Slovenia active: the Julian Alps, Lake Bled, Bohinj and Soča rafting

1. Day 1: Arrive in Ljubljana

   Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU) to your hotel in Ljubljana, then on foot in the old town

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Ljubljana
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU), about 25 km north of the capital. A driver meets you in arrivals on the day you land (pick-up times subject to ops confirmation) and takes you about half an hour into the centre, to a hotel within about 10 minutes' walk of Prešeren Square. In the late afternoon your See Sight Tours guide meets the group and leads an easy first walk of about an hour and a half to stretch travel legs: the Triple Bridge, Plečnik's riverside market colonnade, the Dragon Bridge and the old-town lanes under the castle hill. Most of the centre is closed to cars, so it is a gentle start on flat streets. Back at the hotel the guide runs through the week: which five days are the active ones, how long each walk and drive is, what to wear for rafting, and where the free afternoons fall. Then we walk to a welcome dinner of Slovenian dishes, with a glass of wine from the country's own vineyards.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU)
   • Guided walk in Ljubljana's old town: the Triple Bridge, the market colonnade and the Dragon Bridge
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner in Ljubljana

   Free time: Free until the late-afternoon walk

   Activity: Plan to land by about 3 pm to join the walk; later arrivals are met and join the group at dinner.

   

2. Day 2: Vintgar Gorge and a row on Lake Bled

   Ljubljana to Vintgar Gorge, on foot and back to Podhom, then Bled and the lake

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Bled
   Day 2 details

   We leave Ljubljana at 8:30 and drive about 50 minutes north to Vintgar Gorge, on a timed entry slot of about 9:30 booked ahead, before the late-morning crowds. Wooden boardwalks and bridges run about 1.6 km along the Radovna river between limestone walls to the Šum waterfall. The boardwalk is one way only, so from the waterfall a marked forest path climbs over the hill past the church of St Catherine and drops back to the Podhom entrance, about two hours on foot in all with stops. The van meets us there and takes us ten minutes on to our hotel in Bled, a short walk from the lake. After lunch on your own by the water, we row ourselves to Bled Island in traditional wooden rowing boats, three or four to a boat, taking turns at the oars. Climb the 99 steps to the Church of the Assumption and pull the bell rope for a wish, then row back. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Vintgar Gorge entry on a timed slot
   • Guided walk through Vintgar Gorge and back to Podhom by St Catherine's church
   • Rowing boat hire on Lake Bled
   • Church of the Assumption on Bled Island

   Optional experiences

   • Bled Castle (extra, price shown at booking)

   Easier option: Walk the boardwalk only and take the shorter path back to Podhom, and take a pletna, the oarsman-rowed canopied boat, to the island instead of rowing.

   More active option: Before dinner, climb to the Ojstrica or Mala Osojnica viewpoint above the lake's west end (steep, about an hour return).

   Free time: Lunch on your own; evening free

   Activity: Active day: about 2 hours and 5 km on foot with a climb of about 150 m on the return path, then about an hour rowing at your own pace. The gorge boardwalk is one way, from the Podhom entrance to the Šum waterfall. Vintgar is open from spring to autumn on timed tickets; we confirm the slot and the return path for your dates.

   

3. Day 3: The Pokljuka plateau

   Bled to Rudno Polje on the Pokljuka plateau and back

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Bled
   Day 3 details

   A short drive of about 35 minutes climbs from Bled through spruce forest to Rudno Polje, at about 1,340 m on the Pokljuka plateau, inside Triglav National Park. We leave at 8:30 to be walking while it is cool. The main hike goes out and back by the same path, about four hours on forest tracks and paths to the high summer pastures of Zajamniki, a row of wooden herders' huts with Triglav, at 2,864 m the highest mountain in Slovenia, rising behind them, and on to Uskovnica, a wide meadow below the peaks. Cows still graze here from early summer, and the huts are used by the families who take them up. Lunch is a sit-down meal at a mountain hut on the pastures, with local cheese if the herders are making it. We are back in Bled by mid-afternoon. The rest of the day is free: swim from the lakeshore, walk the flat 6 km path around the lake, or try the cream cake the town is known for.

   Included

   • Guided hike on the Pokljuka plateau: Rudno Polje, Zajamniki and Uskovnica
   • Sit-down lunch at a mountain hut

   Easier option: A shorter walk of about 2 hours from Rudno Polje to Zajamniki and back, meeting the group for lunch by van.

