Camping in Slovenia - The Perfect 10 Day Route
Updated: Jan 6
Although Slovenia is a relatively small country, it really has a lot to offer: from castles, waterfalls or lakes, to delicious food.
Our 10-day Slovenia tour with the camper covers the complete diversity of the small central European state. With about 600km of driving distance in total, you won't spend too much time on the road either.
If you like to eat fantastic, fresh fish or want to swim in the sea, you should definitely include a stop at Slovenia's coast.
Our personal highlights were the Predjama Castle and the karst cave in Postonja as well as the city of Bled.
Distances: 607 km
Costs (in total, w/o Camper): 798€ (for 2 persons)
Booked camping sites: 3
Table of Contents
1. Maribor - Slobenia's second largest city
Maribor ("Marburg") is Slovenia's second largest city with 120,000 inhabitants and is located in the northeast of the country. Coming from Austria, Maribor is therefore the perfect starting point for a trip through the country.
We spent one night on the camping site "Kekec", which is located only about 5km from the city center of Maribor and is therefore very fast to reach by bike, or by bus (line 6).
The camping site Kekec is clean and beautifully situated. You can make some hikes from there or take a gondola to a nearby peak. One night with the camper costs 27€. To do laundry you pay 3€ extra.
Since we only stayed one night, we only explored the city center of Maribor. The best way to do that is with the "culinary city tour". You can book this at the tourist information center and get 3 vouchers from different restaurants that are distributed throughout the city. You can redeem the vouchers for appetizers, main courses and desserts.
The tourist information center changes offerings from time to time - if the culinary city tour is not avaliable there will definitely be some interesting offerings for you.
We ended our evening at the "Old Vine House". This restaurant is located directly on the banks of the Drava and home of the oldest vine in the world (450 years).
For shopping, Maribor is from our point of view rather less suitable. However, there is a shopping center, the Europark, where you can find all the popular brands.
2. The cave castle in Predjama & the Postonja cave
One of our top highlights in Slovenia was definitely the 800 year old cave castle in Predjama. The cave castle is built vertically into the rock, was considered impregnable at the time and is the largest of its kind in the world.
Many tourists are reminded of Game of Thrones when they visit the cave castle - we felt exactly the same way when we saw it.
You can park in a free parking lot directly in front of the castle, but you have to be a little lucky, because the number of parking spaces is very limited. We would definitely recommend visiting the cave castle from the inside as well.
You can rent an audio guide for this purpose and walk through the castle at your own pace (duration is about 1 hour). The entrance fee is 16,90€ per person, students pay 11€.
There is also a discounted combined ticket if you want to visit not only the castle but also the Postonja cave (which we also highly recommend) - the castle and cave are about 10km apart.
It is best to visit the cave first and the castle afterwards.
The limestone cave of Postonja is millions of years old and extremely impressive. First you go about 4km by train through the cave and then further about 1km on foot with a guide.
The Postojna cave is also considered the most biodiverse cave in the world. During our visit we discovered a small cancer. There is also a vivarium where you can observe many other interesting cave animals.
You can park at the Hotel Jana (for a fee) - here it is even possible to stay overnight with the camper (20€ incl. electricity).
3. Bear watching in Lož
In search of a suitable place to observe European brown bears in their wild habit, we came across the small town of Lož. This is located in the south of the country and has the great advantage that there is a free parking lot for motorhomes here.
The RV park is located in "Stari trg pri Lozu", right next to the soccer field (for more info click here). From there you can reach a supermarket and a restaurant by bike or on foot.
Our Bear watching tour cost 129€ p.p. and took about 4h. From our meeting point we went with a guide to a nearby forest to a small outdoor seat in the trees. Now we had to be as quiet as possible not to attract attention, because bears are extremely shy and otherwise would not have shown themselves.
After almost 2 hours of waiting, something finally happened:
From the thicket suddenly appeared a mother bear with her two cubs - an incredibly beautiful experience for us.
In the meantime, however, it was so dark that we could only see with night vision - which was super sad, because of course we would have loved to capture the spectacle with our camera.
More information about our bear adventure in Slovenia and the exact address of the free campsite can be found in this article.
