Slovenia has a fantastic number of crystal clear rivers for you to spend time by, or in! Where there are mountains and caves there is water and we also have many amazing gorges and waterfalls slicing through the rock for you to admire, or climb..

You will never be far from a river in Slovenia.. even if you are driving along a wiggly road, it might well be following the course of a river!

Depending what you want to get up to here in Green Slovenia, it is perfectly possible to spend the whole day next to the water listening to that natural sound of running water.. sometimes it is only when you leave a river that you realise how beautiful the sound of the running water was!

We will briefly tell you in this section a little about our favourite rivers in Green Slovenia and maybe surprise you with a few unique and special qualities! 

If we have already done a longer article about that particular river or maybe another blog where that river features, then we will also add a clickable link you..

the crystal clear waer seems to slide over the white rocks in the Soca..

the emerald green Soca River.. (96 km in Slovenia)..

How could we not start with what we consider to be the most beautiful river in Europe! We had a well travelled Australian guest who said he had not even seen a river this colour even in Australia.. which made us treasure even more how special this river is..

It is a magical, unique river.. the colour is undescribeable and you won't believe it until you see it with your own eyes! The river first springs out of the side of a mountain in the Alps and flows down the Upper and Lower Soca valleys before departing Slovenia at Nova Gorica..

It has white sandy, pebbly beaches on it's shores and huge rocks for kayaks to slide past in the river flow.. it creates a stunning gorge along the way and is full of those famous Soca trout.

Lodge guests can be standing next to the river in just 40 mins, which is tribute to our fantastic location.. as the Soca is hidden away from most visitors to Slovenia in the far West of the country!

this is one of the most iconic viewpoints along the Soca river..

If you would like to read more, we have written an article about all the amazing bits to see and do along the entire course of the river in "the most beautiful river in Europe"..

the mighty Sava.. (221km)..

Slovenia's longest river, the Sava, flows all the way across old Yugoslavia to Serbia and you can see incredible colours and how the water bubbles up out of the ground at it's source near Kranska Gora (90 mins from the Lodge), (Slovenia's biggest skiing resort).

We also found an amazing marked cycle route up here that pretty much runs from the steel town of Jesenice on the route of an old railway alongside this river.. 

You could meet up with the Sava multiple times along it's course.. how about spending the day visiting these 2 fantastic castles, Sevnica and Brestanica.. and cycling along the river between them.. wow what a day by the water!

the Bela (white) Idrica.. (60km)..

This is one of our favourite rivers for swimming in Slovenia.. it is so beautiful it is almost as pretty as the Soca!

the Bela Idrija river on the way to the Mercury mine and Secret Partisans hospital is great for a summer swim..

The river flows into the unesco protected mercury mine town of Idrija, there are so many things to do and see here, you couldn't even fit them all into just one day!

The shortest river in Slovenia also flows into to Bela Idrica, you can find more about it here in our article on "Slovenia's shortest river"..

the warm Nadiža in the Alps.. (60km)..

It is unbelievable, a warm river, fab for swimming in the middle of the Alps.. but it is true.. you can find this river not too far from the pretty Alpine town of Kobarid and the fabulous Kozjak waterfall.. we recommend you hike a little along the Nadiža far enough to find the mini gorge.. absolutely beautiful!

the Savinja.. (102km)..

One of the most secret, beautiful hidden valleys in Green Slovenia is the Logar valley, Logarska Dolina and this is where the Savinja river thunders into action, flinging itself off the 90m high Rinka waterfall and heading off into the centre of Slovenia, before joining the Sava..

view down to Celje old town and the Savinja river from the top of the castle..

You can see the river flowing past the Mozirski Gaj Gardens park as well and get another view from high up at Celje castle!

the Vipava river.. (44km)..

Another completely secret Slovenian Green valley is just around the corner from Lipizzaner Lodge and the Vipava river goes right down the middle of it.. the Vipava Wine Valley.

the 7 sources of the Vipava river join to flow off out of the Old town into the Vipava valley..

