Slovenia's most charming villages and small towns

Goriška, my favourite villages

Goriška is my favourite area for villages. In Brda, among the vines, Šmartno is a fortified medieval village with frescoes by Tone Kralj and the Briška hiša, the traditional local house. In the Vipava Valley, Vipavski Križ keeps its walls and an odd claim to fame, because the Tourist Board says that in the Middle Ages it was the smallest town in the empire. Neither reaches 200 inhabitants. If you like this kind of place, the perfect plan is to link them with Štanjel and finish at a winery in Brda.

Gorenjska, a stone’s throw from the lakes

Close to Bled there are villages most people drive straight past. Radovljica, 8 km away, has a medieval centre with the only surviving defensive moat in Slovenia and the Beekeeping Museum, which holds the largest collection of painted beehive panels. Kropa, in the same municipality, is the cradle of Slovenian ironworking and keeps its museum. Further west, Stara Fužina, with 580 residents, is the Alpine village by Lake Bohinj that turns up in all the valley photos. Up the Sava valley, Rateče, next to Planica, has the Kajžnk house. I go into Radovljica in detail in Radovljica. Landscapes, with no villages involved, are ranked in the most beautiful places in Slovenia.

Piran and Štanjel, coast and Karst

Piran comes first because no other place on the coast hangs together so well, with its patches of medieval wall, the square named after Giuseppe Tartini, the violinist who was born in the town, and St George’s keeping watch from the top. Inland the scenery switches abruptly to stone, and that’s where you find Štanjel, a medieval stone village with its castle, the touch of architect Maks Fabiani, who was its mayor, and the Lojze Spacal gallery. Near Koper, the hamlet of Hrastovlje keeps the Dance of Death inside its church, one of the best-preserved frescoes on the subject. I’d see them in a morning from the coast, and I cover the rest of the hinterland in Slovenian Istria.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Piran on Expedia and filter by area before price.

The east, in a different light

In the east the villages belong to plains and vineyard hills. Olimje, population 295, has a Minorite monastery with the third-oldest pharmacy in Europe, according to the Tourist Board, plus a chocolate maker. In Prekmurje, Bogojina holds Plečnik’s church, which the same source calls the best-known place of worship in Pomurje. And Jeruzalem, with only 46 people, is more a viewpoint over the Ljutomer vines than a village, but I’d put the view among the best in Slovenia.

By car, without rushing

By car and without rushing. These villages don’t work well on a multi-stop coach tour, because what they have is atmosphere, and atmosphere asks you to linger. I’d use them as breaks between the big sights, Štanjel on the way to the coast, Radovljica on the way to Bled, Olimje between spa stops.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Piran and pick one that fits your day.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Piran on Booking.com and filter by area before price.