In Summary…

Our first trip to Slovenia was purposefully short. Not because we think the country is unworthy of tons of exploration, but because Slovenia is expensive for us. Yes, Western, Central and now even parts of Eastern Europe are all expensive too. Duh. But the difference is that in Slovenia, we knew we didn’t have a lot of good options for making it cheaper, which is obviously our general aim. No housesits in our window, very few points and miles opportunities, and even fewer or no couchsurf hosts in the smaller towns we wanted to go. Plus, we knew we’d be tired from all the hiking and want our own space to decompress…

Tired because our main purpose of going during the height of tourist season was to spend 4 days and 3 nights on a hut-to-hut hike in the Julian Alps to get in touch with the wilder side of the country and do something we love. We have been actively planning for this since March and dreaming about much longer. Unfortunately our plan backfired because the weather forecast was quite challenging. So we had to whirl a new plan together…

In the end, it was the most exhausting and budget challenging country we’d been in for a long time and we were grateful we’d only planned a week. And yes….both of these things were also because it was seriously fast travel for us. Something we’re appreciating less and less.

Below is our personal list of stats, money saving tips, and personal upsides and downsides for the country. 

Time & Money Spent

Time Spent: 7 nights 

Money Spent: $884 or $126/day USD/two people. This was our most EVER on a per day basis. By comparison, our second was $111 during our 2018 trip to Iceland for six days.

This breaks down to:

• $520 (Accommodation)/$74/night avg.
• $183 (Transportation)
• $94 (Groceries)
• $78 (Restaurants/3 shared meals of pizza or a doner and 3 beers)
• $9 (General)

Our itinerary: 

• (2) nights Kranj
• (2) nights Kranjska Gora
• (1) night Slap Sevica hut
• (1) night Skofja Loka
• (1) night Kranj

Favorite places: Škofja Loka & Slemenova Špica hike

Would we return? Maybe, but only with a housesit, and never in the peak summer months.

What We Did Right

• Only stayed a week and avoided Ljubljana where budget choices weren’t any better. 
• Arrived early by train to Bled Jezero and then worked our way back to Lesce Bled to explore the lake. This allowed us to hike in the morning before it got too hot and (marginally) beat the crowds. 
• Also, we were very glad we kept Bled as a day trip and avoided staying there, for budget AND sanity’s sake
• Saved a lot of money on food by buying markdowns at the supermarkets, WHEN they were open.
• Stayed at Hostel Cukrarna in Kranj for three nights ($67), which was a cute town and an immense savings from Bled or other places we’d considered
• We also left our big bags here for 4 nights while we went hiking/exploring
• Used Wyndham points transferred from Wells Fargo and Chase to save big at the Ramada in Kranjska Gora (about 85% down from $315/night)
• When we had to pay full price for accommodation, we sought out the cheapest options, even if it meant traveling around a bit more. (Still $100-$117/night)
• That said, this is how we ended up in Škofja Loka, which ended up being our favorite town.
• Shared our food when eating out
• Kept our alcohol drinking to a minimum 
• Drank tap water (obviously, almost everywhere in Europe)
• Relied on trains and buses. Still far cheaper than renting a car and quite easy
• Racked up a ton of bonus points on a couple bookings by using our the Venture X shopping portal during a 10x points on Booking(com) day. Check it out here if if you need a great card!

What We Should Have Done Differently

• Picked a different week when the weather fit our plans. Ha. Not really possible because August was supposed to be a very good month for high altitude trekking in the Julian Alps.
• Planned for the holiday on August 15 which ended up closing all supermarkets two days in a row
• Planned a later flight to depart. We had no choice but to rely on a $30 taxi for a 15 minute ride. Unfortunately there weren’t really any feasible options to get us to Sweden.
• Known about the $8/day tourist tax they tack onto (some?) hotels 
• Not taken out cash. We never needed it once.
• Go in off season, and just hoped for the best with the trek 

Our Upsides

• The nature of Slovenia is truly breathtaking…and they have it all from jagged limestone and Alpine peaks to caves to forests to waterfalls to even a small portion of the Adriatic.
• It also offers charming villages 
• It was easy to pay everywhere with contactless card. This included on buses and for train tickets, none of which needed to be booked in advance
• Trains and some buses were integrated into Google
• Trains and buses were easy and comfortable to ride 
• The trail network is fantastic. Everything is well marked, well connected, well structured for safety, and with buses running throughout.
• Getting by in English is very easy 
• The grocery stores did have decent to-go options and kept us fed!
• Some places had free tourist buses. We took one from Kranjska Gora to Vrsic which was nice (though crowded)

Our Downsides

• We dealt with late buses and trains a LOT. Also, quite inadequate or nonexistent signage at many stops and stations
• The tourist tax many hotels tack on is not notified upfront
• We knew it would be expensive, but keeping anywhere close to our budget was obviously challenging and it really strained the time and our spirits. And because we didn’t have kitchens, we were also surviving on supermarket salads and wraps, which didn’t treat our stomachs necessarily well. 
• There are few options to use hotel point and miles or housesit.
• We had unreliable internet in several locations 
• Supermarkets closed on Sundays (and the day before for a holiday in our case.)
• In August, it’s simply overcrowded, (like much of Europe.)
• All this said, it just didn’t feel like great value for us as nomads, though may be fine for others as a “vacation.” Most of this was our own doing by coming in August. I’m sure we’d like it more if we chose a different season. Maybe the right housesit opportunity will pop up in the future! But until then, we’ll stick with countries we can more easily manage on our budget….

That said, we fared much better in Sweden and Norway, which would soon follow.