Bled is a charming medieval little town about half hour drive from Ljubljana airport.

The whole town surrounds the tranquil Lake Bled which boasts stunning clear water and Bled Island which houses the cathedral, the main focus of this picturesque lake.

We traveled from Venice to Slovenia using the private transfer company Go Opti  to cut out the hassle of renting a car and crossing borders which for anyone who has ever looked into doing so will learn it is not easy to rent a car to cross countries. We were picked up at the bus station in Venice and 2 hours later were dropped at our hotel, Hotel Lovec, in the centre of Bled.

If the Grand Hotel Toplice is out of your price range (see their private beach below), I highly recommend The Best Western Premier Hotel Lovec which is located one street behind and still offers lake views for a reasonable price with breakfast included.

For a few euros you can hire a row boat for an hour to travel to the island and visit the cathedral to soak up the views. Lying back in the boat as DD rowed (our compromise as I booked everything), I couldn’t help feel I was being rowed straight into a Pinterest photograph!

Things to do 

• Walk around Lake Bled(approx 2 hours).
• There are several hikes you can do varying in extremes, but the main one is hiking up the hill of Osojnica for the best views of the lake. Approx 1 hour hike.
• Row to Bled Island
• Soak up the atmosphere along Lake Bled and sunbathe
• Walk up to the Castle, have lunch at Jezersek restaurant which overlooks the lake
• Take a day trip to Vintgar Gorge, Lake Bohinj, Triglav National Park, Soca River

Where to eat

• Grill Restaurant and Terrace, Hotel Lovec
• Jezersek restaurant, Bled Castle
• Gallus Pizzeria, Casual pizza top level of the shopping centre
• Grajska Plaza-4260, Veslaška promenada 11, 4260 Bled, Slovenia
• Chilli  – Mexican / other food casual dining -Cesta Svobode 9, Bled, Slovenia
• Panaroma restaurant -Cesta svobode, 4260 Bled

With only 2 days to explore Bled we hired a car with the help of Slovenia for you who put us onto Ideal Rent ,a company that allows their cars to cross borders as we planned to drive down to Croatia.

The price was very reasonable considering it was a one-way rental, across borders and 3-day hire with a GPS. (approx EUR199 with everything included.) We had organised for the car to be dropped to us on the day, but unfortunately the car was delayed due to traffic. This caused us to miss 2 hours of our morning, which decreased our chance to include the stunning Soca River in our day trip, butthat’s the way life goes sometimes!

Day 2 was full of such incredible scenery I had to create a new blog post HERE