Jezersko, the mountaineers' valley below the Kamnik Alps

Heart-shaped Lake Planšar

Small, heart-shaped Lake Planšar in Jezersko is the most visited spot in the valley and almost its emblem, with boats in summer, skating in winter and a restaurant open all year round. The track towards Češka koča starts by going round it.

Češka koča and the Skuta glacier

Češka koča sits at 1,543 m on the flatter ground of Spodnje Ravni, beneath the north faces of Grintovec, the highest peak of the Kamnik-Savinja Alps. It was built in 1900 by the Czech branch of the Slovene Mountaineering Association in Prague, hence the name, and officially opened on 26 July 1900; it has been renovated many times without losing its original style. It’s an hour and a quarter on foot from the cargo cableway car park. From Kranjska koča na Ledinah, a quarter of an hour’s walk takes you to the Skuta glacier, which the tourist board calls the most south-easterly in the Alps. Both huts close in winter and reopen in June.

Farmsteads, churches and mineral water

The Šenk homestead has the year 1517 carved above its door and is considered the only farm in the valley that keeps its original buildings and style. Jenkova kasarna, a tall 15th-century building, was an inn for merchants heading from Tržič towards Eisenkappel and the Drava, and its name may come from a night that Napoleon’s troops spent there. Today it’s an ethnographic museum with travellers’ signatures from the 16th century on the walls.

Above Ank’s farm two waterfalls drop a combined 7 m at 1,240 m above sea level, and close by rises Jezerska slatina, which the tourist board describes as the mineral water with the highest magnesium content in Slovenia. The churches of St Oswald and St Andrew, the avenues of ash trees and the old granaries round off a walk along the valley floor.

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Rocks, ash trees and a waterfall that fell apart

The valley reads like a geology textbook. Its shape comes from Ice Age glaciers, and meltwater filled the floor with the great lake that drained some 500 years ago after an earthquake, according to the Jezersko Tourist Board. In the Komatevra valley, where the Kokra rises, a four-hectare tufa quarry, with layers up to 20 metres thick full of fossils, is the first stop on the Slovenian geological trail that ends in the Dovžan gorge. The lines of ash trees crossing the meadows mark the boundaries between holdings, and their branches were once cut as winter fodder for sheep. The Čedca waterfall used to have the country’s highest drop, 132 metres, until rockfalls from May 2008 reshaped the cliff; today there’s no marked path and you look at it from the viewpoint on Mali vrh.

Jezersko through the seasons

In summer there are trails of every grade, via ferratas, climbing, mountain bike routes and a bike park, and in winter cross-country skiing, ski touring, a small family ski area, skating and snowshoeing. For more routes in the region, see the guide to hiking in Slovenia.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Jezersko on GetYourGuide.

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