OK so Slovenia has 3 Alps and actually another set to make 4 if you include the Dinaric Alps with littler peaks that go from our local mountain of Nanos 1,313m down to Croatia and Bosnia.. so if the mountains around here are so dinky, then why would we tip the nearby Weather mountain 1,027m when you could get to any of the other 3 Alps in just an hour from the Lodge?

Cos it's amazing of course.. not just for the walk up, which will provide a good nature workout for the fittest people, but for the really amazing views you get from the top!

Fortunately, it has an easy name in English to remember, "Weather mountain", being a loose translation of Vremscica, which I still have to check several times if spelt correctly! But the name has an additionally special meaning, as this mountain is a weather dividing point between the Mediterranean and Continental zones. Indeed, when you are at the top, one side goes down to the continental region and the other leads down to the start of the Mediterranean!

So when you get to the top on a clear day, (of which Slovenia has many) then you will be amazed at how many different things you can see.. but if nobody told you what you could see, then of course you wouldn't know how special this little peak really was .. the views would still be amazing, but you wouldn't really know what and how much you can see from here!

There are 2 main approaches up to the top, the first is 20 mins from the Lodge, past the little town of Pivka and then through the village of Kal, where you can find a neat stone car park and off you go! 

You can also go up Vremscica from the Mediterranean side and this is literally a hiker's dream.. we know hikers who specifically look at maps to see where there are no roads and go there to hike.. if you think about it, a place with no main roads is great for hiking.. well this mini area is one of those very green places on a map with little stone tractor tracks and lots of deep forest.. its amazing!

Our guests would usually go for the car park ascent as it is easy to find and also the route up is easy to follow. First you go up through thick forest and as you break out of the trees the views start appearing all around.

It doesn't take too long to walk up depending on your fitnessa and how long you like to spend examining flowers and fauna. The piney needles of many bushes here protect special berries used to make local gin by the way!

Close to the top, depending which way you go up, is a very pretty little stone church in immaculate condition and usually you can go in and have a look around. If you miss the church on the way up, then make sure you see it on the way down.

we came on an early spring day, but wow, just look at that sky and the climb up to the church!

What can you see from the top of Weather mountain?

The massive lump of rock to your right, almost close enough to touch, is Nanos, 1,313m, Slovenia's last mountain. You can see how it sweeps down on it's Meditteranean side to sea level in the Vipava wine valley and Lipizzaner Lodge is on the other cooler side,, both sides covered in every shade of green.

From Nanos, the rock extends like a massive stone wall barrier all the way to the Alps and so this is a great spot to see clearly why centuries of armies have marched towards Nanos and along the side as one of the lowest and easiest crossingpoints from central Europe into western Europe.

So behind Nanos on the left you can see all the way along the Vipava valley to the Slovenian Julian Alps and the Italian Dolomites. To the right you can see all the way to the Slovenian Karavanka Alps!

Straight ahead you see down to the Adriatic sea and to the left and really quite close, you can make out a huge Karst hole.. this is the Unesco protected Skocjan caves, one of the best caves in the world. The hole that you can see is so large, you could fit the highest pyramid inside, just o give you a sense of the scale!

Then as you turn around to head back to the car park, you get an extra treat as the snow covered peak of Slovenia's highest non Alpine mountain, Sneznik 1,796m sits gloriously on the panorama like a mini volcano with it's beautiful cone shape.

We visited the mountain in early Spring, so it was lovely to sit on the warm grass on the Mediterranean side and admire the view to the sea and the Skocjan cave hole. Maybe in summer it's nicer to sit on the fresher continental side of the ridge to eat your sandwich!

So with all these amazing sights and views, the half-day hike and the beautiful countryside directly around you we are not surprised at how our guests come back from Weather mountain amazed that this is just another one of those places they had not even heard about, let alone read about before they came to Green Slovenia.. so how could they have known to put this place on their list..

Well, now you do know!