Škocjan Inlet, the bird wetland holding out between the motorway and the port

Birds and the trail: what you’ll see

A circular gravel trail, fenced and suitable for all ages, pushchairs included, runs along the lagoons. It has six observation points and a multi-storey central hide, which reopened in October 2026 and can be visited on your own with a ticket bought at the visitor centre.

Besides the birds, the reserve is grazed by Istrian cattle of the old Podol breed and by Camargue horses, which help keep the vegetation under control. Children can ride the horses if booked ahead. The visitor centre has a bar and a shop with local products, and puts on free talks, film evenings and other events.

Winter hours, entry and rules

Entry to the reserve is free. Guided tours, horse rides, workshops and the main hide are paid. Groups must go with a guide, Monday to Friday between 9am and 2pm, and the reserve asks them to book at least two weeks in advance.

From November to the end of February the trail and observation points open daily from 7am to 5pm, and the visitor centre from 8am to 5pm, closed on Mondays. The hours change with the season, so check the website before you go. Inside you go on foot only; bikes are allowed solely on the Parenzana track along the edge by the motorway.

Getting there from Koper

The entrance is in the Bertoška bonifika area. By car, leave the Bivje to Koper expressway at Bertoki, head towards the AMZS base and turn left just after crossing the bridge over the expressway. Without a car, the reserve points out that no public transport reaches the entrance and recommends walking along the Parenzana from Koper bus and railway station, about twenty minutes, or taking a taxi.

Watch the name. Škocjan appears twice on the map, and the Škocjan Caves, a World Heritage Site, are in the Karst, a long way from here. If you have the afternoon free, head up to Socerb Castle to see the gulf from above, or look over the rest of the area in the coast and Karst. It is one of the reserves of a country that protects more than a third of its land, and I go through them all in Slovenia’s nature parks.

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A bay turned wetland

Škocjanski zatok was once a sea bay. The Badaševica and Rižana rivers flowed into it and gradually filled it with sediment until it turned to marsh. Today almost three quarters of the reserve is brackish lagoon, where salt water from the sea mixes with fresh water from the rivers, with saltmarsh and plants adapted to salty soils.

The Slovenian Parliament made it a nature reserve in 1998, and since 2004 it has been a Natura 2000 site, a special protection area for birds. It covers 122 hectares. According to Visit Koper, 259 bird species have been recorded there, over 60% of all those seen in Slovenia.

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