Lake Bled, Slovenia

This summer, we were invited to a wedding in Lake Bled, Slovenia. Honestly, this is not somewhere that has even been on our radar before but we were excited to be able to visit a new destination, and of course to see our gorgeous friends get married.

Getting to Lake Bled

Ljubljana, the capital of Lake Bled, is only around a two hour flight from London but I think we left it quite late to book our flights as by the time we searched, it was coming in at around £400 per person return, which seemed quite pricey!

So, after a bit of research, we managed to find some very reasonable flights with RyanAir from London to Zagreb (a return came in at around £300 for the both of us) and then take a taxi across to Slovenia for the wedding! You can read about the Zagreb part of our trip here.

When searching for accommodation options in both Zagreb and Ljubljana, I generally found prices to be more expensive per night in Ljubljana. And as we were looking to save money on the flights, it made sense that we then split the accommodation between Zagreb and Slovenia to make it slightly cheaper.

I had booked booked a driver to then collect us from Zagreb and take us across to Lake Bled. I booked him via Get Transfer which is a website that I have now used several times across Europe. You submit a request with the details for your trip, including your pick up and drop off date and time and the website connects you with local drivers who can submit a bid for your journey. You can then choose the driver / car that is best suited to your needs.

Villa Bled

We arrived at Vila Bled at around 2.45pm and were absolutely blown away by the views of the lake. The hotel itself is a stunning building and was once the stately home of the former-president of Ugoslavia, Tito.

Our room was huge and had an en-suite, large wardrobes and a separate living room. The view from the room was also spectacular, the window opened to a picture-frame view of the lake.

We chilled at the hotel for a while and then met up with our friends for the first wedding event of the weekend which was a pizza party at one of the local restaurant situated around the lake, Špica.

Things to do in Lake Bled

The lake was honestly a hive of activity with people sunbathing, swimming, fishing and kayaking, to name a few!

On our second morning, we walked along to the pontoon closest to our hotel where you can take a Pletna Boat over to the small island in the middle of the lake. The return trip cost around €18pp. Pletna Boats are the traditional, Slovenian boats that often remain in families for generations. Our caption informed us that his dad actually built the boat and named it after his mother.

Once on the island, there isn’t a huge amount to do, but we stopped at the little ice cream shop, walked along to see the church and then sat and had a coffee before heading down to the port to take the boat back to the main land. It was such a lovely way to spend the morning.

Wedding Day

Our friends wedding was being held at our accommodation in Vila Bled itself so once we were ready, we made our way down to the garden area which overlooked the lake. The views were stunning in every direction we looked.

The wedding itself was a fabulous day from start to finish – although Ryan and I aren’t used to the late nights anymore!

The day after the wedding, we headed down to breakfast and then spent the morning on the hotel’s private pontoon located directly on the lake where we had some champagne, and a swim in the lake with the rest of the wedding guests. I have to say, I didn’t spend too long in the lake as I found it a bit cold!

We stopped for a bite to eat at one of the local restaurants located on the lake, before heading back to our driver to take us back across the border to Zagreb for our final night of the trip.

We had a lovely time in Slovenia and, although we only visited a small part, we were blown away by the nature and views. Lake Bled is definitely somewhere I would return with Arlo (and the babies, once they are here) when he is a bit older, as it seemed like a great destination for an active family holiday.