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The hill town of Motovun crowning its hill above a wooded Istrian valley

Sample journey · 8–10 days

From Ljubljana to Istria: stone villages, teran and truffles across two borders

Ljubljana, the Škocjan Caves, the Karst, Piran, Motovun & Rovinj

Photo: Lothar Boris Piltz / Unsplash

Illustrative journey ideas — not bookable packages. No prices, dates or accommodation are implied.

The border between Slovenia and Croatia is recent here, and the landscape and the cooking flow across it freely. The Karst is a stony plateau above the Gulf of Trieste, where red earth gives a dark, tangy teran wine and the bora wind dries pršut in the attics. Below lie coastal towns ruled for centuries by the Venetian Republic, and to the south Istria, where hilltop towns look out over oak woods hiding truffles. This route links both sides: Ljubljana to begin, the Škocjan Caves with their underground river, Karst villages and cellars, Piran by the sea, Motovun and Grožnjan in the Istrian interior, and finally Rovinj.

Our other Slovenia and Croatia journeys stay inside one country – in the Julian Alps, the Dalmatian islands or the mountains of Kvarner. This one is for eating, drinking and walking without hurry: two nights at almost every stop, and short drives, usually an hour or an hour and a half. The stays are stone farmhouses in Karst villages, a small hotel in a Venetian house in Piran and villas among the olive trees of Istria. It suits couples, food lovers and anyone for whom dinner with a local wine isn't an extra on the journey but the heart of it.

The route

The journey

  1. Ljubljana
  2. The Škocjan Caves
  3. The Karst: Štanjel & teran
  4. Piran
  5. Motovun & Grožnjan
  6. Rovinj
  7. Pula or Trieste
  1. The pink Franciscan church and one of the Triple Bridge spans in central Ljubljana

    01Days 1–3 · Ljubljana

    Plečnik's city and its market

    Two nights in Ljubljana, in a small hotel in the old town by the Ljubljanica. The city is compact and nearly all of it walkable: Plečnik's Triple Bridge and the pink Franciscan church, riverbanks with terraces in the shade of the trees, the castle on its hill. On the first morning, the central market beneath Plečnik's colonnade, where farmers sell cheese, honey, seasonal vegetables and pumpkin-seed oil; on Fridays from spring to autumn, a street-food market sets up alongside. In the afternoon, Plečnik's house museum in Trnovo or a stroll out to Tivoli Park. In the evening, a first dinner where local chefs show how well Alpine, Pannonian and Mediterranean produce sit together. On the third morning, about an hour south-west towards the Karst.

  2. The Velika dolina at the Škocjan Caves in autumn: the Reka falls into the gorge beneath the cliffs, with Škocjan village and its church tower on the rim

    02Days 3–5 · The Škocjan Caves & the Karst

    An underground river and red earth

    On the way, the Škocjan Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With a guide you descend into an underground canyon where the Reka river vanishes below ground and roars far beneath a narrow bridge; the tour takes about two hours and it's cool inside even in summer, so a warm layer helps. Two nights in a stone farmhouse in a Karst village near Štanjel. The next day, Štanjel itself, a stone hilltop village with a castle and a terraced garden designed in the early twentieth century by the architect Max Fabiani. The afternoon is for wine cellars, where the families pour teran from refošk grapes grown in the red earth, slice pršut and talk about the bora that dries it. With luck, we'll find an osmica – a farm that opens its doors for a few days a year to serve its own produce.

  3. Piran's red-roofed old town on its narrow peninsula, seen from above

    03Days 5–7 · Piran

    A Venetian town in the sea

    Less than an hour from the Karst to the sea, and two nights in Piran, on a narrow peninsula that looks as though it drifted in from the Venetian lagoon. In the morning, Tartini Square, named after the violinist and composer born here, the Venetian Gothic house with its inscription on the façade, and the steps up to the church of St George, whose bell tower looks out over the Gulf of Trieste and, on a clear day, the Alps. In the afternoon, the Sečovlje salt pans, where salt is still raked by the old method and birds nest between the pans, or a walk along the coastal cliffs to Strunjan. In the evening, grilled fish, local malvazija and the sunset by the town walls. The next morning it's about half an hour to the Croatian border and the same again to the Istrian hills.

  4. A woman at the door of a truffle shop on a stone street in Grožnjan

    04Days 7–9 · Motovun & the Istrian interior

    Hill towns and truffle woods

    Two nights in a villa or stone farmhouse among the olive trees near Motovun, whose walls ring the top of its hill above the Mirna valley. In the morning, a walk along the walls with a view of the oak forest in the valley where truffles grow. With a local truffle hunter and his dog, a morning in the woods: in autumn, roughly from late September to early winter, they search for white truffles, and for much of the rest of the year for black; a find is never guaranteed, but watching the dog at work is fascinating either way. In the afternoon, Grožnjan, an artists' town of galleries and a summer music school, or tiny Hum with its stone lanes. Dinner is fuži or pljukanci pasta with truffles, olive oil from the farm next door and an Istrian malvazija or teran.

  5. Rovinj's old town on its peninsula with the bell tower of St Euphemia, seen from above

    05Days 9–10 · Rovinj

    A last evening by the sea

    About an hour to the west coast and Rovinj, whose coloured houses drop straight into the water beneath the bell tower of St Euphemia's church. One last night in the old town. In the afternoon, cobbled lanes up the hill, the view from the churchyard and the Batana House, a small museum devoted to the traditional flat-bottomed fishing boat, in which you can sometimes go out on summer evenings. Later, a swim in the pine-fringed coves south of town or a boat to the islets nearby. Dinner is by the harbour as the fishing boats come in and the sun sets behind the islands. On the last day, it's about half an hour to Pula airport, with the Roman amphitheatre worth a stop on the way, or around an hour and a half to two hours back to Trieste.

Experience highlights

  1. 01

    The Škocjan Caves

    An underground canyon with a river roaring far below the bridge.

  2. 02

    The Karst cellars

    Teran, pršut and the families who make them, in stone villages.

  3. 03

    Piran

    Venetian squares, a bell tower above the gulf and salt pans still worked the old way.

  4. 04

    Istrian truffles

    A morning in the woods with a truffle hunter and his dog, and dinner below Motovun.

First, we listen. Then, we explore what's possible.

Make it your own

  • Slower

    A second night in Rovinj and another in the Karst would stretch the journey to twelve days with no rush at all.

  • In autumn, for truffles and the harvest

    October and November bring the white-truffle season and truffle festivals to Istria, and the end of the harvest to the Karst.

  • For a honeymoon

    A restored stone house with a pool in the Istrian hills, a private wine tasting and a boat at sunset off Rovinj.

  • With the Alps or Italy

    Lake Bohinj and the Soča valley can be added at the start, or Trieste and the Friuli wine country in Italy at the end.

Practical considerations

  • The best time is roughly May to June and September to October. July and August are busy on the coast; in winter a strong bora often blows across the Karst, though the cellars and dinners are at their cosiest then.
  • The journey is planned as a self-drive: distances are short and roads good. Picking up a car in one country and returning it in the other carries different terms, so we check them in advance.
  • The route crosses the border between Slovenia and Croatia; we check travel documents and border arrangements before you travel.
  • The Škocjan Caves can only be visited with a guide at set times, which vary by season; it's cool and damp inside, so sturdy shoes and a warm layer help.

General guidance only. Seasons, weather and wildlife are never guaranteed, and travel requirements are always worth checking before you go.

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