Ankaran, the green peninsula that fought to stay that way

Why Ankaran is different

According to its tourist board, Ankaran is Slovenia’s youngest municipality. It was created in 2011 out of its residents’ wish to preserve the peninsula’s natural and landscape diversity, a goal achieved in 2018 with the declaration of the Debeli rtič park. The municipality has 3,444 inhabitants in 8.1 km², and the peninsula looks across to Koper, Izola and Piran on one side and to the Italian coast at Grado on the other.

People settled here very early. Nearby, at Elerji, is the oldest hillfort found in Istria, from the Bronze Age, and there are remains of Roman country villas, piers in the sea and a fort on the Via Flavia, the road from Trieste to Pula. Later came the Benedictine monastery of St Nicholas, now a hotel, around which small farms of settlers from Friuli grew up.

Ankaran as a place for health

The mild climate and Mediterranean vegetation soon brought health tourism. Under Napoleon’s Illyrian Provinces, from 1809 to 1813, the monastery served as a military hospital, and later Austria opened a medical centre for its naval officers. In 1818 two travellers published a book in Regensburg about Ankaran’s vegetation, and around 1901 a tuberculosis sanatorium was built, today a Slovenian Navy centre.

Ankaran’s beaches and sights

The beaches have bars and lifeguards, and the tourist board notes that the sea is shallow and reaches 28 degrees on the hottest days. Valdoltra is very popular, Debeli rtič beach is one of the largest, Študent has a lively bar and Adria lies under the pines. Next to the border there is a natural grass beach. They are set against the rest of the country in beaches in Slovenia.

Away from the beach, the St Nicholas salt meadow has no equal elsewhere in Slovenia and is a Natura 2000 site. The cemetery, a modern design among pines and stone terraces, won the 2025 Plečnik Prize. There is also the villa and garden of the noble Galli family and a communal bread oven.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Ankaran for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.

Getting to Ankaran and around

Ankaran is 6 km from Koper, about 8 minutes by car, and Koper has the nearest railway station. A regular bus runs from Koper to Lazaret on the border, and in summer a free bus links car parks, beaches and the centre. Parking costs €1 to €2 an hour, and the tourist office sells a €30 monthly card. Trieste is 20 minutes away and Ljubljana an hour’s drive. Ankaran is the end of the Slovenian Mountain Trail, some 600 km from Maribor, first laid out in 1953.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Ankaran for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.