4. Slovenia Mediterranean Coast: Portorož
Portorož is a small town on the coast in southwestern Slovenia and exudes Italian vacation flair. Since Slovenia as a whole has only a relatively small sea access, it is naturally quite touristy in Portorož.
On your way to Portorož by car or motor home, you very quickly feel like you are in Italy. The first view of the sea is then not long in coming.
In addition to many hotels, there are mainly restaurants, bars and numerous shopping opportunities, as well as several different camping sites.
If you spend time in Portorož, you should definitely go eat some fish, because it is particularly fresh and delicious here!
We were at a fairly large camping site right by the sea. This had, in addition to an outdoor gym, its own supermarket and restaurant and private beach access. We paid 31€/night for this in September.
5. Slovenia's Instagram Hotspot: Bled
Probably one of the most picturesque destinations in Slovenia is the town of Bled near the Julian Alps.
The Church of St. Mary, which is located on a small island in the middle of Lake Bled, recently became an absolute Instagram hotspot and should not be missing on any trip through Slovenia.
During our visit to the small Slovenian town we came across the camping site "Camping Bled", which is located directly on Lake Bled.
You can start hiking directly from there or reach restaurants, supermarkets and all other hotspots on foot or by bike.
In addition, the campsite offers all kinds of leisure activities that you can book.
Further, there is a rowing boat rental in the immediate vicinity of the campsite.
To reach St. Mary's Church you need a rowing boat, but the rental prices are quite high: for renting a rowing boat for you will pay 20€.
Alternatively, you can take a small tourist boat to the church - but we decided against it, because we wanted to row at our own pace to take pictures.
Once on the small island, you can visit the Church of St. Mary. In it, there is a bell that you can ring.
It is said that ringing the bell will make your heart's desire come true. We tried it and it actually worked :-)
(There is also an entrance fee for the church: Adults pay 6€, students 4€).
If you don't want to rent a rowing boat, we can recommend you a great viewpoint from which you can enjoy a great view of Lake Bled and St. Mary's Church.
For this you have to hike up the mountain "Mala Osojnica", which is located directly at the foot of the lake and near the camping Bled.
The hike takes between 30-40min.
In addition to the famous St. Mary's Church, Bled is also home to Slovenia's oldest castle - Bled Castle, which is over 1,000 years old.
We were also inside the castle, but we have found the entrance fee as relatively high (about 12 € p.P., for students there is a discount - just ask actively).
The digital castle tour is then rather a tour of the individual souvenir stores and little content - therefore, from our point of view, not a must.
By the way, Bled Castle is insanely beautifully illuminated at night.
6. Boka Waterfall & suspension bridge at Triglav National park
Shortly before the Italian border, another highlight awaits you in the middle of the Triglav National Park: with a total height of 144m and a width of up to 18m, the Boka Waterfall in Slovenia is certainly one of the most powerful waterfalls in Europe.
If you only want to make a short stop to visit this gigantic waterfall, it is recommended to use the free parking lot at the Hotel Boka. From here it is only about 100m to the Boka waterfall.
Alternatively, you can take a 10km round trip hike. The hike starts directly at the hotel parking lot and takes about 3 hours.
You can either eat in the hotel itself or in a very tasty pizzeria called "Zuga" near the hotel. Here you get pizzas like in Italy - for only 9€.
We stayed with our camper one night at the hotel parking lot and the next day we visited the nearby 60m long suspension bridge "Lipuc".
The suspension bridge is located above the turquoise Soča River and looks really breathtaking. You can also go white water rafting on the Soča River.
7. How much does a trip to Slovenia cost?
For a vacation in Slovenia with the car or camper you need first of all a vignette, this you can buy at all gas stations near the border crossing (1 week costs 15€).
Gasoline costs are way cheaper than in Germany.
The cost of living varies depending on where you stay. In the tourist areas the prices are on German level, outside of it a little bit below.
The prices for camping sites in Slovenia are also comparable to those in Germany, but there are always free RV sites that you can use at any time to save a little on your vacation budget.
For our 10-day stay in Slovenia, we needed just under 800€ for two persons. However, this already includes the not quite cheap Baer watching adventure for 129€/person. If you leave this out, you are probably under 600€.
What are your favorite destinations in Slovenia? Feel free to write it in the comments or share it with us via the contact form.
