Slovenia: Vintgar Gorge Loop Trail
The Vintgar Gorge is a 1.6km/1mi long and 250 meter/820 feet deep gorge on the eastern part of Triglav National Park, 4km/2.5mi northwest of Bled. The gorge was carved out by the Radovna River, a crystal-clear river that looks emerald green in some places and aqua in others, depending upon the lighting conditions. The boardwalks attached to the canyon walls that were erected to create a trail are truly what make this gorge so special. Otherwise it would not be accessible on foot.
This gorge was discovered in 1891 by Mr Jakob Žumer, the mayor of Gorje, and Mr Benedikt Lergetporer, a cartographer and photographer from Bled. Both were amazed by the beauty and the mysterious character and in 1893 the gorge was opened to the public. Constructing a secured boardwalk through the wild gorge must have been a demanding and dangerous undertaking. The boardwalk is pretty darn awesome.
At the end of the gorge is the 16meter/52 feet high waterfall Šum, the highest fluvial (meaning “of or found in a river”) waterfall in Slovenia. The loop hike is mandatory one way and you 2 choices to continue…one about 45 minutes and the other 90. We took the longer one, the total hike was 11km/6.8 miles with a 302 meter/991 feet elevation gain. It was nice to have an easy day following the monster hike of the Triglav 7 Lakes Valley!
It is written up everywhere how popular and crowded this experience can get. If you arrive at a time when the tour buses are there, I would imagine that would be quite awful. Everything I read says to go early, so my feeling is everyone goes early to beat the crowds and inevitably that is when there are crowds. I’m not sure though, to be honest, it’s probably just the luck of the draw! We went mid-day and walked in with no people around us, there were just a few before and after. We crisscrossed over people as we all stop to take pictures, but the experience was delightful and I am NOT a fan of crowds, especially when I am trying to enjoy nature. I am grateful we did this hike, truly worth the experience.
There is a fee to get in, and it’s best to buy your tickets online as you will be assigned a time to arrive. There are times when it is completely sold out. We had 12:30pm tickets and were worried about getting there on time walking from one of the parking lots that was about 20 minutes away. The parking lot attendant who checked to make sure you had our online tickets to enter reassured us they would not turn us away at the entrance if we were late. Turns out, we were right on time.
For more information and to buy your tickets online: https://vintgar.si/sightseeings/vintgar-gorge/?lang=en
After leaving the gorge, we took the long walk around the hill overlooking the valley and lake of Bled. It was peaceful and easy and fun. Even though it poured down rain on us on the walk around the hill, we didn’t mind it at all. I will say again, the whole experience was delightful.
