Go Green Slovenia!

This page is all about helping VISITORS to Slovenia FIND & ACCESS the GREENER OPTIONS for travelling around the most beautiful country in Europe.. So thank you for hiking or biking here or E renting or bringing your own ELEC CAR, we will try now to give you all the current info we can in ENGLISH to help you juice up your E-Car or E-Bike!

Firstly, you should be totally congratulated on finding Slovenia and then choosing to visit this little green gem, bursting with nature! You don't get a greener European holiday than in Green Slovenia!.. you can swim in lakesrivers & the Mediterranean sea, you can hike & bike in forestsvineyards, green meadows and up & over mountains, you can explore castlescavesvalleys and discover waterfalls and gorges all over the place.. everywhere!

there are so many reasons to call this place Green Slovenia!
there are so many reasons to call this place Green Slovenia!

 

And how about this for just one idea to do a really GREEN ADVENTURE.. it is perfectly possible to find some special places here where a new Slovenian river springs into life and then follow that particular river for some or even it's entire journey.. if you want to know more, please just check out our River Springs section..

Little old Slovenia makes it so simple for you to enjoy and respect the amazingly green environment, eat locally grown food and breathe clean air..very clean air. And just think about it.. Slovenia is really tiddly with TINY distances between all the major natural Green attractions.. so it really is the PERFECT holiday destination for using an electric vehicle.. soooo easy to get around on a single overnight charge!

Do you see why we call this treasure island Green Slovenia? You will see more shades of Green here than in a printing shop!
Do you see why we call this treasure island Green Slovenia? You will see more shades of Green here than in a printing shop!

 

So if you want to find other practical ways to reduce your carbon footprint on holiday, maybe by renting an electric car, E Bike or bringing your own rechargeable car or bike to Slovenia.. then this is the page for you, we will try to answer your practical questions about E-renting and recharging

You are perfectly capable of checking yourself how many trees your airline is planting to offset it's carbon bootprint and weighing up your option of taking the train or driving here instead, so here we go, please plug in and enjoy the silent E ride below..

why not give them a ring.. this American couple did..
why not give them a ring.. this American couple did..

 

Recharging your Elec Car..

Let's keep this monkey simple.. the simplest & best way for you to use an elec vehicle on hols in Slovenia is to recharge overnight where you are staying and then explore within your elec range.. this is so easy in Slovenia as it so small yet stuffed full of natural Green wonders all over the place!

Exciting News.. Lipizzaner Lodge has 2 elec recharging stations for guests to recharge overnight and we are getting more & more guests arriving with E Cars!

One lovely Belgian family, who stayed here for a week with their own E Car, kept a log of their recharging and journeys, so we did a blog to show you how easy it was for them and how many Green adventures they had too!

Here is the blog.. Using your E car for a week at the Lodge!

Gremo na Elektriko have a widespread website for rechargers in Green Slovenia..
Gremo na Elektriko have a widespread website for rechargers in Green Slovenia..

 

So it only makes sense to top up with a fast charger during your day if you absolutely need more juice.. There is a network of FAST CHARGERS and other chargers in this small country and a fab "Gremo" website that explains where many of them are located..

Here is a link to that GREMO map.. MAP OF CHARGING STATIONS IN SLOVENIA  

GREMO means "let's Go" in Slovenian and are based in Ljubljana and have the largest E Recharging network here, so their website is the first place to start your recharging research.

When you are out & about you will need to plan where to recharge & pay for your power, and this has gotten a lot easier in recent years.

Indeed, just click on this link to GREMO's website where they have prepared EASY INSTRUCTIONS in ENGLISH to explain How to get Access to the Recharging Network..

literally rock up on an E Bike at the uberamazing Rakov Skocjan little bridge..
literally rock up on an E Bike at the uberamazing Rakov Skocjan little bridge..

 

So you could download the AP and register a card for payment.. you do not even have to give a name or address, just the card, which is very handy if you are an international spy too..

OR

If you are already a member of one of those European E Charging Groups, then you can roam to access the European portal.. (you will already know about how to do this if you are such a member)!

SO now you can juice up without needing more different cards than a magician up your sleeve!!

The key to using these rechargers is get registered and then you can choose whether to PREPAY, which is more cost effective, according to the website OR to just PAY AS YOU GO..

Half of you go by Lipizzaner, the other half catch them up on mountain bikes..
Half of you go by Lipizzaner, the other half catch them up on mountain bikes..

 

 

So what are we doing at Lipizzaner Lodge to limit our impact on the Planet's Resources?

It is all very well to shout and scream at people who are not interested anyway about what they are not doing for the environment! All we can do here is tell you what we are trying to do and to learn how to do a bit more..

one of our smart Etrel rechargers and plenty of space to park..
one of our smart Etrel rechargers and plenty of space to park..

