Lake Bled, Slovenia | Travel

Traveled on May 11th and May 12th of 2014.

Next Destination: Ljubljana, Slovenia

This was the first stop on our trip through the Balkans. When planning our itinerary we heard a lot of recommendations to stay in Lake Bohinj instead of Bled because it was less touristy and supposedly just as beautiful. In fact every local we asked in Slovenia about which lake they visit they all unanimously said Bohinj because Bled was too touristy. But in the end we chose Bled because of the amazing Castle and Church on an island views. We see plenty of gorgeous lakes living next to the Sierra’s. How often do we get to visit a lake with a Castle and Church on an island that looks like something out of a fairy tale?? Never!

We actually almost completely bypassed staying here and adding on two more nights to Ljubljana because of ominous weather reports before our flight. It was scheduled to rain the one full day we were planning on being at the lake until 2 days before when the weather report changed to cloudy. Our flight arrived at 10pm to pouring rain so we were wondering if we made the wrong decision. Our fears were unfounded though as we woke up to clear blue skies.

Our airbnb host was kind enough to take us with her to visit the old town of Radovljica after she made us breakfast using fresh herbs from her garden. Radovljica was a nice change up from Bled. Bled is very beautiful but the old town leaves something to be desired. The old town in Radovljica was very small but more of what you’d expect a European old town to look like. We also got some great cheap souvenirs here from a second hand shop.

Back to Lake Bled. The very first thing we did was head straight to The Park Hotel to try the famous Kremsnita. This was the view from our table. Still blue skies but the clouds were quickly coming in.

Holy sh*t this was good. The best comparison we could come up with was a non-doughy cream puff with custard. This was heavenly and we regretted not eating more of these while in Bled.

I enjoy trying local beers while on vacation. This was one you could find everywhere along with Lasko. They were both just ok, nothing memorable. When in Slovenia it’s best to stick with the wines.

The inside of Gostilna Pri Planincu. We went here because they serve traditional Slovenia pub grub and we wanted to start one of our favorite activities… day drinking! We asked for the most popular traditional dishes and received a feast of tripe soup, goulash, and sausages. Everything was priced at around 5 euros each which I thought meant small portions but which were most definitely not.

Starting our walk around the lake. The lake looks a lot smaller than it actually is! We thought the walk would take 1-2 hours but it actually took just over 3. Still totally worth it though, the views are different from every spot.

There are swans everywhere around the lake.

Gas motors aren’t allowed on the lake so all you’ll see are paddle boats.

We thought about renting one of these boats and paddling out to the Church but the weather looked like it was starting to turn.

Instead we decided to hop on one of these Pletna boats.

Our Pletna captain rowing us to the Church of the Assumption. He said it takes about 500 strokes to get to the island from where we were. We also met a really nice Slovakian couple on this boat who were the first of many to be enamored with Chau’s “roots”. I don’t think people are used to seeing Vietnamese people out here.

The walk up to the Church of the Assumption. This is a popular spot to get married and the groom is suppose to carry the bride up these 99 steps to the top. Unfortunately for Chau we were already married so she had to hike it up herself.

No more blue skies.

We stayed at Lake Bled for 2 night but only got one full day which we thought was enough. It’s a very beautiful lake but it gets very quiet in the evenings. We had a very good seafood dinner at Ostarija Peglez’n but every bar we stuck our head into was completely dead. If we had to do it again we would have allocated these days onto Ljubljana and done a long day trip here. We’re still glad we saw this fairy tale of a place though. I highly recommend you visit here if you’re ever in Slovenia, even though it’s considered touristy.

Next Destination: Ljubljana, Slovenia