Slovenia Gravel Traverse

The idea

Everything you would come to Slovenia to see, reached the way the people who live here get to them — over forest roads and country lanes rather than the road the coaches take. Slovenia is nearly sixty per cent forest, and the tracks through it were built for logging trucks, which is why a gravel bike goes almost anywhere, and why a van can follow you.

Five bases, and two nights in the two where the riding is best — under Krvavec and in the Karavanke — because it would be a waste to move on after one day. You wake up somewhere different four times, and each time you got there on the bike.

Five lakes, five rivers and three mountain ranges in eight days, ridden through rather than toured. You start under the Kamnik Alps, cross the Karavanke, ride over the heart of the Julian Alps, and finish with your bike leaning against a wall in Piran — every kilometre in between under your own power.

Half the joy of riding is finding the perfect café

That is how this route was built. Not the shortest line from the Alps to the sea, but a route strung between the places worth stopping at, staying in and eating in. The riding sets the direction. The stops decide the route.

It is also why we do not move every morning. Anybody can put a line across a country on a map. Knowing which valley to spend a second night in takes having ridden it in every month it is rideable.

• A guide who rides these roads on the weeks you are not here.
• Two evenings a Slovenian chef cooks in the house we are staying in.
• Coffee stops chosen on merit, not on convenience.

Who it’s for

This is a challenging week, and it is built to be one. Seven riding days, roughly 620 kilometres and 10,800 metres of climbing. Six of those days sit between 75 and 115 kilometres with 1,800 to 2,000 metres, back to back, and there is no easy day hidden in the middle. You should be riding regularly and already comfortable at that level.

What it is not is technical. You do not need to be a gravel racer — Slovenian forest roads are compacted and rideable, not loose. The difficulty is in the legs, not in the hands. Five to eight riders, so the pace belongs to the group rather than to the fastest person in it.

My part of the deal

I take care of the route, the five bases, the van, the transfers and all the small things that otherwise make a cycling week feel like admin.

• Every kilometre of this route ridden in both directions, in every month it runs.
• The days in an order that took me a few attempts to get right.
• A van and driver with you every day, on the gravel as well as the tarmac.
• Your bags moved between the five bases, transfers both ways, and a full toolkit throughout.

How flexible the week is

• One route a day, ridden end to end.
• The van is with you all week, on the gravel too, for food, spares and anything you would rather carry.
• Two nights in Cerklje and two in Žirovnica — you unpack five times, not eight.
• If the weather turns we find a plan B together, and there is usually a good one.
• The route can be adjusted for road cycling, swapping the gravel sections for a paved alternative where one exists.
• This trip can also be run privately, just for your own group — as can every trip on this site.

The surface

• Forest roads throughout — compacted, rideable, never singletrack.
• A handful of short, steep, rougher descents — the exception rather than the rule.

The bikes

The route rides well on either a regular gravel bike or an e-gravel bike. The surfaces are the same on both, and the group stays together either way.

Bring your own, or ride one of ours: Specialized Diverge 4 Comp Carbon, Orbea Terra H30 or Scott Speedster Gravel 30 — and Specialized Turbo Creo 2 Comp or Orbea Denna M20 if you want the e-gravel. Gravel hire starts at €390 for the week and e-gravel at €490, built and set up before you arrive. Most guests flying in hire rather than travel with a bike, and it is one less thing to worry about at the airport.

Where you stay

Five bases in eight days — four-star hotels and handpicked boutique places, twin or double, always with somewhere secure for the bikes. Two nights at Krištof under Krvavec, with a wood-fired sauna and cedar steam barrels in the garden. Two at Trivrh in the Karavanke, with a wellness area and Bled ten minutes down the road. A night in Bovec below the Vršič descent, with the Soča outside. A night at Belica in Goriška Brda, on a hill of vineyards with its own cellar. And the last night inside the old town in Piran, a hundred metres from the water.

At the table

Seven dinners, and not one of them picked because it was convenient. Two evenings a Slovenian chef cooks in the house we are staying in; the rest are places I eat myself — Manu above Bled, Belica in Brda where the wine on the table is made below the terrace, and a last night at Srebrna vilica with the Adriatic outside the window.

Slovenian cooking sits where the Alps, the Mediterranean and the Pannonian plain meet, and this route crosses all three inside a week — lamb off the high pastures, grass-fed beef, river trout, buckwheat and mountain cheeses at one end; olive oil, prosciutto, sea bass and Rebula at the other. You taste it change as you ride.