The color of the main image we remember after our trip to Slovenia is clear: Green. After wandering around that area, we are sure that almost every part of the country is green areas, forests, trees, mountains, slopes, meadows.. A kind of heaven simulation! By the way, there is no need to travel all over Slovenia to reach this conclusion.. Even in the most densely populated city of Ljubljana, green areas are more common than residential areas.. In Slovenia, where living together with nature is quite ordinary and nature sports are seen as an ordinary activity of the day, we adapted to local life, albeit for a short time, and engaged in all kinds of activities as far as our bodies, which are accustomed to the city chaos and air pollution of Istanbul, take us. we have been. Of course, we may have betrayed that we are city people and that we do not belong to nature at all, with ultra-scabby facial expressions indicating that we are uncomfortable with the mud on our shoes and the insects that land on us during these activities.. But in Slovenia, which is much quieter and more untouched compared to other European countries, it was a really enjoyable experience to make a nature-focused discovery.. One of the most interesting places of our discovery was the Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle, where we ended our trip to Slovenia.. Since we had the chance to visit both of them with a guide, we got a lot of information and we wanted to create a small guide for you.. Here you are, sir.
Beginning note: The Slovenian Tourist Office and who helped us discover Postojna and Predjama, organized a wonderful tour and supported us. We would like to express our gratitude to >Turkish Airlines.
Tour to Slovenia: Getting to Postojna and Predjama Castle
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We talked about transportation in detail in the Ljubljana Travel Guide.. Since Turkish Airlines has 2 direct flights to Ljubljana every day, it is very easy to reach Slovenia from Istanbul.. After arriving in Ljubljana, traveling around Slovenia is even easier.. Because, as we mentioned in our other articles, the country is very small and every place you want to visit is very short distance from each other.. For this reason, you need to do 2 important things to visit Slovenia.. one. Obtaining a Schengen visa, 2. Your car rental. Yes, we think these two things are almost equally important for a trip to Slovenia.. Because there are places where public transportation is not common, and transportation can take longer than necessary in places where it is.. This is not just our opinion, it is an issue that all locals do not hesitate to suggest to us during our stay, we draw your attention to it.. However, if you do not have the opportunity to rent a car, you can reach Postojna region from Ljubljana by bus, train or daily tours.. However, it is useful to research this issue in advance, because some buses and tours may not provide transportation, especially in winter and during off-peak periods.. If you are going to reach by car, your job is very easy and we kiss you for listening to our word.. Postojna is about 50km from Ljubljana and can be reached in a short time as it is driven over a motorway with a speed limit of 130km.. Predjama is about 10km from Postojna, but it is useful to be careful as it is a narrow road through the forest.
Tour to Slovenia: Postojna Cave
With your permission, we would like to give you some geological information about Postojna, which is the most popular ofabout11,000 caves in Slovenia.. We are sure that you, like us, know the king of geology and have a vast knowledge of the cave formation process, but let’s give a brief summary anyway.. (We don’t even know if we are surprised that there are 11,000 caves in a small country like Slovenia, or if we mention the word geology twice in a paragraph in this blog).
Postojna is a 27km-long A cave system known as Europe’s longest karst cave, formed as a result of the Pivka River eroding the rocks. As you can see, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that we used the word karst in this sentence, thanks to the information we kept saying “what will this do for me in the future” in primary school?. That information is really helpful to you guys.. At least to pretend you understand something, you feel very happy when you hear a familiar word among unfamiliar geographical terms.. Anyway, back to our topic. The Pivka River is not quite the river we know.. A kind of river that does not flow into any other water, whose water decreases as it flows, and disappears underground at some point.. You may be saying don’t be silly, but that’s really the case.. Thanks to him, several different caves were formed in the region.. However, Postojna has become the most popular cave, as it is the largest and most convenient to visit.. Yes, now we can end our accelerated geography lesson here and go back to the topic of how the cave is visited, which will probably interest you more. that you can travel. Because while we were still trying to work on the subway to Istanbul in 2016, the men built a train track in 1872 for easy navigation of the cave.. You have several options to visit the cave.. The easiest, shortest and most affordable option is to join one of the tours that last 1 and a half hours.. In this tour, you go inside the cave for about 10 minutes by train, then you walk for 2 km and then you get out of the cave by train again.. Since you are visiting with a tour guide, you both get a lot of information about the cave and eliminate the risk of getting lost.. You also get a little sad watching the tour guide reluctantly trying to make the joke to entertain the visitors and hitting the bottom more and more… The road you will walk on has already been turned into a path and it is a flat ground.. Therefore, if you do not try to stray into a place of laziness, you can travel quite easily, without any harm to you.. The only thing you will have difficulty with is the fact that you cannot progress at the pace you want as you enter the cave in a crowded group.. Especially if those tourists are Asian.. Anyway, racism doesn’t matter, wake up OitheBlog. As a result, such a situation is not overwhelming because the cave is wide.. However, if this bothers you, you can do a private tour for a slightly higher fee.
No, I’m an adrenaline junkie, activities that would put my life at risk are my number one homie, “death? If you say “I ate it for breakfast, dear”, there are some activities in the cave that they call “adventure tours”, varying according to the difficulty level.. If this excites you, take a look at their website, they have every detail you are looking for.
*Entry Fees and Hours
-The cost of the cave tour is €23.90. If you are going to visit Predjama, the ticket price that includes both the cave and the castle entrance is €31.90. If you want to visit the EXPO museum and Proteus Vivarium, which we will talk about below, it may be more logical to buy a collective ticket that provides access to these four places.. This ticket costs €37.90.
