the Slavnik Hill hike..
There are mountains that feel more like hills to climb and hills that feel more like mountains.. well if you hike up Slavnik Hill, 1,028m you will sure feel like you went up a mountain!
The vista from up top is mountain class and just so good that we are gonna list ALL the amazing things you can see from the top of just this one main peak..
- the Italian Dolomites
- 3 Mediterannean coasts, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia
- All 4 Slovenian Alps..
- the Julian Alps, clear view of Mt Triglav, 2,864m, Slovenia's highest mountain
- the Karavanke Alps, clear view of Mt Stol, 2,236m
- the Kamnik Alps, clear view of Mt Grintovec, 2,558m
- the Dinaric Alps, clear view of Mt Nanos, 1,313m
- beautiful view to the highest non Alpine Mt Sneznik, 1,796m
- the last Karst Cliff in Slovenia
- Mt Učka in Croatian Istria, 1,396m
- Venice
Additionally you get rare uniterrupted views across the huge & incredibly green Slovenian coastal Hinterland towards the sea and back inland over the Brkini and the Red Karst & Green Karst..
Wow, what a Panorama!
So the Locals call Slavnik a "hill", but technically, being above 1,000m it is a mountain and we are now gonna tell you all about the lesser known "Locals" route we took to hike up and the sensational views you can get on the way up and on top!
If you are gonna "Hike" every day in Green Slovenia then this is one little mountain that you CANNOT miss out AND if you are just gonna do a few hikes here then we recommend Slavnik as one to seriously consider, cos you can tick a lot of boxes.. hiking in forests, Karst rocks, mountain plains AND a sensational view in a challenging, but safe 3-4 hours turnaround!
There are several ways to go up Slavnik that you could find by yourself, but we are gonna tell you how the Locals do it.. up along a much quieter, triple forest route.
This is also one of those mountain hikes where there are NO SCARY DROPS at all, so a perfect one not to worry about before and for all to enjoy.. but it does have steep bits..
You might not believe it from some of the photos, but we hiked here up on a sunny, Sunday morning in late January.. this means the air & blue sky were so clear and at this time of the year you can see even further through the leafless trees!
The only downer was a sea fog covering the coast, so if you have the choice, always choose the best day weather wise to go up!
You will probably be here in the summer, so imagine how thick and green the forests will be and how fresh and cool most of the walk will be out of the Mediterranean sun..
And as you will be on holidays, you can also avoid doing this hike on a Sunday.. the most popular day to come up here for Locals will be Sunday.. so avoid it if you can!
How to get to Slavnik Hill..
You need to get to Presnica village on the edge of the Brkini mini region, a short drive from the local town of Divaca..
It is just 25 mins from the Lodge direct to the beautiful little village of Presnica, which is home to one of our Lipizzaner Horse breeder friends and one of Green Slovenia's few cider producers!
The Brkini region is famous for numerous orchards of juicy apple trees, so no surprise that someone finally decided to make British style cider here with the best, most juicy apples in Slovenia.. and even less surprise of course that we decided to stock Malner Cider in our cellar!
The Brkini region is nestled in next to a huge chunk of map stretching to the Slovenian coast and this walk will reveal from above how huge and green the Slovenian Coastal Hinterland really is!
Drive to the end of Presnica, the village road is very narrow and hilly, but at the end there are 2 car parks, a small one first, then a larger one just around the corner.
It doesn't matter which car park you choose, but there is a sneaky little short cut up to the main hiking path through a little tunnel under the railway line from the first little car park..
How to Hike up Slavnik Hill..
From the main car park you can actually see the tip of the top of Slavnik at the end of a chain of steep forested hills that are right in front of you on the other side of the railway line and you will several get glimpses of this final peak as you pop in and out of the forest sections..
So it can feel like one of those long beach walks where you cannot quite believe you will ever get to the end in the distance.. but you always do!
Walk along the main track, going under the train line and you will soon see a red sign post for Slavnik, 2 hours!
You could actually do the hike a bit quicker than this, but there are so many stunning viewpoints and photos to take that it will tend to be the locals rushing up for exercise quickly, but you should take your time and enjoy it!
The hike starts to get quite steep up a narrow forested track with great views down to the car park first and as you get higher up you get a really cracking view of the big chunk of Karst cliff that actually marks the end of the Karst in this part of the world, near Osp..
The Rock Stack View Point..
You will be following those little red circles on the side of trees and rocks, but the path is really easy to follow and soon you will reach a little lake, which was frozen over for us to enjoy..
Not far from here and about 30 mins up the track from the start, the hike changes tack dramatically with an absolutely stunning rock stack sticking out of the sky and just saying, "come climb me"!
Actually if you just follow the path a few more metres up there is another little side path up to the rock stack too, but we could not resist a little bit of a scramble up the stack for the incredible views over a lot of Slovenia's Riviera and Green Coastal hinterland..
It was standing on top of this chunky rock stack that we realised this was not gonna be just an ordinary hike in the woods.. there were some seriously good views to be had and a bit of scrambling chucked in too!
You also get a clear sight of the Slavnik peak in the distance from this rock stack and it still looks quite a way away!
This rock stack will be extra special in the summer when the green canopies are full and every possible vista point through and over the leaves will be worth knowing about!
From the rock stack, the oak and beech forest also changes to a more spruce, pine variety!
The trees come thick and fast now until you break out again to a patch of mountain side with a stone road track crossing and a very small parking and view point area..
There is a sign post for Slavnik here leading up again into the forest and we will come back here later so remember this spot as we recommend you take that road BACK down from the top to here on the descent, so you get to see the views from the side of the hill over the coast..
BUT come back after that the same way down the forest track..
