Lake Bled, Slovenia — You think it’s too good to be true and you’re wrong

A beautiful and pristine alpine lake, a small island in the center capped by a perfect little church, a medieval castle perched dramatically on a cliff face above it, all surrounded by snow-capped mountains.  Crimey, I don’t know what’s happened to me.  I don’t usually write using such trite, stock phrases, but Slovenia’s Lake Bled is an attraction that brings out the clichés.  Words like “nestled” and “picturesque” involuntarily come to mind, not that I would ever use those words, as I have standards, but this place just conjures them.  Sometimes the number one spot in a country is the number one spot for a reason.

I believe that anyone visiting Slovenia will think of it as underrated.  It has everything you like about Europe — mountains, coast, great food and wine, and dragons, all packed into a small country.  It’s cheaper than Western Europe, and everyone there speaks a few languages, including English.  Ljubljana, the capital, is an attractive and very manageable city that most people enjoy, and Piran, an old Venetian city on the coast, is quite the find.  Lake Bled is the country’s top spot, a showroom, a setting that’s hard to beat.

Lake Bled is only an hour north from Ljubljana.  You could day-trip it from there.  If you’re picking up a rental car at the airport, you’re already halfway to Bled.  Otherwise, transportation to Bled from Ljubljana is frequent, and you don’t really need a car once you’re at the lake.

 

 

Sights such as this, a beautiful but popular get-away that just everyone describes as so lovely, are dangerous.  Beautiful things let us down too often.  We’ve all been hurt before.  They’re also so damn awfully hard to write about without sounding trite—one continually wants to write that Bled is a perfect romantic get-away, that it’s a gem and all.  It’s just so nice there that my normal snarky prose is tempered.  It’s clean, almost pristine.  It’s small enough to handle, big enough for some space.  It’s popular, not at all undiscovered, but I was there in late May, hardly off-season, and felt quite uncrowded (until dinnertime.  More on that.)

Note: Locals pronounce the name Bled like the English world “blade”, but seemingly everyone else rhymes it with “red”.  Take your pick.  I won’t judge.

Lake Bled is small, only a bit over two kilometers long, and not even that wide.   The path around the lake, which you should walk, is about 6k (3.6 miles).  No motorized boats are allowed, meaning no noise beyond the tour buses.  It’s clean and safe, and just so damn nice.

 

The town, called Bled as well, is on the east end of the lake, somewhat divided into a newer town strip on the very east tip containing lots of tourist things (hotels and such) with a few municipal buildings (library, post office), and a somewhat real town, often called the “old town”, just to the north.  It’s not really old, but I’ll just use that term ironically.  Everything’s within walking distance, but if you’re searching for a hotel, be aware that some are a bit of distance from the lake.  Conversely, don’t worry about getting a hotel being right on the lake or having views of it, as you’ll being seeing it quite enough.

If you’re into photography, Lake Bled will keep you busy, particularly with some weather that will give you a more dramatic sky.  The far (west) end of the lake and the south side is great for better photos of the island, with the castle in the background.  Work on your focus stacking.

 

 

The main Thing You Must Do here is walk around the lake.  The word “walk” seems not appropriate for such a milieu; perhaps you should stroll instead, or meander, or languidly amble the pleasing lakefront promenade.  If you’re decently speedy, it will take an hour and half, but of course your romantic hand-in-hand sauntering will last longer.

Other options exist.  You can rent bicycles, starting at about €6 for a couple hours to about €12 for the day.  For just going around the lake, I think walking is better, but as these are tough mountain bikes, they can be used to get to other places, such as Vintgar Gorge, 3k away, a great and easy hike along a rather dramatic, blue-water-filled gorge.  If you’re really into biking, check at the main tourist information center in town for biking paths in the area.

There’s also a cheesy tourist tram that runs around the lake in the summer, and of course you knew there would be horse-pulled carriages in a place like this.  On the south-central side of the lake is Vila Bled, once a residence for royalty and now a hotel.  It’s famous because during the communist Yugoslavia period, Tito made it his own.  It’s a slick place that feels like a vintage James Bond haunt (the Sean Connery era), and now you’re welcome to stop by for a coffee or just to poke around.

 

The castle here is as theatrical as they come

The second Thing You Must Do in Bled is the castle, which is as dramatic as can be, towering over the lake on an impressive 100m cliff face.  €9 and a stiff climb gets you up top, where the sights inside aren’t so brilliant but it’s a neat place and the view is worth it.  The castle feels like those in charge don’t quite know what to do with it.  Various rooms there contain little recreations of late medieval crafts, such as early printing methods and some ironmonger works.  There’s a restaurant, but it’s expensive and comes not recommended.  There’s a chapel.  A glass of wine and a cheese plate from the café, with a table overlooking the lake, is probably the best bet.

 

The third Thing You Must Do in Bled is to get to that too-cute little island on the lake.  Option one is to swim to it (free).  People do this, from the west end of the lake.  I can’t help you here.  You could also rent your own rowboat, from a number of places (expensive), but by far the most popular way is via a type of flat-bottom wooden boat called a pletna, basically a small, wooden, rowed ferry that can hold perhaps ten people under its canopy.  It’s propelled by a guy standing on the back platform, a cross between a gondola and a rowboat.  These boats cost €12 a person, and leave from about three spots around the lake, including the popular waterfront on the east side.  You will see them.

