Alpine to Vine
A week on Slovenia's back roads, from the shadow of the Alps to the wine hills.
- Days
- 7
- Kilometres
- ~420
- Vertical
- ~7,750 m
- Mountain ranges
- 3
Eight riders. Best in June and September.
Most operators say "moderate" and leave you to guess.
Five riding days of 75 to 115 km, after an easy 35 km loop on arrival.
Around 7,750 m across five days. Three of them are close to 2,000 m.
Wide forest roads and compacted white macadam. No singletrack, no hike-a-bike.
Roughly half unpaved. Mostly forest road, with some rougher sections.
Jelovica is a long stretch with no villages and almost no signal. The rest of the week is never far from a café.
Five days back to back, and the hardest one is the last.
Every day of this route rides well on an e-gravel bike.
The idea
Cerklje to Vipava, west across the country. You start on the lanes Tadej Pogačar grew up riding, take coffee in Ljubljana’s old town, sleep at 1,500 metres on a shepherds’ plateau, cross into Austria and back, ride the Jelovica forest to the Soča, and finish in the wine hills.
Six and a half days, five of them riding. Short enough that people can actually get the time off, and priced so that a group of eight can be put together without a long conversation about money.
If the group wants the sea, there is one more day to Piran on the end.
You cross all three of Slovenia’s mountain ranges: the Kamnik–Savinja Alps, the Karavanke and the Julian Alps. You sleep at 1,500 metres on Velika planina and wake up in Logar Valley. The riding is real, at around 7,750 metres across five days.
Slovenia produced Pogačar, Roglič and Mohorič, and the whole country rides. Day one goes through Komenda, where Pogačar is from. These are the roads, backroads and trails they grew up on.
Who it’s for
Riders comfortable with 75 to 115 kilometres and 1,500 to 2,000 metres in a day, five days running. Speed matters less than being able to do it again the next morning.
It suits mixed groups: friends, couples, a club committee, where the pace varies through the day. It is probably not the right week for a first cycling holiday.
My part of the deal
You bring your bike and your legs. I take care of the route, the beds, the food and all the small things that can otherwise make a cycling week complicated.
- Routes I have ridden in every season and in both directions.
- A day that runs without you thinking about it, and no two days that feel the same.
- Dinner booked ahead every night, in places I eat in myself.
- A vehicle on the days it matters and a full toolkit throughout.
How flexible the week is
- A longer option on the days that suit it.
- On the three days with a vehicle, a lift to the top of the climb whenever you want one.
- If the weather closes a pass, I will find a plan B for the day.
- The Piran day can be added or dropped up to the point we contract the hotels.
Who you’re with
Eight riders, six and a half days, five of them on the bike. Short enough to get the time off for, and long enough that by Goriška Brda you’re not eight separate people anymore.
Day by day.
Cerklje and Komenda loop
You land at Ljubljana and ten minutes later you are at the glamping resort at Cerklje. Bikes built, then an easy loop out through Komenda — the village Tadej Pogačar grew up in and still trains from. These are ordinary Slovenian back lanes. That is rather the point of them.
Cerklje → Ljubljana → Kamnik → Velika planina
South into Ljubljana for coffee in the old town, then back north through Kamnik and up. The climb goes on all afternoon and finishes at 1,500 metres on a high plateau where herdsmen have grazed cattle since the Middle Ages. Wooden huts with oval roofs, no roads, no cars. You sleep in one of them.
Velika planina → Luče → Solčava panoramic road → Logar Valley
Down off the plateau, then the Solčava panoramic road — a high balcony above the valley with the Kamnik–Savinja Alps opposite you the whole way. It drops you into Logar Valley, seven kilometres long, flat as a floor, closed at the end by a wall of limestone two thousand metres high.
Logar Valley → Jezersko → Žirovnica
Out of the valley over a high border pass into Austria, a fast descent on the far side, then back into Slovenia at Jezersko — a quiet alpine bowl most Slovenians have never visited. Remote forestry gravel drops you into the Sava valley at the foot of the Karavanke.
Žirovnica → Jelovica → Soča valley → Kobarid
The wildest day, and the one people talk about afterwards. Hours of empty gravel across the Jelovica plateau, past Rovtarica, with no villages and almost no signal. You cross the alpine divide and drop into the Soča valley, where the river runs a green that makes photographs look edited.
Kobarid → Kolovrat → Goriška Brda → Vipava
Up Kolovrat, where the front line ran in 1917 and the trenches and bunkers are still cut into the ridge, with Italy on one side and the Soča below on the other. Then down into Goriška Brda — vines, stone villages, a cellar visit — and on to Vipava for the last dinner.
Departure
Breakfast in Vipava. Transfer to Ljubljana airport, about an hour.
What's included
- — Six nights, twin share — a glamping resort, a mountain hut, and hotels including Plesnik in Logar Valley
- — Full board — breakfasts, a welcome snack on arrival, a restaurant lunch every riding day, dinner booked ahead
- — Café stops along the way
- — A cheese and ham tasting on one of the days, and a wine cellar visit in Goriška Brda or Vipava
- — A UIAA licensed local guide riding with you every day
- — A support vehicle on the three biggest days, and your luggage moved every day
- — Route pack with GPX for every stage
- — Tourist tax
What's not
- — Flights (I can arrange them through the agency I work with)
- — Airport transfers — available as an add-on
- — Bike hire — available as an add-on
- — Single room supplement
- — Travel and medical insurance that covers cycling — mandatory
- — Drinks beyond those in the set menus
- — Anything personal
Two ways to ride it.
A guide riding with you and a support vehicle with a driver every riding day. Spares, tools, food and water on the road, and a lift over a climb whenever you want one.
The same route and the same guide. The vehicle is out on the three biggest days — Velika planina, Logar Valley and Jelovica — and your luggage is moved for you on the other two.
Six riders is the minimum. The prices above are based on a group of eight. With six or seven, add €240 per person. Everything on the included list is covered, from the welcome dinner at Cerklje to breakfast in Vipava.
How booking works
A 20% deposit confirms your booking, with the balance due 60 days before departure. Refunds scale down the closer you get to departure.
Read the full Terms & Conditions →Add-ons
- Piran extension — one more day to the Adriatic
- €390
- Single room, whole week
- €600
- Premium gravel bike hire, whole week
- €400
- E-gravel bike hire, whole week
- €540
- Airport transfer on arrival, per person
- €20
- Transfer Vipava → Ljubljana airport, per person
- €40