It’s that time again, a time to take a look back on an amazing year and recap the best of the best. We’re going to kick things off with my favorite destination of 2015: Bled, Slovenia.
Lake Bled
Bled is in the northwest part of Slovenia, a small country just south of Austria. If you’re in western Austria already (visiting Hallstatt or my favorite little village of St. Gilgen) it’s an easy drive south into Slovenia. The roads are great and Bled is a great overnight stop, either to see Bled itself or to see both Bled and Slovenia’s capital of Lublub Jubjlub Ljubljana (about 45 minutes away). I like Slovenia because it feels much more foreign and unexplored than Austria despite being so close. Lovely people too.
Lake Bled Panorama
Lake Bled
There are no big chain hotels in Bled, but plenty of B&Bs and smaller hotels to fit almost any budget. You can walk around the entire lake and I spend much of my time whenever I go to Bled doing just that.
Bled, Slovenia
The views around the lake during my visit in April were just wonderful. Lots of wildlife and lots of people just out enjoying the cool weather and great scenery.
“Ahhhhhhhh”
Some rowers
GIMME SOME BREAD (in Slovenian)
I walked away from the town a bit towards the island to try and catch a sunset. The sunset just ended up being hazy and massively bright so it wasn’t much good for pictures but I got some other great pictures that I’ve been very happy with.
Swan in front of the Church of St. Martin
Church of St. Martin
Some random photographer dude
Bled’s castle sits high on a hilltop overlooking the lake. It looks like it’s right out of the pages of history, except for the massive tower crane doing some renovations.
Bled Castle
The town of Bled surrounds the lake with plenty of touristy restaurants to choose from. It’s definitely a tourist stop but that shouldn’t steer you away. There are lots of ways to get out of town a bit. An early and frigid hike took me to a place called Osojnica, which has one of the best views of Lake Bled and Bled Island. It’s one of many hikes that I’d recommend doing, the Julian Alps are such a beautiful area!
Lake Bled, from Osojnica
This post isn’t designed to be a thorough and all-encompassing review of Bled, just sharing some pictures of places I’ve enjoyed seeing this year in hopes of giving you some ideas of your own! If you want to go see Bled, I’m happy to answer any questions!
Beautiful place!
Visited Brussels and Antwerp, but not Bruges or Ghent. Visited Ljubljana – and not Bled. Guess I’ll have to go back.
Bled is great….for an hour.
PS. And why do you keep referring to yourself in 3rd person?
I loved Bled and wanted to linger there.
I was there in may (both Bled and Ljubljana). We loved both places (and were bummed we couldn’t make it back there for Christmas). Slovenia is an undiscovered gem… the food in Ljubljana was awesome, the people were happy to see you, and the cost was low. And the best part: not touristy at all.
I agree; Bled was fantastic! So pretty! And the cream cakes there were amazing. Lots of steps to see the best sights, though-the castle and the church in the middle of the lake.
Bled is indeed beautiful, as is the rest of Slovenia. But keep driving to Bohinj, which is even far more stunning than Bled and much “wilder.”
Really nice article about Slovenia! I was there 2 weeks ago with a cruise chip. I did not expect much because the country was not known to me. My husband booked Lake Bled & Ljubljana Tour via http://kopertravel.com/ and I must say it was a very nice experience! I fell in love with this small country and would like to go there again one day.
Beautiful af