It is so worth continuing up this new path to go up though as you will soon be surrounded by such beautiful trees and dense forest..
There is a lot of nonsesnse written about Ljubljana being a "Green City", which we absolutely do not subscribe to, cos how on earth can any city be green?! Greener than some other polluting citirs maybe, but for us the true Green Cities in Slovenia are the mountains like Slavnik and Nanos and St Lawrence, where everything really is green!
Each has endless avenues of green and trees standing like people and this is very apparent up here on this final forest trek up Slavnik..
It was January after all, so the path was a bit snow covered in places, so we needed to be careful and we got a real feeling of how high we were getting as a Police copter buzzed over like a hairdryer!
Lots of Views from the Top.. the CB Radio Hill
The adventure takes another twist really soon as you burst out again into the open and see a mysterious looking mini tower on top of a hill and the main summit ahead, with a telecom tower and little hut.
We walked up this steep mini hill first and got our first shock of how good the views really are up here!
It is very difficult to take a decent photo shot that shows what we could see clearly with our own eyes and impossible to take a panorama of what you can see from up here, but it was nothing short of spectacular.
The little tower looks like some kind of a military watch tower or the captain's cabin on a ship, but is actually used by CB radio enthusiasts..
As you reach the top this is really the best place to look down upon the coast, but we also realised we could see clearly across inland to the Italian Dolomites, then sweeping right we could clearly make out Mt Triglav, Slovenia's three headed highest peak in the Julian Alps.
That is not all as the panorama sweeps along to include the Karavanke Alps and the Kamnik Alps! In the foreground you can see the huge lump of gren rock that is Mt Nanos, the start of the Dinaric Alps and the very mountain that dominates our view from the Lodge back garden.
Further over we could see Weather mountain, Vremsisca and the volcano shape of Sneznik, Snow Mountain too and then you eyes lock onto the final summit on this Slavnik mountain with the hut and telcom aerial on top..
We were like kids in a sweet shop, the views up here are absolutely spectacular.
From here you can also see the path across to the main Slavnik summit and suddenly you notice a lot of people bobbing around over there, when the walk so far has been realtively quiet, with just a few hellos and nodding of the head..
Well that is why we are recommending this particular route up Slavnik and explaining it in micro detail, cos we realised then you will avoid most of those other hikers and bikers who came up via Podgorje!
You will also hear a lot of Italian voices up there too, so clearly this mountain is a popular one for looking home and up into Europe too!
Finally to the top of Slavnik..
The final steep hike up the hill to the Koca (hut) and the very top is a total joy as you get a Julie Garland style Sound of Music mountain meadow panorama view in every direction as you trudge up, maybe you could do a little dance..
If Sunday is your only available day to do this green adventure, then STILL DO IT, but if you can avoid a Sunday and come on a week day, we suspect the summit will be close to empty.
Instead on a very clear, warm Sunday in January we were surrounded by swarms of people!
We would normally ALWAYS try to bus some soup and drinks in the Kocas on top of mountains here to support the good people running them, but the queue was out the door here and we reluctantly recommend you pack some water and a sandwich for this particular hike just in case!
We did a bee line directly to the top and from up here you can still see ALL the 5 Alps, but also the green hills heading off into Istria and Croatia with the Ucka Croatian peak most prominent.
So to be clear, from the top you can see there countries easily if you know what you are looking at and we also saw Venice marked on the peak's metal map.. so maybe also possible to see Venice from up here if you don't get the fog and mist we had over the sea.
As you hike down on the main track from the Koca you get a much better understanding of where all the cyclists and hikers appeared from.. the village of Podgorje below, so we couldn't wait to head away from all this jazz and back to that first little peak with the CB Radio tower and get away from the crowds..
Remember your car is in Presnica, so hike back there!
Hike back down the stone road next to the CB Radio Tower Hill to see the Coast..
Hardly any of the people up here seemed to have spotted this other peak!
It was here that we made a really good, but tricky decision to avoid going back the way we came in the last section of forest walk and instead to hike down the main stone road track on the other side of the CB Tower hill..
It was a great choice with really spectacular views down to the coastal Slovenian Hinterland all the way, none of the crowds and a bonus vista of Mt Triglav sitting behind the oncoming hills too!
It is said Slovenia only has a short coastline, but you will see here how big, empty and green the map is behind this wiggly coastline!
Then Duck back into the forest for the main walk back down..
We recommend now heading back into the forest once the road has left the hillside and curved round towards the forest as the view of the coast is lost and you will see the same signpost that you took from the third part of your hike up the mountain, so you still get to hike down two thirds of the forest you hiked up!
You can make fast progress coming down the mountain forest track, quicker than the 2 hours advertised, but we bet you still do the small detour to go up the cliff stack again for that view again! We were hoping the clouds had cleared from the coast, but it was something of a "pea souper" that day by the sea!
Coming back to see the car park below, you could do a final turn at the first Slavnik sign almost by the railway line to take that little short cut to the tiny archway under the train line to the small car park.. just cos it is so cool to go through that archway!
Why do this Hike from Presnica?
First and foremost this is an excellent 2 hour hike up a stony mountain forest track with excellent views all the way, but when you get to the top two peaks with the very best views, you will be sharing them with all the other hikers and bikers who hiked up from the village of Podgorje.
We will also do that hike one day too and actually, you could do another loop from the Presnica car park hiking just one hour directly to Podgorje and going up from there, then returning down the mountain to Presnica.. or the other way around!
But why would you do that when the hike up the mountain forest is just so incredibly beautiful?!
So our advice is to do this wonderful hike as we wrote.. there and back from Presnica, doing the little stone road loop from the very top down so you can see the coastal views too and then jumping back onto the forest track home!
French Connection en Slovenie
