The Kamnik-Savinja Alps, Slovenia's other great range

What the Kamnik-Savinja Alps are

The tourist board speaks of peaks above 2,000 m, best climbed with mountain guides, and of an amphitheatre of summits enclosing the Upper Savinja Valley. The highest is Grintovec, at 2,558 m. Tourism in Kamnik explains that it’s popular because no pegs are needed to reach the top, and that its southern slope is called Streha, the roof, because of its shape. The heart of the range has more than 500 climbing routes.

From Kamnik and the Kamniška Bistrica valley

From the south, the gateway is the valley of the Kamniška Bistrica, a 33 km river that Kamnik tourism counts among the cleanest in the country. You can drink straight from its spring, a kilometre downstream is the Predaselj gorge, where the river cuts up to 30 m deep, and in the side valley of the Kamniška Bela the Orglice waterfall drops 30 m. Routes lead from the spring to saddles with mountain huts, such as the Kamnik Saddle, and to peaks like Brana and Planjava. Above the valley spreads the shepherds’ plateau of Velika planina. Lower down stands a stone table known as the Archduke’s Table, where Archduke Charles II and his entourage ate after one of their many hunts in the valley.

From Logar Valley and the Upper Savinja

To the north, the range wraps around the valleys of Solčava. Logar Valley, a glacial valley and landscape park, ends below the walls where the 90 m Rinka waterfall falls. Beside it lie Robanov kot, another glacial valley, and Matkov kot, where people try archery beneath the peaks. The Solčava Panoramic Road is, according to the tourist board, the area’s route with the finest views. In Solčava, which belongs to the UN Tourism Best Tourism Villages network, the Rinka Centre has an exhibition on how people in the Savinja Alps live alongside nature. The same board explains that Slovenia’s largest waterfalls are found mainly in the Julian Alps and in this range.

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Seeing them without climbing

You don’t have to climb to enjoy them. From the Menina planina plateau, on the border between Kranjska and Štajerska, a viewing tower on Vivodnik gives a sweeping view of the Kamnik-Savinja Alps, according to the tourist board.

Fitting them into a trip

I’d use two bases, one in Kamnik and one in the Upper Savinja Valley, in Savinjska. Three or four days are enough to see both sides of the range properly, and experienced hikers can add a summit with a guide.

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

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