Mountain Biking in Slovenia. Rob Houghton
comparison sites. Cars can be rented from all of the major cities in Slovenia (and some of the minor ones) as well as at airports and some train stations. If you’re flying in to Italy or Austria and then planning to drive into Slovenia, do check in the rental terms and conditions that cross-border travel is allowed. Check also the cost of renting extra items such as bike racks, as this won’t be included in the main agreement.
Information about trains within Slovenia can be found at www.slo-zeleznice.si/en and buses on the Slovenia tourist information site at www.slovenia.info/en. A good car rental comparison site is www.holidayautos.com.
When to go
Slovenia is an extremely beautiful country at any time of the year but there are better times than others for mountain biking. The country is at its absolute best during spring and autumn (from the end of April until June and from September until the end of October). These also happen to be the cheapest times to visit. Summer will find many more services open, especially up in the mountains, but it can get pretty hot at times: 30 degrees is usual. Winter is likely to be too cold for all but the lowest rides. Even then, there is a good chance of standing snow in January and February.
Autumn can throw up some surprise conditions at this altitude (Route 8)
Accommodation
Tourism is one of Slovenia’s main industries and most of the rather functional hotels of the Socialist days are now gone or refurbished. As a consequence, there is a great deal of excellent accommodation available, from well-equipped campsites to five star hotels and everything in between. Again, price comparison sites are the best place to find deals on hotels, B&Bs and pensions (guest houses), but if you’re looking for a hostel or a campsite, then the official tourist site, www.slovenia.info, has a lot of good information – including a section on accommodation specialising in cyclists (kolesarski). These specialist hotels and B&Bs are denoted by a system of cycle symbols: the more there are, the better the facilities. Another option that many people are trying nowadays is Airbnb (www.airbnb.com), where local people rent out their spare rooms or holiday homes. Some great bargains are available.
These places are a good starting point for searching for accommodation, but there will also be some of my own personal recommendations in each of the region sections. For additional information, see Appendix B.
A friendly welcome at a traditional Slovenian hotel
Food and drink
If you have any concerns about the quality of the food in a former Socialist country, then please don’t. You’ll find a selection of excellent restaurants in most towns. There won’t be a wide variety of cuisines available (for example, outside of Ljubljana, you’re unlikely to find a curry) – a quirk of the relative lack of racial diversity in the country. However, you will find Italian, Hungarian and Serbian dishes, and the local cuisine tends to be hearty (if not always healthy) alpine food. There are usually good vegetarian options too.
New twists on old classics in Slovenian cuisine
Lunch is usually the main meal of the day for Slovenes, and a great option for a filling meal is kosilo. Often offered at restaurants and hotels, kosilo is a set menu with a soup to start, a help-yourself salad bar and a filling main course. They represent great value.
The water from the taps in Slovenia is good to drink and there is also an excellent locally-based mineral water company, Radenska. The mountains are predominantly limestone, so it is sometimes difficult to find water en route. It can be expensive to buy bottled water in the mountains, so do fill up before heading off.
A brief water break by the River Nadiža (Route 10)
Of course, after the ride, there is also great beer and wine. For beer (pivo), the locals mostly drink either Laško or Union; however, many microbreweries have sprung up in recent years offering excellent alternatives. Wine (vino) has been a part of Slovenian culture since the Roman times and they make excellent demi-sec whites and fresh, interesting reds.
Language
The language of Slovenia is, not surprisingly, Slovene. It’s a very close relative of Serbo-Croat, the old language of Yugoslavia, and English-speaking visitors are unlikely to find anything familiar in it. Not to fear, however; not only is there a handy glossary at the back of this book (see Appendix A) but, in almost all parts of Slovenia, English is spoken very well by the locals. You really shouldn’t have a problem, but you may feel that a pocket guide to the language would be a useful addition to your luggage.
Money
Since joining the European Union in 2004, Slovenia has used the Euro as its currency. There are several banks in Slovenia, most of which have a branch in the major towns. Smaller towns are likely only to have a branch of the local bank, but there will be an ATM so you’re pretty much guaranteed to be able to get money out in all but the smallest of towns. Alternatively, most places, including many of the mountain huts, will accept card payments.
Slovenia is cheap, especially outside of the tourist traps of Bled and Ljubljana. Expect to pay around €2 for a beer; a coffee (served as an espresso unless you stipulate otherwise) will be about €1.50; a pizza is around €6; a kosilo will be around about €10–15, as will a main course at dinner time. Of course, you can pay more than this at smart restaurants and hotels, but there shouldn’t be any need. Bike parts may be a touch more expensive relative to food. Generally, an inner tube will cost around €3–6 and a bottle of lube around €7; in other words, about the same as much of Europe.
Equipment
If you’re planning a mountain bike holiday abroad, you’re probably already pretty au fait with the gear that you need for a day’s riding. However, as a recap and a potential aide memoire for those who might be riding in the high mountains for the first time, here are some recommendations on kit.
Bike
Bike hire in Slovenia is pretty easy and relatively cheap. There are a number of options for hire, and some suggestions will be made at the beginning of each region section.
Always perform a pre-ride bike check. This is especially important when travelling overseas as you have either transported your bike (and thus dismantled and reassembled it) or you’ve hired a bike with which you might not be familiar. If you’re not sure how to go about a pre-ride check, it’s worth looking up the ‘M-Check’ on the internet. This is a thorough going-over that you give your bike which traces a rough ‘M’ shape around the bike and will help you to remember all the parts you need to review.
A hardtail suitable for the Slovenian trails
Clothing
If you’re a regular road-rider, you might think that the most important decision about clothing is the colour scheme. Mountain bikers tend to be a bit more pragmatic, and practicality has to play a greater part in decision-making.
I would suggest the following are essential pieces of clothing:
helmet – well fitted and less than five years old. If there is any visible wear it should be discarded, and if the helmet has been involved in an accident, even if there is no visible damage, it should be replaced.
gloves