When we were lucky enough to travel around the world for one year, I always remember being shocked, standing on a stunning volcanic black sand Pacific beach in Guatemala and seeing the massive inland Volcanoes, far in distance, but big in eye, which were right next to where we were staying and had travelled from, a full 3 hour drive away on rickety roads in a packed minibus!

Guatemala is perhaps the most varied and stunning central American country with a little bit of everything in Green nature.. The only country we have found in Europe that comes anywhere close to this incredible choice, diversity & variety is Green Slovenia and due to the fab motorways here, you could drive across the lot in less than 3 hours!

It is so beautiful on Nanos with an intense synergy of white Karst rock and Green forest..

And if you take a look back inland from Piran on the Slovenian Mediterranean coast, especially from the harbour wall or Fiesa path you will see Mt Nanos towering like a long Green Dinosaur in the distance..

Take the cable car up to Heaven on Earth, Velika Planina and gaze past Ljubjana towards the coast and Mt Nanos will be shimmering in the distance forming the gateway to the Mediterranean..

And climb any medieval tower in the Mediterranean wine region of Brda on the border with Italy and you will see the long nose of Nanos, separating the Red Karst, the Green Karst and the Vipava Valley like a bouncer at a night club!

Well, not sure if you still need to take an armed escort to hike up some of those spectacular volcanoes in Guatemala, but you will quickly notice here that Green Slovenia is one of the safest countries in the world.

This is the tip of the Nanos "Nose" looking back to the end of the Green Karst, with the Lodge nestled somewhere down there below..

A lot is made of Ljubljana being a "Green" City, which of course is a load of marketing nonsense, when you consider no city can be truly Green, just a bit Greener than other polluting cities!

So for us, Nanos is the true Green City of Slovenia, a big Green monster lurking in plain sight.. Covered in white Karst rock and endless forests, with downtown neighbourhoods filled with different animals, birds, trees & flowers and all this connected by numerous stone track roads leading everywhere & nowhere..

Nanos is quite simply one of the most underrated, least known, but most seen mountains in Slovenia and if you decide to go walk up it, you will almost certainly have one of the best days of your Green Slovenian adventures!

From the top you get a real sense how Green Slovenia actually is AND how Nanos is a really big lump of rock..

We are a bit ashamed to admit that still, so few Lodge guests actually find the time to go hike up Nanos, or "Nandos" as one guest once mistakingly called it, but this particular Green adventure is just one of so many other Green adventures you can do from the Lodge that Nanos tends to get overlooked, despite dominating the view from our Lodge terraces..

But we need to tell you that almost every Lodge guest who did hike or bike on Nanos put it as one of the top highlights of their stay..

Typical Karst rock formation hugging trees and pretty flowers popping out of the cracks..

It is free, Green, pure, full of mystery & adventure and empty of people.. Just perfect for any family, friends, groups or couples who want to give it a go and here is a final thought for you..

It is often the Dads who get a half day pass in their week to ditch the family and go up into the forests of Nanos alone who tend to come back completely refreshed and raving about the big Green City in the sky the most!

At the end of the long stone path up, you do pop out onto the side of Nanos for a little bit, with great views and NOT SCARY..

The "mountaineer" fraternity will of course have their minds set on joining the queue to conquer Slovenia's tallest mountain Triglav, at 2,874m in the Julian Alps, twice as high as Suhi Vrh, "Dry Top", which is the highest point on the Nanos plateau at 1,313m, but you don't need an ice pick, a guide or thermal undies to reach the top of Nanos.. Besides.. you can still see Triglav like a noisy neighbour from Suhi Vrh on Nanos!

All you need to do is check for good weather, pack some water and a sandwich and then set off after a good Lodge brekkie to go conquer Nanos and have an amazing free day out in nature too.

Way more visitors should hike up Nanos and way more Lodge guests should too, so now we are gonna tell you how best to go do it!!

The Koca or hut is nestled in a green bunker just next to the two masts..

Where to start your Hike up Nanos..

Nanos is the start of the Dinaric Alps, a huge chain of littler mountains stretching all the way down the Balkons to Albania, but Nanos is an enormous lump of Karst rock, not like a pyramid mountain with a pointy top, but a huge Green plateau covered in trees and white limestone rocks 6km wide and 12 km long!

So you could hike up from anywhere you can find a safe path really..

The slopes stretch down to almost sea level in the Vipava Valley on it's Mediterranean side and this is also the side where the main mountain road for cars goes up from.

Whereas the most popular starting point for hiking is just a few kms away from the Lodge, at the very end of the Green Karst, from a village called RAZDRTO with a few different routes up the Nanos nose side to the two radio masts and the hut called Plesa.

Wear shoes with good souls as the rocks can be sharp and steep up & down..

PLEŠA

The most distinctive bit of Nanos is the very end of the plateau with a long curved snout that looks like the end of a big nose with two very distinctive TV Masts on top and this is all called PLEŠA at 1,262m.. 

Many people think this bit is "Nanos", which will not help you when following the local signs, cos if you want to go to the masts, you need to know to head for Plesa..

These radio masts look so small from below, but provide a real sense of achievement when you reach them..

