To drive or not to drive.. that is the question..

You don't necessarily need a car to have weeks of fun in the heart of the Slovenian countryside. We are talking from experience, as we already had many couples and families who have tried this out and had a great time without a car!

The message is getting out there and more of our guests are coming without a car, maybe renting one for a few days or even arriving by car, but then hiking most days from the Lodge!

We are absolutely surrounded by different types of hiking possibilities here.. so much so we have our own Lodge Walks page AND another more general Hiking page..

One lovely German couple came for a week and went hiking every single day.. only for a few of those days did they even drive a few km with their car to start a hike nearby and that was only when we really persuaded them that such stunning places like local Rakov Skocjan were so unbelievably beautiful, that they just couldn't afford to miss hiking them!

OK, the logistics first.. If you arrive at Postojna bus or train stations, (just 8km from Lipizzaner Lodge), we will pick you up for free. We can also pick you up from the local airports or Ljubljana train station, (you will have to pay a fee for longer pick ups and drop offs.. of course), but the point is.. you can get to the heart of the Slovenian countryside without your own car!

Think about going off with a Local Guide for a day or two during your stay..

We cannot tell you how varied and fantastic the scenery is here in Green Slovenia and there are guides who could easily pick you up and take you off for further hikes, tours.. almost anything of a Green nature, (hope you like the pun)!

Having travelled around the world ourselves, we know the incredible value and adventure of taking local transport & guides, but we noticed here in Slovenia, foreign guests seem to be nervous of doing this.. we really hope the reason isn't being just too tight to cough up some cash!

Guides here are excellent value for money, can drive you around and will show you stuff here that you really wouldn't find or even know about on your own..

You don't necessarily need a lift to the most visited cave in Europe at Postojna or the most unique castle in the world at Predjama, cos you can walk directly to both of these from the Lodge!

Free bus in the summer from Postojna cave to Predjama castle:

And there is a free bus that goes between the Postojna cave and Predjama castle in the summer for people who are visiting them that day.. So it is perfectly possible to walk to the cave after breakfast, visit the cave, then hop on the free bus to Predjama castle, visit the castle and walk back on the secret forest trail to the Lodge in time for tea.. wow what a day!

Hiking
Landol is surrounded by endless stony tracks in every direction. From our front door, you can go for a different walk every day of the week. There are routes into the forest, to the river, into the countryside and up into the mountains.

There are also lots of different tracks and ways to get to Predjama castle and some longer routes to even walk to the Postojna cave.. 

Hiker's routes..

And if that wasn't enough, Landol also sits on or near several routes used by hikers from all over Europe..

The old Roman road that later became an even more important Carters road for transporting huge timbers all the way from the Slovenian forests to Venice goes straight through Landol!

And Nanos mountain marks the start of the Dinaric hiking path AND the Alpe Adrija route also goes past..

Would you believe it, we are also on a link of the St James pilgrim road from Zagreb to Spain! You can walk along this secretly marked route following yellow arrows along the same path that has been traversed for centuries from Predjama castle all the way to the foot of our local Nanos mountain, or combine smaller sections of this route with other walks.

So we are used to looking after hikers and bikers on longer adventures crossing central Europe..

You can mix & match the routes for longer or shorter, easy or more difficult hikes. We are confident we can find a special route for everyone.

You could stand on the guest balcony at Lipizzaner Lodge and see we are surrounded by local mountains and you point at the one you fancy in the morning and hike up it the same day!

Slightly further afield, you have pretty much every hiking choice available in Europe, whether it be larger mountains, lakes, rivers, hilltop villages, pretty cities, vineyards, coast, forest or valleys.. Please just see our Daytrips section for more ideas.

Biking..

You can rent a mountain bike or an E Bike from the Lodge to get a little bit further on your day's adventures.. whetehr it be just getting to one of the local restaurants or the castle or going much further afield with an E Bike on some really exciting routes we have for you!

