Should I do Slovenia or spend more time in Austria?

Here's the deal. I have 10 days to get from Munich to Vienna in late May. I really like the pictures (?) of Lake Bled and other Slovenian places.

So, I created this route:

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=M...&via=5&t=m&z=9



At a high level, Munich -> Salzburg -> Grossglockner -> Lake Bled -> Vienna.

Wife, however, is pushing for a pure German/Austrian drive. She wants to see Salzburg / Berchtesgaden but then do Wachau and the Austrian country side.

What do you all think? Any opinions, preferences? I understand it's all subjective but for those who've done both - any suggestions??

Stick to Austria... there are countless places to enjoy. Make sure you spend a decent amount of time at each place.

Ditto.

Plenty to see and do sticking to Austria and Germany. I personally wouldn't want to take my brand new super expensive car into any of the old Soviet Block countries just because of theft, bad roads and possible insurance restrictions.

I recently saw an episode of "Above the Alps" and Lake Bled looked truly gorgeous. It's on my future travels list, but I'll be using a rental car for that. And absolutely only in the Summer.

Slovenia is in the EU and on the insurance list from BMW. I also hear Lake Bled is gorgeous, but so are the Alps. Salzburg is one of my favorite places on earth. Vienna is spectacular. Please plan on spending a few days in each.

I am also interested in Slovenia and have it on my short list for next year's ED - but I have not been there. I have a couple of suggestions on the route that you have mapped. First, head due south out of Munich and when you reach the Alpenstrasse head east towards Salzburg. Second, while in Salzburg head out to the Salzkammergut (Austria's Lake District) for a day of sightseeing.

Originally Posted by Trinitony

I am also interested in Slovenia and have it on my short list for next year's ED - but I have not been there. I have a couple of suggestions on the route that you have mapped. First, head due south out of Munich and when you reach the Alpenstrasse head east towards Salzburg. Second, while in Salzburg head out to the Salzkammergut (Austria's Lake District) for a day of sightseeing.

OK, thank you!

Re: south of Munich - the route is taking me South of MUC and then east. Am I not seeing it?

re: Salzkammergut - that seems to be a dead-end. I think I'll do it but makes my route look very ugly. If we were proceeding East, it would've been perfect - thanks.

EDIT, sorry you meant Alpenstraße. OK.

So, new link here (I shortened it from Alfred's original link to make it more streamlined):

With Alpenstraße included

Go to lake Bled. My wife fell in love with it unexpectedly, as she was very skeptical at first.

Originally Posted by dandanio

Go to lake Bled. My wife fell in love with it unexpectedly, as she was very skeptical at first.

Same thing happened here. After visiting/staying in Munich, Salzburg, Venice, Verona, Florence ... she wants to return to Lake Bled at least one more time. Other ones she can take it or leave it.

OP, make sure you follow the road as shown in the map:

http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Vi...2,3,4&t=m&z=11

Get off the highway around Villach and don't go back on a highway until you get to close to Jesenice. Stop on the road shown in the map between Kranjska Gora and the highway entrance on one of the obvious places (there will be picnic tables or simply a parking spot). River is just 30 ft to your right, walk down to the river. After a night in Bled ask your wife if she wants to go back to Austria or stay. Worst case scenario, Austria is only 20-30 minutes away if you hit a highway at first opportunity.

If she wants to stay, ask hotel staff to show you how to get to drive the road all locals call "Dolina Soce" (last time I did it was 20 years ago and I can't really remember how to get to the right point to start driving south). As long as you keep the brakes reasonably cool, you both should hugely enjoy it. After that, at Nova Gorica, you can go back to highway towards Ljubljana and continue on your planned route.

Another very famous spot is Postojna and a cavern tour. If you have been already to Carlsbad, NM then this is about the same, only this one is "alive" - meaning, water is still dripping profusely and formations are still in process of growing throughout the cavern.

Hope you will have a lot of fun regardless (Slovenija OR Austria).

EDIT: the hotel to stay in Bled is Hotel Park, but ONLY if they guarantee you lake view room with balcony. Make sure you get that. Below two pictures from our balcony taken by my wife with point-and-shoot. Horrible quality, but it will give you an idea.