 

 

The Thing To Do on the island is visit the church.  There’s a little café and a gift shop, I hear, but the church is the main thing.  99 steps lead from the dock up to the church, and it’s a tradition for local brides and grooms to come out here and the groom then carries the bride up the steps.  For others like you, it’s €6 to get into the church and the Thing To Do in the church is pull the rope to ring the bell, because if you can get it to ring three times with only one pull of the rope, your wish will come true.  Something like that.  Get in line.

 

The church is the only attraction on the island

 

The problem with taking those pletna boats is they give you 30 minutes on the island, prompt.  That’s it.  Perhaps that’s more than enough time to see everything, but it seems strangely restrictive.  I’m not sure if you can hang out and just wait for the next boat to come or if you must stick with your boat.  That means a total of €18 (boat fee+church fee) to pull on a church bell rope, and it didn’t seem worth it.  The boat trip is probably fun, yet I’d rather spend the €18 on some good local wine.

That’s what I did.  I skipped the island entirely; it just didn’t seem worth it.  Instead, I settled myself into the Costella wine bar not far from the waterfront where the proprietor introduced me to the local Teran red grape, a marvelous pour.  I had a second glass, just to be sure.  She then poured me a special Merlot blend, almost 15% alcohol.  I sat outside with a brilliant view of the castle and talked to a couple from Oklahoma City at the next table.  They were on a special biking tour of Slovenia, though they looked awfully well-dressed to be bikers.  The total for three glasses of excellent wine was €10.50, and I think I enjoyed myself just as much as any people on the boat.

The weather in Bled is unromantically unpredictable.  This is a mountain area.  Winters get snow, the lake can freeze, and sunny summer days can suddenly see rain.  As I sat with my wine, it started raining.  Glad I’m not on the lake.

 

Bled seems to not quite have enough restaurants for the tourist traffic it gets, or perhaps it’s just that the good ones are filled.  I stopped into Oštarija Peglez’n for dinner, right off the main road near the lake, and found it packed.  People are being turned away, but sometimes this is where the solitary diner shines.  “You are one person?” the curt host asked me, and then took complete care of me.  “Wait, soon,” he told me several times, to ease my troubled brow, and then squeezed me in and made sure the waitstaff took care of me.  I ate a fish soup, octopus salad, and a seafood risotto and just watched the action around me.  The food was brilliant and it made me happy, but restaurants are not cheap in places like this.

 

The seafood risotto.  Things like this make me happy.

 

Such a place as Lake Bled should naturally spawn its own special dessert, something it is known for.  How appropriate that the local dish is a dessert.  What else?  Kremna rezina (or kremšnita) is somewhat like a Napoleon with less layers, multiple squares of a thin, crispy crust with custard spread between them and whipped cream on top.  If I was the type of person who orders dessert, I could describe it better.

As for the nightlife, no, I’m sorry.  This is a romantic get-away place and people are perhaps staying in their hotels, getting romantic.  I tried for some nightlife, I did.  The only place with any action was near the bus station in the old town, an unnamed place with the word “Tiger” over the door, though it doesn’t seem to be its name.  They only had Slovenian beer on tap (I recommend Laško over Union) and I sat at a small table, finishing my large glass in the largely empty room, knowing this was as much excitement as I’m getting tonight.

Some other places were open, but rather dead.  A large (for the area) mall-like building called the “commercial center” in the new town has a few cafes that stay open late.  You may be luckier than I.

Lake Bled seems not heavy with some canonical lures that infest other such get-away areas, such as spa treatments, though they exist.  The large Hotel Park, right on the edge of the lake, has Thai massage, 80 minutes for €52.  If I had more time there, I would seriously consider this.  But Bled is more about existing attractions.  The area is close enough to some other spots, such as Triglav national park in the Julian Alps, and to another lake called Bohinj which some say is even lovelier, though it lacks the island and castle and probably the carriages.  All throughout northern Slovenia, including Bled, there are adventure companies that will take you rafting, tubing, rappelling, and such.  Many of the sports involve the Soča River, to the west, and if you have your own wheels, it’s worth heading over there with or without the Xtreme adventures involved.

 

 

Getting there:    Driving.  Oh, how easy, just an hour from Ljubljana.  Any map or GPS will get you there, and you won’t get lost unless you’re the type that can’t help it.  You might want to stop at some old small towns such as Škofja Loka on the way.  If you have a hotel in Bled, make sure they have parking.  Public parking is a pain.  Bled has lots of car rental agencies, so you could arrive here by public transportation and then later pick up a car to head out.

Train: There are two stations in Bled—the one you want is “Lesce-Bled”.  Don’t get a ticket to anything else with the word “Bled” in it.  The train has connections to many other cities.  The train station is a couple of km out of town, so you must take a local bus into Bled that runs every half-hour, or grab a taxi from the station.  Because of this, taking the train from Ljubljana is probably not the best option—take a bus instead.

Bus:  Only one bus station, in the old town, walking distance.  Just head downhill.

 

If you like Slovenia, and really you should, check out my thoughts on the capital, Ljubljana, and the wonderful coastal town of Piran, and a photo essay of Piran and other Venetian towns.  And find out why I didn’t see the famous castle there.