OCTOBER 2023
Over the past years Slovenia has changed from hidden gem into a super popular tourist destination. Slovenia’s nature is stunning, so it is easy to see why it attracts this many tourists, but the country is small and the infrastructure is not suitable to serve these amounts of people. There is no tourist attraction that makes this as apparant as the Vintgar Gorge. The Vintgar Gorge is one of the country’s most popular sights, but it also is a victim of its own success. In this blogpost I will explain why we didn’t love our visit to the Vintgar Gorge and how you can do better.
Practical information
Visiting the Vintgar Gorge requires some extensive prepping according to the official website. The website indicates how busy it will be and if you can still buy tickets for a specific timeslot. Tickets for adults cost € 10 per adult and you will have to pay an additional parking fee. If P1 is full, there are other parkings that involve lots of walking or a shuttle bus. We traveled by camper van and those are only allowed at P4. P4 is really far away from the entrance, the shuttle bus to the entrance takes about 10 minutes and doesn’t always show up immediately. If you park at P4 you need to factor in to arrive 30 minutes before your time slot, so you have enough time for the shuttle bus. During the day P1 is usually full, so if not traveling by camper van: come earliest possible or visit late during the day, this will save you lots of time.
Since COVID you are not allowed to cross the Vintgar gorge both ways, so your visit to the gorge will be followed by a hike. Hiking the Vintgar Gorge itself will take about 30 minutes, but to hike the way back to the entrance will take about 1-1,5 hours.
Our experience
I never like nature activities that I need to book in advance, but it is recommended to buy your tickets in advance which is what we did. I did discover that if you visit late during the day there is usually tickets left. We parked at P4, were soon after picked up by an annoyed shuttle bus driver and arrived at the entrance at the right time.
The management of the Vintgar Gorge tries to spread the visitors during the day by offering limited tickets and this did seem to work. It wasn’t very crowded in the gorge itself, though still too busy to take unobstructed pictures in the summer season. Overall, the hike was very enjoyable. The boardwalks are set up beautifully and you can admire the deep gorge and the blue water.
However, when you get out of the gorge, it is very unclear where you have to go for the shortest route back to the parking lot. It takes over 1 hour before you arrive back at P1. We still had to get back to P4 and heard the shuttle bus back can take a while to arrive. After climbing lots of stairs in a heatwave we found a little bar where we could have a drink and an icecream, which we gratefully did. At this point we discovered that there would be a taxi shuttle at this bar, which would bring us back directly to P4. This seemed like a more enjoyable way to travel, so we decided to join. I don’t remember exactly what we paid but I think it was about € 8-10 per person.
Overall, I found Vintgar Gorge beautiful, but such a hassle to get to and back. Because the entrance was timed, this added stress to our day. With the added taxi costs it was quite an expensive visit too. You need to factor in about 3-4 hours, while you are only visiting the gorge for 30 minutes. I have also visited the Partnachklamm in Germany which just was more enjoyable to visit and felt more of a nature activity than a tourist attraction. Of all the things we did in Slovenia, we found Vintgar Gorge the least fun activity. If you are traveling by car, you are more flexible than with a campervan. I would recommend to either book a late timeslot, or just show up late during the day and park at P1 to avoid any unneccessary travel time.