With a bike or E bike you can go much further than on two legs, so even more options are available to you.. maybe think about a day at Cerknica the biggest disappearing lake in Europe, or taking the old Carters road to Planina cave and Rapunzels castle or maybe a trip to the uberstunning Rakov Skocjan..You could also do an amazing E Bike ride from the Lodge over Nanos mountain to the neighbouring Vipava valley!

We have a whole Biking page so please check it our for more info and ideas!

Other Activities..

All our other activities, including horse riding, paragliding, wine visits and lots of other stuff are available to you. Please find out more in our Activities section.

Train..

We can drop you off at Postojna train station in the morning and pick you up in the evening no probs. Slovenian trains are modern and usually quite empty. The tree lined countryside routes, through tunnels with views of the mountains in the distance are more like a tourist train.. a bonus Green Slovenian tour for the price of a train ticket!

You would have to pay a little extra to be dropped off at Trieste train station, but, wow, you could, yes, you really could, take the train to Venice from Trieste for the day! Trieste station is a 35 minute drop off from here and the train takes you directly to the main island of Venice where you have plenty of time for lunch, sightseeing and an ice cream, before returning home in the evening!

Relax..

And you don't have to go whizzing around every day. We have plenty of places and terraces where you can do much ado about nothing at the Lodge!

Our aim is to be your home from home, so you will find our library filled with mighty good reads, chess sets brought from all around the world and maybe even on your twelfth night at the Lodge, you could borrow one of our collection of 1,300 classic movies!

We have a Finnish sauna, cafe and cinema room for your relaxation and balconies & terraces available all over the place to hide from the sunshine or to enjoy it!

Eating Options

We offer a 3 course home cooked evening meal each day with glass of local wine for €20 per person, kids portions half price. So you can do half board every day if you like.

But there are also 5 or 6 very local restaurants offering a real variety of choice that we recommend you go visit and if you don't have a car, we will drop you off at any of them and pick you up for free. (All are within 5 - 10 minutes by car). 

Walk or Cycle to the Local Restaurant..

Even better, you can build your day's activity around your main meal of the day by hiking or biking along some of our special paths, avoiding the main road, to your choice of these local restaurants!

And after the meal, all is well that ends well.. for hikers, we can pick you up afterwards, if don't want to walk back or it will be too dark. For cyclists, we give you a "reduced restaurant rate" to borrow a bike and directions along these stunning stony tracks & quiet country roads to your restaurant of choice.

Rent an E Car by the day..

And so far, you haven't even gotten yourself behind a steering wheel! But there are some trips that you might prefer to have the independence of your own car for. So if you do want to rent a car for a day, a couple of days, or more, then you have the option here to rent a car by the day. 

Even better we have 2 new overnight car elec rechargers now at the Lodge and we hope to have an elec car to rent out to guests! Maybe you want to whizz noiselessly down to the coast for a day or visit a lake in the Alps on your own?

There will be no comedy of errors waiting in queues for your car at the airport, no extra charge for the vignette sticker.. first come first served.

Airport Pick Ups..

Here is our charging structure for longer Pick ups and Drop offs, we try to be fair and transparent, so you know how much your longer rides would cost..

We charge you the lowest possible price we can for your pick up. This is the cost of fuel plus €20 per driver hour, (so for example, Ljubljana airport is approx 1 hour to the airport and 1 hour driving you back = 2 hours, so the cost each way would be €40 + fuel €15 = €55 ). There are lots of airports to choose from, so please check our pick up price with us at info@lipizzanerlodge.com

If we pick you up in the Elec car then there is no fuel cost as we have solar panels on our stable roof at the Lodge to make use of all the sunshine we get here and to help the environment!

And we can also recommend some excellent minibus operators who specialise in airport shuttles or more complex trips.. the trick is to plan and book ahead!

SO we hope you can see that we really want to help and encourage visitors to Green Slovenia to Go Greener and leave the car behind.. and we have plenty of cheaper greener options for you to spend the cash you have saved on and to have a really fun holiday..