Above ground Slovenia is a Green Paradise, so it hardly seems fair to the rest of Europe that over half of this country underground is yet another rocky wonderland of massive Karst caves, rivers and pretty dripstones!

A cave is called Jama in Slovenian.. (a surprisingly easy word to remember for once) and to give you an idea of the sheer scale of the incredible underground network of caves and rivers flowing under Green Slovenia, a local caver explained to us that you are only considered a really good caver here if you have found 100 new caves!

Green Slovenia is blessed with over 15,000 discovered caves and almost 40 "show caves" that you can visit, each one completely unique and containing different natural underground treasures & experiences.

 

Whatever you imagined about visiting a Slovenian cave, don't worry, you really do not have to slide along mud channels on your stomach or pick bats out of your hair as EACH & EVERY show cave here has it's very own way of taking control of your senses, calming your fears and totally overpowering you with the beauty of underground nature. 

To visit most show caves you just need a reasonable pair of shoes and a warm jumper or jacket!

 

Each Show Cave here is VERY DIFFERENT to the others.. it would be a big blooper to just do one to tick it off your list to do in Green Slovenia and an even bigger mistake to just blindly go see the most advertised and most visited cave too! 

You wouldn't ignore Paris or New York, just cos you had "done" a Mega city by visiting London, cos each city is competely different.. 

So if it helps.. maybe think about the amazing array of massive caves here in exactly the same way as choosing which mega city to visit, of course you go see London, Paris AND New York once in your lifetime, but HERE, you can see one, two three or four amazing caves in Green paradise during just one holiday!

 

One of our mini missions here at the Lodge is to help you make the best cave decision today for you and your family or friends.. 

A choice based on quality local information, NOT based on how many cheesy billboards or internet reviews or mentions in guide books for a heavily marketed cave that might have already got into your head! 

Remember, Green Slovenia is the capital of caves and capital of the Karst and you simply do not have anything like this amazing cluster of world class caves to visit at home.. 

 

So to reaffirm..

• There are a lot of show caves here you could visit.. 
• You have a really fantastic CHOICE of different show caves that are HARDLY or NOT marketed..
• Just cos you have only read or heard about 1,2 or maybe 3 caves, it does not mean for a second that any of them are the best fit for you!
• With our humble respect, EVERY one of our 30 plus show caves is probably a much better cave experience than the best cave you have at home!
• EACH cave here is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT experience to the next..
• There is no rule that you must visit only one cave here.. Indeed most Lodge guests will visit 2 or 3 during their week, not necessarily the best marketed cave either!
• Oh yes and did we mention yet, some of these caves have Baby Dragons, baby!

 

Not all the other 15,000 or so discovered caves need to be accessed by expert cavers and many can also be found whilst you are out and about on your Green Adventures!

There are so many caves you can just have a quick explore inside or peer into the cave mouth during your hike and others that do importnt jobs like feeding the numerous Disappearing Lakes here in Green Slovenia with huge volumes of water..

 

So this means the lake might fill from water gushing out of that particular cave when the massive underground water table shifts and nature decides to fill the lake!

Indeed one of the greatest joys of exploring a disappearing lake is to try to find the caves or massive sinkholes where the water gushes in and out!

 

So now we will tell you all about the different tours, cave features, locations and Green stuff you can do in & around Slovenia's show caves to give you a clearer picture about which cave might be the best one for your Green adventures tomorrow..

We have also written some SECRET PLACES TO VISIT articles for most of these caves we will mention below.. so just click on the buttons to go read a bit more about that particular cave..

But we will kick off with those 3 world famous caves close to Lipizzaner Lodge, that you might have actually heard a bit about.. Then we will move onto all those caves we suspect you have NOT yet heard about..

 

Postojna Cave..

The one Slovenian cave you might have heard about is the local Postojna cave (10 mins from the Lodge) and the most visited tourist cave in Europe, opened in the early 1800's and just 8km from Lipizzaner Lodge, so you could also bike or hike there from here!

