Hello, Budget Ventures. I was talking about some beautiful countries which are cheap to travel to. On that list, Slovenia is 2nd. So today, we are talking about things to know before visiting Slovenia.
I am here to give you some information about what you should know before you come to Slovenia for the first time. This is a really beautiful country. It is worth visiting just for the natural beauty of it, but it also boasts some beautiful cities like here in Ljubljana. The first thing I’d tell you is probably that Slovenia is just off to the north and east of Italy. It’s underneath Austria, next to Hungary, and above Croatia, tucked in right there. They have a little piece of the Adriatic and Piran, so there is some coastline, but mostly it’s mountainous terrain when you are here. So, I want you to know that so you know where you are.
Ljubljana
The thing is, it’s actually a very small country. And in terms of size its not bigger than our New Jersey. It’ll take you 3 or 4 hours max to drive across the country, like Oregon East to West or North to South. This makes it easy to use a place like Ljubljana as a base to see a lot of the country. Now, when you come here, you’re probably gonna wonder what you should see. Well, obviously, I’ve looped in Ljubljana, the capital here, and you can probably see the Triple Bridge down there, the castle up on the hill. You can take a particular app there to see that for some beautiful views and a bit of history of Slovenia. There are some beautiful churches here in town and lots of good eating out on the pedestrian streets. So, if you’ve got time, there’s a lot here for a weekend and they miss out on a lot more than just one thing you can do. One thing you could actually do is go caving when you’re here. We went to some caves about an hour away from Ljubljana. You can take a train, about a 15-minute train to the mountain, and you hike for a kilometer and a half, about a mile, and then you get back on the train and this still lag line slack types. You can see the eyeless salamander that my partner is so excited about it.
Lake Bled
One thing you’re gonna see in Slovenia is Lake Bled, and you’ve probably seen it in numerous tourist or tourism shows out there. It’s the lake with the mountains behind it, there’s an island in the lake with the church on it. Oh my gosh, it is so beautiful. You can go in and take the boats, they row you out onto the island, you go up the 99 steps, they’re gorgeous. It’s just a really beautiful thing. Or if you want to go check out some of the wine regions, or you want to go hiking, yes, hiking space is abundant here with gorges and stuff like that. There’s a ton of skiing in the winter and hiking in the summer. I mean, we went on a log and ride as well. There’s all kinds of really cool stuff, and since it’s so small, you can do the nature, you can do the culture, you can see the villages, the castles, the cities, all while being based here in Ljubljana.
Accommodation
If you’re looking for a little more adventurous experience when you’re in those little villages, you can also stay there because you’ll find plenty of accommodation options. There are hotels, Airbnbs, little bed and breakfasts, and Alpine resorts here in the wintertime. Yes, they have all that there, so you don’t have any problems with accommodation. Also, this country is super safe. Like when we checked in, unlike in a medium-sized French or Italian city or German city, so it’s a super safe country to go to, of course. For budget traveler just don`t worry its more cheaper than every other country in Europe
Transportation:
Be careful when you’re getting around. I would say probably the most dangerous thing that you will do as a tourist is driving through the mountains; your tummy might have a little issue there, so do have meds for that. Now, when you’re getting around Slovenia, what’s cool is you can take the train or bus in from Italy or Austria, take a bus, or sure, the train and stuff like that. There are a lot of options for getting around the country. When you’re going to travel around the country, there are some trains, there are buses going to a lot of places, but honestly, this is one of those countries where you can rent a car and really explore the whole country on your own because the roads here are double thumbs up, awesome roads and highways. You can even go on the backroads, which are pretty good as well. They might get a little skinny sometimes, so you might want to be careful every so often, but in general, it’s super easy to get around the country as well. Hey, when you’re getting around,
Cell services
A lot of people ask, “What’s the drive on my own? What’s the cell service like? What about Wi-Fi and stuff like that?” We’ve had Wi-Fi pretty much everywhere we’ve gone. I’ve had cell service, 4G, everywhere I’ve gone as well. There were a couple of times though that it did drop out, but that was like in the mountains or in a valley kind of thing. Otherwise, we had no problems with that, so for tourists like to Instagram beautiful pictures, you’re not gonna have a problem with your hearing. You will burn through plenty of your data space and post your pictures while you’re here in Slovenia.
Currency:
When you are here, you might wonder, “Hey Saif, what currency do you use in Slovenia?” Well, they use the Euro. If you’re coming from Italy or Austria or, like me, from the USA, you’re totally fine and it’s no big deal. I was able to use my credit cards to pay all my bills. It’s mostly Visa and Mastercard, though American Express is only accepted at a few places, so do have a heads-up for that.
Service:
In terms of service when you’re here, the people in Slovenia are very well-educated. So whether it’s your server at a restaurant or a tenant in a retail store, they’ll know their stuff and they’ll help you out and give you the background to help you make the right choice. I mean, I know we had lunch the other day, my buddy Chuck ordered fish, and the guy was like, “You know, you’re a big guy, fish is good, but I think for a man like you, you’d probably be more satisfied with the Slovenian steak.” And we did have it, and it was amazing. So that was kind of cool. So you do have good service when you are here. You do tip by 10% to 15% on your bill when you go to a restaurant, so there is that. Also, don’t forget to tip your tour guide if you are coming here as well because there are tons of tours you can do.
Language:
One thing that a lot of tourists get scared of is the language, and yes, they do speak Slovenian here, but the thing is, most people speak English, and some also speak German or Italian. We’ve had no problems coming here and not speaking the local language, so you don’t have to worry about that because they know we’re Slovenia, we’re a small country, we don’t expect everyone to learn Slovenian when they’re in the bees. Also, you’re welcome because a lot is thank you. Voda is water, so you have some things you can use. So that does help out, but I mean, honestly, if you try to say something, they’ll really appreciate it and switch right to English, so that relieves a lot of stress on a lot of tourists when they know that.
Foods & Drinks:
Well, I know that and then of course, you might want to know what you’re going to eat when you come here. Well, when you come here, you’ve seen this river behind me, you’ve got a lot of rivers here, so there’s a lot of really good fish you’re gonna have when you are here. They really do love their vegetables, like a lot of grilled vegetables and stuff like that. There’s a lot of awesome meats. I can talk about the steak and things like that. You’re gonna have some really good food here and so, like, you can see a part of Yugoslavia, so you’ll have Serbian food, you’ll have some Croatian food here also. It was part of Austria and Italy and stuff like that, so you’ll have Italian food and Austrian-influenced food. You’ll get a wide variety of food when you do come here, so that’s what makes it great. I mean, if you’re here in Ljubljana on a Friday like I am right now, they have their open kitchen where a bunch of different restaurants hurry up with stands and they let you try different foods when you pay for it, of course, but you get to have different foods when you’re there and you can eat really, really well when you’re here.
In terms of drinks, drink the water, no problem. The wine here is really good, if you like reds, you’re gonna be very happy with that. They may have their own local beers you can enjoy. I personally like the unfiltered Union beer, that’s my favorite, but the thing is, there are tons of craft breweries around as well that you can try, so that’s nice. But for me, the pièce de résistance, the pièce de résistance, is the food here. They have the layered cake or the cream cake, which is fantastic, or some really good breads here. So you’ll eat really well when you are here, whatever.
So, these are just the basic things for travelers who want to explore this beautiful country, the things to know before visiting. If you guys are interested, I will cover all the beautiful spots in the country, just like what I did in the Thailand blogs.
