Vintgar Gorge

Overview

It is hard to explain the beauty of Vintgar in words, I would recommend to everyone to just go there and enjoy the views, the sounds of the river carving it's way through and the birds and other animals....Well, just enjoy all of natures beauty that Vintgar has to offer!!

The Radovna River has carved it's way through the rocks over the last millions of years and created a wonderful gorge which makes up for a great day-hike. Because of the Radovna river, which is surrounded by steep walls, the gorge seems inaccessible. But a great amount of bridges and paths have been created to walk through this amazing gorge.

The result is fabulous. You walk over wooden bridges which cross the Radovna river multiple times and you walk along the steep cliffs carved out by the river.

The Radovna River is filled with fish which you can spot beautifully because of the amazing clean water. You can look right through.
Finally all this together will give you a great day! Vintgar has all of nature's best features and is a must see when visiting Slovenia. In my point of view, it definetely is one of the best spots to be found here!

History

  
The Radovna River cuts a deep gorge between the hills of Hom and Borst. The gorge created is called Vintgar.
It was discovered in 1891 by Jakob Žumer, the Major of Gorje and Benedikt Lergetporer, a cartographer and photographer from Bled.(nearby village)

The discovery took place by accident somewhere in summer when the water level of the Radovna river was very low. The two men started their exploration in Spodnje Gorje and headed towards Blejska Dobrava. They made it through the ravine (which was thought to be impassable) with great difficulty and discovered the natural beauty of vintgar.

They thought it was so beautiful that they decided to establish a construction committee. The gorge was arranged for visits, mainly for visitors to Bled. A 1700 meters long trail was opened to the public on 26th August 1893 and is still used to this day.

Getting to Vintgar

  
Vintgar is located near the village of Bled, at the map you can see that Vintgar is situated just north of Bled and therefore is easy accessible from Bled. From the village of Bled just follow the road signs with 'Vintgar' and you will be there in no time!

Note: the roads are quite small!!

You can also take this route by foot--> Nice walk!!
Here is the starting point, Podham, to access Vintgar.
At the end of the trail, Zasip, it is best to take a taxi back to Bled or walk along the beautiful small roads back to Bled.

Bled is located along the highway between the capital Ljubljana and Austria and therefore easy to find (see the Map)

The trail

  
   

The trail starts at Podham where you can pay the entrance fee of 2/3 euro's. There is only one trail leading trough the gorge and it cannot be missed!

The first part of the trail leads trough amazing cliffs and a pretty wild Radovna river with multiple waterfalls to come across.
In the second part the river gets more quiet and at the end the gorge gets wider. At the end a beautiful Dam is visible.

From here you will leave the gorge and the trail leads to the small village of Zasip. Here is a little restaurant where you can drink a nice cold beer or eat pizza and other food. (Very good and very,very cheap!)

While relaxing from the hike through the gorge you can enjoy the great views into the valleys and the view towards St Catherine's Church.

Practical Information

  

-The costs for Vintgar are somewhere between 2 and 3 euro's.

-Vintgar is closed during winter

-The trail is about 1700 meters long (about 1 mile)

-Easy hike! Accessible for almost everyone

-Almost no elevation difference

Camping

  
There are two very nice campings in/near Bled:

The first is camping Bled

The is a vary famous camping. You have to sererve a place otherwise you can be quite certain it is full! Situated along Lake Bled!

The second is Camping Sobec

This camping is less popular but really beautiful as well! It is situated just outside Bled along the Sava river (great swimming!)

Weather

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Images

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