The Postojna Cave really doesn't need any more help from us to get noticed by the world!

If you have little legs in your group, then this cave has a train to take you into the vast underground, so often a good choice for a young family..

We would say you do need to see this cave one time in your life, but will it be this visit or the next.. or the next?     

 

Cave Tip.. If you are indeed gonna see the Postonja cave and the Skojcan cave on your Green Slovenian hollibubbles, then we always recommend doing the Postojna cave FIRST and the Skocjan Cave second.. 

The Postojna cave will totally blow you away and it is difficult to imagine something underground in Europe bigger and better in nature.. until you go see the Skocjan Cave that is.. 

How lucky Green Slovenia is! You are right to think it is a tiny little teeny weeny country, but boy oh boy, it sure does pack some big Green stuff for you to see!

 

Skocjan Cave..

Just down the road from the Lodge in the direction of the Mediterannean seaside is the really stunning, really massive, Unesco protected Skocjan cave (20 mins from the Lodge)..

This is the biggest underground hole in Europe and our guests return from a trip here in total awe at how overwhelmingly huge the deepest cavern is..

It might remind you of a Lord of the Rings film and you get to walk over a bridge (a bit like an Indiana Jones film) that feels so high up inside the cavern, but is actually very deep underground.. All this with the mighty river thundering even deeper below you!

 

There are lots of different walks you can do in and around the Skocjan caves too AND you can also do a short 10 min hike directly from the Visitor Centre to see one of the best vistas in Green Slovenia, (which is really saying something), looking out over the second largest open hole in Europe.. so do not make the mistake of just doing the main tour and leaving. 

We absolutely recommend you also visit the local micro museums in the nearby Skocjan village and hike up to the Skocjan church where the views across the valley are stunning.. read a bit more in stuff to do at the amazing Skocjan cave.

Cave Tip.. The Skocjan cave is Unesco protected so visitor numbers are restricted and more recently we noticed in the peak months of Jul and Aug, guests need to buy their tickets Online in Advance, maybe even two days, but at least one day ahead.. We wrote another little Blog about it, with a few extra tips if you are interested.. Need to Know BLOG

      

Krizna (Cross) Cave..

The last of the "big three" (not in size, but known) Green Slovenian caves is the Križna cave, translating as Cross cave (40 mins from the Lodge), where you will get much more of an authentic "caver's experience"..

This is a huge water cave and most guests will do the standard hour and a bit walking tour, which you just need to turn up for a 10 minutes before, but nowadays you do STILL NEED TO BOOK AHEAD ONLINE for..

Here is the page where you can book a Krizna tour for any of the FOUR Krizna tours we will mention here..

You go into the cave alongside the river and the tour finishes up with a boat ride on the crystal clear water, so you get a very pleasant and gentle cave tour with way fewer people too!

 

But there are THREE other tours you could do in this amazing cave.. 

There is a slightly longer walking tour, "the Bear Cavern Tour" that also needs to be booked and ends going down a huge side passage with another stretch of water to try out.. This tour lasts about 1 hour 45 & MUST be booked ahead and is also sometimes offered if guests miss out on doing the incredible 4 hour tour, (maybe due to water levels or weather conditions), which we will mention next..

If you only knew about the 4 hour tour.. If you book early enough, we are talking months at least ahead, then you get to put on a caver's helmet with torch and rubber boots and go beyond the chamber where the main boat tour stops and experience many more secret caverns in their full glory.. BY BOAT!

We have been lucky enough to do this 4 hour adventure and it was one of the best Green tours we have ever done and we have travelled around the world for a whole year, so this is high praise indeed!

 

The best way to describe what you will experience is it is like going to a different planet and time just flies by as you paddle up river helping the guide to carry the rubber boat over rocks into new chambers to see an underground island, one of only 6 massive stone cave mushrooms in the world, (a unique stalegtite formation) a rock pyramid sitting in the emerald green water and a pirate ship in what can only be described as an silent underground paradise.    