–The cave is open all year, but tour times vary according to the season. In May-September there are hourly tours from 09:00 in the morning to 18:00 in the evening, but in other months there are only 3 or 4 tours per day. Therefore, don’t forget to check the hours of the tour according to the period you will visit.
*Some Tips strong>
-The inside of the cave has a constant 10 degrees and a humidity of over 95% in summer and winter, so even if you are going in summer, bring suitable clothes with you. In addition, water is dripping from place to place inside the cave, so it’s a good idea to bring a raincoat or a hoodie.. As we mentioned above, you have to walk for a while inside, so choose your shoes accordingly.. Finally, let’s remind you that you will spend about an hour and a half inside, although it is not overwhelming enough to trigger, it can be a bit disturbing if you have severe claustrophobia.
-If this cave was not big enough for you or somehow did not satisfy you, the
You can visit the strong>Pivka or Black caves in June and July. In these caves, you can see the underground part of the Pivka river, which we mentioned above.. It can be a little more grueling and a little more exciting to visit these places.. You can find more detailed information about these caves here.
Expo Postojna
Restaurants/cafes outside the cave in the area where Postojna cave is located, there are souvenir shops and exhibition areas. One of them is the Expo Postojna Museum where you can learn a lot about the formation, history and natural life of Postojna cave.. The museum is not very big and since it is an interactive museum, it is very pleasant to visit.. If you have a special interest in caves, we say don’t miss this place, because this is the largest museum about caves and karsts in the world.. We don’t know where else you would encounter a cave-related museum anyway.. The museum is in the black building right next to the ticket place for cave tours.
*Entry Fee and Hours
-If you don’t buy a bulk ticket as we mentioned above , the normal entry fee is 8.90, and the discounted fee is 7.10 Euros.
-Opening and closing times change every month, details can be found here.
Pretus Vivarium
One of the other aspects of Postojna cave that makes it interesting from other caves is the natural life and ecosystem inside it.. Although the conditions of the cave (dark, damp, etc.) are not very suitable for life, some species have managed to cling to it.. The most different of these is the Cave Salamander, which is found only in a few European countries, including Slovenia, and lives in caves.. Also known as Olm, Proteus anguinus, human fish in other languages, we decided to call this animal Dragon for short.. This interesting creature, which has no eyes and is fully adapted to living in the dark, has an average lifespan of about 100 years and can live for years without feeding. It’s so weird! Slovenians regard this creature as a sacred animal.. This creature, which they have been studying with interest since its discovery, laid eggs for the first time in a long time this year and has become a historical event for experts studying Postojna.
You can have the chance to see Proteus in a small aquarium at the end of the Postojna cave tour.. However, if this strange creature is as interesting to you as we are, you can take a little more time to visit the Proteus Vivarium located right next to the cave.
*Entrance and Hours
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-If you don’t buy a bulk ticket as we mentioned above, the normal entry fee here is 8.90 Euros, and the discounted fee is 7.10 Euros.
-The same here as well. Opening and closing times change every month, details can be found here.
Tour to Slovenia: Predjama Castle
Predjama Castle is the kind of place that could exactly belong on the “World’s Most Interesting Castles” list. When you see this castle, built on top of a 123-meter rock and a cave, from a distance, you can’t decide whether you should praise its beauty or be weird that it is a little scary.. After experiencing these complex feelings, of course, we made all kinds of Game of Thrones jokes, as everyone would do, and started to imagine what extraordinary stories could be in this strange place.. (which is already George R.R.. Martin has visited this place before and evaluated it for shooting) After all we are talking about a strange castle with secret passages built into the cliff and cave, of course there will be something mysterious about it. Thanks to the information we learned after entering it, we did not have to worry too much about the subject.. Because in a documentary filmed by Discovery Channel about this castle, strange images and sounds that cannot be explained very well were recorded.. If they won’t stick the title of “haunted” on such a place, where will they stick it? Another interesting information we learned about this place is that in a movie shot here in 1986, Jackie Chan fell from a hill and was injured.. You may ask why you have this ridiculous information, it was explained in the guide of the castle, I guess they really cared about the situation.. Yes, now that we have shared this strange information, we can now move on to more important issues about the castle.
Chateau 12. After it was built around the century, it became a place where many noble families lived.. Starks, Lannisters, Boltons, Greyjoys etc. all lived here…(these jokes come out uncontrollably) One of the most important tenants of this castle, which is protected against attacks due to its secret passages and difficult accessibility, is the legendary baron Erazem, known as Robin Hood of Slovenia. Luger. It cannot be said that the interior looks as mysterious as the outside as it is today, but thanks to the exhibited rooms and the items from the Middle Ages, you can visualize how people lived in the castle.
*Entrance and Hours
-If you do not buy a collective ticket as we mentioned above, the normal entrance fee is 8.90, and the discounted fee is 7.10 Euro.
-Opening and closing times change every month. , you can find the details here.
*Some Tips
–Audio Guide don’t forget to buy any There is no fee.
-You can visit the Predjama Cave located under the castle in May-September if you wish.. The cave is about 14km long, but you can only go up to 700m on regular tours.. If you say 700m is not enough for me, the adventure tours we mentioned above are also organized here.
-If you have read the entire article above, you have realized that there are many places to visit and many activities to do in this region.. Therefore, you should make a plan considering that you will spend most of your day here, or even the whole of it, depending on the situation.. Of course, like every normal person, you will get hungry at some point in the day.. At this point, we can recommend the restaurant located in the Jamski Dvorec Villa next to the entry point of the Postojna cave, everything we ate was delicious.
