the BBC tips Green Slovenia!
It is always great to see warm reminders & hot tips pop up, especially from the BBC, recommending visiting the most beautiful little Green country in Europe.. The Green Paradise in which we chose to open our own dream mini hotel!
But we do get a bit frustrated for prospective visitors, when we realise so many of these articles are often a bit paper thin, superficial and "samey samey"..
Have a look for yourself at the latest BBC hot tip off the press, "Where Europe Still Delivers Value this Summer", which could also be interpreted as meaning "cheap places to go this summer"!!!
Well, this article is actually better than most, but still falls into the "samey samey" journalistic traps of stereotyping Green Slovenia as cheap and bigging up the same "often trodden" places that every other article seems to tip from afar.. The result is a "dumbing down" of what is really possible here and indeed we wonder if the journalist has even been to Slovenia?!
If you are lucky enough to find a friend or colleague who has actually been here, then ask them to describe their experience and they will probably tell you how even more beautiful it all was than the photos could ever show and how much smaller and easier it is to get around than you could ever imagine..
But if they then just jibber jabber on about Lake Bled, Ljubljana, the "Alpine" scenery, maybe Piran and the Postojna Cave too, then we would humbly suggest they fell into the same trap as all those well intentioned travel journalists & bloggers and only managed to experience a tiny fraction of what this pocket rocket of a country has to offer, which is quite simply, ALL the best bits about Europe in one tiny package!
What is Good about the Article in our humble opinion..
To start with, anything that introduces even the thread of an idea about visiting Slovenia must be a good thing, as there are so many people in the world who would really enjoy the wonders of a Green holiday here and still do not have any clue about even the basics that are on offer here.
So the article correctly identifies some general themes that prices are really great here and the country is small and easy to get around and yes, it will remind you of Switzerland, there are hardly any crowds and it is incredibly safe & peaceful here..
So from this perspective, great job, many thanks and hopefully it opened your eyes to thinking about having an epic hollibubble here!
This BBC article is painting a broader brush and tipping some other beautiful European countries too, focussing heavily on costs, so it does tend to bang on a bit with some meaningless figures for imaginary museums and coffees..
But we think you need to know more.. A lot more!
Value for Money..
Yep, we recently went to beautiful Switzerland too and were scrathing our heads, wondering why people put up with paying 3 or 4 times more for a coffee that only tastes half as good as the coffee we know you can get here in Green Slovenia!
But you need to know a bit more background to understand Green Slovenia is NOT only a "cheaper" country to live in.. In simple terms, the salaries here are lower, but the quality of people and facilities here are what you might expect in Austria or Switzerland..
So yes, Slovenia does offer incredible value for money. Generally prices will be lower than you have at home, but you will very quickly realise here that the QUALITY everywhere here is much higher too, especially for food, restaurants, wine and Green destinations.. The perfect ingredients for a holiday!
A lot of food is home or locally grown here too and not processed, a fact that particularly impresses our American guests and there are 7 completely different wine regions, producing a tiny amount of fantastic wine that could never be exported, cos it all gets drunk here.. So you have to be here to enjoy it!!
the Uberstunning Beauty..
We immediately decided to come back and live here in Green paradise after our very first visit..
And YES, we also made the same first "mistakes" we will gently remind you now about not making in your first visit by just visiting Bled, Ljubljana, Postojna Cave and Piran, but even these few stunning world class locations were enough for us to notice Slovenia was like a "Little Switzerland with a little Mediterranean Coast" and see how crazy frog easy it is to get around that it totally made sense to open our little hotel here!
But Slovenia is so, so, so much more than even that and we would humbly describe the Sunny side of the Alps as A little country that has EVERYTHING fab about Europe in one small package..
Positioned slap bang in the very centre of Europe, you will get Deja Vue after Deja Vue for so many different European countries in every little corner of Slovenia you are lucky enough to go visit!
Indeed, pretty much every 20 mins you drive here, something changes in the landscape or architecture to give you a different view or pleasantly familiar feeling. The houses might suddenly look more Italian, the food might taste more Austrian, the lake might look more Swiss or the vines suddenly surrounding you might remind you of a favourite French wine region.. but it is ALL Green Slovenia!
Tiny Travel Times..
The BBC article mentions you can get around here in just a few hours drive, but in reality it is EVEN BETTER THAN THAT, cos EVERYTHING worth seeing is MUCH closer than that, especially if you base yourself in a great location and get your logistics right.
You will notice too, (hopefully not too late), but if you get your base camp right, you can easily pick & choose which Green attractions & adventures you will do today based on the weather, traffic and how you feel, rather than where you are stuck for the next two days.
