With the highest percentage of clean fresh water in Europe, lakes with water so clean you could drink it, crystal clear rivers, gorges, waterfalls and a warm Mediterranean coastline, it should come as no surprise to you that there are many, many places for you to go swimming in Green Slovenia..

Sometimes, when making a reservation inquiry, a guest might ask if there is ANYWHERE to swim and our best advice is to just get here, decide which places you will visit and what adventures you will get up to and then we can help you plan and realise that you can swim EVERYWHERE here!!

We will give you an idea here of just some of the places you can add a dip of the toes or a full scale swim to an island into your day out, depending on where you are going that day and how you want to swim.. ALL of these are easily reachable from the Lodge!

So we will just focus on "Places to Swim" now in this section and write a little about or show you a photo of some of these places.. often we will have written an article about that special place or mini region too, so we will also link to that page..

So grab your towel, get your swimming stuff on and let's go for a dip.. 

Gorgeous Gorges..

You would be taking your life into your own hands if you jumped into some gorges here as the water is so fierce and freezing cold.. but there are plenty others where you could have a dip.. mainly in the summer!

The stunning little oasis in the main photo for the "swimming" section is just a secret corner of the incredibubble Soca gorge.. There are other parts with 10m high cliffs that you might feel like jumping off and lots of white sandy little mini beaches along the river there that you could sit and wiggle your toes in the water!

On a hot summer's day there is no better place to have a swim in ice cold fresh water than one of Slovenia's most stunning gorges. You can take a break from your walk to have a dip and cool down. The colour of the water at Little Bridge, Mostnica gorge is quite spectacular.. But don't forget the water will be ice cold.. it's come directly from the Alps!

At Tolmin gorge, the water flow is often way too powerful to think about jumping in.. instead you will be very happy to admire the power of the water from the main path or sat on a big rock on the bank, but on a hot summer's day when the water level is usually lower you will get your chance to have a swim near the first bridge..     

Rivers..

Just a short walk or cycle from the Lodge there is a lovely local river that we call Little Nanos, (as the Slovenian name is "Nanoscica").. it winds it way from a massive lake under nearby Nanos mountain close to our little village of Landol and finally into the Postojna cave.

The local kids and some guests go swim here on hot days and we have a dream to one day take a Stand UP Board along this stunning, curvy, murky green route!

There is a really wonderful place to chill out next to a river and swim near Idrija on the way to the secret WW2 hospital near Cerkno or to combine with a visit to the Idrija mercury mine and all the wonderful things to see there.

the beautiful Bela Idrija river..

The river is called the Bela Idrija, (White Idrija) and the colour for us is only bettered by the Soca river, which is saying something!

There are so many places all along the Soca river to have a swim, find a rock and enjoy the most beautiful river in Europe.. it is so long and so beautiful that we recommend you read our article taking you along the entire river Soca.. just wait till you see the diving boards, rocks and the little beach at Kanal with your own eyes or some quieter secret places along the other side of the Soca between Kobarid and Tolmin.. wow!

There are even 2 special warm water rivers in Green Slovenia we know about.. the first is the Nadiza river and is quite incredible as it is in the Julian Alps near the Soca, but can be easily over 20 degrees and a fantastic place to swim or paddle.. there is a mini gorge here as well and we would recommend you go a little further along the river to this gorge and away from any crowds, for a better experience! We were there one late September completely alone and the water was still WARM!

The Kolpa river forms a big part of the Slovenian southern border with Croatia and also has very mild temperatures and is a warm swimming secret largely only known by locals.. so another great place for a kayak or a dip!

And don't forget Green Slovenia is covered in thermal spas, particularly in the East.. so if it is hot bath tempertures you want then there is plenty of opportunity to go eau natural!

(We are sure that thermal spas can sometime be another page in our daytrips section.. but to be brutally honest with you.. we will ONLY recommend places on our website that we have been to and think are fantastic in some way.. (we have no agendas and no need to mention everything and everywhere just for the sake of it.. that is just not us). We have been to a couple of spas and they seemed to be all about people eating as much average food as they could in sprawling 1970's style hotels, but we are sure there are some fantastic ones out there, so when we do find them.. and we will.. we will create a whole new page for you)!!

This is not a Lord of the Rings set in New Zealand, (above) it's the heart of secret Green Slovenia and yet another magical waterfall that you can easily hike to and see the jaw droppingly stunning Kozjak waterfall.

If you are feeling hardy enough then you can swim in the thundering, majestic mini lake or maybe dip your tootsies in the river that flows off from the most beautiful waterfall in Slovenia..

You don't have to be a Hobbit to enjoy this amazing place, but it helps! Look what happened to us one time when we visited Kozjak waterfall and almost had to swim the entire way there, in Hobbits at Kozjak waterfall..

Part of the reason we decided to "brand" if you like, Slovenia as Green Slovenia was not just cos of the colour of the trees and flora and fauna, but the rivers too! There are so many shades of green here and this very much includes the rivers!

One particular shade of dark bottle green river is the Krka, which springs into life at "5 o 
Clock" looking at Ljubljana and flows off into the south East of the country merging with the mighty Sava river at Brezice.. their are many magical places along this river, but it creates a large island with a little village on it called Chestnut, (Kostanjevice) and in the summer you see locals here swimming and row, row, rowing their boats gently down the stream!

Another feature to do on this site will be a page on the totally natural and uberamazing River of Seven Names.. quite simply, but amazingly, a river that starts off in Croatia and then flows through southern Slovenia and Ljubljana, but keeps popping off under the ground and then popping back up further on SEVEN times.. each time the river pops back up it gets a new name.. hence the River of 7 Names!

