Highlights of Slovenia vacation

Planet

Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital has been pronounced as a Green Capital of Europe in 2016. A lot of different initiatives started during this exciting year, which have a great impact on all country. We are happy to be a part of tourism association which represents and defends Slovenia as sustainable and zero-waste destination.

WILDLIFE: Almost 70 % of Slovenia are green areas. There are high mountains, old forests and numerous fields where farmers make a high-quality food products. We are very proud of our nature and do our best to protect it now and for future generations. We want to bring this ‘green’ culture and thinking to our clients, so during this itinerary we are proud to offer great alternatives to old-school river/lake motorboat rides. You have a possibility to enjoy a ride on Ljubljanica river on a fully, Slovenian made wooden boat, the only wooden one operating there. Beside this, a very romantic ride on another typical wooden boat called Pletna is part of your sightseeing on Bled Lake. This way we take good care of our water surfaces and make sure that they will be able to serve many generations to come. Part of our trip is also a guided tour through Triglav National Park. A guide will give you extended knowledge about restrictions made in the park regarding nature conservation and limitations of mass tourism. It is not a coincidence that it is one of the most pristine locations to visit in Slovenia, as Triglav National Park with Bohinj Lake is doing a great job with combining boutique tourism services with nature conservation initiatives, such as free shuttle bus around area, forbidden motorboats on the lake, restriction of wild plants gathering and so on.

WASTE: Recycling is very important and generally practiced in Slovenia. All households, business/public spaces, hotels and so on have their own separated garbage bins for organic waste, plastic and cans, glass and paper. This is an important part of our culture in the last few decades and we are very proud of it. We still have long way to go, but we think that waste can be reduced, and many initiatives do some great work towards this goal. For example, during Summer months in Ljubljana, each Friday we have an event called Open Kitchen where you can purchase some of the best culinary dishes from great restaurants our in the open square at reasonable prices. Through all event only paper or biodegradable packaging is allowed and everything is recycled. Worth mentioning are also the great and innovative stations of fresh farm milk, which you can purchase all around the country.

WATER: We are very lucky to have lots of natural springs, which offer us a superb quality of tap water all over the country. There are potable tap water fountains all around Ljubljana and also in other bigger cities, where you can fill your bottles for free. Re-usable bottles can be purchased in many stores and many of them can be a great souvenir from your trip. We also have lots of suitable locations for swimming, beside seaside you can also swim in rivers and lakes. You will visit Bled and Bohinj lake, both suitable for a swim, not to mention emerald colour river Soca, which not also is crystal clear, but you can also fill your water bottle directly from the river. It is not very common in Europe to be able to do that. But be careful, as good as the water quality is, we cannot begin to describe how very, very cold it is. Swimming in Soca will take your breath away! Partly because of the temperature, but surely because of its beauty!

OFFICE: Unrelated to this specific trip, we want you to know that we are highly committed to reducing all waste also at our office. We collect all waste separately – organic, plastic and cans, paper, glass. We avoid printing any unnecessary documents and the ones we have to are printed on the recycled sheets. All of our employees have a kitchen room with microwave oven and a refrigerator available so that we can bring our lunch with us in a re-usable lunch box or cook it directly at the office, with which we can avoid any packaging waste. Our coffees, teas and other drinks are always served in a ceramic mug or a glass. We use energy–efficient light bulbs instead of regular bulbs. As we have a very good positioned office we can avoid having any 24/7 lights, we always make sure to shut down all devices when leaving the office and we are using a high-tech responsible heating/cooling system with heat pump for air circulation. We are very confident that each individual can make a difference with more responsible behaviour and we want to keep up with a good work!

People

FRIENDS & NEIGHBOURS: A lifetime living in Slovenia and more than 15 years in the tour operator business have made us lucky enough to say that we have lots of wonderful business partners, which luckily we can also call our friends. It is great pleasure to work with each and everyone of them. Truffle hunter Dejan and his lovely hunter dog, numerous wine producers, between them Davorin and Jelka from Cejkotova homestate, Eva and Boris from Bordon Winery and many more. Our old friend Srecko, which offers our clients Pletna boat rides and ceramic workers from House of Ceramics in Kamnik. We are proud and happy to be part of this extended Slovenian family, which we can present also to all our clients.

A FAIR DEAL: We make sure that our partners have good working conditions, we adjust our itineraries, so they suit everyone involved and we make sure to pay a fair price for the service. We understand that quality sometimes mean higher price and we appreciate the clients that are willing to recognise this. Often, when we are developing some new trips and ideas, we need to try out the services and we gladly invite our partners for a free test, which then give us a great feedback. This way they are gaining on new knowledge and we can get a valuable information about possible improvements.

LOCAL CRAFTS AND CULTURE: We are big on traditional crafts and souvenirs. We are certain that no mass-manufactured item such as magnet, T-shirt or postcard cannot come even close to some small, hand-made traditional gift, which you purchased from a manufacturer directly or even witness its making. That is why we especially encourage our clients to attend Majolika workshop where wonderful, almost forgotten ceramic craftsmanship brings into life some astonishing work of art. They can be perfectly well used in the kitchen also! It is an amazing gift. Beside other things, we strongly suggest to visit also typical Shrovetide costumes workshop in Ptuj, buy some high-quality bee honey and try Kremšnita cake in Bled, salt from Piran and many more things.