various sport activities. We thought we found the perfect place to stay several nights. Then we had the bill for the first two nights, in the standard pitch (with electricity): 90€. Pretty much the same price as a good hotel. A bit too expensive IMO, but still really amazing.

Our pitch in the forest :)

From this campground it was very quick to get to Bled, so we spent some time in the Bled town and on Bled lake. Definitely more touristy and with a lot more urban feeling than Bohinj lake, but still beautiful. We didn’t actually spend a lot of time on the lake but if you have time, you should go for a boat tour around the island.

Lake Bled

On the other hand, our main goal was to go for the Vintgar gorge tour.

This is a really unique place to visit, with incredibly contrasting colours and a very wild feeling. Just make sure to get there pretty early in the morning or later in the afternoon, as between 11 AM till 3 PM it gets so crowded that looks more like the downtown of a big city.

Vintgar gorge

Vintgar gorge

I did the tour just a few weeks after my ACL surgery, so I can assure you that it is really super easy and anyone can do it. Bring a good camera with you as you can probably get the best shots of your life in that place!At the end of the tour we stopped at the cafe located near the cash desks for another slice of kremna rezina: so tasty!

Leaving Bled it is pretty quick to get to the capital city: just about 1 hr drive will get you to Ljubljana.

This time we opted to search for a Hostel instead of a camping area as we wanted to be closer to the city center and move around just walking. So we decided to stay at the C - Punkt Hostel, very close to Ljubljana downtown.

We didn’t have a great experience in this hostel, you can read my review here, but it’s still one of the best solutions to visit the city.

In a few minutes walk you can get on the Ljubljanica river and in the city center.

Ljubijana

This is a must-do stop in Slovenia: the city looks really beautiful and modern, with lots of young people around the streets and so many bars and restaurants that will capture your attention with super tasty smelling aromas.

The dragons

The city is characterized by a central river, the Ljubljanica, and several bridges crossing it. Every bridge is unique, with several mythological animals and dragons statues to distinguish them from each other.

The street market will be a great opportunity to live a bit of colourful slovenian culture: here you will find lots of veggies, typical sausages, various special kinds of bread, very special tasting cheese (also take a look at the covered market).

Last but not least, don’t forget to take a look at the autonomous Metelkova neighbourhood: several artist-decorated buildings, typical parties and lots of young people will be there to show you a self-managed and well-organized Slovenian community.

So, did I convince you to add Slovenia to your bucket list?