This river is wide, fast flowing, very natural and lined by trees.. it is fed by several stunning springs that pour out of the high mountain walls that boder the valley at Vipava old town and from the Hubelj river at Adjective for example..

We went for an absolutely fantastic kayak along the river and as far as wek now there is just one kayak firm operting on this river! You can swim and stand up board in many places or just enjoy E Biking or walking alongside!

the Kamnik Bistrica river .. (33km)..

The place where this little river springs into action is unmissable.. lots of little water shutes pour out of a rock side, absolutely covered in greeness like a Malaysian jungle.. the water gathers quickly and forms a very beautiful mini lake with a little island before flowing under a bridge and off towards the pretty old town of Kamnik.

stunning start to the Kamnik Bistrica river in the Kamnik Alps..

Along the way there is a spectacular gorge to walk down to with a wonky wooden bridge and you could also stop off to hike up to the Organ waterfall and find the Bela, another of Slovenia's secret WW2 Partisan forest hospitals.. wow, another fantastic day out!

the bottle green Krka river.. (94km)..

The town we call Chestnut, aka Kostanjevica, (90 mins), is on an island created by the beautiful bottle green Krka river which gracefully snakes around it, making a rickety old wooden bridge the only road access.

You can go rowing or swimming here and nearby there is a huge monastery, now converted into an art museum, with numerous wooden sculptures of all sizes in the large grounds. This place will amaze you by the sheer scale of exhibits on view, both inside and out.

On the drive along the Krka river to Chestnut, there are many pretty places to stop off, including the village called Krka, (60 mins), Cucumber castle, aka Žužemberk with multiple waterfalls and Otocec castle. In fact, this is such a nice river with such variety, that we have made a tur of it for you from start to finish.. 

the warm Kolpa.. (118km)..

The Kolpa river marks the south east border with Croatia and is Slovenia's warmest river. The locals know this and as you might expect, it is very popular for swimming, so you can even swim over to the Coatian side, but don't forget your passport! It is also a more gentle alternative to the Alps for doing white water rafting.. maybe for younger families.

the delight of walking down a dry river.. this one has perfect white pebbles, rocks and boulders..

Some other Interesting Rivers..

There is an incredible River with 7 Names that starts in Croatia and ducks under the ground not too far from Lipizzaner Lodge, appearing and disappearing another 6 more times, until it reaches Ljubljana.

Every time it pops up above the again it gets a new name.. hence the "River of 7 Names"!

One of those 7 rivers is called the Unica and is formed from two rivers crashing into each other underground inside the only cave in Europe where you can see it happen.. Planina cave!

This same river creates the amazing Planina disappering lake in the autumn, flooding a massive meadow spread over kilometres AND the river is also known as one of the best in Europe to catch Rainbow trout!!

We even have a pretty little river just a 15 minute walk from Landol that runs from directly under the local Nanos mountain. The Nanošcica (Little Nanos) is central to so many Lodge Walks. We are learning every twist & turn of this river and it finally joins the Pivka river just outside Postojna and flows into the Postojna cave..

one of the many bends in our local little Nanos river..

the mischievious naughty little river Lokva!..

And finally for those interested in the study of rivers, our geographical position by Nanos mountain is the exact dividing point for water in Europe! The rivers that start on our Nanos side of the mountain will run down and end up in the Danube or the Black sea and the rivers that start on the other side of Nanos run to the Mediterranaen sea..

Except the Lokva.. and the exciting thing is that this is the little river you can walk along on the secret walk from Lipizzaner Lodge direct to Predjama castle!

So what this river does is to start life on the Black sea slopes side of Nanos mountain and flow into the huge cave under Predjama castle to very cheekily make its way through the labyrinth of caves and channels in the mountain and sneal out onto the Adriatic side in the Vipava valley.. How cheeky is that!