Flaming good entertainment

Flaming good entertainment

Festival casts new light on region’s lakes and mountains

Slovenia by Brian Richards

WE cast off shortly before midnight and, oars dipping silently, glided out into a sea of burning candles.

The skipper of our pletna, a wooden gondola taking up to 20 passengers, was Slovenian.

His mission was to lead a 30-minute trip around Lake Bled at the height of the three-day summer Rikli’s Festival.

The lake of flames

That is when 10,000 tiny burning candles, each filling half an eggshell, are cast adrift from the edge of the lake, soon to cover its surface with flickering flames.

As the gondolas, laden with tourists, threaded their way through this sea of fire, the visitors to this area of Slovenia’s Julian Alps could feel the heat rising in the cool night air.

It’s an eerie experience and the memory of the lake aglow is one that lingers in the mind months later.

The annual Rikli’s Festival, with its candle spectacular, is held in memory of Arnold Rikli, a Swiss hydropath who introduced health tourism to Lake Bled 120 years ago.

Lake Bled

The lake today is Slovenia’s leading tourist attraction and convoys of pletnas ferry visitors out to the island in the middle of the lake, where they climb the 17th-century staircase to toll the Bell of Wishes in the island’s church.

A walk round Lake Bled is an easy afternoon stroll; more exhilarating is the climb to Bled Castle – the seat of South Tyrol’s bishops for 800 years – on a 100-metre bluff above the lake.

The resort of Bled, busy with its string of mostly upmarket hotels, restaurants and bars, strikes a huge contrast with Lake Bohinj, which rivals it for popularity with the UK market. What is most noticeable about Bohinj is its lack of commercialism.

Accommodation

Like Bled, it finds space in most lakes and mountains brochures, but there is no place herefor souvenir shops or trinket stalls.

Hotels are mostly spread about the village of Ribcev Lav, at one end of Lake Bohinj beneath the dominant Mount Triglav, which at 9,300ft is Slovenia’s highest peak.

To hike round the mirror lake takes three hours along the rocky north shore and forested southern edge; make it six hours and you can reach the spectacular Savica waterfall.

An all-seasons resort

Across the high peaks of the Julian Alps, Kranjska Gora sits at the confluence of two broad valleys, a good day’s hike from Zelenci, where the Austrian, Italian and Slovenian borders meet.

Those on a flydrive will come upon Kranjska Gora, one hour from Bled. Known as Slovenia’s primary winter sports resort, it is studded with four-star hotels that provide a summer base for hikers.

The country’s other summer mountain resort, heavily biased towards water-based activities on the Soca River such as kayaking, canoeing and rafting, is Bovec.

To experience the height of the Julian Alps without donning your hiking boots, drive the twisting Bovec road outof Kranjska Gora over the Vrsic Pass – but be warned, ithas no fewer than 50 hairpin bends.

In the summer time: June, July and August arethe best months to visit Piran, one of Slovenia’s Adriatic resorts

Slovenia

Getting there: Adria Airways flies daily from Heathrow to Ljubljana.

Visa: no visa required by British citizens visiting Slovenia.

Time: GMT + one hour.

Climate: a combination of alpine temperatures in the mountains (moderately hot summers, cold winters);Mediterranean conditions on the coast (warm summers, mild winters); and a continental climate in the rest of the country, with temperatures ranging from zero degrees in winter to 24C in midsummer.

When to go: the summer months are best for the Adriatic resorts of Piran and Portoroz; spring and autumn are ideal for the capital Ljubljana. The mountains offer year-round attractions – hiking and biking in summer, skiing in winter.

Accommodation: three and four-star hotels in all theUK-featured mountain resorts and by the Adriatic. In Ljubljana, there are hotels across all price ranges.

Cost of living: petrol is around 50p a litre; meal for two with wine £20-£25; beer or soft drink 75p.

Food: Italian and Austrian-influenced with excellent seafood. Specialities include wild mushrooms, plaited breads, sausage, strudel, risotto, ravioli and pancakes.

Language: the official language is Slovene; on the coast Italian is also spoken.

Currency: the tolar. Exchange rate: £1 = approx 335 tolars.

Health: British citizens entitled to free medical care. No inoculations are necessary.

Which operators go there: Balkan Holidays, Crystal, Explore Worldwide, First Choice, Holiday Options, Inghams, Shearings, Thomson Breakaway, Transun.

Sample product: Crystal Holidays has seven nights at the four-star Hotel Jezero at Lake Bohinj from £305, including scheduled flights from Heathrow to Ljubljana.