Things to do in Julian Alps
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Emerald River Adventure
Agencies such as 3glav, Life Trek and OSA organise a wide range of outdoor activities in and around Bled. The 3glav agency's most popular trip is the Emerald River Adventure, an 11-hour hiking and swimming foray into Triglav National Park and along the Soča River. A two-day guided ascent of Triglav from Pokljuka, the Vrata Valley or Kot Valley costs around €150. More challenging mountaineering traverses lasting between three and five days cost between around €250 and around €500.
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Lake Bled
Lake Bled is not a very large body of water - it measures only 2km by 1380m - and the second-best way to see it is from the shore. A walk around the lake (6km) shouldn't take but a couple of hours at the most, including the short (but steep) climb to the brilliant Osojnica viewing point. Along the way, you'll pass linden, chestnut and willow trees hanging over the water, boat slips, wooden walkways, anglers, the start of several hikes and a couple of interesting sights.
On the south shore of Lake Bled you'll pass through the hamlet of Mlino, then leave the main road for a path that passes beneath the grand edifice of the Hotel Vila Bled. Around the far end of the lake, be…
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Bled Castle
Perched atop a steep cliff more than 100m above the lake, Bled Castle is how most people imagine a medieval fortress to be - with towers, ramparts, moats and a terrace offering magnificent views on a clear day. The castle, which is built on two levels, dates back to the 11th century (although most of what stands here now is from the 16th century) and for 800 years was the seat of the Bishops of Brixen.
The baroque southern wing houses a museum collection that traces the history of Lake Bled and its settlements from the Bronze Age to the mid-19th century. None of the furniture is original to the castle, but it helps give you an idea of how the leisured class lived in the M…
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outdoor activities
Agencies such as 3glav, Life Trek and OSA organise a wide range of outdoor activities in and around Bled, including trekking, mountaineering, rock climbing, ski touring, cross-country skiing, mountain biking, rafting, kayaking, canyoning, caving, horse riding and paragliding.
A 2½-hour rafting trip down the Sava Bohinjka/Soča River costs around €23/around €30, and a three-hour canyoning descent is around €45. Kayak trips lasting three hours cost around €38. Paragliding is around €70. Horse riding starts at around €40 for a two-hour outing.
A half-day tour of the (easy) Bobji Zob cave near Bohinjska Bela is around €20, while the more challenging Simnovo Brezno…
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Okarina
This very upmarket restaurant has lost its parklike location just northwest of the Pri Planincu and is now in a modern dining room next to the post office. Still, the ethnic decorations and traditional musical instruments (an okarina is a small clay flute) remain, and along with well-prepared Slovenian and international favourites, the Okarina's tandoor oven produces decent Indian dishes like chicken tikka and rogan josh. There are a fair few vegetarians choices.
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Gostilna Pri Planincu
En situ since 1903, this is a homely pub-restaurant just down the hill from the Bledec Hostel near the castle. It offers simple Slovenian mains and grilled Balkan specialities like čevapčiči (spicy meatballs of beef or pork; around €6.65) and tasty pljeskavica z kajmakom (Serbian-style meat patties with mascarpone-like cream cheese).
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Castle Restaurant
The fabulous views are 'free' from the superbly situated terrace of the restaurant in the castle. It's run by the Bled's catering and tourism school and staffed by its charming students.
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hikes and walks
The area around Kranjska Gora and into Triglav National Park is excellent for hikes and walks ranging from the very easy to the difficult. One of the best references available is Walking in the Julian Alps (2005) by Justi Carey and Roy Clark, published by Cicerone Press in the UK, which includes some 50 walking routes and short treks.
Another option is A Guide to Walks and Scrambles in the Julian Alps (2003) by Mike Newbury, published by Zlatorog Publications in Perth, Scotland, which uses Kranjska Gora as a base for its suggested itineraries.Between Podkoren and Planica is a beautiful nature reserve called Zelenci (837m) with a turquoise-coloured lake, the source of the …
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Church of St John the Baptist
The Church of St John the Baptist, on the northern side of the Sava Bohinjka just across the stone bridge, is what every medieval church should be: small, on a reflective lake and full of exquisite frescoes. It is the most beautiful and evocative church in all of Slovenia, with the possible exception of the Church of the Holy Trinity at Hrastovlje in Primorska. Unfortunately it was under renovation at the time of research.
