The Slovenian capital Ljubljana was our second stop on our world trip. What to do there, where to eat or drink and how to spend a very nice time in this beautiful city, you will find out in this blogpost. So, get a glimpse of how wonderful Ljubljana really is and why it’s totally worth it to travel there.

We spent some time in Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana on our world trip and we loved it! We can highly recommend going there because of the following reasons: First, the food was super delicious; second, the locals are very friendly and third, the city is so beautiful and environmentally friendly!

But now one after the other:

Arriving at Ljubljana you immediately recognize that it is different from other capitals. For example, the city centre turned from a traffic-heavy zone into a green paradise where car use is limited and bikes are very welcome. Instead of pollution from the cars you will have a “gentle helper”, who will drive you through the old town: “Kavalir” are the electric cars which will get you around the centre. The funny green cars are so cute that you immediately want to jump in. In our opinion Ljubljana rightfully won the title of European Green Capital 2016.

Ljubljana is Slovenia's biggest city and it is divided in the old and new town. The city is beautifully located between the alps and the carst, which makes her even more attractive for a vacation trip. The key landmark of the town is definitely its beautiful castle, originally a medieval fort, built in the 11th century. Ljubljana is full of art, festivals and outside activities during spring and summer time.

We ate a lot, maybe even a little bit more then we should have. When visiting a city, on the last evening we usually visit the restaurant that we liked most on our visit. For Ljubljana, our choice was easy: It is the restaurant Julija. We were amazed by the good Slovenian wine, the super friendly, well trained and helpful waiters and of course the food. Our recommendation - the traditional gulasch, the fresh made local pasta and the Štruklji, a traditional Slovenian way of connecting pasta and mashed potatoes in a delicious way.

Additional tips for restaurants:

Restaurant Slovenska Hisa - with really good cheese and wine

Restaurant Güjzina - the traditional Slovenian Dödele

At the Museum of Modern Art close to the wonderful Tivoli Parc you will find a small but cute cafe. It was a pleasure to sit down there and enjoy a good glass of Slovenian wine. The best thing about it was that the waiters served the wine with some salty snacks and informed us quite well about the wine we drank. He even wrote down for us the Slovenian area where the wine was from. Such a nice service!

The river Ljubljanica runs through the city and offers, besides the nice scenery, many bars and restaurants. But also further away from the center of the city, locals and tourists meet and enjoy the warm evenings. Try a picnic at the water, we promise you the snacks will taste delicious in this scenery.

You can easily rent bikes all over the city for almost no money. The cost for one week is only ONE Euro. Incredible and definitely a benefit of the green environment in Ljubljana.  You have to register HERE and then you can take city-bikes wherever you want. We always love to rent bikes in cities, because you explore faster than just walking but still in your one pace. And when it is as cheap as here it really is a brilliant option.

Since 2013 the unique and super nice food market “Odprta kuhnat” opens his gates to offer typical Slovenian food from different regions. It is hard to choose what to buy though because everything smells so delicious. You will find everything at this place: meat, vegetarian and vegan dishes.

You can get free tap water everywhere in the city. Every wine or meal comes with tap water in every restaurant in Ljubljana, which is really awesome. But beyond that you can get your water from water dispensers all over the town. Let’s save some plastic bottles together!!

There are more ice cream stores then you can count. The best one, which is also recommended in travel guides, is without doubt the Gelateria Romantica. The ice cream is home made of course and there are some interesting sorts and flavours. We tried for example “Earl Grey” ice cream - super delicious and it looks splendid!

Like we mentioned before, Ljubljana has this beautiful parc in the middle of the city. A perfect place to rest when it is too hot or crowdy in the city. You can choose between a walk in the little forest, relax in the parc area and get some drinks in the Švicarija Villa. Enjoy your balance!

This city has a well thought through garbage system, which is part of it being a green city. And there is more: there are posters and voluntaries who tell you how to separate garbage best. Very impressive!

In the evening you can often find a concert in front of a restaurant or in one of the narrow streets in the old town. It gives an awesome vibe to the city and the live music, we were listening to, was quite good.

A city we can highly recommended! A city where we could imagine to work for a while. A city, that seems to be open and modern and still keeps up with its own traditions and history. We highly recommend to go there before the main season, otherwise it will get really crowded.

Costs: It is not a cheap, but also not a super expensive city, so somewhere in the middle range. The Slovenian wine is cheap and really good and the food is cheaper and better in the old city. The currency is Euro. For dinner (including wine) we paid between 27 and 40 Euros together.