Well, we already know 2 places along this river where you could have a dip really close to the Lodge! You could swim with dragonflies at Rakov Skocjan, a secret rock valley with 2 massive stone arches at either end AND another place further along at Planina Disappearing lake, where the new River Unica pours out of the Planina cave and flows off under a stunning 4 arched bridge.. wow!

We could go on and on about rivers, but we think you get the message now! We couldn't leave these last three we will mention out though cos these secret places are just so stunning..

Just around the corner from the Lodge in the uberbeautiful Vipava Wine valley, the Hubelj river pours down the mountain towards a Roman fortress and the town of Adjective.. Hidden away along a secret jogging & exercise path is the most fantastic oasis where it is deep enough to swim.. just beautiful..

a secret swimming oasis along a secret river in a town we still can't pronounce, so we call it Adjective..

This river ends up in the much larger Vipava river, which flows down the centre of this valley.. now this river is an even bigger secret than the Vipava valley is.. it is absolutely beautiful and completely deserted.. while tourists cram to get into kayaks on the uberstunning Soca river, if only they knew about the Vipava river.. with just ONE kayak firm! wow..

There are secret places to swim all along this river and imagine getting out of the cold clear water and sitting in the Mediterranean sunshine to dry off.. mavbe on one of the little pebble riverbed islands that sometimes spring up in the middle of the river, depending on flow.. another wow..

the source of the Kamnik Bistrica river..

Another oasis we found is at the spring of the Kamnik Bistrica, where it is just so green and jungly, you would be forgiven for thinking you had arrived in Cambodia! The river pours out of little holes in the forest rock wall and flows off under a bridge, but creates a little lake before with a tiny island in the middle.. yet another wow..

Lakes..

Even though the largest disappearing lake in Europe at Cerknica has emptied by the summer there is usually some water left at a little beach area to have a nice quiet swim in a green paradise.. You can't bank on it, bt if there is a lot of rainfall in the summer, sometimes the lake fills a bit ans you can have a wonderful summer dip too.

one of the water avenues that fill the biggest disappearing lake in Europe at Cerknica..

Apart from being picture perfect, Slovenia's best known Alpine lakes, Bled and Bohinj, are also absolutely perfect for swimming. There are even little beaches at Bled, more towards the other end..

These lakes gradually warm up over the summer, so much so, that we were swimming at lake Bohinj in September after 5pm and the water was warm! There are so many places to swim at Lake Bohinj and our favourite place is the far end with the little wooden pier and the secret white beaches..

choose your private beach at lake Bohinj..

This is the end where the lake fills with stunningly green water and creates a series of tiny secret beaches hidden by trees and a bigger shoereline one which might remind you of those Australian white sandy beaches, with the New Zealand like mountains jutting up out of the water and the James Bond cable car climbing up into the high Alpine  background.. wow, what a place to swim!

The Mojstrana lake is almost impossible to resist on the way to the Percinik waterfall or maybe if you are heading towards Kranska Gora to go to the Vrsic pass..

the stunning little lake at Mojstrana by the Triglav gateway..

One of the most beautiful lakes you will ever see and might not know about yet is the Soca lake.. Most na Soci, which is a man made reservoir from Soca river water, so has the same unique turquoise colour.. we don't see why only German kayakers should know about this amazing lake, so why not check it out! There are so many little white river delta beaches here to find and you could do a reccy by riding the fantastic paddle steamer on this lake too..

pretty little islands at the Tolminka river end of the Soca lake..

There are lots of other man made lakes where the locals know to swim, but you might not know about these swimming places, when you might well be visitng close by to see castles or caves or even mountains! Ptuj lake in the east, mt Rogla in the middle, Bloke lake near Sneznik Snow mountain castle and Velenje lake also in the middle of Slovenia are great secret examples of these!

We recently found the stunning Predil Lago on the Italian side of the Predil pass for more picture perfect views, a spot of swimming, a stroll, maybe a picnic and then visit the most fantastically placed fortress back up on the Slovenian side of the unmanned border high in the mountains!

Predil lake, just over the Italian side of the border..

the Mediterranean Adriatic Sea.. warm and salty!

The first thing you have to decide if you are going swimming in the sea is.. which country.. Italy, Croatia or Slovenia as all three share the beautiful warm, relatively still waters of the Adriatic sea, all within a short drive from the Lodge.

Once you have chosen your country you then have another huge choice of places to enjoy floating in the salty Mediterranean water. Many of our guests combine a visit to the seaside with trips to see castles, caves, cliffs, vineyards or maybe salt fields too!

In Slovenia you can choose from the picture perfect Piran, Portoroz or Izola .. all Venetian seaside towns, but there are also many secret places along the coast that are especially good for swimming like Zusterna, Strunjan, Fiesa or Ankaran where you can really concentrate on your swimming without the other tourists..

the seaside at Portoroz..

Why not experience how the Italians do the seaside at nearby Muggia, Sistiana or a little further to the mega seaside resort of Grado! We still have more secret seaside spots to find and explore ourselves on the long coast down to Venice, less than 2 hours from the Lodge!

And the Istrian Croatian seaside towns of Porec, Rovinj, Umag and Pula are all within reach for your daytrip, but our favourite Croatian seaside town is Opetija, which exudes Victorian elegance and quality, for a day by the seaside with maybe a cup of coffee and a freshly baked croissant! You will also find the wonderful "Lungomare" here, which is an almost 20km long promenade along the coast with Opatija at the centre.     

So now is the time to say.. do you see what we mean when we say, "just wait to get here" and we can recommend a place to swim depending on what particular adventure you might be getting up to!