Slovenia East Bikepacking Loop

Slovenia is small. It’s about two-thirds the size of Vancouver Island, or about 47 Slovenias would fit into British Columbia. But there is a lot packed into this small country and we had time to explore.

The west of Slovenia is a popular destination. It’s easy to understand when you see the Julian Alps. But we wanted to see a bit more of this Central European gem and decided to head east to the oldest town in Slovenia: Ptuj; and to ride back along an overlooked mountain range: the Karawanks.

We were well rested after our three days in Ljubljana and ready to explore further. We planned to go as far east as Maribor and then climb into the Karawank Mountains, one of the longest mountain ranges in Europe, stretching 120 kilometres east to west on Slovenia’s northern border with Austria.

Riding out of Ljubljana highlighted the cycling infrastructure this country has developed. The entire 10 kilometres we rode to get through the city’s northern section was on bike paths. And once in the countryside, we continued on bike streets and small roads or bike paths alongside busier county roads.

It was beautiful cycling as mountains slowly began to emerge on the horizon of the flat countryside approaching Kamnik.

Kamnik was an easy choice for us to take a break, have a coffee and a little look around.

The unrelenting heat we’ve been experiencing since Romania had not let up. We stopped in a small village’s shady square and bought some bread, meat and cheese for lunch as well as a few litres of cold drinks to replenish our thirsty bodies.

That night we camped at a campground on the outskirts of Vransko, run by a lovely lady who told us they had frozen pizzas made by a friend of hers and sold all over Slovenia, so we bought four pizzas and some beer for dinner. The campground kitchen even had a pizza oven.

It was a sweltering night in the tents but the morning at least felt a bit cooler for a while. We tend to wake up at 6 a.m. and try to get going by 8 to at least have a couple of hours before the temperature crossed the 30 mark.

We were heading into wine country but we saw more hops than grapes at first. Slovenes grow a lot of grapes in the eastern part of the country to make wine. Very little of it is exported. We were told most people make wine for their own consumption.

Cycling east through the countryside was mostly flat through fields of hop and other crops until we crossed the A1 freeway and began climbing into the steep, hilly surroundings of Slovenska Bistrica.

Tough, punchy climbs with equally steep descents made for hard work, especially because it was such a hot day. But eventually we neared our hotel, perched, of course, at the top of a very steep driveway.

We were welcomed by the owner who asked us to have a seat while our rooms were still being made ready. He poured us a cold spritzer: white wine mixed with carbonated water. It was just what we needed.

The hotel was an older place. A little old-fashioned but very well kept. It’s lost some of its shine over the years with a large freeway going by. The traffic noise is nearly constant. Regardless, it was home for the night.

Ptuj is a beautiful old town situated on the northern bank of the Drava River, once a strategic river crossing on the trade routes between the Adriatic in the south and the Baltic Sea in the north. People have lived there since the Stone Age and the town on the Drava River developed from a Roman military fort.

Ptuj claims to have the oldest wine cellars in the country dating back 700 years but since this was a lunch stop for us, a wine tour was not in the cards. Instead, we had a delicious lunch at one of the old town’s many restaurants. We indulged in beautiful dishes of salmon and sea bass with several cold drinks. (Life hack: at most restaurants the lunch menu is the same menu as dinner but for half the price)

It’s always hard to ride after such a meal but we slowly pedalled along the trails running adjacent to the river all the way to Maribor, Slovenia’s second largest city. It was a beautiful sight to enter the old city on a modern wooden pedestrian bridge with the city draped over the hillside.

We spent two nights here to rest in preparation for the big climbs that lay ahead. We toyed with the idea of taking a train part way because the heat was really taking its toll, but there was no train on Sunday, so we resigned to ride but not after having a day off just wandering the streets in search of culinary delights.

Evening thunderstorms helped to cool things down. It was much needed relief from the unrelenting heat. Big clouds built up all afternoon until they finally unleashed a torrent. Afterwards, the warm, angled light from a setting sun in the wet streets was very dramatic as we walked along the river promenade to our chosen dinner venue.

Our route continued along the Drava River through small towns nestled in the Pohorje Hills on a designated cycle route.

I’m very much impressed with the cycling infrastructure the Slovenian government has built. It’s a strategy that seems to be paying off. There is amazing cycling here both on roads and gravel.

We finished our day at a hostel in Ravne na Koroškem. We were the only people there. Not even any staff were on hand until the following morning. We didn’t mind as it made for a quiet, restful night.

We decided to make the next couple of days shorter as they included significant climbing into the Karawank Mountains. Leaving the hostel, we began to gently climb almost immediately along one of the Drava’s tributaries. After a coffee break in Črna na Koroškem the road tilted upwards and we gained 700 metres in elevation in a mere 15 kilometres.

There was a lot of construction along the road. In 2023, a major flash flood and land slide ravaged the area, washing out roads and bridges and damaging houses down the length of the valley. There was no traffic on the road so we had this all to ourselves as we slowly rode up the mountain.