 

In 2020 we installed 2 NEW Slovenian made ETREL INTELLIGENT ELEC CAR RECHARGERS so guests can juice up overnight with Electricity we have collected from the Slovenian sunshine.. we really hope you bring your elec car here or rent one and we also want you to know that you can organise your entire Green Slovenian holiday from the Lodge!

We had planned to have our own ELEC CAR by now to rent out to guests by the day, but a mixture of Covid and quite frankly, us not being impressed with the progress car makers are doing to make an affordable, mainstream E Car, capable of realistic Km's, means this is on hold.. (but we are currently watching very carefully what the folks at MG are doing)..

SO we have been concentrating our own coffers and attention on an even Greener way to get around.. E BIkes!

E bike from the Lodge up into the Dinaric Green Alps..
E bike from the Lodge up into the Dinaric Green Alps..

 

Renting an E Bike..

We were proud in 2021 to become a HUB for Rockvelo, Slovenia's premier E BIKE renting service, so Lodge guests can have access to the very best quality E Bikes available with all the back up and service you would expect from Rockvelo..

Breaking News.. Now we have 4 of our own E bikes and access to more bikes from Rockvelo and have been using this partnership to develop our joint E Bike offer and create lots of amazing routes that are just to far to go with a regular bike, but perfect for E Bikes! 

If you would like to know more or rent an E Bike just click HERE to go to our rent an E Bike page!

our new E Bike Hut at Lipizzaner Lodge!
our new E Bike Hut at Lipizzaner Lodge!

 

So you see, it is NOT JUST about having the best E Bike solution available to tempt you away from your car.. it is typical in Slovenia that so many special secret places are just a little too far or too hilly to reach on a regular mountain bike..

Our E Bikes and off road routes can help you explore uberamazing secret places like Rakov Skocjan Rock Nature Park, the biggest Disappearing Lake in Europe, lake Cerknica, up our local magnificent mountain mt Nanos or to find a completely hidden secret Partisan hospital at Zalesje to name just a few of them!

We have also started dropping guests off a little further out with the E Bikes so you canthen spend an amazing day E Biking back to the Lodge from even more far flung secret Green places!

go E Biking over Nanos mountain to the Vipava Green wine valley..
go E Biking over Nanos mountain to the Vipava Green wine valley..

 

So why not let your feet do the talking and instead of taking your petrol or diesel car to explore.. jump on an E Bike juiced up on the sun's rays and go find the places out of reach on a regular mountain bike.

We will be doing more and more E Biking Blogs, but here are just two E Biking adventures on Nanos mountain and the Vipava valley..

E bike from the Lodge across the biggest disappearing lake in Europe..
E bike from the Lodge across the biggest disappearing lake in Europe..

 

Other Green Stuff at the Lodge..

We originally built the Lodge with solar panels on our main roof to help power the underfloor heating and hot water for your washing & shower.

Then in 2019 we connected 32 solar panels on our stables' roof to make Lipizzaner Lodge 100% electric neutral.. so now we use the plentiful, clean Slovenian sunshine for all your power needs!

Also in 2019, we connected our roof gutters to collect the rainwater into a 12,000 litre underground tank that we reuse in the garden and for our Lipizzaner horses to drink. (Horses can drink a lot)! Now we have 20,000 litres of rainwater collected in our garden!

We got rid of all plastic bottles for sale in our cafe and now only offer recyclable glass bottles. We can also offer guests existing plastic or glass bottles to fill with the beautiful clean pure water that flows everywhere from Slovenia's taps.

So the message here is clear, please do not bring or buy new plastic water bottles to the Lodge, you don't need them.

 

here's our little Bosch E Mower.. still going strong!
here's our little Bosch E Mower.. still going strong!

 

We also decided to use only manual or elec rechargeable garden tools, so we trim the green green grass at the Lodge with an electric lawnmower! (It takes ages, but for a Brit there is nothing better than taking time to mow the lawn and then having a nice cup of tea after)!

Another way YOU can impact the environment positively when exploring Green Slovenia is not to have a car at all.. so for years, we have been actively encouraging those who want to visit Slovenia without a car! We have a special page called To Drive or Not to Drive and we get more and more guests arriving without a car every year..

if anyone tells you Green Slovenia is too busy, show them this piccy and tell them to read a bit more of this website!
if anyone tells you Green Slovenia is too busy, show them this piccy and tell them to read a bit more of this website!

 

We do our best to help these guests plan and get around.. we can do pick ups from the local train and bus stations and we have our own small fleets of E Bikes and 9 regular mountain bikes to rent too.