The nave of the church is Romanesque, but the Gothic presbytery dates from about 1440. A large portion of the latter's walls, ceilings and arches are covered with 15th- and 16th-century frescoes. As you face the arch from the nave, look for the frescoes…
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Liznjek House
One of the very few sights in Kranjska Gora, the endearing late-18th-century Liznjek House contains quite a good collection of household objects and furnishings peculiar to this area of Gorenjska. Among the various exhibits here are some excellent examples of trousseau chests covered in folk paintings, some 19th-century icons painted on glass and a collection of linen tablecloths (the valley was famed for its flax and its weaving).
Antique carriages and a sledge are kept in the massive barn out the back, which once housed food stores as well as pigs and sheep. The stable reserved for cows below the main building now contains a memorial room dedicated to the life and work …
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hiking
There are plenty of hiking options to choose from. A circular walk around the lake (12km) from Ribčev Laz should take between three and four hours. Or you could just do parts of the walk around the lake by following the hunters' trail in the forest above the south shore of the lake to the Hotel Zlatorog and taking the bus back, or walking along the more tranquil northern shore under the cliffs of Pršivec (1761m).
Much more strenuous is the hike up to Vogel (1922m) from the cable car's upper station. Take a map and compass, and don't set out if it looks stormy; Vogel is prone to lightning strikes. The whole trip should take about four hours. The 1:25,000 Bohinjsko Jezero…
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Kranjska Gora Ski Centre
The snow-covered slopes of the Sava Dolinka Valley, running for almost 11km from Gozd Martuljek all the way to Rateče and Planica, are effectively one big piste. However, the main areas are the Kranjska Gora ski centre and Podkoren, 3km to the west, with ski jumping concentrated at Planica. The season usually lasts from mid-December to early March.
Skiing in Kranjska Gora is on the eastern slopes of Vitranc, and some runs join up with those at Podkoren - site of the Men's World Cup Slalom and Giant Slalom Competition (Vitranc Cup) in late December - on Vitranc's northern face to an altitude of 1570m. Together Kranjska Gora and Podkoren have five chairlifts and 15 tows. G…
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gondola
Getting to Bled Island by a piloted gondola is the archetypal tourist experience; there are jetties below the tourist office, below Spa Park (Zdraviliški Park) to the north, in Mlino on the south shore and near Zaka Regatta Centre. You get about half an hour to explore the island. In all, the trip takes about 1½ hours. Alternatively, you can rent a rowing boat at the Castle Baths, at Mlino or at the large beach at the southwest end of the lake.
The boat sets you down on the island's south side at a monumental South Staircase (Južno Stopnišče) built in 1655. As you walk up you'll pass the Chaplain's House (Meznarija) and the Provost's House (Stavba Proštije) from the 17t…
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Planšar
If you want something light and incredibly tasty, head for the 'Herder', just opposite the Alpine Dairy Museum in Stara Fužina - appropriately enough. It specialises in home-made dairy products: hard Bohinj cheese, a soft, strong-tasting cheese called mohant (not to everyone's taste), cottage cheese, curd pie, sour milk and so on.
You and a friend can taste a variety of them for around €6.50 or make a meal of cheese and different types of grain dishes such as žganci (buckwheat) and ješprenj (barley). Other dishes available include štruklji (cheese dumplings) and jota (a thick soup of beans and salt pork).
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Alpine Dairy Museum
The Alpine Dairy Museum in Stara Fužina, about 1.5km north of Ribčev Laz, has a small collection related to alpine dairy farming in the Bohinj Valley, once the most important such centre in Slovenia. Until the late 1950s large quantities of cheese were still being made on 28 highland pastures, but a modern dairy in nearby Srednja Vas does it all now.
The four rooms of the museum - a cheese dairy itself once upon a time - contain a mock-up of a mid-19th-century herder's cottage, fascinating old photographs, cheese presses, wooden butter moulds, copper rennet vats, enormous snowshoes and sledges, and wonderful hand-carved crooks.
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Savica Waterfall
One of the reasons people come to Bohinj is to hike to the magnificent Savica Waterfall , which cuts deep into a gorge 60m below.
The waterfall, the source of Slovenia's longest and mightiest river, is 4km from the Hotel Zlatorog in Ukanc and can be reached by footpath from there. Cars (and the bus in summer) continue via a paved road to a car park beside the Savica restaurant, from which it's a 20-minute walk up 510 steps and over rapids and streams to the falls.
The falls are among the most impressive sights in the Julian Alps, especially after a heavy rain, but bring something waterproof or you may be soaked by the spray.
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Old Timer Train
In summer the Old Timer Train offers excursions in vintage carriages hauled by a steam locomotive. Trains usually run between Jesenice, 13km to the northwest, and Most na Soči, stopping at Bled Jezero station and Bohinjska Bistrica. Ask the tourist office about departure times; there have been fewer trips scheduled for individuals in recent years, amounting to only about one a month in summer.
You can buy tickets from most travel agencies in Bled, including Kompas on on Ljubljanska cesta or through the organiser ABC Rent a Car (01-510 43 20; abc-tourism@europcar.si; Ulica Jožeta Jame 16) in Ljubljana.
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Planica
The ski-jumping centre at Planica, 6km to the west and across the motorway from Rateče, has six jumps with lengths of 25m, 120m and 180m. The short lift near the Dom Planica hut reaches an altitude of 900m. There are also some good possibilities at Planica for tobogganing and for cross-country skiing in the Tamar Valley.
The Ski Jumping World Championships are held here every year in March. The 100m mark was reached here by Austrian Josef Bradl in 1934 and the 200m one by the Finn Toni Nieminen in 1994. Another Finn, Janne Ahonen, set a new world record here in 2005 by jumping 240m.
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hikes
There are many easy signposted hikes around Bled (numbered signs correspond to numbered routes on the local hiking maps). One of the best is trail No 6 from the southwest corner of Lake Bled to the summit of Velika Osojnica (756m). The view from the top over the lake, island and castle, with the peaks of the Karavanke in the background is stunning, especially towards sunset. The climb to the first summit is steep, but the round trip, returning via Ojstrica, takes only three hours or so.
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Gostišče Rupa
Two country-style restaurants make a trip to Srednja Vas, the next village over from Studor and about 5km from Ribčev Laz, worthwhile. The first restaurant is Gostišče Rupa, which serves excellent home-cooked food, including spectacular Bohinj trout and ajdova krapi, crescent-shaped dumplings made from buckwheat and cheese. The second is Pri Hrvatu meals from around €15, an equally popular place that can trace its pedigree back eight decades.
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Parish Church of St Martin
You can reach Bled Castle on foot via one of three trails signposted 'Grad'. The first trail starts from the car park behind the Bledec Hostel; the second is a tortuous path up from the Castle Baths; and the third starts just north of the neo-Gothic Parish Church of St Martin . This church was designed by Friedrich von Schmidt in 1905, who also did the city hall and Votive Church in Vienna. Outside there's a small shrine designed by Jože Plečnik.
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Church of the Assumption
The baroque Church of the Assumption on Bled Island, dating from the 17th century, contains some fresco fragments from the 14th century, a large gold altar and, under the floor of the nave, part of the apse of a pre-Romanesque chapel, the only one in Slovenia. Outside is a 15th-century belfry with a 'wishing bell' that visitors can ring if they want to ask a favour. Naturally everyone and their grandmother does it - again and again and again.
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Bled Golf & Country Club
The 18-hole, par-73 King's Course at the Bled Golf & Country Club , about 3km to the east of Lake Bled near Lesce, is Slovenia's best golf course and, with its dramatic mountain backdrop, one of the most beautiful in Europe. This club also has the nine-hole, par-36 Lake Course (Mon-Fri around €35, Sat & Sun around €44) open the same hours. You can rent a set of clubs for around €15, and there's a PGA pro who gives lessons from €18.
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Mostnica Falls
An excellent hike is the two-hour one north from Stara Fužina through the Motnica Gorge to the Mostnica Falls, which rival Savica Waterfall after a heavy rain. The 1:25,000 Bohinjsko Jezero z Okolico (Lake Bohinj & Surrounds; around €7.30) map available at the tourist office lists a dozen excellent walks. Also useful is the 1:15,000 Bohinj (around €5) map with as many walks outlined.
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Oplen House
Oplen House, is a typical old peasant's cottage with a chimneyless 'smoke kitchen' that has been turned into a museum focusing on the domestic life of peasants in the Bohinj area at the turn of the 20th century. But Studor's real claim to fame is its many toplarji, the double-linked hayracks with barns or storage areas at the top. Look for the ones at the entrance to the village; they date from the 18th and 19th centuries.
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