A dream destination of love and romance, add enthralling landscapes and throw in a dollop of art and architecture. What you get is the best of Romantic Venice, Mesmerizing Slovenia and Enchanting Croatia. This has been one of the most fascinating tours we took a few years ago through the lesser known Europe. While one can spend umpteen number of days in any of these locations, we decided to experience the grandeur of Venice, Mesmerizing Slovenia and Beautiful Croatia combined into a single trip. With a short two weeks or less we had planned to visit the most romantic getaway of Italy, Venice , explore the lesser known country, Slovenia, and finally to drive down Plitvice Lake in Croatia for an UNESCO heritage sight.
It was a tour that was full of variety between one location to the other. Venice with the old world charm, cobbled alleys and little bridges over the city canals, and the romanticism of a vaporetto ride. This changed as we travelled to Slovenia – the picturesque capital of Ljubljana, excursions into the Northern Alps centering around Kranjska Góra and the ethereal Lake Bled. From there we moved into Plitvice, crossed the busy city of Zagreb and spent a wonderful day hiking all across the Plitvice Lake. Finally we drove back to the coastal city of Piran in Slovenia, with the traditional fishing boars jettied across the harbor and the cobbled city streets leading to the adjacent fort from where you get a scenic bird eye view of the little town..
Below is a quick list of pointers for your tour of Venice, Slovenia and Croatia.
Romantic Venice
Our tour started from Venice as we flew into Marco Polo Airport from Dubai. We had planned for 3 days at Venice initially and then another day when we returned to the city at the fag end of the tour. Our return flight also originated from Venice.
Venice is a man-made island , built around the 5th century to protect the Venetians from external security threats. They used the marshy land of Venice and built a city supported by wooden poles which has miraculously avoided decay while staying underwater all these centuries. The different districts of Venice are connected through canals and waterways. Canals are shallow and allows a shallow and narrow gondola ( flat bottomed boats) rowed by colorfully dressed Italians through them. The larger canals allows vaporettoes or waterbuses which are motorboats which acts as the public transport between the districts of Venice. The waterbuses throng the canals and are used by tourists and locals alike.
The airport and central rail station of Venice are situated outside the city. In order to reach Venice you need to use waterways to reach your hotel apartments. Depending on which district you are staying, the waterbus ride takes from half hour to one and quarter hour. You can book a private ride from the airport or a brief stroll to the adjacent wharf to board the public express waterbuses.
Mesmerizing Slovenia
Our next stop was Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. We planned to drive to Ljubljana, about 240 kms away from Venice and takes about 4 hours. We had plans to stay for a couple of nights in the capital. From Ljubljana we were to drive to Kranjska Gora, a distance of about 85 kms.
Kranjska Gora
Kranjska Gora is famed for its Alpine lakes and Ski resort nestled amidst the Julian Alps bordering the Triglav National Park. We also planned to stay there for 2 nights.
Lake Bled
The last stop in our Slovenia itinerary was at Lake Bled. Lake Bled is situated between Ljubljana (about an hour away ) and Kranjska Gora (about 45 mins away ). Lake Bled is a pristine lake situated in the Julian Alps with the Triglav mountains as the backdrop.
Lake Bled has the Assumption of St Mary church , amidst it, on the top of a low hillock which can be visited by boat. 99 steps from the dock leads you to the church and is a must see when at Bled.
Enchanting Croatia
We are flying into Marco Polo Airport, Venice on the 12th September morning. The plan is to stay here for two days and then move into Slovenia. Slovenia forms the main itinerary of our trip and we are going to visit Ljubljana, which is their capital, Lake Bled , Piran a seaside town and Kransjka Gora in the Julian Alps.
We have booked our hotel reservations through
As you are probably very aware that these are locations within countries which are next to each other. The distance between Venice and Ljubljana is about 160 kms. From Ljubljana to
For our travel plans we have booked our airtickets through www.priceline.com . We are flying into and out through Venice – Marco Polo airport this time.
This would also be a semi road trip as we are picking up our car, an Opel Zafira – 7 seater from
We have also booked a drop-in facility from Venice to Ljubljana through www.goopti.com .
