In just two shakes of a Dragon's tale the super modern Slovenian motorway can whisk you down from the Lodge to the beautiful Mediterranean Slovenian Coast..

Yep, in a little over half and hour you can be standing in Koper Old Town, with 5 mins more to Izola, our fave place by the sea and just 50 mins direct from the Lodge to Piran..

We noticed these ridiculously short journey times were possible by motorway to all corners of Green Slovenia and that is one of the reasons we put our Lodge exactly where we are, in the middle of everything worth seeing, between the mountains and the sea.

This is NOT Piran, this is Izola, Baby..

Local villagers tell us in the bad old days before the motorways it could take 3 hours to go to the coast and lorries would often back up all the way to our local town of Postojna!

But those days are long gone now with a super quick, super beautiful motorway network that will whisk you from the Lodge to Lake Bled in an hour and to the Soca river or Ljubljana in just 30 mins in different directions..

The new motorways have almost completely taken the traffic off the local roads, so much so that it even feels wierd when you drive on them, cos there are so few other vehicles!

Well, you can massively use this to your advantage whilst exploring around the most beautiful country in Europe.. Of course, the country roads will take a little longer, but the views on offer compared to the very lovely motorways are hugely, disproportionaltely more beautiful..

Piran old town..

In short, there is a whole other Green Slovenia out there to discover on the country roads, especially if you know which ones to take, so hot tips and suggestions like this one from people who live here can be very helpful indeed!

We would still humbly suggest that in a country of just 2 million people your motorway drive here will still be very pleasant indeed compared to your busy roads at home, but going off piste on the well maintained, good quality country roads will deliver different vistas of corn drying on wooden trellises, flowers bursting with colour on balconies in quiet villages, local supermarkets with empty car parks and people walking their dogs through fields..

The pretty little villages are punctuated by long vast areas of green filled wildernesses, forests, fields, vineyards or all of the above along the roadside..

You will see little churches on the edge of towns or on top of hills in towns you have not a hope of ever pronouncing properly and you might stop off at a little roadside cafe or local restaurant that you will not find in any guide book..

Lots of lovely Lipizzaners at Lipica..

If this has convinced you.. Let's take a drive to the coast from the Lodge, first Briefly and then Longly!

We deliberately placed the Lodge just minutes from two key motorway junctions in different directions..

One via Postojna towards Ljubljana, Lakes Bled & Bohinj, the Mountains and the East..

And One via Mt Nanos towards pretty much everything else worth visiting, so the Coast, the Vipava Valley, the Red Karst, the Brkini, Trieste and Italy, the BRDA wine region and the Soca river..

Arriving in Piran..

the 409 Coast Road.. Briefly

So you actually head towards the motorway junction SOUTH at Razdrto, but ignore the motorway entrance and continue on the local 409 road direction SENOZECE..

Then cruise from SENOZECE to DIVACA to KOZINA to CRNI KAL and down into the Slovenian Coastal Hinterland via DEKANI where you will pop out at KOPER.. Job done!

To be clear this is the old coast road all the way and it is number 409 for map enthusiasts!

the most surprising, amazing set of frescoes are hideen behind these walls inside the church..

the 409 Coast Road.. Longly

There are so many ways you could add or subtract from this route depending WHAT you want to see & do and WHERE you are heading to on the coast!

The KEY thing to know about this 409 coastal road is it stays pretty close to the motorway until the KASTELEC junction, but this is where the enormous LAST KARST CLIFF is and so the Motorway whizzes off directly to KOPER via a long bridge in the sky whilst the 409 curves and descends down the cliff directly into the Mediterranean Coastal Hinterland..

So this is where the 409 takes a bit longer, but becomes even more beautiful in a mini region NEXT to the coast that is nothing like any other region in Green Slovenia, INCLUDING the coast!

the marina in Izola..

If you decide to drive into the Coastal Hinterland stay on 409 now and head towards CRNI KAL, where you will now have options still to go across to Koper OR explore more and pop out further down the coast!

So after CRNI KAL, (witha wonky church spire, by the way) you will go towards little hill top villages like SVETI ANTON and MAREZIGE to turn off towards Izola or Koper OR continue towards DRAGONJA on the Croatian border and do a little sneak across, (still in Slovenia, so don't worry about your insurance) to a backdoor into Portoroz and Piran.. How about that!

So you might decide to use the 409 just until KOZINA or KASTELEC and join the motorway there to whizz on down to the coast.

That is perfetly acceptable and THERE ARE NO RULES.. It is up to you how you do it, but we can only tell you how quiet, perfect and pretty the country roads are!!

This is the second biggest hole in Europe above the largest underground hole in Skocjan Cave..

So now all that remains to do is to update you on the ridiculously HUGE number of secret Green places & things to see and do there are along the 409 coast road, that you would totally miss out on if you just stayed on the motorway all the way to the coast..

Considering the really short time it takes to get to the coast you could be forgiven for not realising how much stuff you are actually missing out on by just whizzing down to the blue sea!

Another reason the 409 is so handy & nifty is that it bypasses most of the larger towns along the way.. with respect, the ones which are not actually necessary to stop off in.

Not so far from Divaca is the gigantic totally unmissable Skocjan Cave and here you could also divert direction slightly towards Sezana to easily reach Lipica, home of the Lipizzaner horses, the Divaca Cave, Dragons Crater, Lovely Lokev or the Vilenica Cave..

What about a spot of truffle hunting n the Red Karst..

Continuing direction Kozina, just after the turn for the Skocjan Cave, you skirt past the entrance to the uber secret, fantastic Brkini mini region, with excellent local restaurants and numerous walks into Green paradise..

Not long after Kozina you will approach that last Karst cliff down into the Coastal Hinterland and you might decide to cross over the motorway via Kastelec for the short hop there and back to see the wonderful viewpoint over 3 different countries, (Italy, Slovenia and Croatia) from a stunning Venetian castle in the tiny hill top village of Socerb..

View over the start of the Slovenian Coastal Hinterland from Vikki Burgers terrace..

Stay on the coastal road and you will get the option to explore the delights below this coastal Cliff dropping down towards CRNI KAL, (which has a wonky church spire by the way), passing the best Burger bar in Slovenia.. Vikkis Burgers.. on a wide bend with amazing views..

Strongly consider a small detour off the main road to go to Hrastovlje and go visit an incredible church protected by a castle, that hides the most amazing Dance of Death Fresco, (also UNMISSABUBBLE)..

NOW you have committed to reaching the coast through the vine covered hills of the Mediterranean Hinterland, so it is time to think about maybe stopping off in one or two of these tiny coastal Hinterland villages, which are really worth having a look around, by the way.

the very substantial last Karst cliff in Slovenia..

Think about seeing the 5 Walled Tower in Kubed, the Wine Fountain in Marezige, but this Hinterland is deserted apart from cute little villages and is covered in vines, so why not have a bit of a hike around here and explore!

Your final decision in this surprisingly big Coastal Hinterland is whether to go direction Koper & Izola or effectively cut the corner down & over to Portoroz & Piran..

Steps up to the 5 walled tower..

Lots of really, really good decisions to make!

And the very final thing to say about this fantastix 409 Coast road option is you could do the whole trip back in reverse or decide to go down to the coast by motorway and come back on the 409!

There are so many fantastic Secret Green Places to Visit which can only be reached from the Lodge on other amazing country roads and several that are much better reached avoiding the motorways, that we have it in mind to write a whole section recommending these very special roads we know about, all over Green Slovenia..

But in the meantime, put your phone in your pocket or switch the "fastest option" off your navigation and we wish you a wonderful drive either to or back from the coast!