How to plan a road trip around Slovenia's Julian Alps

You can’t talk about Slovenian identity without talking about the Julian Alps. Triglav mountain, the highpoint of the northwestern range at 2,864 metres, was pictured on the new flag when the country declared independence in 1991. And according to a local proverb, to be a true Slovenian you must reach the summit at least once. A love of the outdoors seems hardwired into the nation’s psyche.

That makes complete sense when you visit. Triglav National Park, which covers 325sq miles around the mountain, has jagged peaks, lakes like jewel boxes, waterfalls pluming off cliffs and rivers running through wooded gorges. The region’s beauty astonishes, especially in early summer, when the wildflower meadows are in bloom.

Just an hour’s drive from Ljubljana, Lake Bled provides a taster of the range, but to stop there would be to miss so much. Fortunately, the region packages up nicely into an active weekend, exploring by car. And while Slovenians might feel called to climb Triglav, visitors have myriad other ways to immerse themselves in the region.

Day 1: A tale of two lakes

Morning

The country’s premier resort for over a century, petite Lake Bled has a picturebook beauty, as if Slovenia had contracted out the scenery to Disney: water the colour of peacock feathers, a backcloth of mountains and a medieval castle on a bluff. The most popular activity is the boat trip by pletna (handmade wooden gondola) from Bled quay to tiny Bled Island. Its 15th- to 17th-century church has been a site of pilgrimage for centuries, but its biggest appeal today is perhaps the heavenly scenery en route.

Afternoon

If Lake Bled charms, Lake Bohinj, 12 miles west, broods within the mountains of Triglav National Park. Stop to admire the medieval frescoes of angels inside the Church of St John the Baptist, at the lake’s eastern end. You can then rent kayaks, paddleboards and rowboats from local operators like Alpinsport or Izi Boats, or trace a loop around the shore — a seven-mile walk, with swimming possible at Fužina Bay and Ukanc. Bohinj was traditionally known for dairy farming, and it’s worth a detour to villages like Studor v Bohinju, where sun-silvered chalets have carved balconies and racks of hay. Try Farm Gartner for homemade cheeses like the semi-hard bohinj.

Evening

Back on Lake Bohinj’s eastern shore, boutique hotel and restaurant Majer’ca is emblematic of modern hospitality in rural Slovenia, curating regional dishes into refined cuisine. Under chef Timi Rožič, who returned to his home region after working in the capital, it prepares seasonal plates for diners to piece into four-course menus. Appetisers like salsify with sheep’s cheese and hazelnuts are followed by poached trout with cabbage and pumpkin seeds or lamb sausage with turnip and burnt cream. In summer, they slide back glass walls, so diners eat on a terrace with views of meadows and mountains.

Day 2: Into the mountains

Morning

Delve into the country’s northwestern corner, cutting through the Radovna Valley to the village of Mojstrana. Pause there at the Slovenian Alpine Museum to learn about the nation’s long fascination with mountains, then divert just south into the Vrata Valley to see Triglav mountain. Nowhere is it more impressive than here, beneath the north face — a wall of sheer, splintered rock. Eight miles west of Mojstrana, Kranjska Gora is a traditional town-turned-resort. You can visit the beautifully preserved 300-year-old Liznjek Homestead, with folksy painted furniture and a soot-stained kitchen where meat was smoked. From a parking place two miles west, a half-mile boardwalk loops into the Zelenci Nature Reserve to a brilliant-blue lake.

Afternoon

It’s hard to believe amid such beauty, but this border region was one of the bloodiest First World War front lines between Austria-Hungary and Italy. An estimated 13,000 Russian prisoners of war built the stupendous hairpin road over the Vršič Pass, a 20-minute drive south of Kranjska Gora. There are 50 bends; at the eighth, you’ll find a shingle-roofed Russian chapel to commemorate workers killed in an avalanche, and a military graveyard near the 21st. Admire the mountain views, then descend via hairpins into the Soča Valley. Near the town of Bovec, Austro-Hungarian trenches are preserved as Ravelnik, a free-access, open-air museum. Meanwhile, nearby Kobarid is home to the Kobarid Museum, whose moving displays provide an overview of the conflict.

Evening

Chef Ana Roš’s dazzling £290 menus, served at triple-Michelin-star Hiša Franko just outside Kobarid, are the reason many gourmands visit Slovenia. For everyone else, there’s its affordable offshoot in town. Hiša Polonka is what happens when one of the world’s leading chefs opens a relaxed village inn. Expect platters of local cheeses and meats, Italian-influenced dishes like venison goulash with polenta or trout with cauliflower and lentils, plus natural wines and home-brewed beers.

Best active experiences

Hike to the Triglav Lakes Valley

A solid 10-hour walk, the route begins at the car park of the Savica waterfall near Lake Bohinj, then ascends to a hanging valley (a smaller formation above the main one) that’s only accessible on foot. Mountain refuge Koča pri Triglavski Jezerih offers no-nonsense stews and štruklji (soft dough wrapped around sweet or savoury fillings), as well as beds should you decide to spend the night. A guide from a local operator such as Triglav Tours is a wise choice for less-experienced walkers.

Ride the Soča’s rapids

By summer, the china-blue rapids of one of Europe’s finest watersports playgrounds have calmed sufficiently to be tackled by beginners and families. Guided rafting and kayaking trips run around Bovec town, but for something — literally — more immersive, book a hydrospeed trip. Clad in a wetsuit and helmet, you’ll bounce through rapids on a foam float.

Stroll the Vintgar Gorge

It’s one of Bled’s most popular attractions, with timed, pre-booked entry and crowds most of the day except at opening or in the late afternoon. Nevertheless, this three-and-a-half-mile stroll is a beauty. Wooden walkways cling to the rocky walls of a narrow, forested gorge and occasionally zigzag across an Alpine river. It’s a two-and-a-half-mile walk there from Bled; shuttle buses run every 15 minutes from Bled bus station.

Cycle into Alpine valleys

Hardened road bikers grind over the Vršič Pass. It’s far easier to tackle the ascent on an e-bike before taking off-road tracks back down through the pretty Krnica Valley, beneath 2,000-metre mountains. It was made famous in the tales of Kekec, a fearless shepherd boy and Slovenian icon. Rental companies in Kranjska Gora run guided trips or can provide links to GPX navigation.

Soar like a bird

A cable-car at the west end of Lake Bohinj takes you up to 1,600 metres on the shoulder of Vogel mountain. One way back down is by tandem paraglider — a parachute-style glider controlled by an expert pilot. Though the descent only lasts around 30 minutes, the view is unrivalled — a panorama of mountains, meadows and the lake of the sort only birds experience.