Generals have planned their next move from up here and on a clear day you can see Venice!

Most days will give you a huge set of spectacular views over the entire Green Karst spreading back over the 17 Disappearing Lakes of Pivka to Mt Sneznik 1,796m, which is on the border with Croatia on one side of the "nose" and the Mediterranean Vipava Valley on the other side with the Red Karst, Brkini and Coastal Hinterland all reaching out to the Adriatic sea.

From the masts at the top you can see the main motorway between Lubljana and the coast curving off into the Mediterranean..

SUHI VRH.. DRY TOP

But take a look at the Nanos plateau from the Lodge side and you can see several higher peaks rising in the centre of the long lizard shape and the highest one is called SUHI VRH, which means DRY TOP or PEAK and this is the true summit of the Nanos plateau at 1,313m.

From Dry Top you can see towards the centre & north of Slovenia, so you get a direct unobstructed audience with Triglav.. aren't the little countries just wonderful!

So we need to do another reminder that the Nanos neighbourhood our guests absolutely rave about is Dry Top for it's intense beauty, remoteness and absolute silence..

Suhi Vrh is clearly the highest point amongst several peaks in the middle of the huge Nanos plateau.

Let's try to explain what you will experience when you are up on top of Nanos heading to SUHI VRH, as it comes as a bit of a shock when you are suddenly surrounded by lots of Karst peaks at the very top of the plateau and realise that this limestone Karst rock is EXACTLY the same material that makes the hills & peaks which pop up from the picture perfect sea in Thailand and you might well get deja vue if you seen such a similar sight at the Thai coast, but here on top of Nanos it is green leaves and trees flooding your view, where in Thailand the Aqua sea floods between the peaks!

It is a magical place indeed up there with stone tracks leading off everywhere for the local hunters and foresters to navigate these peaks, but you will most likely see absolutely nobody up there!

This is the first junction to go right to Suhi Vrh, Dry Top or straight on to Nanos.. You could get back to here doing a loop from Suhi Vrh from Nanos to if you have the legs and the daylight..

Strane..

The best way to hike up to Dry Top is to park in Strane, a village nestled into the foothills of Nanos, just a few km from the Lodge and a key stage of the St James Pilgrim Path from Zagreb to Santiago, where Nanos forms this big barrier to be skirted around by the pilgrims on that particular journey!

But the really exciting thing to know now is that if you hike from Strane you can also hike to Plesa, so you can actually choose when you reach the top of the plateau whether you go to Dry Top or to Plesa!!

Or to both.. Cos it is possible to walk a loop from Plesa to Dry Top and back, but one or the other will probably be more than enough for most people..

This is the second sign to peel off towards Suhi Vrh, Dry Top, on the way to the Nanos masts, called Vojkova koca here..

Hiking up Nanos Plesa or Nanos Suhi Vrh from Strane..

Firstly, you COULD actually walk to Nanos and back from the Lodge if you wanted, via Strane!

It would take just an hour or so to walk from the Lodge directly on stone tracks to Strane from the next village of Smihel Pod Nanosom, (St Michael) or taking a bit longer to pick up the Yellow arrow marked St James Path that leads from Predjama Castle back to Smihel and next on to Strane.

IF you wanted to do an further epic adventure hike direct from the Lodge, then reaching the masts at Plesa on the bridge of the Nanos nose and getting back in a day is the best bet, but then also looping to Dry Top might be too much or leave too few daylight hours!

There are various markers along the way, all are good and these green triangles are for the Alpe Adria path..

Most people will drive to or get dropped off in Strane and walk up to Nanos Plesa and back, technically 2 + 2 hours, but likely to take 5 hours plus of steep walking and amazing Green nature.

There is a little multi purpose car park come basketball court come reycling centre where you can park in Strane and then just follow the yellow arrows or shells of the St James path as the two routes combine for a little while out of Strane.

You can park here in Strane, but better not under the basketball net..

There ARE also red plastic mountain signs on posts where you absolutely need them, but most markers will be little red circles or red lines painted on rocks and trees.

At the start of this trek there is a little clearing where you get a tantalising view up & up & across to the end of the Nanos nose and it sure does look a long way off.. But trust us, you can be standing up there in a little over 2 hours!

Fantastic view at the start of the walk.. It is quite simple, we are gonna go up there to the top on the left..

This is a mountain hike of course, so you should know the route up is relentlessly STEEP, following a stone track only tractors could get up and will really test the quality of your hiking boots in places, but there is NOWHERE along this route on the 2 hours plus ascent with any steep drops off to scare you.

Indeed one of the real advantages of this route over the traditional Plesa ascent from Razdrto is you remain hidden in the thick bosom of a massive, stunningly beautiful beech forest which merges perfectly into the white Karst rocks pretty much until you pop out onto the top of the plateau!

The whole idea of the st James Pilgrim path here is to bypass Nanos, so pilgrims go left and we go up for Nanos.

The 3,000km long St James Pilgrim path runs via Strane too, but skirts around the side of Nanos and it is quite understandabubble the Pilgrims didn't fancy going up and over Nanos towards Italy, so you will follow the same path out of Strane for a bit, then soon turn off as it diverts around the foothills to Razdrto.

But we will leave the yellow arrows and head up and up deep into the spectacular beech forests on the stony path looking out for the next big rock with an arrow that leads towards SV BRIC church.

This is where you turn left a bit to continue up Nanos or go right for about 200m to see the church..

This is one of the "Churches of the Three Brothers", which legend has it were built at different locations around the Nanos plateau on the orders of a frustrated father of three quarreling brothers who didn't want to hear or see each other!

It is very much worth taking this turn right and just walking about 200m, if only to stop walking so steeply up for a bit and do a refreshingly flat section, but the church is in the opposite direction to the main path to see a tiny, immaculate church parked right in the middle of the forest and maybe have a bite of your sandwich and think about one of those brothers sitting here grumpily on the front steps looking out into the forest and maybe also spare a thought for how fit the modern day parishioners here must be!

One of the Churches of the 3 Brothers sits quietly on the side of Nanos surrounded by thick forest..

Leaving the church and rejoining the main path now, there are a series of bigger rocks on the path to step over on the most brutal part of the hike, which now seems to hug the edge of the mountain side with fantastic views out across the Green paradise that stretches from Nanos to Postojna AND vistas behind you up to the rocky rimmed edges of the plateau top.

Hiking further up here will be the first time you really get to notice so clearly that Nanos is a series of thick rocky peaks all stitched together to form the giant lizard shaped plateau and you will realise how truly big it all is, lacking any of the dimensions of a traditioal pointy mountain.

You could be rushing around the museums and crowded cafes by the river in Ljubljana or up here on Nanos in Green Paradise, Slovenia's true Green City.. Your choice..

We will make a short note here about the surprising variety of flowers on this hike and you will see several different ones on this next steep stretch of rocky stairs. We put all our flower photos at the end of this article so you could see the incredible number that were flourishing up here at different heights and still doing ok at the end of August. 

You do pop completely out of the forest for a very short section and cross a dirt track on the hillside, which is open to the elements, but there is no steep drop even here, so best to enjoy the view for 10 seconds or so and then you pop back into the forest again!

There will be two turn offs to Suhi Vrh, Dry Top now and the first one is the one to take if you prefer to go directly to the highest summit.

Otherwise stay on the track to Plesa and now we are on a course directly to the mountain hut (Koca) and the radio masts!

After another exposed corner that is no trouble in good weather, but could be a bit hairy if the wind picks up, as it can do up here, you are in for a big surprise as the track actually goes down a bit into a flat, long forest meadow with raspberries to snack on and you would not guess in a million years if you were dropped here that this is 1,200m up on top of a mountain, but this is the Nanos plateau folks!

You would not believe that this big, flat forest meadow is right on the top of Nanos, about 1,200m up..

By the time you burst though the tree line onto a grassy volleyball court and see the radio masts directly ahead with the big wooden hut snuck away in a corner shielded by trees like a big green golf bunker you will be more than ready for a beer or a bowl of sausage soup, or both!

The most unpredictable thing about Plesa mountain hut "Koca" and many other mountain huts for that matter, is whether they are open and serving food when you rock up and actually need them to be open.

Mountain huts never have a huge choice of meals, but each one is hearty and great value for where you currently standing on the planet..

Generally, even if the website says they are open it is more than worth bringing some emergency sandwiches & water and imagine you will not get some lunch here, treating it as a bonus if you do.

The KOCA, (hut) up here is wonderful, has recently been refurbished and also provides mountain accomodation to hikers, so there is a good chance you will get somehting to eat, but we have been to enough mountain huts mysteriously closed when we were hoping they would be open, so the best advice is not to take them for granted.

Stunning view from the other side of the Nanos Masts of the start of the Mediterranean Vipava Wine Valley far below..

We tucked into a wonderfull gulash and gnocchi lunch and walked around the corner to where the twin masts are literally parked on the edge of the nose and much bigger up close than you might think!

You have deserved the incredible views from up here, back to the Green forests and fields where the Lodge is hidden away and then make sure you also either edge across the ridge by the masts OR walk around the short way back to the hut and across to the other side of the nose, where you will now be facing the Mediterranean and looking down on the Vipava Valley!

So that is it.. We got you up here and now you have to get yourself back down!

Smaller members of the team might enjoy a lift now and then..

On the way back to Strane, if your legs are willing and you have enough time left, (say 2 hours), then you could take that second turn to Suhi Vrh, which is now the first one you will meet, of course and do the loop to Suhi Vrh, then back round to Strane.

If you are not restricted by having a car parked in Strane and needing to return to where your car is parked, you might decide to walk off instead down the main Nanos road from the Hut and join the path down to Razdrto.

This hut map shows the route from Strane beautifully, either keeping LEFT and going to the Masts or taking the loop to Dry Top, Suhi Vrh..

So this article is all about going up to the Plesa masts and back down from Strane, which will be an epic 5-6 hour Green adventure for most of us, which lunch included, by the way, during which, we bumped into just ONE runner on the entire path up and down, so please just make sure you choose a day with good weather and we really hope you are inspired to do this special hike up Nanos..