When you visit Slovenia there are a few must-see places, like visiting Lake Bled and Vintgar Gorge or the wonderful Slovenian capital city of Ljubljana. Another popular destination that always seems to be mentioned, is Postojna Caves. We had however heard just how busy it can be, so we decided to rather head to the somewhat less touristy alternative of Škocjan Caves - only a short drive further south.
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The Škocjan Caves are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and are representative of the most significant underground phenomena not only in the Karst region but in the whole of Slovenia. As well as getting to explore the underground cave system, there is also an incredible panoramic view of the dramatic cliffs of the region from the lookout viewpoint. Of course, the main attraction is getting to explore a section of the 6 km long route of caves carved by the Reka River. This cave system also includes one of the largest underground canyons found in the world and is truly an incredible sight to experience first hand. You can get a glimpse for yourself in our video of our experience at Škocjan Caves.
From Ljubljana, we took some wonderfully scenic back roads through the Slovenian countryside to reach the Škocjan Caves. However, as soon as we reached Škocjan Caves we realised that although this may be the 'less visited' of the two cave systems in Slovenia, it is still a very busy tourist attraction! Even in the early morning, there were already numerous tour busses in the parking lot.
There are two options for how you can visit and tour the Škocjan Caves: you can either go on the guided tour or you can choose to do your own self-guided tour. These two tours go through different sections of the Škocjan Cave system, so if you want to get the most out of it, you could even do both as we did. The guided tour option took us through 2.3km of underground caves and included 500 stairs! We enjoyed the experience as the cave system is really impressive, we just found that the group was very big and we would have loved to be able to explore a little more in our own time. The second part the tour is mostly outside of the actual caves and although we liked the fact that we could take our time to appreciate the beauty of nature at our own pace, to be honest, we don't think it was worth the additional entrance fee. Our recommendation would be to do only the first part of the tour. Although busy, this is the most informative and impressive part of the Škocjan Caves in our opinion!
Close by to Škocjan Caves is the small town of Vremski Britof, where we found a pleasant camp spot in a meadow with Camping Dujčeva Domačija. This was the perfect place to enjoy nature's greenery and watch the sunlight flicker through the tall trees after walking through the dark depths of the Škocjan Caves.
