To be completely transparent, Slovenia wasn’t even on the radar until I started planning a Northern Italy road trip. But, it is so close and easy to get to that once I started looking into all that it had to offer, it became the part of the trip I was most excited for. A couple of friends jumped onboard and thus began our Slovenian hiking adventure.

The northwest part of Slovenia is covered by the Alps and the Triglav National Park. The park is one of the oldest in Europe and covers 4% of the landmass of Slovenia, pretty big for a park. So after our Italian lake region fun, hiking through the Julian alps sounded perfect. Both fortunately and unfortunately, there a million ways to choose a route, which makes it hard to narrow down options and even harder to find blogs and info on a 3 day moderate hike like we were looking for. Soooo I figured I’d make one.

I found the itinerary for ‘the seven lakes’ hike that’s offered by a tour company for wayyyy more money than we did it for, searched for huts within a reasonable distance, made sure they had availability and reserved them. The Slovenia hut website is pretty convenient once you find the translate to English button, and I booked our 2 huts through it. I found that you do have to know the names first and search for them, they pull up on google maps to determine general distances apart tho. https://en.pzs.si/koce.php

Day one we parked in this lot in Stara Fuzina, https://maps.app.goo.gl/m9kNf3wGsWkZjCyv7?g_st=ic , and started up. The day was cloudy, cold, with misty rain coming down pretty much the entire time. We were climbing up through a dense forest and realized eventually it was also through the clouds. The moisture clinging to everything. The forest (and the low hanging clouds) gave way to the tree line after a series of switchbacks. Finally we got a glimpse of the peaks around us and realized how impressive the views probably were all along the hike. We took off our wet gear and hung it in the drying area of the communal room, bought our $5 tokens for 2 minutes of hot water in the shower and eventually settled down to our meal. Options being pasta bolognese, Mac and cheese pasta, or sausage. But, there was beer, wine, and some strange local herbal liquor the ladies next to us were drinking so we decided to try. Once, that was enough. This was the hut for day one, https://maps.app.goo.gl/oV22XdAKodkDqXoj6?g_st=ic. Majority of the guests staying here were going to summit Triglav, Slovenias highest peak, the next day. For this there were plenty of tours and guide companies to go with, and as someone who has never used climbing gear I would have wanted to go that route if we were summitting.

Day 1 totals- 10 miles and 4,300 ft gain

Our low visibility day 1 did make waking up on day 2 that much better. The views from the hut were beautiful on a clear day! After breakfast provided in our half board (btw our huts and staying in smaller bunk rooms with half board were around $55-60/n), the summit folks headed out with their gear and helmets, and we headed on down into the valley knowing that going down at this point surely means going back up.

We skirted through the valley, around the bulls and cattle, and eventually started the climb up. We stopped at https://maps.google.com?q=Ko%C4%8Da%20na%20Doli%C4%8Du%20pod%20Triglavom,%20Trenta%2088,%205232%20So%C4%8Da,%20Slovenia&ftid=0x477a8a22b9adc4f1:0x57d49cf51807efa4&hl=en-US&gl=us&entry=gps&lucs=,47071704&g_st=ic hut for a bowl of soup (& breakfast/lunch beer) and then the real fun began. The climb was up a mountainside covered in gravel. Every step meant sinking back 6 inches. It was steep enough that falling backwards probably meant rolling down the entire mountainside, but we all made it huffing and puffing.

The seven lakes started showing their faces after traversing some otherworldly landscape for a bit. The trail evens out here and then starts descending. And after a pleasant stroll to finish the day, we made it to the next hut, https://maps.app.goo.gl/779nDcFqZYZs93r49?g_st=ic . Dinner options were the same, but here you have to turn in your dinner ‘slip’ they give you at check in when you decide your dinner choice. We did not do this, and waited 2 hours wondering where our food was before we finally asked. But again, there was wine and we had our card game going, so we were fine. There was no wifi in either hut, so card games and food and wine were the entertainment from 2-3pm til bedtime. Since we were able to book smaller bunk rooms we didn’t have any strangers with us in either place, but we did notice that the huts were filled up completely on the weekends.

Day 2 totals- 9.4 miles and 2,400 ft gain

Our day 3 began with a surprise. We could see on the map there was a peak, but we weren’t prepared that we would be going over it with a series of metal steps and chains to hold onto. I enjoyed it, but it was a bit of a shock and a moment of pride for the group after we left the hut and went straight up and over. From there it was pretty smooth sailing going down and finding our car.

Day 3 – 9.5 mi and 800 ft gain

Speaking of, it seems like there are a million different start points. I found ours through that same tour company’s itinerary and playing on google maps, but the employees at the outdoor store we went to for our map suggested parking somewhere else for cheaper, but it was just really far away from our day 3 start point. Our parking was $20/day.

At the end of it we realized 2 things. 1, everyday was much longer than that tour itinerary had shown lol. And 2, the map we bought at the outdoor store was absolutely crucial. We referred to it so many times! Google maps works for the most part, so download it offline for sure, but there were multiple times it showed us off in the middle of nowhere or didn’t pickup the trail. All trails plus works IF you map your path on a laptop and download it before starting the trek. We did not plan that far ahead.

All in all, it was a wonderful hike with diverse landscape, and not crowded at all! Slovenia in general proved to be an outdoor paradise, and there are so many parts we didn’t get to see.

I think we all could have spent 3n in Lake Bled alone, it was lovelyyyy. We rented paddle boards and paddled out to the church on the island you see in most of pictures of Slovenia. I wish we would have had time to explore the National park more, as the gorges looked beautiful, https://maps.app.goo.gl/YGqZcqcW3ppEcQCk6?g_st=ic . So many outdoor opportunities for sure. Ljubljana, the capital, was a rainy mess for us, but also felt authentic and undiscovered as there weren’t a lot of tourists around. The infrastructure was definitely there, but it certainly wasn’t a Rome or Paris swarmed with tourists everywhere.

Soooo, even tho it’s not a very thorough post, I wanted to share a solid 3 day trek in the Julian Alps that we really enjoyed! Hope someone finds this helpful 🙂