How to Plan a Trip to Slovenia
Dating to our first trip to Slovenia in 2018, we longed to return to explore more of this amazing country! From cheap tasty wine to stunning scenery, SLOVEnia is absolutely perfect. In 2018, we visited its capital city of Ljubjana and the famous, picturesque Lake Bled!
For our second trip, we wanted to see the lush green hills of the Dobrovo wine region and experience the 30km of coastline in Piran! In addition, for this trip, we would be joined by my brother, Daniel, who enjoys more outdoors and hiking so we would have to balance our priorities!
Logistics
Getting to Slovenia is rather easy. There are a few direct flights a day from London primarily from Stansted Airport. Thus, I placed a Google Flight notification on a few of them and waited for the price drop!
Rental Car
Because the Slovenian rail system is not as prevalent throughout the country, Daniel rented an extremely nice white BMW for the entire trip. For the most part, it was really easy to find parking throughout our travels and most of the highways were empty compared to the US. Plus, Daniel drove for the first time in a foreign country so that speaks to how easy it is!
Travel Tip: As always, go with skyscanner.net for the cheapest deals!
Lodging
Since we would be spending 1 night in each location, we had three hotels so I had more research than usual! Thankfully, we definitely enjoyed each of these hotels!
- Thursday night in Ljubljana - Similar to our trip last year, we stayed at the fantastic Intercontinental Hotel. Located a quick 10 minute walk from the old town, but 3 minutes from major roads, the IC is great! The room was very spacious and comfortable and included a good single bed cot for Daniel! The hotel is also the only 5 star hotel in Slovenia.
- Friday night in Dobrovo - Staying in a quaint family farmhouse and vineyard, we had an excellent two bedroom at Sibav Farmhouse! With the vineyard just outside, it was surreal and very perfect!
- Saturday night in Piran - We chose an excellent AirBnB in the heart of Piran. Although we could not see the sun during most of our time in Piran, it had a great balcony and was close to all the great cafes and restaurants.
Slovenia Activities (this time!)
- Wine Tastings in Goriska Brda - Located in the south west corner of the country, Brda, (or Dobrovo for most of my stories), is a charming, Tuscany-light region full of ancient churches and rolling hills of vineyards! Known for mostly white wines in Slovenia, this region also has fantastic reds because of the warmer climate and the proximity to Italy. The tastings were fairly cheap or free with the purchase of a few bottles and often came with tasty snacks. Because there are a ton of small vineyards, I casted a wide net of 8-9 vineyards to see if I could get a few to bite! Luckily, quite a few decided and then we made the choice to visit the following vineyards:
- Movia: By far the most luxurious and famous winery, the vineyard sits less than a stone’s throw from Italy and offers fantastic views and snacks in addition to fabulous wine! While Movia specializes in the local white wines, they also have great red merlot and pinot noir. For an unique experience, email ahead to get a spot! The tasting was expensive compared to the other free ones - I believe we paid about 25E per person.
- Sibav: Obviously, if we were staying overnight at a vineyard, we would be tasting their wine! Known for their white local wines, the tasting was very personal and a great deal!
- Carga: Located on top of a hill, not only do you get fantastic views, the rich history of the family run vineyard is great! Well known for award winning white and reds, this tasting is free with the purchase of a few bottles!
- Piran - With only 47km of coastline, Slovenians are extremely proud of every centimeter! Standing as a pearl in the Adriandric, Piran is picture perfect! With fresh seafood, huge Italian influences in pizza, gelato, and pasta, and small cobblestone streets, Piran is perfect for a weekend visit. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and bring sunshine rather than our gloomy rainy weather.
- Postojna Caves - One of the country’s largest tourist attractions, the caves are an underground wonder world! Discovered long ago, the caves gained popularity after WW2. With loads of caverns, crystals, and unique formations, the caves are a perfect road trip break or rainy day activity! Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t have visited!
Food and Drink
Because of Slovenia’s proximity to Italy, the food on this trip was truly exceptional! From tasty pizza and seafood in Piran to homemade dinner and breakfasts in Dobrovo, we thoroughly enjoyed every bite!
For everything we visited, here is the link for our Google Maps.
Total Fixed Costs:
- Lodging: £180
- Easyjet Return flight: £192
- Wine Tastings: Delicious (Less than 50E)
- Finding a dry location: Extremely difficult...
Onto Slovenia
Because our flight was out of Stansted, we had two options to get to the airport - either drive or ride the train via London. Fortunately, we drove this time because we had a parking deal and it was going to be quicker than traveling through London especially with a late night return on Sunday. Plus, we knew we would be buying wine and did not want to carry it around trains!
Similar to most Easyjet flights, we were faked out and lied to by the Easyjet saying the gate was closed but in reality, it was still opened. Thus we did not need to sprint to the gate and that concluded our only drama for the flight!
Once we arrived in Slovenia, we were last in line at customs which meant Daniel had to sit in the parking deck even longer!
Thankfully, it was an easy pick-up from the airport due to Daniel’s sweet ride. Furthermore, our parking garage at the hotel was full of Ferrari! Turns out our hotel was hosting a Ferrari convention this weekend.
Although Daniel did not enjoy our room as much, our room was really spacious and nice! We did not have as good of a view as our previous stay, but it did not matter since we only had one night here.