The Slovenian Mountain Trail
28 days / 599 km / all levels of difficulty

The trail takes you from Maribor all the way to the coastal town of Ankaran.

The starting point is Maribor, Slovenia’s second largest city. It’s located on the brinks of the Pohorje Hills, which mostly resembles a plateau and gives us a sense of the tallest Alpine peaks in the distance. The trail will take you across the Pohorje Hills to the Kamnik and Savinja Alps, where it crosses its tallest peaks. This is the easternmost Alpine range in Slovenia. The trail continues to the Karavanke Alps, which border Austria.

After briefly descending into the valley, the trail takes you to the heart of the Julian Alps, to the 2864-metre-high Mt Triglav and other peaks with panoramic views, which take you closer and closer to the Adriatic Sea. Each peak will take your breath away with its view and the experience that it provides. However, there’s still quite a long way to go to the Adriatic. Many other mountains in the pre-Alpine foothills, big and small, and the inspiring Karst region still await you, and then, all of a sudden, you’ll feel the gentle sea breeze. The Slovenian Mountain Trail ends at Cape Debeli Rtič on the Adriatic coast.

It can be covered in 28 days, and the best mountain runners even run along this trail. The record-holder covered it in seven days, eight hours, and ten minutes. But don’t be in a hurry. The father of the concept for the Slovenian Mountain Trail, Ivan Šumljak, advised hikers: “Walk slowly, my friend. You will benefit from it more, much, much more.”