We describe Slovenia as Green Slovenia cos EVERYTHING is Green here.. the forests, the fields, the mountains, even the rivers and this pocket rocket of a tiddly country is also the 3rd most forested country in Europe, half the size of Belgium or Switzerland, but with less people than Manchester or Brussels..

Sitting slap bang in the centre of Europe, Green Slovenia is quite simply the Heart, the Soul and the Lungs of the continent..

Another significant reason why Green Slovenia is so special is that being in the centre of Europe, we are the only country in Europe to have 4 different Geological regions, when even France only has three!

These 4 sections are Mediterranean, Alps, (we have 4 different Alps), Continental AND the flat bit next to Hungary known as the Pannonian Plains!

There are more tracks than you can shake a stick at in the Slovenian forest..

If you also take into account that Green Slovenia is bordered by Croatia, Hungary, Austria & Italy, then pretty much every corner you go here.. (and there are a lot of Green corners).. you will get strong deja vue for being in a different part of Europe and sometimes have to pinch yourself to remember you are in little old Slovenia!

What all this means for your Green hollibubble adventures is very significant indeed.. 

Lots of spring flowers..

It means you get to see everything that is lovely about Europe AND actually worth seeing in a ridiculously small package with tiny distances between totally epic Green Wonders!

And Lipizzaner Lodge sits in the south western Coastal region on the edge of the Mediterannean and Continental bits, right next to Mt Nanos, the last mountain in Slovenia, which is also the start of the Dinaric Alps too!

We found a little lake hidden away in the forest..

You might have expected the cute capital city of Ljubljana, just 30 mins from the Lodge, to be the logistical hub for this country, but we quickly realised we needed to be located exactly here between the mountains & the sea, right next to NANOS, cos NOTHING moves in Slovenia, the weather, the roads, even the Pilgrims hiking, unless it goes around Nanos!

So Nanos, (or Nandos as one guest once called it), is the true Green logistical centre for exploring all the best bits of Green Slovenia in simple half day or day trips directly from the Lodge..

If you still don't believe it, take a look at a map and you will see and maybe also have a look at our own Secret Treasure Map that shows where all those best secret bits are!

the very first Orchids were shooting up, by May there will be lots of them..

With all this incredible variety of geolocation, the whole country is permanently in a different stage of flux for each new season! So spring, for example, will arrive early in the Mediterranean coastal and wine regions, just on the other side of Nanos mountain and reach the Alpine mountains later..

On this side of Nanos, we were still very excited to see the shoots of spring popping up all around us and the blossoms appearing on the multiple walks we can do around here..

So how about we calm it all down now and go for a nice spring walk!

A small Karst limestone cave with a little stream flowing out..

Yep, you can get to all the most amazing places to visit in Green Slovenia from the Lodge, but there are also so many different bike rides or walks you can do direct from our front door..

So on a warm, sunny Easter Monday morning after breakfast, we decided to go have a longer walk deep into the forest and see how the spring was blooming there..

And now we are finally gonna tell you all about it!

on the verge..

During Covid we challenged ourselves to do a completely different loop walk each day directly from our front door for a month and we still had some new options left after the 30 days!

There is a huge forest between our cute little village of Landol and the local hub town of Postojna, with it's 6 supermarkets, a train and bus station..

We saw at least 5 types of butterflies, but this was the only one that stopped whizzing around for us to take a photo!

There also happens to be the most visited tourist cave in Europe in Postojna AND the biggest cave castle in the world at Predjama.. 

These two though, are absolutely NOT the main reason we are located here, but it is a nice bonus for our guests to be able to walk to one of the most unique, beautiful castles in the world along a secret forest path AND to the Postojna cave as well, if you like..

Your only glimpse of the main road between Poatojna Cave and Predjama Castle will be brief, here when arriving in Zagon for a few seconds..

Well, there is a main road that leads from Postojna Cave to Predjama Castle and also handily connects with our little village of Landol too and for a big section of this particular walk, we were continually within just 20 to 50 metres of that road, but completely hidden in the forest, wondering if any of those drivers had the slightest clue what they were missing as they rushed between the castle and the cave in their gas guzzling automobiles!

There are so many forest tracks used by foresters, hunters and local people to get to their own little patch of forest or land around here that we really would describe it all as a Green paradise for hikers and cyclists and cos they are also used by locals, most are maintained well in excellent condtion, but there are NO signs and it is so easy to get lost!

We know to go right here cos we have done this walk before, but would you know?

Over the years we have totally enjoyed exploring all the secret stone tracks around here and we would describe this vast area of forest between the cave and the castle that the car drivers will admire from their windows on that busy main road as like a Green city, with lots of secret alleyways and side streets that even very few local people actually know well at all..

ALL of these routes are suitable for hiking and some are fab for bikes too, but this particular route we took is for just hiking and it is one of the ones we found during Covid when we challenged ourselves to find a forest route direct from the Lodge to the Postojna Cave.

An enormous field of dandelions and a view of Nanos, the last mountain on Slovenia..

When out & about, we love trying to identify all the new flowers popping up and seeing the different new colours, sometimes we will spot a deer running off or other forest animals, especially when we walk our neighbours dog who seems to sniff them out or make them nervous enough to break cover and leg it!

This particular big Green route took us up from Landol to within a few metres of that road between Postojna and Predjama and then we followed a secret collection of paths that pretty much shadow the road from below towards Postojna and pops out in the village of Zagon, (which for fans of the British Sci Fi show Dr Who, would be such a wonderful "Baddie's" name)!

In Zagon you can join this bike path to rejoin the forest loop to Landol..

At Zagon you are within spitting distance of the cave, but that was not our destination for today and we knew there is a bike track from there that we joined to allow us to complete a loop back to the forest and find another secret track we know that joins and follows the "Little Nanos" river, which actually starts it's journey popping out from under Nanos mountain and flows & zig zags past Landol towards Postojna, joining the Pivka river and ending up in the Postojna cave!

There were so many little Green highlights along this 3 hour loop walk and our photos here in the text and below will show the story for you.. Spring was accelerating so fast and we should mention we saw our first orchids popping up and 5 or 6 different types of butterfly whizzing around. (Normally May is the best month of all to see the different types of wild orchids here)..

The Sleeping Knight is a welcome landmark on this particular hike, cos it means we are on the way home..

It is always a treat to see the sleepy knight and his faithful owl companion carved into a tree guarding the route home and also at this time of year to see the fields covered in carpets of golden dandelions..

Locals get excited for this dandelion season too, picking the dandelion leaves and adding them to delicious salads with eggs & Italian bacon!

Two simple flowers, but an explosion of spring colour..

But if only those visitors rushing between the cave and the castle in as short amount of time as possible might have heard about just a few of the other amazing caves and castles here in a country stuffed full with them..

Or maybe if they knew you could spend the whole day walking along this same forest route or numerous others between that very same cave & castle and probubbly meet absolutely nobody along the way..

These are called Horse tails, but look more like tiger tails shooting up..

There are so many secret walks around here that we needed to do a whole page explaining our Lodge Walks and we also did another Hiking page to highlight just some of the other hikes in Green Slovenia that you cannot afford to miss..

So we wish you a wonderful hike in Green paradise and encourage you to go explore a little bit more and then you will really find out how amazing this little Green country actually is..