Archived:Lake Bled/Bohinj

Bled is about an hour north-west of Ljubljana, up near Slovenia's border with Austria. The town itself is pretty small, and exists almost entirely to service the lake. The lake is Slovenia's #1 or #2 tourist destination, despite being rather small itself. In the winter it's an ice rink, in the summer it's a boating lake. In March it is likely to be cold.

We can probably save some small amount of time (maybe a couple of hours driving) by staying in Bled the first night, rather than round-tripping to Ljubljana. (Assuming we go on to Vienna via Klagenfurt rather than via Maribor, discuss.) We can then catch LJ on the way back. The hostels in Bled will be slightly more expensive.

My suggestion would be to 'do' Bohinj or Bled, rather than attempt both. If Bohinj, we can probably see the outside of the Bledian sights on the way back. If Bled, we can go inside and do stuff properly.

Lake Bled

Main Tourism Site

Bled Castle

(link)

The castle is perched quite impressively on a little outcrop above the lake, about 20-30 minutes walk from town.

Opening hours (in March) : 8am - 6pm

Price : €8

Additionally, there is a restaurant inside the castle, run by these people. Currently showing the Valentines menu, I believe it will be less expensive when we are there. Includes free castle entry.

Reviews here.

The Church On The Island

The Church is the Sight, probably. Details.

There is a ferry, and (in summer at least) hirable gondolas or rowing boats. My RG suggests it is possible to hire rowing boats in time to beat the other tourists to the island. Probably not a huge issue in March, although we are going to be there on a Sunday.

Opening hours: daylight, ish.

The island itself is very small, and will probably only fill the time it takes the ferry to do the double journey once. So, allow 30 mins * 4 in total?

Price: RG says 2400 SIT return, which was about €8, but that's a few years old. Call it €12? I can't find an obvious price online.

Vintgar Gorge

Missed this last time, not knowing it existed. It looks pretty cool.

Opening times: closed in winter. This blog post suggests that the actual closedness is minimal, so this may be worth going for anyway.

4km from town, but with a carpark at either end should we be pressed for time. The walk itself is only about 2km, but should leave at least an hour for "interesting" terrain.

Price: free!

Moar Scenery

The Tourist Info recommends the Pokljuka ravine, further upstream NW from Bled. Looks deeper but less steep than the Vintgar gorge, more of a walk-in-the-woods type experience.

Link

The lake is also surrounded by hills, so there is the ever-intriguing possibility of climbing one of them and getting the spectacular views which fill the propaganda graphics. e.g.

Logistics

Accommodation: here

Restaurants: here

Lake Bohinj

Tourist Info

Bohinj is altogether more rural. I seem to recall there is a church, but it is old in the manner that churches built in remote places are, not in the manner than churches built in cities are. Which is to say, much of it isn't there any more.

The lake is larger than Bled, but less developed - there is a dirt path round the north side, and a road round the south, rather than a good track round the whole thing. The south side is more developed with camping facilities - we hired a canoe there previously, but the lake is not crenelated enough to provide much interesting water-based exploring. Bike hire?

The chief attraction is a large waterfall at the inflow at the western end. Might be this one. (RG says Savica Falls, access closed until April). If memory serves, we spent an adequate day circumpeding the lake, with a half-way diversion up into the hills a little way. Seem to recall nowhere to get food either.

The routes around the lake wander all over the plateau, up a bunch of mountains, towards Slovenia's only national park (Triglav), and into all manner of hills and such. Two international borders are just a quick jaunt away, we could even do a reverse Sound of Music and hike over the hills into Austria.

Previously attempted getting to the Valley of the Seven Lakes, and failed. A+ Would try again.

RG suggests cable car up Mount Vogel (every thirty minutes, 0800-1800, ~€10)

Opening hours: Tourist Info hut and church(?) are closed for the winter; I think maybe the far car park closes at dusk, but everywhere else is just hillside, so can't really be closed.

Will take a good few hours to do any walking worth doing.

Price: €0.00

Environs

As mentioned above, the Bohinj region is the edge of Slovenia's national park. The Julian alps are probably quite lovely in spring if the weather is any good, so we could consider driving another half hour into the hills and wandering up something there.

See here for more details, maps, etc.

lol

It's another hour down the road, but it would be very Italian Job to cross the border here?