Ljubjana, skiing in Kranjska Gora, Lake Bled, Predjama Castle, and the Postojna Cave. An adventure full of Wonder!

For this trip, we looked up a list of top European ski locations that won’t break the bank. Kranjska Gora, Slovenia came up on the list! Flying into Slovenia was too expensive, so we flew into Venice Treviso airport, which was not far from the Slovenian border. After further research, we created an itinerary to see as much of Slovenia as possible in a 5 day span. 

Ljubljana 
After picking up our rental car, we hit the road! These types of adventures are so fun! We always get a cheap rental car that can fit our backpacks, turn on some local music, and our faces are glued to the windows as we pass all the wonders of the new country.  We always make the kids put their technology away and partake in this exploration.  They’re so used to it that they don’t complain. It was about a 2.5 hour drive to Ljubjana, the capital of Slovenia. We spent a few hours and lunch in the city. We walked to the Ljubljana Castle, which had views of the whole city, a chapel, an open air prison, and the most beautiful medieval stone walls. There was a gentleman dressed in medieval garb, with a very enigmatic personality, writing the names of tourists in calligraphy for a small fee. Needless to say, we have a whole stack of Calligraphy names as souvenirs and we had a great time.  I had lunch of Slovenian Goulash, which came with 2 squares of polenta. I thought the polenta was a nice touch and really showed how close Slovenia is to the Italian border. 

View from Ljubjana Castle

The chapel inside of Ljubjana Castle

The Porratas in Ljubjana

Goulash with Polenta

Lake Bled
From Ljubljana, we drove to Lake Bled. I’ve seen a lot of my friends' adventures in Lake Bled in the spring and summer and they typically involve staying in treehouses near the lake and taking a picturesque boat ride to the church in the middle of the lake, but we were there in the winter, so we enjoyed a brisk walk around the lake and that was it.  The boats were unavailable, so reaching the island with the famous church was not an option. There were several areas to take great photos on our walk and the sky was clear, so it was a nice way to stretch our legs after our road trip. 
***Insider tip:  To get the most out of a visit to Lake Bled, visit in the Spring or Summer.

Kranjska Gora
It was prime time in the ski season when we visited (February), but it was uncharacteristically warm, so snow was mostly manufactured and was melting by 2:00 pm. Any point after 2:00pm, we were skiing on ice. My boys are much less breakable than I am, so we would have lunch every day around 1:00 pm and I would stay and relax at the restaurant at the bottom of the slope, while they continued to ski and snowboard to their heart’s content. I remember it being so warm that I took all of my layers off and got some sun on my arms in my tank top. 

Lunch at the bottom of the slope was on point. We ordered a meat platter each day that came with fresh veggies, sides, and fresh bread. There were old piles of snow that had yet to melt in the middle of the eating area and kids all met up and made houses and tunnels with the hardened snow. I love moments when my kids play with kids from another culture. They may all speak different languages, but in the end they’re all kids and like to play.

The view from our room at the Ramada Inn, Kranjska Gora

Sunny Day Skiing

Meat Platter Lunch

The town of Kranjska Gora itself is clean, beautiful, and has a great little ice rink. We stayed at the Ramada Inn with the ice rink in front. This was nice because we were about ¼ mile away from the lift and our ski rentals. It was less than $5 worth of local currency for the kids to borrow ice skates at the rink.  In Europe, they don’t bleep out cuss words in music. I bring this up, because the music they played while the kids were skating had very explicit lyrics. It made us laugh when the F word was repeated in a techno song over and over again while young children were skating. I have a video of it that I will not post, but this is a cultural difference to be prepared for! We got a kick out of it, but the locals didn’t even seem to notice. We were disappointed in our hotel, so I won’t recommend it. There are actually two Ramada Inns in Kranjska Gora. They put photos from both resorts on both advertisements, instead of showing photos of the resort you will be staying at. The Ramada we didn’t stay at was right AT the ski lift and had an indoor pool and spa, the Ramada we stayed at was a short walk away from the other Ramada and the ski lift. Our Ramada is where the ice rink is. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is when you want to go to the indoor pool and have to walk in snow afterwards back to your hotel.  Also, we didn’t anticipate having to walk with our ski boots on to the lift, because the photos showed the lift was right outside of the hotel. It was frustrating to say the least, but we rolled with it.

Predjama Castle
On our last day, our flight out of Venice Treviso was in the evening, so we ate breakfast at our hotel and hit the road! When looking for places to stop on our way back to Venice, I found a medieval castle perched on a 123 meter high cliff and all of it is carved into a mountain, complete with caves. It’s called Predjama Castle.  Yes please!  We were limited on time, so we only got to see the castle from the outside. There were guard towers carved into the mountain on the side of the castle. It was so incredibly impressive to see! There is a romantic legend that a knight stayed at the castle during an army siege for a year. Apparently there is more to the story, including a secret tunnel and a love story, all tied to this magnificent castle.

Predjama Castle

Predjama Castle Watch Tower

Postojna Cave
From Predjama Castle, it was just a few minute drive to the Postojna Caves.  It was about $25/child and $40 per adult for tickets to just tour the cave. The subterranean cave system is shaped by tiny droplets over millions of years.  We jumped on a train, along a 3.7 km track under ground as part of the tour. Once we made it to the halfway point, deep in the tunnels, we received a tour and walked around looking at the different formations. There was even a ‘baby dragon,’ which is a cave dwelling animal that can go without food for up to 10 years. We got to peak at them in a tank.  It was super cool to see! 

The mouth of the Postojna Cave System

The Porrata Tribe on the Cave Train

Our family loved our Slovenian adventure. We were sore from skiing, our bellies were full of good, hearty food, and our hearts were fulfilled with our castle and cave adventure! The only thing I would have wished for to make it perfect would be more snow and more time, but we can’t have it all!

Onto the next adventure:  The islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino….hiking, salt mines, and history!