There are all sorts of factors to think about when deciding the best time to visit Slovenia. Are you looking for a trip to the Slovenia mountains? Or are you focusing your trip more on coastal Slovenia?
The Slovenia climate varies dramatically depending on where you are visiting. The Lake Bled weather is a lot different than the Piran weather. These also both vary from the weather that you will experience in the Slovenia mountains.
I want to give you some insights that we gained on our trip to Slovenia in late fall. This will help you choose between visiting Slovenia during the height of the summer tourist season or during the spring or fall “shoulder” seasons.
We chose to visit to Slovenia in late Autumn. Our visit spanned the last week in September and the first week into October. While we enjoyed many aspects of visiting at this time of year, there were a few things that we missed during our trip that would have been possible in other seasons.
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The Best Time to Visit Slovenia: Autumn / Spring
Pros:
Pleasant Temperatures:
During our fall visit, the Slovenia temperature was moderately warm during the day with cool evenings. During the day, the temperatures were in the 70 degree Fahrenheit range. We were wearing mostly pants and t-shirts. We did not pack nor need very many pairs of shorts.
Mornings and evenings were cooler; temperatures were 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit. We would often start out with a light jacket or fleece on and take it off later in the day. I imagine the same temperatures ranges would hold true for a visit in early spring.
Temperatures in Coastal Slovenia were warmer than in the northern part of the country, so some of the chill of the fall will be less as you head south. We still wore fleeces out at night near Piran at the beginning of October.
Very Few Tourists:
Most of the places that we went had very few tourists. Even the two busiest place that we went (Lake Bled and Vintgar Gorge) had very light levels of other travelers visiting with us. This made for better photos and a more relaxed, enjoyable trip overall.
Fall Colors/Spring Wildflowers:
Later in October, I would imagine that there are some spectacular changes in foliage color across Slovenia to enjoy 🙂 Likewise for flowers in the spring.
Cons:
Can Be Rainy:
We had read that autumn in Slovenia CAN bring strings of rainy days. While we were lucky and we did not experience much rain on our trip, this is something that is possible at this time of year. This should not worry you overly much – we found plenty of good backup plans for things to do on rainy days.
Too Cool to Swim:
Slovenia has a wide number of beautiful beaches and lakes to swim in when the weather is pleasant. Unfortunately, in late September, it was not warm enough for this. In hindsight, I felt that the kids would have enjoyed the trip a lot more had they had these opportunities.
Some Things Were Closed:
The cutoff for the end of the tourist season seemed to be the end of September in many places in Slovenia. Once we slipped into October, many places were closed. For example, we missed out on visiting the tourist farms on the Solcava Panoramic Trail. By this time of year, many of them were closed or only operating on weekends.
The Best Time to Visit Slovenia: Summer
Pros:
Everything is Open:
You will not run into any trouble with opening times or days. This is peak tourist season and everything is open.
Least Chance of Rain:
You will have the least change of rainy days while visiting Slovenia in the summer.
Cons:
Summer is Busier!:
This is high tourist season. While Slovenia is much more lightly touristed than any places in Europe, popular spots like Ljubljana and Lake Bled can be crowded in the summer. If you explore beyond these areas, the crowds thin considerably, so plan some time in Slovenia’s abundant variety of lesser known attractions and towns.
Summer can be HOT!:
Many parts of Slovenia can get hot in the summer. This is pleasant if you want to spend time on the beaches or swimming at beautiful Lake Bled, but it can make it hot for hiking and other outdoor activities.
Our Verdict for the Best Time to Visit Slovenia
We loved our fall visit to Slovenia. The temperatures were lovely, and the crowds were much less than in the busy summer season.
On the flip side, temperatures were chilly in the mornings and many attractions and shops were already closed in the off season.
Spring or fall (shoulder season) is an ideal time to visit Slovenia if you are just adults traveling. For us, if we were to plan another visit to Slovenia with kids, we would visit in the summer time.
Summer for us is the best time to visit Slovenia because we realized during our visit that we could have stayed in a lovely little cabin right down by Lake Bled and the kids could have spent hot afternoons swimming in the lake while we enjoyed the amazing Lake Bled Scenery.
All of the farm shops along the Solcava Panoramic Road would have been open, which would have been a big plus! While we loved our trip the way it was, this would have been a better way to do it.
Visiting Slovenia in the Winter
I am not going to cover visiting Slovenia in the wintertime in this post, as I think that MOST folks are planning to visit during one of the these three seasons. You can find some great information about visiting Slovenia in the winter here.
This is my very favorite Slovenia guidebook!
This was the most insightful, useful guidebook for Slovenia that I read in preparing for our trip. It went deeper than the normal what to see and do, and delved into Slovenian culture and some really off the beaten path places to see and experience. A must if you are planning a trip to Slovenia.
