Exploring Ljubljana and Slovenia

Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia) was a beautiful stop on our trip! We are absolutely loving Slovenia and, in our opinion, should be a country everyone considers for a trip, especially if you like things like beautiful nature (mountains, rivers, hiking, etc.), history (castles, churches, etc.), friendly people, good food, not very expensive, and readily available espresso and beer! We stayed near Ljubljana for 10 days and finally got to relax and truly slow down. We rented an Airbnb apartment that was a 15-minute drive (or 30-minute bus ride) from the city center. Our apartment was surrounded by farm fields and lush hills laced with hiking trails, which was perfect for our nature-loving family! We also continually saw tractors driving on the roads outside our house, which the kids loved. The weather in Ljubljana was also very pleasant. Even though it got hot some days, it always cooled off at night.

Ljubljana is a small, relaxed capital city, with a car free center, a great market, and a castle on the hill in the middle of the city. The city’s symbol is a dragon, and it has a famous bridge guarded by four very cool dragon statues. It seems like everyone moves around the city on bikes (and, in general, our experience in Slovenia has been that people are constantly outside enjoying the outdoors—among other things, it was great to see kids outside on summer evenings by our house, riding bikes, kicking balls, and running around). If you were just trying to check off main tourist sites, you could probably manage Ljubljana in one day, but it was a great place to relax and take the time to enjoy and settle in for a bit.

One highlight of our location was a family farm we discovered down the street. Hugo, Valentina and Joe found the farm on the first day when Hugo insisted on walking down the driveway to look at all the tractors parked outside. They met the family who came out to chat and patiently answer Hugo’s ten thousand questions about the farm machinery. We visited them pretty much every day after that! During our visits, we saw the cows get cared for and milked, helped pick garlic from the fields one day, and enjoyed talking to the mom, dad and three lovely daughters and learning more about Slovenia. They also gifted us bags of fresh veggies and super-duper fresh cow milk on several occasions (i.e., out of the cow about five minutes earlier!), which we happily used for our homemade meals! By the time we left, it felt like we had made lifelong friends and we really hope to see them again soon!

Because Slovenia is relatively small in size, it was possible for us to explore several other areas outside Ljubljana while we were staying there (most things are within an easy hour’s drive). These are some of the things we did during our ten days in the Slovenian capital:

• We visited Tivoli park, which is a big city park with lots of play structures, a mini golf area with a cafe in between the various greens, an open area for kids to ride their bikes, scooters or roller blade around (probably an ice rink in the winter), and lots of green spaces for kids and grown-ups to play and relax. Once again, we were happy to have our scooters with us!

• We explored the countryside around our Airbnb. One day, we found a trail that led to the nearby river. We followed the path and ended at a field where farmers (men and women) were cutting grass and making haybales using big farm machinery. The kids loved seeing the process!

• We visited Ljubljana castle in the city center. The castle is on a hill and you could walk up to it or take a funicular. We chose the latter (rather than try to force the kids up the hillside on foot) and the kids loved the ride up. Once we were in the castle, we explored the grounds, went up the castle tower, visited a fun marionette museum, and saw a great temporary exhibit about the history of dragons. Afterwards, we went back down to the center and grabbed lunch from one of the food trucks parked by the market.

• Following a tip from some local parents we met at a playground, we went to the Volcji Potok Arboretum (a little outside of Ljubljana), which is a huge and beautiful manicured park. As the parents had told us, they had a special exhibit with life-sized replicas of different kinds of whales and many kinds of dinosaurs—some of which were animatronic and could move different parts of the bodies. The kids LOVED this (so did we!). It really felt like you were walking next to real dinosaurs! Here we also visited the playground, which was by far the best playground we have ever been to! There were many different play structures, some of which were built or nestled into the trees. There were full-sized trampolines, a bunch of zip lines, and even a maze with a big wooden castle in the middle! And no warning signs or rules—it was all there to enjoy yourself and have fun. We all had an amazing time playing there!

• We did a tour of Postonja cave, which is one of the main tourist attractions in Slovenia. It is a huge cave system, with incredible stalactites and stalagmites and so on. The visit involves taking a train two kilometers into the cave, walking 1.5 kilometers, and then taking the train back out. It was very manageable for the kids and we all definitely enjoyed it. The cave itself was incredible. (Our enjoyment was overshadowed only by the fact that we were alongside a massive tour bus of tourists, who were more worried about taking pictures than avoiding pushing and stepping on our kids…)

• From Postonja cave, it is a short drive to Predjama Castle, a super sweet castle built into a cliff above a cave. In addition to being visually incredible from the outside, it was a great castle to visit, with a little drawbridge, a dungeon, an armory, and other classic castle features. It also has a very interesting history, including being home to one of the most famous Slovenian knights, Erazem Lueger, who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. The Habsburg army laid siege to his castle for a year, but he had a secret cave exit out the back and, as legend has it, at one point he threw fresh cherries at the army to show them how well provisioned he was. (That illustrious history notwithstanding, Erazem was apparently killed one year into the siege when he was ingloriously struck by a cannonball while using the toilet.)

• On a rainy day, we visited the Museum of Illusions in Ljubljana, which was a quirky little museum devoted to optical illusions. It was a good hour+ of fun for all of us.

• One day we drove to the coast and spent the day at Slovenia’s only sandy beach, in Portoroz. Slovenia only has about 30 miles (47 kilometers) of coast, which is on the Adriatic Sea (situated between Italy and Croatia). The beach felt very Italian in many ways. We enjoyed perfect beach weather, and tranquil, turquoise water. On our way back, we grabbed gelato and drove back the hour-and-a-half to Ljubljana.

• As we neared the end of our ten days, we asked Hugo what his favorite part of our time in Ljubljana had been, and he said it had been visiting the castles. So, for our last full day there, we did a little research (i.e., googled “Slovenia best castles”) and then planned a visit to the town of Celje to visit their castle. The castle was away from tourists, but was incredible. The huge castle walls were awesome and pretty much intact (thanks, apparently, to some well-played diplomacy by the Counts of Celje, who were a very powerful family, especially during the early 1400s). It had commanding views over the countryside below. And we were able to just wander around at our own pace and follow whatever path we thought looked interesting. They also had a little coffeeshop situated in between two layers of castle walls, with a little castle-themed playground so we could drink some coffee while the kids had a blast. And, on top of all of that, we had the place basically to ourselves. After over two hours of exploring, we left the castle and went to town to try to find lunch (which can be quite challenging in Sundays!). This castle was definitely a highlight and we’d definitely recommend it!

Slovenia is also proving to be a very kid-friendly country. One thing we’ve noticed here that we’ve never seen anywhere else is that they have playgrounds pretty much everywhere—as in, many restaurants, cafes, and bars have little playgrounds (or at least little play areas with books and toys)! This allows the adults to have a coffee or drink while watching their kids play nearby. What a simple and incredible idea—these should be everywhere! People have also been very friendly and welcoming. Most people speak at least some English (in addition to other languages, from what we noticed—i.e., information will be in Slovenian, then Italian, then maybe German, and then English).

Now we are in a tiny town in the mountains northwest of Ljubljana and it’s incredible. We’ll post separately about that, so stay tuned!