The Križna cave is one of the only caves in the world where a new calcium river is being forged by the water, so it is strictly protected and you must follow exactly in the guide's footsteps, using mainly the rubber boat and to further protect the cave, there are only 1,000 people allowed every year for this 4 hour visit!

The cherry on the cake is at the furthest point of this tour with some amazing waterfall cascades where you can even walk a little bit. Our strong advice is to book ahead! 

 

Cave Tip.. Krizna Cave hit the international news machines in 2023 with a cave "rescue", but we want to set the record straight as the story was way over sensationalised, so you do not need to worry in the slightest!

The "rescue" happened during an even more exclusive and epic 7, yes Seven hour underground adventure, ONLY OPEN TO 100 people per year, which goes even further along the river, deeper into the cave to discover some even more spectacular chambers..

We have now been lucky enough to do this 7 hour adventure to Crystal mountain and we will tell you all about it next!

 

We know the guides at Krizna and know how professional they are and monitor the weather reports and water levels very closely.

The issue happened deep in the cave, way past where you even go for the 4 hour adventure by the way, where they got a once in 100 year rise in water making just one tiny part of the journey with a low roof impassable. That is it!

The Guide took the decision to wait it out in perfect safety rather than swim out and was always in control of the situation as the safety protocol procedures kicked in..

The major reassuring thing for you to know is that there are numerous cave experts and professionals here in Green Slovenia who put your safety first.. so really folks.. we cannot imagine a safer place to experience the wonders of the Karst than here!

 

The UBER EPIC 7 Hour Boat Ride to Crystal Mountain in Križna cave was quite simply the best daytrip we did in 2024 and considering all the stuff we get up to here in Green paradise, that is really saying something!

You do the same route as the 4 hour tour, but after the waterfall, you continue down another 13 lakes seeing formations coming out of the water that will just blow your mind and then doing a short hike in your rubber wellies up a mountain inside this cave!

Crystal mountain is just as good as it's name suggests and it really is spectacular after travelling up narrowish water passages in a rubber boat for the best part of 3 hours to suddenly arrive at a 75 metre high chamber with a mountain inside AND a crystal cross..

The only snag for you is that this route is so heavily protected, ONLY 100 people per year may do it and there is a TWO YEAR waiting list, but we wrote an article all about it, so you can read more about the Boat Ride to Crystal Mountain, if you like!

Lets have a bit of a breather here, cos if you had only heard about the one cave in Green Slovenia with the choo choo train, then you will already probubbly be in a bit of a state of shock about how your limited time with carefully googled plans might be about to go up in smoke!

 

But now for an even Bigger shock.. There are Lots of other Fantastic Show Caves in Green Slovenia and we are not just telling you about them now just to fill space.. Hang on to your helmet, cos in many, many respects these next caves are EVEN better visits than the three we already mentioned!!

We only call Postojna, Skocjan and Krizna caves the "Big Three" as they are the 3 ones you are most likely to have read or heard about.. 

They are all amazing in their own way, but now we will tell you about some other fantastic, lesser known caves that you might prefer to go visit.. If you only knew about them!

Most have scheduled tours, others you will need to contact the local cave guide to go see..

Please do not think for one drip of a stalegtite that these caves are in any particular order or preference..

ANY one of them could be the best cave visit you have ever done!

 

the "Batcave" under Predjama Castle..

Did you even know, there is a fantastic guided tour in the cave under the amazing Predjama castle (10 mins drive, 40 min epic forest track walk from the Lodge). You could be forgiven for not knowing about this tour as it is hardly even mentioned by the same marketing machine that seems to want you to just go see the Postojna cave with Predjama Castle combined..

We call this cave under the castle the "Batcave", as during winter, it has the largest number of different bat species in any cave in the world.. But don't worry, in the summer only one tiny, non scary species remains and so this is the only time of year when tours are permitted.