   More active option: Climb Viševnik, at 2,050 m, from Rudno Polje instead (about 3.5 hours return, about 700 m of ascent on rocky path), and join the group for lunch.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in Bled

   Activity: Active day: about 4 hours and 12 km on foot, out and back, with about 400 m of ascent and descent on forest tracks and paths. Hiking boots or trail shoes with grip. Mountain huts on the pastures open in summer; we confirm lunch for your dates.

4. Day 4: Lake Bohinj: the Vogel ridge and Savica

   Bled to Lake Bohinj, the Vogel cable car and the Savica waterfall

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Bohinj
   Day 4 details

   Half an hour up the Sava Bohinjka valley brings us to Lake Bohinj, the largest permanent lake in Slovenia, with almost no building on its shore. We leave luggage at our hotel at Ribčev Laz, the east end, and drive about 10 minutes along the shore to Ukanc at the west end, where the Vogel cable car lifts us from about 570 m to about 1,535 m in a few minutes. From the top the whole lake lies below, with Triglav across the valley on a clear day. Our walk follows the ski slopes and then a path along the ridge towards Orlove glave and, for those who want it, the grassy top of Šija at about 1,880 m, where the view runs west towards Italy. Allow about three hours up there. Back down at Ukanc we sit down to lunch by the lake. Then, for those who want it, we drive a few minutes further up the valley to the Savica waterfall, which drops about 78 m out of the limestone, reached by about 500 steps through the forest; anyone who has walked enough is dropped at the hotel first. The evening is free by the lake.

   Included

   • Vogel cable car return
   • Guided ridge walk from the Vogel top station towards Orlove glave and Šija
   • Sit-down lunch at Lake Bohinj
   • Savica waterfall entry (optional on the day)

   Easier option: Stay near the top station with a coffee and the view, or walk the level path along the lake shore while the others are on the ridge; skip Savica and rest at the hotel.

   More active option: Go on to the top of Šija, about 1,880 m, on a steep grassy path (adds about an hour).

   Free time: Evening free in Bohinj

   Activity: Active day: about 3 hours and 8 km on the ridge with about 350 m of ascent, plus, if you choose it, about an hour and 500 steps at Savica. The Vogel cable car runs summer hours and closes in strong wind or for servicing; we confirm it for your date, and if it is shut we walk the Mostnica gorge instead.

   

5. Day 5: Over the Vršič Pass to the Soča valley

   Bohinj to Kranjska Gora, over the Vršič Pass to Trenta and Bovec

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Bovec
   Day 5 details

   This is a travel day with short walks, not one of the five active days, and about 3 hours at the wheel and about 130 km, in stretches of an hour or less. We leave Bohinj at 8:30 and drive back past Bled and up the Sava valley to Kranjska Gora, with a stop at Lake Jasna below the peaks. Then the road climbs the Vršič Pass, at 1,611 m the highest road pass in Slovenia, on hairpins that are numbered all the way up. Near the top is the wooden Russian Chapel, built by Russian prisoners of war who were building this road in 1916, in memory of comrades killed by an avalanche. At the pass there is time for a short walk to a viewpoint. We wind down into the Trenta valley, stop at the source of the Soča for those who want the short, steep climb to it, and reach Bovec by mid-afternoon. Lunch is on the way at your own choice, and the evening is free in Bovec.

   Included

   • Drive over the Vršič Pass with your guide, with stops at Lake Jasna, the Russian Chapel and the top of the pass
   • Stop in the Trenta valley at the source of the Soča

   Easier option: Stay at the vehicle at each stop; every viewpoint is a few minutes from the road.

   More active option: Climb the short, steep path with cables to the Soča spring (about 20 minutes each way).

   Free time: Lunch on your own; evening free in Bovec

   Activity: Leave Bohinj at 8:30; in Bovec by about 3 pm. The Vršič road has 50 hairpins; if you get car-sick, sit at the front and tell your guide. If snow or a storm closes the pass, we drive round through Italy by the Predel Pass, which adds about an hour.

   

6. Day 6: Rafting the Soča

   Bovec, on the Soča river

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Bovec
   Day 6 details

   The Soča runs a clear blue-green over white limestone, and the stretch below Bovec is one of the best-known rafting rivers in the Alps. In the morning we go out with a licensed local rafting company: wetsuits, boots, helmets and life jackets are supplied, and their skippers give the safety briefing on the bank. Then we paddle about 8 to 10 km of grade II to III water, with rapids, gates of rock and calm pools where you can swim if you can stand the cold, about an hour and a half to two hours on the river and about three and a half hours in all with kitting up. The water is about 8 to 12 °C even in summer, so the wetsuit matters. Back in Bovec we have lunch on our own, and the afternoon is free: a nap, a coffee on the square, or an easy walk with the guide to the viewpoint below the Boka waterfall, which drops out of a cliff above the valley.