You could easily spend a month at the Lodge and do a different hike EVERY day.. we know this cos we did it during Lockdown! Most Lodge guests hike to the most unique castle in the world at Predjama directly from the Lodge and now there is a new bike path, so also possible to get to the Postojna cave safely by foot or bike too!

We really want to help you find the delights of Green Slovenia.. but if you knew just how amazing and numerous the hikes DIRECT from Lipizzaner Lodge are, then maybe you would spend a few days in your week just hiking from here.. so we did another new page to tell you all about Lodge walks!

so many secret forest tracks surrounding the Lodge..
so many secret forest tracks surrounding the Lodge..

 

We are also very happy to drop guests off in the middle of nowhere with a few directions and let you find your own way back!! Ok, there is a little more help than this, but how about being dropped in the car park of nearby St Lawrence mountain, 1,019m, for example..

A lovely German couple staying at the Lodge for a week without a car did exactly this and hiked up St Lawrence mountain for amazing views, then made their way across using forest paths to Predjama castle for lunch and hiked back on the secret path to the Lodge.. They told us this was their most favourite day!

We have also noticed that nowadays, one of our most popular pages is our HIKING page which highlights so many different walks available ALL OVER Green Slovenia, so we know people are looking for places to go green here!

might not seem like much, but very important you can leave your rucksack now at the Postojna TIC..
might not seem like much, but very important you can leave your rucksack now at the Postojna TIC..

 

There are lots of new little Green things popping up all over Green SLovenia to help you Go even Greener and travel without a car too!

It might not seem much having this new baggage storage at our local TIC (tourist info centre) in Postojna.. but it is massive that travellers can leave their rucksacks here in the centre of Postojna to go walk to see the Postojna cave AND when you add this to the new bike path AND the new drop on drop off free Bus service that will open here in summer 2023 it all adds up to something special for Green travel, so WELL DONE POSTOJNA TIC!

Green News.. From 2021 we also decided for Green reasons, that our minimum stay will be 2 nights to avoid unnecessary washing and all the other needless impacts of one night stays..

Our ONLY exceptions to this rule.. we allow people arriving on bikes, E Bikes, E Cars and hiking trips to book for one night stays, so we can continue to encourage people to explore Slovenia by bike, foot and other greener methods.

unless you are an Olympic cyclist.. take an E Bike to explore our local Mt Nanos..
unless you are an Olympic cyclist.. take an E Bike to explore our local Mt Nanos..

 

Renting an E Car..

So we do plan to have an E car available, when the right one comes along for guests to rent by the day.. the car will be charged from solar power collected here at the Lodge!

We will also keep a list at the bottom of this page of what ELEC options the Slovenian car rental firms are offering. The extra good news here is that if you are renting a car, then the rental firm should give you access to one of the Network rechargers and currently the recharging is usually free.. (the price of e-juice is minimal anyway and hopefully not the real reason why you are choosing an elec car)!!

By far the largest fleet of E Cars for rental is held by AVANT.. It is a bit like a car club, so you need to join up and this is where we would start if wanting to rent an E Car in Green SLovenia..

E car sharing in central Ljubljana..
E car sharing in central Ljubljana..

 

AVANT: So they have a huge network of over 500 elec cars that are principally used by locals and are mostly rented by the hour in the towns and cities..

But FANTASTIC NEWS.. this network is now available to foreigners, so all you need to do is go to Ljubljana airport.. sign a contract.. pay a deposit.. and you can access this network of cars.. (the chances are if you are travelling to Slovenia you will start up at the airport anyway)!

This is big news as it means you can now EWhizz around Green Slovenia just like a local!! In theory you could rent an E Car at the airport, go to Bled or the Lodge say.. leave the car and then rent one when you leave there to go to the next place!

check out these guys, GREENGO, just waiting to be rented outside Ljubljana train station!
check out these guys, GREENGO, just waiting to be rented outside Ljubljana train station!

 

Here is Avants English website.. (we asked them to put clear, simple instructions on their ENGLISH web pages to show visitors to Slovenia how you can easily sign up and use their network).. Let us know how they are getting on and if you had a good experience!

The other mainstream rental car companies are not moving fast into E Cars, so the earlier you check and book the better.. SIXT: (Also an office at Ljubljana train station) appears to be the best of the bunch, with 5 cars, when you book on their website you can see a little green E symbol by the car.. recharging is currently free at the network of "PETROL" motorway and service stations around Slovenia.

So a final thank you for even just thinking about Going Green in the Greenest country in Europe.. We wish you a wonderful holiday here!

Email: info@lipizzanerlodge.com

Address: Landol 17, Postojna 6230, Slovenia

Phone: +386 5620 3443
Mobile: +386 40 47 0239 or +386 40 37 8037

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