 

You get a safety helmet and spend just an hour walking along and exploring the secret cave tunnels behind the castle.. you will be totally amazed at where you finish the tour and pop out of the cliff face to safely & easily walk back down, yes down to the castle!

Many of our guests have said how much they enjoyed the Batcave as it gives you a slightly more physical real cave exploring experience, so please try to factor this in to your Predjama castle visit.. Kids as young as 7 can do it by the way, so it is not so tough.

Lodge guests usually hike along a secret forest path direct to the castle after breakfast to avoid the later castle crowds, then maybe do the Batcave tour and have a spot of lunch and return mid afternoon with time to go see the Postojna cave later when not so busy.. WOW what a day!

 

So including the Batcave in your day is "how you do the castle".. if you just treat the most unique castle in the world as an after thought to the Postojna cave visit and simply rock up, take a selfie outside, then leg it, well, you are missing out on so, so much!

Batcave tours are up to 3 times a day in the summer, buy your ticket when you get to the castle.

 

Planina Baby Dragon Cave..

The amazing Planina Baby Dragon cave, (15 mins from the Lodge by car and 30 mins by bike) is a really personal tour in a stunningly green location inside the only cave in Europe where 2 underground rivers crash into each other to form both a completely new river and another unique part of the River of 7 Names. 

This cave is just so special and you can also just walk inside the massive cave entrance next to the river that also feeds one of Slovenia's biggest disappearing lakes.. Planina Disappearing Lake..

The water can be raging next to you as you go inside and meet perfect silence with a river tunnel roof high above you like a natural cathedral..

Planina cave is the longest water cave in Green Slovenia and also home to over 1,000 Baby Dragons! The different shades of green around this cave will absolutely blow you away and the main car park for the cave ALSO sits directly under the amazing Rapunzel Tower!

 

There are TWO different tours you can do in the Planina Cave, taking place between May and September.

The daily hour long Planina Cave walking tour starts at 5pm every day and you might easily be the only people on the tour.. how good is that!

You get to walk deep into the cave along a pathway high above the new river until the place where you can see and hear the rivers Pivka and Rakek crashing into each other to form the new Unica river!

 

And you might get to spot a Baby Dragon too!

The other unmissabubble tour available is an EPIC 5 hour Rubber Boat Tour that you need to book ahead to do and takes you right to the END of the cave!

You get togged up into cave overalls, rubber boots and a caver's helmet and carry your oar along the main walking tour route into the cave and then jump into rubber boats to paddle along the quieter Pivka river to the very end of the longest water cave in Green Slovenia!

Wow, what about that! We did this tour one September with some Lodge guests and it totally blew us all away, it was simply EPIC!

 

It is soooo different to the Krizna 4 hour tour and at the end of the cave you are surprised with a climb up into a huge secret chamber packed with all types of massive, beautiful dripstones in all shapes, sizes and colours!

As you paddle along, you will almost certainly see lots of Baby Dragons swimming alongside and we can safely say there is simply nothing like this sensational cave tour! 

 

Vilenica Cave..

There are a couple of really fantastic, but unknown show caves just over 20 mins from the Lodge, very close, but hidden away from the better known Skocjan cave & the Lipica horse farm.

We call that particular region the Red Karst, as it is the other significant half of Slovenia's Karst region with red soil and a local unique red wine called Teran.

 

The Vilenica cave is ONLY open to visitors on a Sunday at 3pm, so you need to plan your logistics for this cave visit, but do not expect crowds here.. We have had guests be the only foreign visitors on the tour!

The location in the Red Karst countryside is absolutely beautiful and the hour long tour goes through massive chambers packed with pretty dripstones and a really colourful "Fairies Chamber", with underground colours you will just not believe!

It is lovingly looked after by a local cave society and has been open to the pubilc pretty much since 1666.. More importantly for you, it is possibly the most beautiful cave you can see here and that is saying something..

