Julian Alps walking holidays, Slovenia
| country: | Slovenia |
| location: | Julian Alps |
| trip type: | Moderate walking holidays |
| departures: | 2008: 20 Sep |
| price: | From £715 (8 days) excluding flights. Price based on two people sharing. Single supplement £85. Price includes accommodation, some meals and transport. We can book train tickets or help research flights from the UK |
the amazing things you'll be doing
This little known corner of the European Alps, where Italy, Austria and Slovenia meet, is astonishingly picturesque. The Julian Alps are a stunning limestone mountain range, home to Slovenia’s only National Park and rising up to a height 2864m at the summit of Mount Triglav (‘Old Three Heads’). The peaks are jagged and spectacular, presenting the walker with wonderfully varied and beautiful mountain scenery, and with evocative evidence of the fierce struggles between Austrian and Italian troops in World War One. The wooded slopes lead down to deep gorges and ravines, where turquoise rivers, such as the pristine Soca, have carved out beautiful watercourses, waterfalls and caves. The region is carefully protected, so the spring flowers bloom in carpets, and deer, boar, chamois, wolves and even brown bears and lynx survive in relative abundance.
Spend a week exploring the Julian Alps on a small group walking holiday, from a comfortable single-centre base. Holidays include accommodation, all breakfasts and lavish packed-lunches, 2 dinners, 3 days of organised walks, a handbook of local information and self-guided walks, the support of a knowledgeable manager, airport transfers to/from a designated flight, and local transportation.
Accommodation: Stay in the pretty little town of Kobarid, at the family run Hotel Hvala. The simple en-suite rooms are very comfortable, and the hotel is renowned for its excellent restaurant, the Topli Val. Kobarid has an attractive church and an award-winning museum as well as shops, restaurants and other amenities.
Walking: The itinerary allows for great flexibility, as each guest is free to walk as much or as little as they like. Three days of organised walks alternate with days of self-guided walking, and on any day guests can choose to take an alternative self-guided walk or simply to relax and explore independently. The organised walks may be subject to change depending on current conditions and guest enthusiasms.
Travel by train From London there is an overnight train to Venice
Spend a week exploring the Julian Alps on a small group walking holiday, from a comfortable single-centre base. Holidays include accommodation, all breakfasts and lavish packed-lunches, 2 dinners, 3 days of organised walks, a handbook of local information and self-guided walks, the support of a knowledgeable manager, airport transfers to/from a designated flight, and local transportation.
Accommodation: Stay in the pretty little town of Kobarid, at the family run Hotel Hvala. The simple en-suite rooms are very comfortable, and the hotel is renowned for its excellent restaurant, the Topli Val. Kobarid has an attractive church and an award-winning museum as well as shops, restaurants and other amenities.
Walking: The itinerary allows for great flexibility, as each guest is free to walk as much or as little as they like. Three days of organised walks alternate with days of self-guided walking, and on any day guests can choose to take an alternative self-guided walk or simply to relax and explore independently. The organised walks may be subject to change depending on current conditions and guest enthusiasms.
Travel by train From London there is an overnight train to Venice
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Transfer from Trieste airport, followed by a welcome dinner. |
| Day 2: | Join an organised walk through villages, woods and pastures to the church of Sveti Lovrenc, burial place of Slovenia’s favourite poet. (7.1 miles, altitude gain/loss 500m). Or head out on a self-guided walk – a historical circuit of Kobarid and along the Soca River. |
| Day 3: | Today, take a self-guided walk across the lovely Dre˛nica plateau (5.3 miles, alt. gain/loss 300m) and/or visit the frescoed chapel of Sveti Just and some spectacular woodland waterfalls (2 miles, alt. gain/loss 150m). Or relax in Kobarid, and perhaps visit the fascinating WW1 museum. |
| Day 4: | Join an organised walk climbing to a spur of the Krn massif, to enjoy magnificent views (6.6 miles, alt. gain/loss 520m). Or choose another self-guided walk through the charming villages of Svino and Suzid. |
| Day 5: | Today’s self-guided walk takes you to the meadow summit of Mt Matajur, on the border with Italy, then descends through wonderful beech woods (8.4 miles, alt. gain/loss 850m). Or you might relax at your hotel, enjoy Kobarid’s cafés, and shop for specialities to take home. |
| Day 6: | Your last organised walk takes you to the crest of Krasji Vrh and some extensive ruins of Italian WW1 fortifications (9.2 miles, alt. gain/loss 1030m). Or enjoy another self-guided walk to the village of Magozd and the dramatic Kozjak waterfall. |
| Day 7: | Take it easy today on a final self-guided walk to the gentle river Nadi˛a, where you can picnic and paddle at your leisure (2+ miles, alt. gain/loss 20m or 6.8 miles, alt. gain/loss 280m). Tonight join your fellow travellers for a delicious farewell dinner. |
| Day 8: | Transfer to Trieste airport. |
how this holiday makes a difference
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One of the main factors in choosing the location of our holidays is the presence of local communities which can benefit from low-impact responsible tourism. We work to bring new income to rural restaurants and small family-run enterprises, and our locally based manager lives as part of this community, in a rural village. They source the majority of packed-lunch ingredients directly from their village neighbours: delicious fresh vegetables picked that day from gardens, and cheese from local shepherds.
We work closely with the local community to ensure that our presence has positive benefit to the region. Our directors and staff are involved in projects such as assisting in clearing footpaths which are used by local people, and contributing to the cost of flowers for the village shrines. Both World Wars seriously affected this landscape and people, with consequences which are still felt today. In WW1 one of the bloodiest battle fronts in Europe was along the Soca River, with around one million casualties in this area alone. We outline the region’s turbulent history in our handbook and encourage a visit to Kobarid’s award-winning museum, to help gain an understanding of these terrible episode. On some walks one can still find evidence of trenches, fortifications and shrapnel. All our local transportation is “carbon-neutral”; carbon emissions are fully offset through a scheme in place with the Carbon Neutral Company. Our brochure production and distribution is also carbon neutral through a similar scheme, and we offer all our clients the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions caused by their flights too. We also provide details on how this holiday can be reached by train, thereby avoiding flying altogether. Our brochure and all other literature and correspondence uses recycled paper, and we operate a rigorous recycling and energy saving policy both at our UK office and all our destinations, as well as encouraging and assisting our local suppliers to do the same. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |