Slovenia 7 Day Itinerary: Ljubljana, Bled and the Soča Valley

Free, 45 minutes, a 10 minute walk from most central hotels. From the airport, 25 km out, take a transfer or the bus and leave the rental car for later: central Ljubljana is closed to traffic and the first two days are on foot.

The pink Franciscan church, from 1660, and the statue of the poet France Prešeren frame the square. The Triple Bridge, which Jože Plečnik widened in 1932 by adding two footbridges to the original stone bridge, is the photo everyone takes: walk across all three.

Free, 45 minutes, right next to the square. The open air stalls trade Monday to Saturday from early morning and thin out by late afternoon, so arrive before 4pm to see the market busy. Plečnik's colonnade, from the 1940s, is open at any hour.

The fish market sits on the lower level by the water. On Fridays from March to October the market square hosts Odprta kuhna, the street food fair with cooks from all over the city: if your Day 1 is a Friday, have dinner there.

Quick stop, 15 minutes, 300 metres from the market. Built in 1901, it was one of the first reinforced concrete bridges in Europe, and the copper dragons at each end became the city's symbol, even on its coat of arms.

Local legend says they wag their tails when a virgin crosses. From here, walk 200 metres back along the river to the funicular station on Krekov trg.

Funicular return ticket 6 euros, or a 15 minute walk up. Allow 1h30 and go in the late afternoon: the viewing tower shows the whole city and, on a clear day, the line of the Julian and Kamnik Alps.

The courtyard is free; the paid ticket covers the tower, St George's chapel and the exhibition on Slovenian history. The walk down to Prešeren Square takes 15 minutes on the path behind the courtyard.

Guided visits only, about 1 hour, Tuesday to Sunday from 10am, in small groups: book your slot on the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana website the day before. The house in Trnovo was kept as Plečnik left it in 1957, with the furniture he designed, his studio and the winter garden.

Do this before walking around, because it explains what you will see for the rest of the day: the bridges, the market, the national library and the promenades that UNESCO listed in 2021 as the works of Plečnik in Ljubljana.

Quick stop, 15 minutes, a 15 minute walk from Plečnik House following the Ljubljanica along the Trnovo bank. The colonnaded bridge, also by Plečnik, stands where shoemakers kept their stalls in the Middle Ages, and it is the best spot to watch the cafes on both banks.

Tivoli Park is another 15 minutes on foot, via Congress Square and Slovenska Avenue.

Free, 1h30, and the place for a picnic lunch. Go through the underpass and follow Jakopičevo sprehajališče, the promenade designed by Plečnik that hosts open air photo exhibitions through the year.

If you have the energy, climb Rožnik hill in 30 minutes on the trail behind Tivoli Castle; if not, stay on the lawn with the castle hill in view.

Free, 1 hour, ideally in the evening, when the place comes alive: a 25 minute walk from Tivoli, or 10 from Prešeren Square. Artists occupied the Yugoslav army barracks in 1993, two years after independence, and today it is an autonomous zone covered in mosaics, sculptures and graffiti.

By day you can study the facades in peace; after 9pm the bars and music venues open. The Museum of Contemporary Art and the Ethnographic Museum share the same complex.

15 euros including parking and the shuttle bus, 1h30, 50 minutes by car from Ljubljana and 4 km from Bled. Tickets are sold online only, with a time slot, and morning slots sell out first in summer: buy the day before and arrive at 10.30am, before checking in at Bled.

It is 1.6 km of wooden boardwalks fixed to the gorge walls, one way only, ending at the 13 metre Šum waterfall. You do not return the same way: the exit is a forest trail back to the car park.

Pletna return trip 20 euros, cash only, with 40 minutes on the island; the church charges a separate entry. Allow 2 hours including the wait at the pier: boats leave when full from several points on the shore, and the quietest is Mlino, at the south end.

Pletna oarsmen have passed the job from father to son since the 18th century. Up top, pulling the rope of the bell in the Church of the Assumption earns you a wish, as tradition goes. If you would rather row yourself, rent a rowing boat by the hour on the shore.

19 euros, 1h15, a 15 minute walk from the shore on the steep path that starts at St Martin's Church. First recorded in 1011, the castle sits 130 metres above the water, and its terrace is where nearly every photo of the lake and island is taken.

Go in the late afternoon, after the tour buses leave. Inside there is a small museum, a wine cellar where you bottle your own wine and a print shop that makes souvenirs on a replica Gutenberg press.

Quick stop, 20 minutes, 30 minutes by car from Bled, in Ribčev Laz. The Gothic church next to the stone bridge is the image of Bohinj; if it is open, step in to see the medieval frescoes on the walls.

Lake Bohinj is more than twice the size of Bled and far less crowded. From here the day heads steadily west along the south shore to Ukanc.

Allow 2h30 for the ride, a short walk at the top and the ride back. The cable car leaves from Ukanc, at the west end of the lake, and within minutes reaches the top station, where the platform hangs over the lake and Triglav, the country's highest peak at 2,864 metres, rises opposite.

Go early, before the clouds close in on the summit, which in summer often happens after midday. Check the day's price and wind closures on the station's website.

Paid entry at the trailhead, 1h30 return, 5 km by car from the cable car at the end of the Ukanc road. There are about 550 stone and wooden steps to the viewpoint, not technical but steadily uphill: bring water.

Savica drops 78 metres in two streams shaped like an A inside a gorge. It is the source of the Sava Bohinjka, which feeds the lake and later becomes the Sava, the country's longest river. On the way back, the gravel beaches on the shore are good for a cold swim.

A 1 hour stop at the top, after about 1 hour's drive from Bled via Kranjska Gora. The road has 50 numbered hairpins, 24 going up and 26 going down, cobbled on the tightest bends: drive slowly and give cyclists room.

Russian prisoners of war built it in 1915 to supply the Isonzo front; at bend 8 stands the wooden Russian Chapel, raised by survivors of an avalanche that killed hundreds of them. The road usually closes with snow between November and April: check before you leave.

Free, 1h30 including the trail, 20 minutes by car down the Trenta side of Vršič. From the car park at the end of the side road it is a 15 to 20 minute climb, the last metres with a steel cable fixed to the rock: trainers with good grip are enough.

The water rises from a cave inside the rock, so clear it seems bottomless, and starts the Soča's 138 km run to the Adriatic. A mountain hut by the car park serves food, so have lunch before driving on to Bovec.

Free, 1h30, 20 minutes by car from Bovec, near the village of Soča. Park at the access signed Velika korita and walk down to the suspension bridge: from it you see the river squeezed up to 15 metres below, in a rock channel less than 2 metres wide in places.

The path follows the rim for about 750 metres, with natural pools for anyone brave enough for 10 degree water in summer. To actually ride the river, rafting leaves from Bovec with local operators from April to October.

Paid entry at the trail, about 2 hours in all, 25 minutes by car from Bovec. Park near the Koren campsite, cross the Soča and walk 30 minutes along the bank to the wooden boardwalk that enters the gorge.

Kozjak drops 15 metres inside an almost closed chamber with a green pool at the base, and it is one of the most photographed sights in the valley. Arrive early: at 9.30am it is still empty.

About 1h30, in central Kobarid, 10 minutes by car from the waterfall. The museum covers the 29 months of the Isonzo front, from 1915 to 1917, and the Battle of Caporetto, when Austro-Hungarian and German troops broke the Italian line and took more than 250,000 prisoners.

The relief model of the valley helps make sense of what you drove through, from Vršič to the Soča. Ernest Hemingway described the Caporetto retreat in A Farewell to Arms, and the museum won the Council of Europe Museum Prize in 1993.

Quick stop, 20 minutes, a 10 minute walk from the museum up the Stations of the Cross, or drive to the door. The octagonal ossuary from 1938 wraps around the church of St Anthony and holds the remains of 7,014 Italian soldiers.

The stop is also about the view: from the top terrace you see all of Kobarid and the Soča valley up to Mount Krn, scene of some of the hardest fighting on the front.

About 1 hour, 1h30 by car from Bovec on the Tolmin road. Idrija lived for more than 500 years off the world's second largest mercury mine, listed by UNESCO in 2012, and the 16th century castle where the metal was stored now houses the town museum.

If there is no time for the museum, at least walk round the courtyard and have lunch here: žlikrofi, small potato dumplings registered by the European Union as a traditional speciality.

24 euros, or less on the combined ticket with the cave, 1 hour, 45 minutes by car from Idrija. The castle is wedged into a 123 metre cliff and recorded since 1274; the building you see today is Renaissance, from 1570.

The story that sells the place is that of the knight Erazem, who held out through a siege of more than a year in the 15th century, supplied through a secret passage in the cave, and was killed by a cannonball while on the toilet. The audio guide is included.

34.90 euros, or 49.90 combined with Predjama, 1h40, 15 minutes by car from the castle. The visit starts on an electric train that runs 3.7 km through the galleries, then continues 1.5 km on foot, always guided and on a set time slot: book online and bring a jacket, because it is 10 degrees inside all year.

The most impressive gallery is the Concert Hall, with room for 10,000 people. At the end there is a tank with the olm, the blind amphibian that lives up to 100 years in underground rivers and that Slovenians call the human fish. From the cave to Ljubljana airport is about 50 minutes by car.