This is why we built our Lodge in the shadow of Mount Nanos in the sunny South West, gateway to the Mediterranean, so riduiculously close to ALL the best bits and if you don't believe us, just look at a map to see the Lodge really does sit in the true logistical centre of Green Slovenia!
MUCH MUCH MORE than Bled, Ljubljana and Piran!
If you only knew how many truly World & European class Green places there were dotted around this tiny country, you would not make the 2 most common mistakes of allocating way too little time for your Slovenian adventures and trying to "Town Hop" around the map, like you would do in other larger countries, when all the best places are outside the towns here!
In fairness, the BBC article does at least also mention Lake Bohinj, which if you can believe it, is even more beautiful than Lake Bled. It also mentions the Julian Alps, but there are 4 Alps in Green Slovenia, so do not also miss the Karavanke, Kamnik and Dinaric Alps.. (Don't worry, you won't, cos they are all around you)!
The article also mentions the unmissabubble Soca River, which we consider the most most beautiful river we have seen in Europe, but of course it does not go into the vital detail that if you are based in Bled or Ljubljana or Piran, then it hardly makes sense to do a day trip to see the best waterfalls and gorges along the Soca river.. An easy daytrip from the Lodge, by the way!
Of course we must advertise our own little hotel with this website, but we have also dedicated it to be packed full of tips and secret Green places in simple plain English as nobody else seems to be doing it for you!
Surprisingly, many locals do not even seem to realise what a stunnigly beautiful country they are lucky enough to live in and like we said, most travel articles seem to continually drone on about the same old places!
You see, by only reading the superficial stuff, you might easily end up sleepwalking around Ljubljana castle, when we could tell you at least 30 way better castle experiences in a country exactly the same size as Wales and with the same amount of castles in all shapes, sizes and conditions!
And you could also be forgiven for thinking there might only be one mega cave worth visiting in Green Slovenia when you see all the marketing for just one particular cave, so we wrote an article about that too, explaining that in our humble opinion, the most visited cave in Europe and still an unmissabubble freak of nature, only comes in at number 8 on our Fave Cave list.. Such is the ridiculously huge & excellent choice of mega caves here in the European capital of Caves!
The BBC article says you might get a Venice vibe in Ljubljana, well we can tell you we never got anything like that, more like a sleepy Prague feeling, but if you want to experience the real thing.. and some of our guests do.. then Venice is just one hour 50 mins directly from the Lodge!
And do not rule out pretty Trieste, an old Slovenian city now on the Italian side of the border, but your one city day out might come to a straight shoot out between Ljubljana or Trieste?
We should also tell you that Ljubljana is a very, very beautiful, very, very small city that you could easily "do" in half a day, perhaps a day if you are non European and want to sample the delights of a mini European capital..
But seriously, most European countries have beautiful capital cities, what they DO NOT have are the multiple Green Wonders of Slovenia, so we are shocked how much of the schedule many visitors unknowingly devote to Ljubljana, when every extra day spent in the big smoke means a day where you will miss seeing a special cave, or waterfall, a secret hike, a bike ride in the forest, a disappearing Lake or numerous other Green posibilities!
So it often becomes a self fulfilling prophesy that the Bleds, Ljubljanas and Pirans can be busy during the summer school holidays, when the hundreds of other places we mention in our SECRET PLACES TO VISIT section can be comparatively empty, NOT cos they are just as amazing, but cos they are simply just unknown!!
We also did a big DAYTRIPS section to help you out, highlighting the sheer amount of different activities you can get up to here, including of course, the big CAVES, CASTLES and LAKES, but also the relatively unknown stuff like the 7 unique Wine REGIONS, the FORTRESS CHURCHES, GORGES, SECRET WW2 PARTISAN FOREST BASES and so, so, so much more than you are being served up to read about everywhere else!
At least you can make your own mind up about what to visit, where to locate and what to do when you have a full picture, but if you want to see some epic vids of Green Slovenian vistas with some classy 1980's music, then get your nearest teenager to tune into TIK TOK for you and look up GREEN SLOVENIA MONKEY, where we post our own vids of this beautiful little country!
We are so sure you could have the best European holiday you might never have thought you could still have in Europe, if you just get your logistics right and Do Not Regionalise Green Slovenia..
So just stay calm.. (but we could totally understand if you actually got very excited) and sensibly plan your Summer holidays in Green Slovenia, with the added knowledge this little Green Paradise is even more deserted and special in April, May, September and October..
And then just have a last think about it.. Why would you taste wine in a city or lake area that doesn't even make wine!!
So we humbly thank the BEEB for drawing your attention to the Wonders & Delights of Green Slovenia and perhaps our fave part of the article was the advice that this is a place where you can pack in so many outdoor activities and that is absolutely on the money!
French Connection en Slovenie