Bohinj, Slovenia

Slovenia's most picturesque Alpine valley

Bohinj (pronounced as ) is along with Bled one of Slovenia's top tourist destinations, attracting visitors who seek relaxation in the mountains or want to follow activities such as climbing, hiking or kayaking. Bohinj is the name of the whole area, a big valley of the river Sava Bohinjka with the beautiful Lake Bohinj (Slovenian Bohinjsko jezero). Interestingly, lake Bled and lake Bohinj are located very close to each other, but Bled is more known and also more touristy. Bohinj's lake is bigger and longer.

Prikaži večji zemljevid

And there are no big towns in Bohinj. The biggest settlement is Bohinjska Bistrica, which is really small and it does not lay right on the lake, but few kilometers before it. One of the natural wonders in Bohinj is also the 60m high Savica falls (Slovenian Slap Savica), but it lays at the very end of the lake and we did not go there during our trip, because it was late and we had a long road back to Maribor ahead of us. We only stayed at the part that's called Ribčev laz (literally Fisherman's pass). There are parking lots, restaurants, bars, a small hotel, an old bridge and a church.

Let me show you our Bohinj that day:

Bohinjska Bistrica, the biggest settlement in the area. We drove through here.

I parked the car here. It was already 6.30pm when we arrived.

We walked straight to the lake, which was very close.

My girlfriend in front of Lake Bohinj and the old bridge.

The church of John the Baptist on the other side.

View on the lake and my girlfriend, who enjoyed the views.

Lake Bohinj.

Sava Bohinjka.

My girlfriend was hungry, so she was thinking about what to eat.

We went below the old bridge.

She was really hungry (poor ducks...)

So Taiwanese! If ducks are gone, frogs will do it.

The sun was setting slowly. We enjoyed some magical views.

So many fish are swimming here.

The church of John the Baptist (Cerkev Janeza Krstnika) from close.

The ducks drinking the pure water.

The old bridge from another angle.

Lake Bohinj in the evening.

The sun going down above Lake Bohinj.

✰ If you want to see my high-definition photos of the Bohinj sunset, go here>>

We stayed here like half an hour only, we didn't go far. Just enjoyed the views, took some photos, that was all. We were so tired, because we were on a road trip all day. We started in Ljubljana, went to Škofja Loka, Kranj, Bled, Bled castle and in the end we came to see Bohinj as well. It was also my first time here and I thought it was breathtakingly beautiful. I wish we could spend more time here, but no chance. We had over 200km to master to get back home to Maribor and I didn't wanna drive at night.

✰ The Fish Incident

I have to mention a funny story about my girlfriend. She read on a Taiwanese blog that a blogger went to this lake and ate a fish at one of the restaurants and he really liked it. So my girlfriend wanted to try the fish, but I was all sweaty and tired from the driving and sightseeing, I had no mood to enter a restaurant, which btw looked pretty upper class. The people, who dined inside wore shirts and gowns, but I was in shorts and a t-shirt, all sweaty and sunburned. I wanted to go home and I thought: OMG, why does she want to eat a fish here now? "-_- I didn't say anything for a while, I hoped that my annoyed face would be a sign for my girlfriend to back off from the idea. But she was in her own world. I had to burst her bubble and told her straight away, that I don't wanna go inside, because I feel dirty, wrongly dressed, tired and wanna go home and have no mood to eat fish at this hour. She wasn't happy about my bluntness, but she gave in and we drove off, headed back to my hometown Maribor. But we didn't talk for a while. Eventually we did and everything was alright.

✰ End of the road trip

We reached home safely, it was almost midnight. This was the end of our road trip. I will only write about my hometown Maribor and mention our short trip to Graz, Austria.

My rating of Bohinj:

Great place for photos ✰✰✰✰✰

Well preserved and clean ✰✰✰✰✰

Toilets, parking, souvenirs ✰✰✰✰✰

Friendly to tourists ✰✰✰✰✰

Bled castle :Before [Slovenia Tour 2010] Next: Maribor introduction>>

[More Bohinj photos][My Slovenia page][All photos by MKL, 2010]