Slovenia: Ljubljana, Lake Bled, the Julian Alps and Piran

Fly into Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU), about 25 km north of the city. 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. If you are coming overland from Venice, Vienna or Zagreb instead, tell us and we arrange a meeting point. The hotel is central, about 10 minutes' walk or less from Prešeren Square (confirmed with the hotel when we name it), so the rest of the day is on foot: the old town lines both banks of the green Ljubljanica river under the castle hill, and most of it is closed to cars. Rest, or wander out for coffee on the embankment.

Free time: Free until the evening briefing

Activity: Plan to land by about 4 pm to reach the briefing; later arrivals are met and given a catch-up by the guide.

We start at 9 am at the Central Market, while the stalls of cheese, honey, mushrooms and flowers are still filling, under the long riverside colonnade designed by the architect Jože Plečnik. His bridges, embankments and squares shaped this city between the wars, and in 2021 UNESCO listed his works in Ljubljana. From the market we walk to the Dragon Bridge of 1901 with its four green dragons, then back across his Triple Bridge to Prešeren Square, through the old-town lanes to the Cobblers' Bridge and the Town Hall.

Easier option: Ride the funicular both ways and skip the tower stairs.

More active option: Walk up to the castle by the footpath from the old town instead of the funicular (about 20 minutes, steep).

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

Activity: About 3 hours on foot on flat streets and cobbles. The Central Market runs Monday to Saturday, so this day never falls on a Sunday.

We leave Ljubljana at 8:30 and drive about 50 minutes north to Vintgar Gorge, just outside Bled. Wooden boardwalks and bridges of about 1.6 km follow the Radovna river between limestone walls to the Šum waterfall at the far end.

Easier option: Skip Vintgar and walk part of the flat 6 km path around Lake Bled instead, meeting the group for lunch.

More active option: Before dinner, walk up to the Mala Osojnica viewpoint above the lake's west end for the classic view of the island and castle (steep, about an hour return).

Free time: Lunch on your own; evening free

Activity: Leave Ljubljana at 8:30. About 1.6 km and an hour and a half in the gorge on boardwalks with some steps, and the 99 steps on the island. Vintgar is open from spring to autumn with timed tickets; we confirm the slot for your dates. The hotel is within about 10 minutes' walk of the lake, confirmed with the hotel.

Half an hour up the Sava Bohinjka valley brings us to Lake Bohinj, the largest permanent lake in Slovenia and the heart of Triglav National Park, the country's only national park. It is quieter than Bled, with mountains rising straight from the water and almost no building on the shore. We stop first at the stone bridge at Ribčev Laz and the small Church of St John the Baptist, its walls painted with medieval frescoes. Then we drive to the far end of the lake, where the Vogel cable car lifts us to about 1,500 m. On a clear day you look down on the whole lake and across to Triglav, at 2,864 m the highest mountain in Slovenia.

Easier option: A level walk along the shore of Lake Bohinj and coffee by the water while the others climb to Savica.

More active option: The path to the Savica waterfall, about 500 steps up through the forest to a viewpoint over the falls (about an hour and a half return).

Free time: Evening free in Bled

Activity: The Vogel cable car closes for short maintenance spells; if it is shut or the top is in cloud, we take a boat across Lake Bohinj instead.

This is the longest driving day, about four hours at the wheel in all, which is our daily cap, so we break it into stretches of 45 minutes or less. We leave Bled at 8:30 for Kranjska Gora and Lake Jasna, then climb 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. From the pass we wind down into the Trenta valley and spend about an hour walking beside the Soča, a river so green it looks dyed, at the Great Soča Gorge.

Easier option: See the Soča from the viewpoints by the road instead of the gorge walk; every stop is a few minutes from the vehicle.

More active option: Walk a section of the Soča Trail downstream from the gorge to meet the vehicle (about an hour, gentle with some roots and steps).

Free time: Evening free in Bled

Activity: Leave Bled at 8:30; back about 5 pm. The Vršič road has 50 hairpins; if you get car-sick, sit at the front and tell your guide. The pass is normally clear of snow from late May or June to autumn; if snow or a storm closes it on your date, this day becomes Kranjska Gora, Lake Jasna and the Planica valley, and we tell you before you travel.

We leave Bled at 8:30 and drive about an hour and ten minutes south, past Ljubljana into the Karst, to Postojna Cave, booked ahead on the 10 am tour (11 am if that is full). An electric train runs several kilometres into the hill, then a local cave guide walks us about 1.5 km on paved paths through halls of stalactites and stalagmites, to the tank where you can see the olm, a blind, pale salamander that lives in the underground waters of this karst. Allow about an hour and a half inside, at about 10 °C all year, so bring a layer. Ten minutes away, Predjama Castle stands in the mouth of a cave halfway up a 123 m cliff, the stronghold of the 15th-century knight Erazem, who held out here under siege.

Easier option: See Predjama from the meadow below and wait at the cafe while the others climb the castle stairs.

Free time: Evening free in Piran

Activity: Leave Bled at 8:30. About an hour and a half and 1.5 km on foot in the cave, with some slopes and wet floors, then about an hour and steep stairs in the castle. Piran's old town is closed to most traffic, so we walk the last few minutes to the hotel, in or beside the old town and within about 10 minutes' walk of Tartini Square (confirmed with the hotel).

At 9 am, before the day visitors arrive, a licensed local guide walks us through Piran, a town that was Venetian from 1283 to 1797 and still looks it. We start on Tartini Square, once the inner harbour, filled in and paved in the 1890s, where a statue of the violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini, born here in 1692, faces a red Venetian Gothic house. Narrow lanes climb from there to the Church of St George on its ridge above the sea; climb its bell tower, modelled on St Mark's in Venice, for the view along the coast to Croatia and, on a clear day, the Alps. We finish on the old town walls on the hill above, with the roofs of Piran laid out below. After about three hours with the guide, the rest of the day is free: swim off the rocks at the Punta lighthouse, walk to Portorož, or take a taxi to the Sečovlje salt pans.

Easier option: Stay on the level around Tartini Square and the harbour and skip the bell tower and the walls.

More active option: Walk the seafront path to Portorož and on along the Parenzana, the old railway line now a cycle and walking path (about 2 hours one way, flat).

Free time: Lunch on your own; afternoon free

Activity: About 3 hours on foot with the guide from 9 am, with steep lanes, the narrow bell-tower stairs and steps up to the walls; each can be skipped.

Free time: Early morning free in Piran

Activity: Book a flight after about 1 pm to travel with the group transfer.