Four days in Slovenia without hiring a car

Slovenia is small enough that four days covers the famous parts of it, and compact enough that you can do it without ever holding a set of car keys. Whether you should is a real question with a real answer, and the answer depends on how many of you there are.

This is the itinerary people actually book, with the numbers written out.

Day one: arrive, and walk

The airport is 26 km from the city, about half an hour, and a private car is €45 for up to four people with luggage. That is the one transfer worth arranging before you fly, because the bus does not run late in the evening and the taxi rank quotes you a price while you are standing there with your bags.

Then put the car keys question aside entirely, because central Ljubljana does not want a car. The old town is pedestrian, the river is lined with cafes on both banks, the castle is a funicular ride, and the whole centre is walkable end to end in twenty minutes. A car parked for a day here is a cost and a worry, not a convenience.

Day two: Bled, Bohinj and the gorge

The classic day, and the one where the arithmetic gets interesting. Bled is 55 km away, Bohinj another 30, and the Vintgar Gorge is a twenty-minute detour from Bled.

As separate transfers it is awkward: you would pay €70 to Bled and €95 to Bohinj and still have to get home. As a day with a driver it is €350 for the saloon and €440 for the five-seat van, up to ten hours and 300 km, and the route is settled as you go. The car waits while you walk the gorge, and nobody is looking at a bus timetable.

If you would rather take it slowly, go to Bled as a single transfer, stay the night there and come back the next morning. Bled at seven in the morning, before the coaches, is a different lake from Bled at noon.

Day three: the cave, or the sea

Two good options and they point in opposite directions.

• The Postojna Cave with Predjama Castle, 53 km out, is a half day: €190 for the saloon, five hours and 150 km. The cave train and the guided walk take ninety minutes and the castle is ten minutes further on.
• Piran and the coast, 120 km, is a full day rather than a half. As a one-way transfer it is €135, which makes sense if you are staying the night; as a return it is the full day rate.
• The Škocjan Caves and the Lipica stud farm are the underrated pair, both closer than Piran and both a half day.

Day four: leave

Back to the airport, €45 again, and the pickup is planned backwards from your flight. Two hours before departure for a Schengen flight is enough at an airport this size.

What it comes to

Airport in and out, one full day and one half day, everything included:

• Saloon, up to four passengers with two large suitcases and two cabin bags: €630 for the four days.
• Five-seat van, up to five passengers with five large suitcases: €820.

Which of the two you need is decided by the luggage, not the number of people. Four adults flying long haul usually arrive with four large cases, and four large cases do not go in a saloon. If that is you, the van is the honest figure to plan with, and it works out at about the same per person because it carries one more.

A hire car for four days looks cheaper on the booking page and is not always cheaper on the way home:

• The car itself, 40 to 70 EUR a day in season.
• The Slovenian motorway vignette, 16 EUR for a week, and a fine from 300 EUR if the rental does not have one.
• Fuel for roughly 500 km of driving.
• Parking in Ljubljana, where the centre is restricted and hotels charge separately.
• The insurance excess, which is the number nobody reads until something happens.
• And the part with no price on it: driving mountain roads on your second day in a country, after a flight.

For one or two people a hire car usually still wins on money, and for a longer trip it wins comfortably. For three or four, over three or four days, it is close enough that the deciding factor is whether you want to drive.

When you should hire a car anyway

• You are staying longer than about five days.
• You are based somewhere rural, in the Soča valley or the Karst, where the point is to wander.
• The road itself is the attraction: the Vršič pass and the Mangart saddle are drives, not transfers.
• You are travelling on your own and counting every euro.

None of that is true of a first four-day trip built around Ljubljana, Bled and one cave. That trip is why this itinerary exists.

Practical notes

• Slovenia is in the euro and in Schengen, so borders with Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia are driven through.
• Book the Postojna Cave and the Vintgar Gorge ahead in summer; both sell out and both use timed entry.
• Child seats are required to 150 cm and the police check. Ours are free but have to be asked for when booking.
• Prices here are per car and include tolls, parking and waiting, and they are fixed before the trip rather than metered.