 

Divaca Cave..

Just down the road from the Skocjan cave, so still only about 20 mins from the Lodge, is the other unknown Red Karst secret show cave with more unique caverns, massive dripstones and a final chamber we could only describe as a Pharoahs Avenue!

There is always a 11am Sunday tour available and scheduled daily tours for the Divaca Cave during the summer, so again, if you want to have a quieter, special, more unique cave tour, then the Divaca Cave could be the one for you!

There is an entrance chamber here so huge they call it the "Dancing Chamber" and this is not a small cave at all, taking over an hour to tour and was once visitied by Sigmund Freud.. so maybe have a real good think about coming here too!

 

Cave Tip.. Why not have a Super Sunday cave extravaganza visiting the Divaca cave at 11am, then going to see the Vilenica cave for the 3pm tour with maybe some lunch in between or a larger evening meal later in the local town of lovely Lokev, where Italians stream over the border to eat as there are so many good local Red Karst Culinary options there!

 

Dimnice (Devil's Barbeque) Cave..

The entrance to the fantastic Dimnice cave (25 mins from the Lodge) is down a 40 metre spiral stone staircase that wraps itself around the top of the cave like a huge chimney.. mysterious smoke drifts up out from the cave all day during winter..

This cave is known by cavers as one of the most complete caves in the world.. as it has a little bit of everything inside.

There are 10 kinds of bat in this 8km long cave and a river all year round. We cannot recommend this cave experience enough, it is beautiful and to go see it, you simply need to book a private tour with a friendly local expert caver, which costs much less for a family than you might think!

The Dimnice cave is the main JAMA in the secret undiscovered stunning Brkini mini region, between the Lodge and the coast and is just down the road from SOCERB castle with a stunning sea cliff for a perfect view of the Gulf of Trieste and Italy, Slovenia & Croatia.. not many people know that just 100 metres from Socerb castle there is also Sveta Jama, Saints Cave, with Slovenia's only underground church and a wine cellar to delight visitors!

       

Black Cave..

And if you don't fancy the crowds at Postojna cave then why not jump on one of our bikes and cycle into the Green Karst for a bit along a secret forest track to the wonderful Black cave, (Pivka cave) (10 mins away by car).

This show cave is actually at the other end of the massive Postojna cave and Partisans used it to sneak up on the Nazis and destroy their munitions dump in WW2 through a secret back doorway! 

The cave is called "black" as the smoke from thousands of years of people taking shelter at the mouth of the cave and lighting fires has blackened the walls to leave some fascinating shadows.

This cave is only open in the summer, the group sizes are usually small, say 5-15 people, so you can hear and chat with the excellent guide and really get a feeling one of Slovenia's other massive underground paradises.

This cave was used for a Sony smartphone Experia TV advert where the guy is playing the piano in a cave.. well this is the very cave.. 

 

Potato Cave in the Red Karst..

We found this cave when we went to do something totally different at the Top of the Red Karst mini region to taste some new wine and Slovenian Tapas in a local yummy tradition called Osmica!

When out & about, we try to follow our own advice for guests, which is to ALWAYS explore around the next corner in Green Slovenia as you are sure to find something Green, unexpected and special!

Well on this Green adventure we found Potato Cave, which is a really good example of how many of Slovenia's caves were exploited by invading armies and occupiers for warfare.. usually to provide cover for men and arms.

Potato Cave became a huge bunker for hundreds of Austrian soldiers in the the First World war and we just cannot wait to contact a guide and go have a look inside to see how they all fitted in like sardines!

     

Not all Slovenian show caves are here in the Green or Red Karst South West..

About half of the Green Slovenia that is above ground is covered underground with Karst caves, Karst rivers and other Karst formations.. indeed it is thought there might be still another 2 undiscovered caves to find even bigger than Postojna!

