Entry requirements | Organizing your trip | Visiting | Eating | Paying | Speaking |

Entry requirements

Passport and visa service

Visa information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Diplomatic representations

List of all Slovenian missions abroad and foreign missions to Slovenia

For more information

Embassy of Slovenia in Greece
10, rue Mavili
154 52 Psychico
Phone: 210 6775683-5
Fax: 2106775680
swedemb@otenet.gr

Organizing your trip

Means of transport recommended in town

Recommendation

In the cities the best option is to take a taxi since there is only a public bus transport available.

Maps of urban networks

Maporama
Mapblast
UT Library on line

Means of transport recommended in the rest of the country

Rail companies

Slovene railways

Flight from Greece

No aircraft company operates direct flight from Athens to Ljubljana. A few aircraft companies offer air connections between Greece and Slovenia, like Lufthansa, Czech Airlines and Malev. To find out air connections from Greece to Slovenia click here

Traveling by yourself

Recommendation

The condition of the road network is satisfactory and the conditions of traffic are good. The organisation of help, in the event of an accident, is generally very satisfactory. Finding a taxi and communicating with the driver, at least in the major cities, should not be a problem.

Road maps

Ljubljana city center map
Digital zoomable map of Slovenia

Find an itinerary

Via Michelin Route planner

Visiting

Different forms of tourism

Historical

In the cities, the most remarkable heritage of historical architecture can be found in Ljubljana (several buildings are made by the most famous Slovene architect Joze Plecnik), in the coastal cities of Koper and Piran, both influenced by Venice lying on the other side of the Adriatic see, and in the "castle-city" of Ptuj.

Cultural

A pillar of cultural and national identity is a protestant reformer and the consolidator of the Slovenian literary language Primoz Trubar who produced the first printed books in Slovene language in 1550. The most famous poet is France Preseren whose poem A Toast written in 1844 became a national anthem in 1991 when Slovenia became independent. 

Apart from the abundant offer of cultural events all over the year Slovenia offers also some quality international festivals during the summer period: Festival Ljubljana, Festival Lent and many others.

Nature

The legend says that God - when he was distributing the land to all the nations - have forgotten the Slovenians because they were so small in number. He was embarassed then and offered to them a piece of land he had saved for himself. And that is why they finished with a so small but so naturally varied country.

Only one hour drive from the capital you can either climb the Alpine mountains or swim in the Adriatic sea. More than half of the country is covered by forests. It is one of the countries in the EU with the greatest level of biodiversity and currently has almost 11% of its territory protected, including one national park. Accross the country you can also admire thousands of underground and above the ground karstic phenomena of limestone (not to mention that the name of karst topography itself originates from Slovene region named Kras).

The Skocjan cave is also inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List even though the largest and most visited cave in Europe is the Postojna cave where one can also see a small amphibian animal called "human fish" or olm (in latin Proteus anguinus). However, the most famous natural beauties for tourists are lakes Bled and Bohinj and Lipica (in Italian Lipizza) horses stud farm.

Religious

Slovenia is said to be a country of the churches on the hills. As such it has an important monastery heritage that can be visited also by tourists: the Carthusian monastery at Zice, Pauline friars monastery at Olimje, Cistercian monastery at Sticna, Carthusian monastery at Pleterje. The most important pilgrimage place is called Brezje.

Thermal

Thermal spa tourism in Slovenia is well developed due to the long history of use of natural characteristics of thermal and mineral water back to the Roman times. Nowadays they have developed into health and fun resorts combining healing, entertaining and well-being activities in 15 natural spas centres recognised by the health care system.

Beach

Slovenia has a very short coast (about 45 km) along the Adriatic sea between Italy and Croatia - and no sea island. On the other side, Slovenia has a lot of rivers and lakes that are also suitable and very popular to swim in during the summer.
The most famous sea resort is Portoroz. Other beaches can be found at Ankaran, Koper, Zusterna, Simonov zaliv, Isola, Strunjan, Fiesa and Piran.
The most visited river beaches are along the river of Kolpa and Soca while the best lake beaches are at idyllic alpine lakes of Bled and Bohinj.

Winter sports

Possibilities for winter sports are abundant: skiing, snowboarding, skating, sledding, cross-country skiing, ski touring etc. The biggest ski resorts are: Kranjska gora, Pohorje near Maribor and Rogla and Krvavec.

Outdoor activities

Trekking and mountaineering, swimming in the sea, rivers or lakes, rafting, cycling, horse riding, fishing, hunting, golfing, parachuting, hang-gliding, balooning, sailing, surfing, diving. See also here.

Shopping

Specialty shopping activities in Slovenia should be oriented towards: home made honey and honey products (honey biscuits), Piran salt, Idrija lace, Slovene designer jewelry and porcelain, Ljubljana flea market.

Tourism organizations

Tourist Board

Eating

Food specialties

Slovenian cuisine is very varied, influenced by the neighbours (Austria, Italy, Croatia, Hungary). Most typical traditional simple lunch would be a beef soup with noodles for appetizer, roasted potatoes with beef meat (taken out from the soup in which it had been boiled) for main dish (including green salad in a separate bowl) and an apple strudel for dessert.
However, especially in urban environment, nowadays Italian pasta dishes and pizzas or fish dishes are more popular. Meat, mostly grilled or fried, is still always welcome, especially beef, chicken and also pork. Traditional Slovenians also eat quite a lot of bread.
The most frequently offered specialities are probably the following: kraski prsut, struklji, potica and Prekmurska gibanica.

Drinks

The Cockta is a soda without caffeine based on briar very popular in Slovenia. Coffee, beer, wine, mineral water and non-carbonated soft drinks are also very popular.

Dietary restrictions

There are no culinary restrictions in the Slovenian cooking.

Paying

Domestic currency

Euro

ISO Code

EUR

To obtain domestic currency

The currency is the Euro or EUR since January, 1st, 2007. One can get in a Bank or at the ATM's - they are everywhere and easily accessible.

Possible means of payment

International credit cards are widely accepted: Maestro, Mastercard, Visa, Diners, American Express.

Exchange rate on

Automatic Teller Machines (ATM)

To find out the locations of ATMs in in Slovenia, click on the link to your credit card: Visa, Mastercard or American Express

Speaking

Official language

Slovene or Slovenian.

Other languages spoken

Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian by their immigrants, while Italian and Hungarian may be used in the two bilingual regions.

Business language

Most businessmen speak at least one foreign language, English being the most common. Also used are German (especially near the Austrian and Italian border).

Getting some knowledge

Very useful seems to be Slovenian for travelers. Try also travlang or BBC short on-line language tool.

Free translation tools

Tranexp - Free English-Slovene-English translator of texts and web pages.
Sensagent - Free English-Slovene-English dictionnary.
Eurovoc Thesaurus - Multilingual thesaurus (21 official European languages)
IATE - Interactive Terminology for Europe

We can translate your foreign-language documents.

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Last updates: May 2012