Lake Bled is almost a picture perfect lake with a fairytale island. Have a look at the pictures, you see what we mean Lake, mountains behind, small island with a church and a castle perched high above. In Bled we arranged to stay at an apartment, apartments in Slovenia are basically B&B’s with rooms set aside for visitors. The couple we stayed with were very friendly and had an excellent setup. It had a 4 star rating, and they had remodelled the house with 3 separate apartments (all 2 bedroom, kitchen, dining area and bathroom) in their upstairs area, we would highly recommend them for anyone visiting the area.
Yes Bled is a tourist magnet but we were travelling out of season so it was a little quieter than usual. Part of that may have been the worst flood they had seen in 250 years only a few days before we arrived, it washed out roads stopped us travelling further into the mountains and the Triglav National Park. Another tourist who was present at the time said the rain was heavy, you couldn’t even step outside the hotel, and he was from Scotland. During our stay the weather was perfect.
Lisa and I did make one trip outside Lake Bled to drive up the Vrsic Pass through the mountains, which is a fun drive of 28 hair pin turns up the mountain with lots of motorcycles doing the trip, there is one huge motorcycle club in Slovenia, they even have billboards advertising their club over the countryside, it’s an enjoyable drive with some great views of Slovenia’s highest mountains.
The time around Bled was spent walking around the lake, taking the boat out to the island to view the church. Which is extremely popular for weddings due to its location, visiting Bled Castle which is perched onto a granite outcrop high above the lake or trekking (which means climbing) the various hills around the lake. On our second day we took an afternoon trip to the nearby Vintgar Gorge, which runs 800 metres between two mountains. If you go to Bled make sure you visit the gorge, as it was a very nice with the water rushing over the rocks below the walkways from the still lake. We spent a pleasant 3 days in Bled relaxing.
The only drawback of Bled like other old towns in Europe is they aren’t designed for cars, Kane had to get used to squeezing through narrow streets and taking turns through small single lane roads and putting the side mirrors in, in hindsight good practice for the rest of the trip!
A place to return too.