The Slovenian Experience – 2026
Labor Day in Ljubljana
On the final leg of the European trip for 2026, Kolbe and I went to the capital of Slovenia – Ljubljana. It’s a place I always wanted to visit, nestled in between Italy, Austria and Croatia. I felt like it was often overlooked or never made most itineraries, but from what I knew it was a place worth spending time in. And the intuition turned out right. Old Town nightlife, castles, caves, and glacier lakes were some of many amazing spots along the journey.
We rolled into Ljubljana off the back of Zagreb, not entirely sure what to expect from the Slovenian capital. It was Labor Day weekend in Europe, so there was a real question going in about whether the city would be crowded or whether people would scatter for the long weekend. At least for the first few days, we thought Old Town was buzzing, and the river’s edge was full of people. It was the perfect “sit, relax, have a few drinks and enjoy the sunset and chat about life” type of energy. Good times.
River Days, Every Day
Old Town in Ljubljana is the kind of place where you pick any direction and end up somewhere worth being. Every day we found a new riverside restaurant to settle into for drinks and food, and not once did it get old. The atmosphere along the water is fantastic. Just sitting there watching the city move through its day is one of those simple pleasures to soak up.
Without much hesitation, I would put Ljubljana up there as one of my favorite capitals. It is walkable, manageable, and the scale feels right. Slovenia is a country of about two million people total, and Ljubljana sits right at the center of it. You get the character and energy of a city without the overwhelming size of one. It manages to feel big and small at the same time.
On one of our middle days, we hiked to Ljubljana Castle, where most of it is free to explore. There are paid sections if you want to go deeper, but we walked the grounds and took in the free views which give a good idea the extent of the capital. We also did a walking tour with a guide named Sharon, and she was excellent. She was high energy, clearly loved the city, and knew her material thoroughly. She walked us through Old Town, hit the main points of interest, and gave us a much sharper sense of where to spend the remaining time.
No different than some other cities, Ljubljana was super walkable and we were getting those steps in. This inevitably led to several pitstops consisting of copious amounts of Central/Eastern European staples, sausages, and a few wine tastings featuring the orange wine of the region. We also came across a fresh milk dispenser machine at some point, the kind where you bring your own bottle and get fresh milk. I wish we had these locally. They are a little unexpected, but funny, and exactly the kind of random thing that sticks with you from a trip. And to add to that, the Slovenian McDonalds came through with a next-level shaker bag for the nuggets to really spice things up. So kudos there.
The Scenic Things
On the second half of the trip, we blocked out a full day for a van tour outside Ljubljana to cover as much ground as possible. The first stop was Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle, where a castle is literally constructed into the facade of a cave entrance. The history behind it is fascinating, and the detail that stayed with me was how they sourced water inside the walls. They carved small gutter channels directly into the rock to funnel water down from the stalactites and collect moisture from the cave itself. It is practical and clever in a way that is hard to fully appreciate until you are standing there looking at it.
The cave tour followed, and the scale of Postojna is considerable. It reminded me of Carlsbad Caverns back home in terms of how expansive it gets. The formations take thousands of years to grow, and being inside something that old and that vast is hard to comprehend. The standout of the tour was spotting the olm, a cave-dwelling salamander that can live well over a hundred years. It is pale, nearly translucent, and looks like a tiny dragon.
After that we loaded back into the van and headed to Lake Bled, which had been on the list for a while. It was ballin’. We found a restaurant right on the water, ate well, then grabbed bikes and took a lap around the lake. This is what it’s all about. We also spent some time up at the castle above the lake for a different angle, had some drinks, and tried the Bled cream cake – a regional specialty. The views are the kind that need to be seen in person to fully appreciate. Glacier water, the Eastern Alps rising in the backdrop, a cathedral sitting on an island in the middle of the lake, and a castle perched on the cliff edge. There was a lot happening at once, and it all worked together in this picturesque scene.
European Ending
Ljubljana, does have “love” in its name, and I do love this city. Not only the city but the country as well. A few days was the right amount of time for the capital, and the Airbnb ended up being prime real estate to kickstart our operation. Old Town had a charm that is difficult to describe but very easy to feel when you are in it. Slovenia is a country where roughly 60% of the land is forested, and having now seen the capital and a couple of the highlights beyond it, I am genuinely curious about what the rest has to offer – the mountainous regions, the more rural stretches, the parts that take a little more effort to reach.
Sometimes the best stretch of a trip is sitting somewhere incredible with nowhere to be and nothing to rush toward. Slovenia gave me that.
-ML
Michael Lakus
IT professional, athlete, musician, ponderer of many things... Born and raised in Florida, I began traveling internationally after college. I created this site primarily to remind myself of where I've been and to share my experiences on traveling with a quirky, stress-free, travel attitude.
All Posts »
The Pure Dose - Designed with Elementor
The Pure Dose - Designed with Elementor