Cheers:

I plan a voyage through slovenia by bycicle.

Do you have any hints on cheap and friendly hostels or budget accomodation, tips for eating out, barhoping and must-see sites ?!

Looking forward to receiving your news.
Q.

Hi Q.(?)!

just some spots which I really recommend to visit:

- in the Triglav National Parc: Vrsic mountain pass (if you like cycling in the mountains ), Lake Bohinj, Bled, Soca Valley
- the cities of Maribor and Ljubljana (nice and lively)
- the short slovenian coast line with the cities Koper, Izola and Piran is worth a day-ride
- in the southwest of Ljubljana: the canyon Rakov Skocjan and the caves of Postojna and Skocjamske!!

I do not know the eastern part of slovenia but I think it is famous mostly as a wine region.
If you like rafting you can do that on rivers like Sava, Soca, etc. .

Hotels are not cheap so you should maybe take a tent with you.

Roland

Hallo Roland:

Vielen Dank für Deine Hilfe.

Bist du den Vrsic-Pass selbst gefahren ? Wie "schwer" ist er denn ? Mit mittlerem Gepäck und mittlerer Fitness "zu schaffen".

Und ja, war auch schon überrascht, was mein Reiseführer über die Hotelpreise genannt hat. Hast du Erfahrung mit privaten Zimmern ? Bist du vielleicht auch auf Bauernhöfen untergekommen ? Stimmt das mit dem 30% Preisaufschlag bei übernachtungen unter drei Nächten ?

Fragen über Fragen.
gruss aus Madrid

Sascha

Na herrlich, ich brech' mir hier mit meinem Englisch einen ab und Du kommst (anscheinend) aus D ...


Ja, von Norden d.h. Kranjska Gora kommend. Wunderschöner Pass!!


Klar packst Du den! Notfalls halt schiebend . Der Vrsic ist schon nicht ohne, von Norden kommend etwa 800, von Süden knapp 1000 Höhenmeter, Steigung im Schnitt etwa bei 10% schätze ich (bei quäldich.de findest Du bestimmt Details). Aber mit "mittlerer Fitness" kann man das schon schaffen, ein bisschen "quälen" musst Du Dich dann aber schon. Plane einfach ausreichend Zeit für die Auffahrt ein.


Ich habe quasi immer gezeltet, mal wild, mal auf Campingplätzen. In Ljubljana kannte ich jmd. bei dem wir zwei Nächte pennen konnten. Daher kann ich mit keinen Erfahrungen bzgl. Unterkünften dienen.

Viel Spaß beim Planen (auf meiner hp findest Du ein paar Fotos meiner Reise, siehe unten)!!

Roland

Hallo Sascha,

in respect to all international readers in English.

In 2003 I was in Slovenia, too. In general: You can get good food for low prices. They have prices like 3,84 € because Slovenia has transfered to the Euro this year. I was in a 4-star-pension in Tolmin: 36 Euro per night (incl. breakfast) - of course, it's maybe not international 4-stars, but it was good. You can get a lot of rooms for lower price. At camp Smica in Luce you get nice bedrooms for 20 Euros (no breakfast). If you there in main season, sometimes you have problem to find a room in the country hotels, which are of great interest for Slovenians. If you look for private rooms, maybe it's not good to spend just one night - maybe in this case you have to pay more - but not much. Even in the main towns you find youth hostels (two in Ljubljana).

First, direction south from Austria to Croatia. Coming from Tarvisio I was riding via Kranjska Gora through Vrsic pass. It was very hard (full traveller bike including lowriders). It's more than 10% - officially indication is 14%, which seems to be true. It's better to go from north to south, because the road in the south is better.
The soca valley is wonderful with blue and green pools inside the river. There are some campings, especially in Bovec & Kobarid (many rafting tourists). In Tolmin there is a small casino, museums for national culture you find in Kobarid and Tolmin. The lower part of the soca is not interesting. A nice town is Kanal. Nuevo Goriza is a modern jet-set-like town, out of interest. But you can follow a nice road out Slovenia to Italian coast (direction Trieste).
The Slovenian coast line is short - but there are nice towns like Koper and Piran (in summer there is open air theatre).

Second, the way back from Croatia to Austria: Coming from remote national park Risnjak via Gerovo little ups and downs to lake Cerknica (sometimes no water), nice landscape.
Some more climbs direction Postojna, alternative good offroad road through the woods. Famous cave in Postojna, worth to visit, very good camping place some kilometers outside (a hill upwards), other unknown caves and mystical wood places.
Wonderful castle Predamski grad close to Postojna (a good road, some hard climbs).
Typical karst landscape to Ljubljana, nice look at town Vrhnika, last part boring with a lot of traffic. Ljubljana - most wonderful - take a look to the photos in the German section "Länder - Unsere Touren - Alpensüdbogen 2007" (maybe second or third last page). Very good food, icecream etc.
Skofia Loka: a historical town - like an open air museum, take a coffee, a cake or even a whole night there. Wonderful valley to Zelezniki, Zali Log, easy to ride. Very steep road (16-17%, just first part) to pass direction Bohinjska Bistricta. Nice lake close there, many tourists.
Easy ride to Bled, wonderful lake with little church on an small island, but many tourists. Road back to Kranjska Gora not important to mention (industry in Jesenice).

Third, this years ride (I visited friends in Postojna), coming from Italian Dolomites:
Wonderful valley Raccolona to Sella Nevea/Lago del Predil, Slovenian borderline at Passo del Predil, wonderful ride down, roads getting worth in relation to 2003, from Bovec same way like 2003. Tolmin: Pensione Rutar 36 € m.Fr.
Idyllic places at Most na sci, calm river, green valley, small villages. Offroad to Oblakov Vrh, not steep, but diffcult road, asphalt down, again good road to Idrija. Old mining town, art museum, castle, mining museum.
Easy passlike road to Karst plane, down to Kalce and some climbing to Postojna (many motorbikes there). Same way like 2003 to Ljubljana. Nice town Kamnik. Easy pass Crnivec (902m) down through Karst, mountain valley up to Luce.
Small valley changing to large valley Logorska Dolina - most wonderful luminating green, the mountains behind, most wonderful waterfall Slap Rinka (hard climb at the end of the valley). Again remote road to Paulitschsattel (1339m, hard climb) - borderline to Austria - for example riding via Klopeiner See to Klagenfurt.