Kranjska Gora and the Alps
A full day, about 170 km — the ski town, the Vršič Pass hairpins and the Soča valley beyond them.
Kranjska Gora is Slovenia's best-known ski resort, and worth the drive even in a season with no snow on the ground — a proper mountain town, not a purpose-built resort shell. Most visitors, though, come for what's beyond it: the Vršič Pass, 50 hairpin bends stacked up a mountainside to 1611 metres, each one numbered on a stone marker, the road itself built by Russian prisoners of war in 1915 and never really widened since. Coming down the far side into the Soča valley, the road passes within sight of the Solkan Bridge near Nova Gorica — at 85 metres, the largest stone arch railway bridge in the world, a single span crossing the Soča without a support in the water. It's one of the longer days we run, and one of the ones people talk about afterwards.
up to 10 h and 300 km
Guide · 5 min readSolkan Bridge: the largest stone arch railway bridge in the world, and why it's worth the detourA 1906 stone arch spanning the Soča in a single 85-metre leap, still carrying trains today – what makes it a record-holder, where to see it from, and how it fits into a Soča valley day.