It is true that most show caves are in the south west close to the Lodge, but there are other pockets of Karst all over this pocket rocket of a little country and here are two more very special caves that you might consider as part of other possible day trips..

 

Pekel Jama, Hell Cave..

Hell cave has a menacing devil like natural formation over the entrance to the cave and is just off the motorway, direction Maribor in the East, even then, just 1hr 20 mins from the Lodge!

 

The cave is hidden away in a forest, but it feels more like a green jungle, it is so beautiful outside. Inside the cave there are so many different formations, a waterfall and the tour has a bit of an Indiana Jones feel.. but of course the rock is real!

We really enjoyed our visit here in an area you would not expect to have such an amazing show cave.. We were the ONLY people on the tour with a wonderful guide and there is a cute forest cafe outside the cave too.. 

If you are heading East for the day, then seriously consider a stop here on the way!

 

Supernova Cave, Zupanova or Mayors cave..

When caves were the cutting edge rollercoasters of tourism and our South West bit of Green Slovenia was part of Italy between the World Wars, Zupanova cave was the main tourist cave in old Yugoslavia!

You can see how the network of paths inside were built for the masses, but nowadays, this is another of those secret unknown caves to put on your list if you don't like crowds!

 

It is located just outside Grosuplje, south east of Ljubljana and still just an hour from the Lodge and has a little ice cave and some huge chambers as you go down and down and down!

The really cool feature here is another cave entrance, where the old Mayor first abseiled down into the cave, hence the name of the cave, but it is possible to still go down into the cave by rope! Now that is a cave entrance!

The main entrance is still down a long stone staircase..

This gorgeous little Green Karst hideaway is a perfect example of the other spots of Karst geology dotted around Green Slovenia and in our humble opinion, not enough people enjoy a day out around here, when there are SO many things to combine with the cave visit..

You could have the most amazing daytrip forest walk along the Kingfisher Trail seeing a secret Fortress protecting a church on top of a hill AND the Zupanova cave ALL on the same hike.. 

 

Grotta Gigante..

Just across the paper border near Trieste, Italy, you will find the correctly named Grotta Gigante, 30 mins from the Lodge, which is also one of the largest tourist caves in the world. There are 500 steps down into the gigantic cavern, hence the name, with a modern visitor centre, a really nice museum and plenty of free parking if you would like to visit a cave Italian style!

To finish off, just a final reminder of how many amazing caves you will just stumble upon if you make the time to do a few hikes in Green Paradise here and our final tip is just so amazing and free, by the way, that if you visit Green Slovenia and have not hiked Rakov Skocjan, then sorry, you have simply not visited Green Slovenia, cos Rakov Skocjan is that good!

 

the Rakov Skocjan Stone Arches..

This world class rock treasure was indeed a gigantic cave.. it's just that a couple of million years ago the cave roof collapsed to leave a 3km long rock valley with two massive stunning arches (the old cave entrances) at each end with the River of 7 Names flowing through the middle!

In those next couple of million years a green paradise has grown over the rocks and it is one of, if the THE best examples of the Green Karst Jungle you can find..

 

It is hard to believe that just 10 mins from the most visited tourist cave in Europe is a completely free and uber sensational Rock nature park, with a perfect 4 hour hiking path or other shorter paths to take you back in time!

This is yet another one of those secret Green places (just 20 mins from the Lodge), which our guests return from in complete surprise and disbelief at how amazing it really is and we totally urge you to make time to go explore here.

Sometimes guests might arrive and announce their intention to go see "the cave".. we know exactly which cave they mean, but now you know why we always cheekily ask them.. "oh really, which cave"!

We still have a list as long as a Dragon's tale of secret caves we want to go discover, for example, we are very excited to go see a huge Ice Cave we know about in the North of Slovenia where the entrance was blocked by the floods of 2023.. As soon as it is reopened, we will be renting E Bikes and whizzing up there to tell you all about it!

Happy cave exploring!