Wow, so many interesting ideas - that's why I love the forum!

OK - I fixed post Villach route, new link is here:

New Map

Dolina - I guess you mean this http://www.dolina-soce.si/eng/ ?

Hmm.. very interesting option. To be honest, it looks like quite a detour on the way to Ljubljana. I'm afraid that's gonna take a while to navigate that...

EDIT: added the route:

WIth Soca Valley included

So, you can see - I can either do Lake Bled OR navigate the valley. Can't do both without a significant time/distance penalty.

Originally Posted by Mark K

Same thing happened here. After visiting/staying in Munich, Salzburg, Venice, Verona, Florence ... she wants to return to Lake Bled at least one more time. Other ones she can take it or leave it.

OP, make sure you follow the road as shown in the map:

http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Vi...2,3,4&t=m&z=11

Get off the highway around Villach and don't go back on a highway until you get to close to Jesenice. Stop on the road shown in the map between Kranjska Gora and the highway entrance on one of the obvious places (there will be picnic tables or simply a parking spot). River is just 30 ft to your right, walk down to the river. After a night in Bled ask your wife if she wants to go back to Austria or stay. Worst case scenario, Austria is only 20-30 minutes away if you hit a highway at first opportunity.

If she wants to stay, ask hotel staff to show you how to get to drive the road all locals call "Dolina Soce" (last time I did it was 20 years ago and I can't really remember how to get to the right point to start driving south). As long as you keep the brakes reasonably cool, you both should hugely enjoy it. After that, at Nova Gorica, you can go back to highway towards Ljubljana and continue on your planned route.

Another very famous spot is Postojna and a cavern tour. If you have been already to Carlsbad, NM then this is about the same, only this one is "alive" - meaning, water is still dripping profusely and formations are still in process of growing throughout the cavern.

Hope you will have a lot of fun regardless (Slovenija OR Austria).

EDIT: the hotel to stay in Bled is Hotel Park, but ONLY if they guarantee you lake view room with balcony. Make sure you get that. Below two pictures from our balcony taken by my wife with point-and-shoot. Horrible quality, but it will give you an idea.

Originally Posted by zoltrix

Dolina - I guess you mean this http://www.dolina-soce.si/eng/ ?

Yes, that's it. It is such a beautiful drive.

Hmm.. very interesting option. To be honest, it looks like quite a detour on the way to Ljubljana. I'm afraid that's gonna take a while to navigate that...

So, you can see - I can either do Lake Bled OR navigate the valley. Can't do both without a significant time/distance penalty.

True, you would need to allocate a day (considering all the stops) to go from Bled in the morning to Soca Valley and then catch highway to arrive in Ljubljana in the evening. However, I just want to point out that Slovenija is smaller than most counties in US southwest. If you stay on highway and don't stop, the drive from Villach to Koper (crossing the whole country north-south) would take you all of 2 hours or less.

One more thing, Slovenija is a beautiful country, but to be honest, the wow stuff is mostly in northwest corner and along western border. As you start moving south-east, you will be going towards "flatlands" (certainly not as flat as Kansas, but it feels flat after Alps in northwest corner).

Unless you enjoy a museum of anything on every corner, like museum of chocolate and stuck up, stiff, cold, unhappy people then skip Austria, especially Vienna. Go south where warmer climates make for warmer people, northern Italy - Trieste and then head to Budapest. Roads in "old soviet block" are not as good as in Germany, but way BETTER than anything in US.

Go south and east. I would only avoid Serbia and Bosnia, these two are still war ravaged. Seriously, Budapest is absolutely amazing and so far mostly only Europeans know that. I would also hit Prague, then Poland and Berlin...

Question - since I'm passing Zell am See - how much time should I allow myself for this?

Can I stop by, pop out, quick pic and move on? Or is this worth spending more time?

Also, instead of staying in Salzburg and then staying in Berchtesgaden, I'm thinking about staying in Berchtesgaden only and using it as a base of operations to see Salzburg and the surrounding areas, before moving onto Grossglockner and points south.

Thoughts??

Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia are not EU countries and are not covered under issued insurance, so if Budapest is on your list after Lake Bled, go EAST and not south into Croatia.