   Included

   • Soča rafting, grade II to III, with a licensed local rafting company and all equipment
   • Guided afternoon walk to the Boka waterfall viewpoint

   Optional experiences

   • Canyoning or a zipline in the Bovec area (extra, price shown at booking)

   Easier option: Skip the raft and walk the riverside path to the Virje waterfall near Plužna with the guide instead (about 2 hours, gentle).

   More active option: Paddle a smaller inflatable kayak, two to a boat, if the rafting company runs them on your date (price difference shown at booking).

   Free time: Lunch on your own; afternoon and evening free

   Activity: Active day: about 3.5 hours with the rafting company. You need to be comfortable in water and able to swim; age and weight limits are set by the rafting company and confirmed at booking. Rafting runs from spring to autumn; very high or very low water can change the stretch.

   

7. Day 7: A stage of the Soča Trail and Kobarid

   Bovec to the Trenta valley, on foot down the Soča, then Kobarid

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Bovec
   Day 7 details

   We drive half an hour back up the Trenta valley at 8:30 and walk a stage of the Soča Trail downstream, about 10 km and three and a half hours on a mostly level or gently falling path. It crosses the river on small suspension bridges and stays within sight of the green river most of the way, ending at the Great Soča Gorge near the village of Soča, where the water has cut a slot only a few metres wide. The van meets us there. After lunch together in Kobarid, about 25 minutes south of Bovec, we spend about an hour and a half in the Kobarid Museum, which tells the story of the Isonzo Front of the First World War, where Italian and Austro-Hungarian armies fought in these mountains from 1915 until the breakthrough at Kobarid, called Caporetto in Italian, in 1917; Ernest Hemingway set part of A Farewell to Arms here. We are back in Bovec by late afternoon, and in the evening the group meets for a farewell dinner.

   Included

   • Guided walk on the Soča Trail from the Trenta valley to the Great Soča Gorge
   • Sit-down lunch in Kobarid
   • Kobarid Museum entry
   • Farewell dinner in Bovec

   Easier option: Walk only the last 4 km of the stage to the Great Soča Gorge, about an hour and a half; the van drops you where the trail meets the road.

   More active option: Walk on from Kobarid to the Kozjak waterfall in its rock chamber, about an hour return, while the others finish the museum.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Bovec

   Activity: Active day: about 3.5 hours and 10 km on foot with short climbs, roots and suspension bridges; the bridges sway, and each has a way round for anyone who prefers not to cross. The museum is about 1.5 hours.

   

8. Day 8: Back to Ljubljana and home

   Bovec to Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU) or central Ljubljana

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   The trip ends after breakfast. We leave Bovec at 8:30 and drive about two and a half hours to Ljubljana, down the Soča past Tolmin and over the hills by Idrija, with a coffee stop on the way. Only if that road is closed do we go round by the Predel Pass and Kranjska Gora, which takes about 3 hours. We reach Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU) by about 11 am, then central Ljubljana, where the guide says goodbye. The easiest flights leave after about 2 pm; if yours is earlier we arrange a separate, earlier transfer. If you are staying on, a night or two in Ljubljana gives you time for the castle, the Central Market and the river at an easy pace. If you want more of Slovenia, our other Slovenia trip adds Postojna Cave, Predjama Castle and Piran on the coast, and we can quote extra nights when you request to book.

   Included

   • Drop-off at Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU) or in central Ljubljana

   Optional experiences

   • Extra nights in Ljubljana or Bovec (quoted on request)

   Free time: Early morning free in Bovec

   Activity: Book a flight after about 2 pm to travel with the group transfer.

Wildlife and weather: June has full waterfalls at Vintgar, Savica and Boka, high water on the Soča and late snow on the high peaks; July and August are warm and busiest at Bled; September is settled and quieter, with lower, gentler water for rafting. Afternoon thunderstorms are common in the mountains in summer, so the hikes start in the morning. If low cloud hides the view, we swap the Pokljuka and Vogel days. On the pastures you may see marmots near Vogel and grazing cattle at Zajamniki.

• Ljubljana1 night
• Bled2 nights
• Bohinj1 night
• Bovec3 nights