Once up high with views opening up, the ride was absolutely stunning. Panoramic views of adjacent peaks and valleys made us stop repeatedly and our ride stretched well into the afternoon. Being higher up also meant lower temperatures. It was still in the high 20s but that’s better than the mid-30s.

We spent the night at Tourist Farm Rogar where we were treated to a million dollar view and meals crafted with ingredients from the farm. It was a real treat. The farm is a family operation. The country has a network of these farm stays and they offer a range of accommodation and price.

We briefly crossed into Austria when we gained the Paulitschsattel, a 1,338-metre-high pass where there used to be a border crossing. The buildings are all boarded up now. A long descent was followed by another climb back to the border at Vellach where we crossed back into Slovenia. There was a café but sadly it was closed. Nothing to do but descend into the valley.

We found another tourist farm with rooms and camping. The rooms were full but there was a nice shady spot in the campsite where we pitched our tents before heading off to a lake-side restaurant. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing as it was too hot to do much else.

Our loop of eastern Slovenia was nearly complete as we continued to descend from the Karawank Mountains the next day. For 30 kilometres we coasted down to Kranj, only 25 kilomentres north of Lubljana where we had started our loop six days earlier.

From Kranj we turned north to Radolvjica, easily one of the nicest little towns we stayed. It is perched on a ridge above the Sava River with a charming old town dating back centuries. There was a laid back vibe and some nice restaurants and a campground with a pool. Everything we needed.

Riding into Triglav National Park we passed through Bled, a very popular tourist destination. Not our cup of tea. Although a picturesque setting with its lake, mountains and castle, we simply ride partway along the lake and keep going into the park on a small road without car traffic and slowly climb up to Kranjska Gora, a ski town on the border with Italy and Austria. We rented an apartment for two nights to take a break and sort out which way to go now that we were nearing the end of our trip.

Frank and Sylvia were planning to continue west through Austria and Italy while we were planning to head north into Austria to make our way to Vienna for our flight home a week later. We didn’t have enough time to ride all the way to Vienna but would ride to Salzburg instead and take a train across the country to Vienna.

There is a bike route from Salzburg to Grado on the Mediterranean coast in Italy. The Alpe Adria route is a 415-kilometre-long bike trail and it just happens to pass through Tarvisio, just west of Kranjska Gora where we were staying.

We had two great months of cycling together through Romania and the Balkans and we’re still friends. But the time had come for Frank and Sylvia and us to part ways. Our flight home was in a week while they still had another month or so to continue. After two days of rest and planning, we said our farewells as Frank and Sylvia headed west and we headed north. We went out for a last dinner together and it was quite a feed, worthy of hungry cyclists.

A bike path headed west from Kranjska Gora and connected to the Alpe Adria route in Tarvisio. It’s a well marked with signs. We rode as far as Villach and hopped a train for a short distance to get over the high alps as there is no way to cycle over the 2,800 metre peaks. We arrived in Bad Gastein and found a nice little hotel to spend the night.

Bad Gastein is built into a very steep valley on the banks of Gasteiner Ache, a creek that drops 200 metres in a very short distance with a waterfall right in town. It’s quite spectacular.

There was some kind of festival going on and it was busy in town with lederhosen as far as the eye could see. People playing ccordions, tubas and violins belted out traditional tunes and the beer flowed freely. After dinner and taking in the festivities, it was a long, steep walk uphill back to our hotel.

In the morning we descended the steep streets all the way into the valley and followed the river north cycling on bike paths through farm land and small villages on a brilliant, sunny day. Such great cycling infrastructure everywhere.

We got as far as Hallein, just south of Salzburg and found a room for rent, with breakfast included, above a pastry shop. It doesn’t get any better. That night we found an Indian restaurant nearby and we jumped at the chance for something other than schnitzel or sausage. It was excellent food.

Until now, the weather had continued hot and sunny but as we rode into Salzburg, our final ride of a two-month journey, the skies opened up and we got absolutely drenched. We took shelter under an overpass for a while but we needed to get into Salzburg to catch our train, so, onwards.

We had enough time to have a quick look around in the centre of Salzburg before going to the train station for our journey to Vienna. Trains have a car for bicycles and we were not the only ones using that space. It quickly filled up with half a dozen bikes. Ours were too large to hang in the racks but there was an adjacent space to tie them in to the sidewall of the train car. We settled in for the four-hour trip to Vienna where we arrived late in the afternoon.

En route to our hotel, we stopped at a bike shop to get a couple of bike boxes that we folded up and strapped to the bikes for the ride. It was a bit of precarious riding with large hunks of cardboard sticking out but we made it through the busy city in one piece.

We had planned three days in Vienna to sightsee and pack up the bikes for our journey back to Vancouver. It was a fabulous two-month journey through Romania and the Balkans. In all, we rode 2,700 kilometres from Bucharest to Salzburg in the searing heat of continental Europe. Despite an awesome journey, I think we might be done riding in Europe in the summer. It’s just too hot.