September 2024

After Lake Bled, we drove to the capital of Slovenia: Ljubljana!

I have listed the places of things to see and do, and places to eat in alphabetical order. I also added some photos & information below the list that I have experienced. I also went to two places that were outside of Ljubljana which I will talk about at the end of this blog.

How to Get Around Ljubljana
Walking! Ljubljana is a small city and it is pretty walkable! There are not a lot of cars around and not easy to find parking either, so walking is the answer!

Where Did I Stay?
I stayed at Airbnb and it was a three minute walking distance from the Dragon Bridge! I was at the heart of downtown and it was not noisy at all! The location was super convenient! I loved the area!

How was the weather?
The weather in early September was a bit sunny, partly cloudly, and it rained for a little bit too. So during the day, you can probably wear summer clothing like tshirts, shorts, dresses, etc. but in the evening, you may want to have a jacket!

What is the currency?
Euros! Majority of the places accepted card, but I also think the locals would not have mind if they were paid via cash too.

Things to do/see
Central Market/Friday Open Kitchen
Dragon Bridge
Ljubljana Castle
Mesarki Most Bridge
Nebotičnik Skyscraper
Preseren Square
Tivoli Park (wish I had time for this one)

Postojna Cave (outside of Ljubljana)
Predjama Castle (outside of Ljubljana)

Things to Eat/Drink
Klobasarna

Things to Do/See

Central Market/Friday Open Kitchen
Central Market is open everyday except Sunday and it’s a place to get some groceries, food, or clothing! It’s like a farmer’s market. I put “Friday Open Kitchen” next to this, because it is located next to the Central Market. What is Friday Open Kitchen? It’s pretty much a place where there are a ton of food vendors and you can try each place and eat! There’s also music, and they also have areas to sit. However, the restrooms or porta potty. The vibes were so much fun! I loved it and eat here twice for lunch and dinner! The only caveat is that, Friday Open Kitchen is only open on Fridays from March-November, so keep that in mind!

Dragon Bridge
The infamous dragon bridge in Ljubljana! Can’t miss it! I’m also cheesy, but I’m glad I saw this bridge, during the year of the Dragon too!! 😉 Go 2024 haha!

Ljubljana Castle
There are a few ways to get up to the castle, mainly by walking. There are different entrances and walkways to go up here. There are some uphill and stairs, and it took about 10-15 minutes to get to the top. 

Mesarki Most Bridge
This bridge is near the Dragon Bridge and this bridge is another bridge that has a love locks on there, and there’s  also some dragon heads statues around too.

Nebotičnik Skyscraper
This is a nice place for drinks and views of Ljubljana. The place is located inside a hotel. You will need to take an elevator and go up to the highlest level, but once you walk out, you will need to go up 1 flight of stairs and then you will reach the rooftop. Tables and seats are first come, first serve. We saw a sunset on top of the castle here! It was such a good way to end the trip in Slovenia!

Preseren Square
Just a sightseeing area that you can’t miss (since it’s so small!) 🙂 

Things to Eat/Drink
I mention on top about the Friday Open Kitchen and we got some Slovenian dumplings, which are called: Idrijski žlikrofi. If you decide to get that, I would recommend to eat it right away because it gets cold easily! Also, try a place call Klobasarna, which has Slovenian sauerkraut soup, sausage and bread! It was so good and cheap too, and they take card.
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Ljubljana is a cute small city that you can see almost everything in one day. The only thing I did not check out was Tivoli park, which I will when I come back, because I love to visit Lake Bled again!

Outside of Ljubljana, I also visited Postojna Cave & Predjama Castle. They are located 45 minutes away by car from Ljubljana, but the cave & caste are only 15 minutes away from each other. Each place, you have to pay for parking, but there is a free shuttle bus that takes you from the cave to the castle, and back. However, they did not advertise it very well when we were there. There were no directions or instructions, or times to locate when/where the free shuttles were. We had to go to the box office ticket, and they pointed it to us, but if we wanted something “faster”, we needed to pay a Euro (which is not bad). However, in my opinion, I think it is better to have a car to go between Postojna Cave & Predjama Castle, that way you are not rushing at either sites, and you get to take your time and not depend on a shuttle. Who knows if they are right on time either!

You can buy tickets to one or both, online or in person.

Postojna Cave
I learned about this place through the show, The Amazing Race. I learned about Slovenia through that show!! They went to some of the places I mentioned above in Ljubljana! Anyway, Postojna Cave opened in 1872 and is an underground cave that has a railway in there! The world’s first!  How amazing is that?! I was shocked that there was a “mini” train in this cave. And the train was not mini, it was like a 5 minute ride, and there were MUTIPLE trains taking in visitors. It felt like a Disneyland right! It was so much fun! The cave itself is MASSIVE. After the train ride, you walk through the cave for about 30ish minutes, then you can see baby dragons too!! Too bad we couldn’t take a picture, but that really cool to see! Then you take the train back to the entrance. There are some restaurants and souvenir shops outside of the Postojna Cave.

Predjama Castle
This Renaissance castle was built into a cave…like how cool is that? There is a free audio tour if you download the app on your phone, however, if you want to the hold the audio device, it costs about $3 euros. It was cool to see their living situation back in the day with the kitchen, toilet, dungeon rooms (kind of scary but cool), the weapon room, water/well, etc. We took about 1.5 hours touring the castle. It was very cool to learn about!

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Overall, Ljubljana and the cave + castle was awesome! Thank you for reading all the way! I felt really safe traveling in Ljubljana…except when I checked in at night to my Airbnb…that was a bit scary because of the graffiti LOL, but all good. Good memories.

As always, thank you for visiting Vivian’s Ventures. Have you been to the Ljubljana? If so, tell me in the comments/reply section about your experience. What should I do if I go back? If you haven’t been, tell me what you are planning to do there. Any questions or comments, let me know. Let’s chat! #viviansventures