Things to do in Julian Alps
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Horse-drawn carriages
Horse-drawn carriages seating four people can be hired from a stand behind SKB Banka. Prices range from around €10 for a trip to Jasna Lake to around €30 for a jaunt to Planica.
reviewed
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Gostilna Mihovc
This place in Stara Fužina is a popular place - not least for its home-made brandy. Try the pasulj (bean soup) with sausage (around €5) or the beef golač (goulash).
reviewed
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Lesce Alpine Flying Centre
The Lesce Alpine Flying Centre 4km to the southeast has panoramic flights in Cessna 172s over Bled (around €70 for three people), Bohinj (around €120) and even Triglav (around €170)
reviewed
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Gostilna Pri Martinu
This atmospheric tavern-restaurant in an old house opposite the fire station is one of the best places in town to try local specialities such as venison, trout and telečja obara (veal stew).
reviewed
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tourist train
The lazy or infirm can jump aboard the tourist train for the 45-minute twirl around Lake Bled. It departs from in front of the Sport Hall (Športna Dvorana; Ljubljanska cesta 5) up to 20 times a day in season.
reviewed
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Kavarna Belvedere
This delightful café-bar just southwest from (and part of) the Vila Bled is perched atop a 30m concrete tower overlooking the lake and has a great period-piece socialist mosaic on the back wall of the front room.
reviewed
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Papa Joe Razor
Based in the old Razor Hotel dating from 1902, Papa Joe's is Kranjska Gora's most popular late-night and après ski venue, with live music at the weekend. It also does fast food like hamburgers and pizza.
reviewed
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Peking
This Chinese eatery opposite the Hotel Krim Bled has such favourites as hui guo rou (twice-cooked pork) and ma po doufu (spicy bean curd). They ain't exactly what you'd get in Chengdu, but this is Slovenia, after all.
reviewed
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adventure sports
Alpinsport and PAC Sports in Ribčev Laz both offer a wide range of adventure sports , including canyoning (around €37 to around €55), rafting (around €23 to around €30) on the lake and Sava Bohinjka River.
reviewed
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horse-drawn carriages
Romantics will like one of the horse-drawn carriages from the stand near the Festival Hall (Festivalna Dvorana; Cesta Svobode 11). A spin around Lake Bled for five people costs around €25, and it's the same price for two people to the castle.
reviewed
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Bled Island
The tiny, tear-shaped Bled Island, the only true island in Slovenia, has been the site of a Christian church since the 9th century. But excavations have shown that the early Slavs worshipped at a pagan temple here at least a century before that.
reviewed
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fishing permits
The tourist offices sells fishing permits valid for a day on the lake (around €23), the Radovna River (around €51) and the Sava Bohinjka River (around €46 to around €51, depending on location and catch). Fauna on Cesta Svobode sells equipment and has a guide service.
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Slaščičarna Šmon
Bled's culinary speciality is kremna rezina (cream cake; around €2.70), a layer of vanilla custard topped with whipped cream and sandwiched neatly between two layers of flaky pastry, and while Šmon may not be its place of birth, it remains the best place in which to try it.
reviewed
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Straža-Bled ski centre
Beginners will be content with the tiny (6-hectare) Straža-Bled ski centre, southwest of the Grand Hotel Toplice. A chairlift takes you 634m up the hill in three minutes; you'll be down the short slope in no time. Rental skis and poles are available from ProMontana and Kompas, both on Ljubljanska cesta.
reviewed
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Vogel ski centre
The main station at Bohinj is Vogel ski centre, 1535m above the lake's southwestern corner and accessible by cable car. With skiing up to 1800m, the season can be long, sometimes from late November to early May. Vogel has 18km of ski slopes and 8km of cross-country runs served by four chairlifts and four T-bar tows.
reviewed
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Ǒstarija Peglez'n
A new favourite restaurant in Bled, the 'Iron Inn' is just opposite the landmark Grand Hotel Toplice. It has fascinating retro décor with lots of old household antiques and curios (including the eponymous iron) and wooden floors. It serves some of the best fish dishes in town. What's more, it is nonsmoking throughout.
reviewed
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indoor swimming pool
Some of the beaches on Lake Bohinj's northern shore are reserved for naturists in summer. Nonguests can use the indoor swimming pool at the Hotel Zlatorog (572 33 81; Ukanc 65; pool/pool & sauna Mon-Fri around €6/around €7, Sat & Sun around €8/around €9; ;16:00-22:00) should Bohinj's infamous early morning fog drive you inside.
reviewed
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rowing boats
You can rent rowing boats for getting to the island or just pottering about (motor boats are banned on the lake) from the Castle Baths (Grajsko Kopališče; 578 05 28; Kidričeva cesta 1). Boats for up to four people are also available from the Pension Pletna in Mlino or further west near the entrance to the camping ground for around €11.50 per hour.
reviewed
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Intersport Bernik
There are quite a few places offering ski tuition and renting equipment, but it's best to stick with the tried and true. Intersport Bernik offers skiing and snowboarding instruction, with alpine and cross-country tuition in groups and individually. For one-on-one instruction, expect to pay from around €25/around €40 for one/two hours (from €38/€55 for two people).
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Castle Baths
Bled's warm (23°C at source) crystal-clear water - it now rates a Blue Flag - makes it suitable for swimming well into the autumn, and there are decent beaches around Lake Bled, including a big gravel one near the camping ground and a grass one on the northern side. Just east of the latter is the large Castle Baths , with an indoor pool and protected enclosures in the lake itself with huge water slides.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed