It’s been a crazy year and an even crazier season, hiking and climbing in the beautiful Slovenian mountains. We’ve hit that dusty, muddy and even snowy trail countless times and have seen anything from the big elusive ibexes, mesmerizing sunrises and sunsets, to the cutest playful marmots. We’ve sweated together on steep slopes, tried to escape big thunderstorms, dipped into the freezing cold Soča river, enjoyed exposed climbs, and listened to relaxing music on our rides to the mountains. Those short moments together truly connected us into unique friendships.
It’s not easy to pick my personal favorite mountain tours of 2024, especially since grading cannot be based solely on the trails and beauty of the views, but also on quite coincidental factors like the weather, hut life, sparks within the groups, food and other well-being factors. All in all, of all incredible hikes and climbs we’ve shared, here are Exploring Slovenia’s five best mountain trips of 2024!
Set in one of Slovenia’s most beautiful locations, on a large alpine plateau called Velika Planina, these comfortable cabins run by Alpine Resorts are only a short hike away from the nearest parking lot or chair lift, and the area offers various hiking options.
As the sun was announcing a new day, coming out shyly from behind the mountains, the old shepherds’ settlement of 64 enchanting oval wooden huts lit up in the most vibrant colors. First, the sun stroked the topmost huts, each inside a cute wooden fence where the cows used to rest after grazing. Then slowly the whole settlement lit up and the first purple spring flowers playfully brightened the freshly green meadows. A glimpse of heaven, I thought.
Here are twenty photos and a story about how we tackled to climb Mangart. Enjoy!
Beautiful and rugged, the Julian Alps have unbelievable charm. Towering mountains, boulders scattered along long scree slopes under unforgiving crumbly limestone walls, streams plunging into sudden gorges. Yet in between all that, you’ll find soft sun-stroked meadows which explode with colorful wild flowers in the summer, enchanting forests and high peaks with hypnotic views. The northwestern Julian Alps might even be the most photogenic corner of the Slovenian mountains, and Mangart, the third highest peak of Slovenia, together with the highest road to its Mangart Saddle at 2,055 meters their very best gems.
As we were driving towards the mountains, the soft morning light, caught in the forested slopes of the Karavanke mountains on the right and the craggy peaks of the Julian Alps on the left, added to the vibrancy of a beautiful autumn day. The contrast between the freshly covered snow-capped peaks and the explosion of colors in the forest lower down was mesmerizing. Anything from virgin white to bright green, red, yellow and orange-brown, all set against a clear blue sky with an occasional streak of fog still lingering in the fresh air. The kind of perfection that can only be seen right after a good long downpour.
The most beautiful view of the Julian Alps from Srednji Vrh , a tiny village located 7 km from Kranjska Gora
As an owner of a touring agency and a mountain guide I feel fortunate to be able to do many mountain climbs and hikes in Slovenia and see beautiful hard-to-reach places that many only dream about. Whether it’s a daring ascent of Triglav, the highest Slovenian mountain, wandering among colorful meadows in the beautifully remote mountains above Jezersko, or a dreamy hike in the hills around Lake Bled. We’ve done all of them together and it’s been pretty damn awesome.
This past summer, Tracey, a wonderful gal from Australia, whom I shared two great via Ferratas with, asked me if I ever influence people’s decisions about which tour to select. Put aside professional decision making to suggest an appropriate mountain tour based on people’s skills and experience, I most definitely do. To be honest, I always try to push a bit of my own hiking wishes into the decision process and that is not necessarily a bad thing either. Our clients end up visiting all the best places in any given moment of the season.
When flowers bloom in the mountains, we do the most beautiful loops among fragile daffodils, crocuses, wild orchids, gentians, edelweiss and many others. When an abundance of rainfall fills the enchanting Triglav Lakes up to the brim and sometimes even over, we absolutely skip other hikes and go there instead. When it’s time to do a breathtaking via Ferrata in the mountains, we climb Mala Mojstrovka, but when we want a challenging via Ferrata, we go for the bold climb to Gradiška Tura even if the drive takes much longer than the mainstream ones nearby. Given the fact that I’ve been going around Slovenian mountains for a couple of decades, I can confidently say that those who have trusted Exploring Slovenia so far have not been disappointed. Biased or not.
To prove that, here are ten highlights of our best mountain hikes and climbs in the summer season 2023. Enjoy!
To be quite honest, I had been eyeing this peak for years. A moderately demanding day hike in the Julian Alps, whose peak opens up to absolutely stunning views of a lake. Mt. Jerebica is a beautiful hike throughout, but its top will literally blow your mind away as it faces the 1,400-m long and 400-m wide glacial Rabeljsko Jezero (Eng. Lake of Predil) from a thousand meters above. Yet, as much as I devote my life to the mountains, Jerebica has always managed to slip by somehow. A couple of years ago I even attempted to hike it but failed badly due to the lack of preparation. Yes, one wrong turn right at the beginning of the trail can eventually lead you into a maze of wide and deep Karst holes and cracks instead of taking you to the comfortable grass-covered peak with a view of a turquoise lake. However, once I did manage to climb Jerebica – I was not disappointed!
Here’s what you need to know about the hike in the Julian Alps above a beautiful lake.
As the season turns around and we are suddenly faced with high temperatures and lots of hot sun, it’s nice to look back and daydream about the awesome mountain adventures you’ve done in the past months. Due to a colder start of the spring, the nature remained in its snooze mode for a couple of weeks longer this year, but once it finally did wake up, it was freaking insane! I’d never seen so many daffodils in the mountains before, nor had the mid-elevation peaks looked so lush and verdant in early June.
Let’s go through the most memorable mountain hikes in Slovenia (and one awesome climb!) that we explored together this spring.
There’s that special moment in the year when we get to see two seasons overlap. Lively birds singing, trees blossoming and the first flowers announcing the arrival of warmer spring days down in the valleys. However, higher up in the mountains the strong north winds and freezing temperatures still hold a firm hold over the white mountaintops. The best of spring and winter in the great outdoors is right here, it’s just a matter of us grasping it or not.
To that extent I’ve been fortunate to walk endless greening meadows speckled with wild marsh tulips, hike along rolling hills carpeted with purple crocuses, and see the trees coming into leaf along a vibrant small gorge. Over a thousand meters higher, on the other hand, I enjoyed snowshoeing in half a meter of fresh snow up to incredible mountain peaks, while also climbing safely to a white peak with views of both Slovenia and Austria.
Here are five memorable spring hikes in the Slovenian Alps and the hillside close to Ljubljana that I’ve done; some you can do easily with your family and friends, and some are preferably reserved for the more experienced hikers or in company of a certified guide. Either way, enjoy the pictures and the gorgeous first days of spring and the last of winter!
After a long summer, spent mostly guiding in the mountains, it’s nice to just sit back and look at how the sun lures hikers out and about while the rain again sends them back into the comfort of home. The fast every day work – life routine changes for a couple of hours or, if we are lucky, days, and we get to rush outside to enjoy ourselves. It feels almost like pressure to maximize a sunny weekend, collecting memories which will undoubtedly fade rather sooner than later in this rushed way of life.
Instead, breathe in and take a step back. Go outdoors to recharge, to soak up the tranquility of mother nature and its wonderful creations, and to return back home feeling positive and energized.
Hidden behind a long Alpine valley and a gorge with plummeting waterfalls and a winding narrow road going through rock-carved tunnels, is the high and steep eastern part of the Košuta massif. Measuring ten kilometers in length, Košuta is the longest mountain in Slovenia that boasts twelve peaks of over 2K meters. If the western side of the massif is popular with hikers due to its accessibility and relatively easy trails, among frequently visited peaks being Mt. Kofce and Veliki Vrh, the eastern side seems more remote and mysterious. Read about a beautiful sunset in the mountains on the top of Mt. Košutnikov Turn.
What a gorgeous sunset in the Karavanke Alps! Photo by Rok Leben
