Beautiful Bled

One of the day trips we took from Zagreb was to the stunning town of Bled, Slovenia. After our train experience to Ljubljana, we opted for renting a car which gave us more freedom to also explore the nearby gorge.

The town of Bled is cute and a lot of shops and cafes are geared toward tourists. But, the real reason for visiting, in my opinion, is all of the beautiful nature.

Bled is situated next to Lake Bled and there’s a “city” park between the town and the lake. There is a trail that goes around the entire lake. It’s a fairly flat path that takes about 90 minutes – 2 hours to slowly traverse.

A side trail leads up to Bled Castle. To enter the castle complex, you must buy a ticket which isn’t cheap (13 EUR) but the views and architecture are worth it.

Also along the trail, there are rowboat rentals that can be used to navigate to an island in the middle of the lake. The island has a path all around it and there’s a church at the top of the hill on the island with a lovely view. There’s also a tower you can climb, for a fee, at the top of the hill which we did not do.

While all of these experiences were fun and gorgeous, the outstanding part of the day was our hike through Soteska Vintgar, the stunning gorge that’s about a 10-minute drive from Bled. Keep in mind that there are fees for everything. We had to pay for parking and to do the hike but this is the one experience that I would absolutely not miss in the Bled area.

The gorge reminded me of the Columbia River Gorge with more spectacular views, somehow! The trail is one-way and goes directly along the gorge, in some places elevated paths cross over rocks and the river. There are waterfalls, clear turquoise water, and trees lining both sides of the gorge. After walking through the gorge, the path drops you on a remote road through rural farmland that eventually takes you back to the parking lot. There are other trails available — this one seemed the most frequented. We visited on a weekend in early October and, while there were other people visiting, it did not feel overcrowded.

All in all, the day trip to Bled and Soteska Vintgar was a perfect nature excursion. Lots of people make Bled a destination and stay over for a few nights. I’m not sure that the amount of activities and the town necessarily warrant that though. If you are in the area, it is definitely worth a day trip!