Mountains & Lakes of the Julian Alps

From Jezersko to Lake Bohinj on the Via Alpina

The route traces the Slovenian leg of the Via Alpina, the long-distance trail that crosses eight Alpine countries. Over eight days you walk from Jezersko — a quiet village in the Kokra Valley, only 30km from Ljubljana but pressed between the Kamnik-Savinja Alps and the Karavanke range — westward to Lake Bohinj, deep inside Triglav National Park. Three mountain systems converge across this stretch: the Karavanke marking the Austrian border, the Kamnik-Savinja peaks to the south, and the Julian Alps proper rising further west.

This is walking through farmland and high pasture rather than gritty alpinism. Meadows, fir forests, mountain huts, the occasional 12th-century castle. You hear cowbells more often than you see crampons.

What the walking actually looks like

The first nights are based at Vila Koman in Jezersko, a 1930s-era hotel that has kept its original character. From here you climb to Češka Koča at 1,543m, one of the oldest mountain huts in Slovenia, then return past the small glacial Shepherd's Lake — around 670m of ascent. The next day takes on Virnikov Grintavec on the northern side of the Kamnik Alps, ending at a viewpoint where one foot is in Slovenia and the other in Austria. At 910m of ascent and descent, this is the toughest day.

The route then crosses the Karavanke. A transfer drops you at Ljubelj on the Austrian border, where the trail passes through an old merchants' tunnel — dug to shorten the crossing between Carniola and Carinthia — and emerges into the Draga Valley. The walk ends at Begunje, home of the Slavko Avsenik Oberkrainer band and worth a slow look around: 12th-century Kamen Castle, and the 15th-century Katzenstein Mansion with its Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque layers.

After a gentler day along the foothills of the Karavanke, taking in the tiny St Peter's church at an old watch-point, you reach Bled — the lake with the island church and the cliff-top castle, almost too photographed to feel real in person. A transfer up to the Pokljuka plateau then opens out the final stage: high pastures of Julian poppies, edelweiss and bellflowers, chamois and ibex on the slopes, griffon vultures riding the thermals overhead. The path drops down to Lake Bohinj, larger and quieter than Bled, ringed by the highest peaks of the Triglav range.

Bookings and logistics

The holiday is self-guided and run by Macs Adventure. You walk independently with route notes and maps; luggage is moved between hotels. Accommodation rotates through Vila Koman in Jezersko, a family-run inn near Preddvor at the foot of Storžič, and the Rikli Balance Hotel in Bled — named after Arnold Rikli, the 19th-century Swiss naturopath who founded a spa on the lake.

Daily ascents range from around 385m to 910m, so a reasonable level of hill-walking fitness is needed; this is not a flat-valley stroll. Jezersko is straightforward to reach by public transport from Ljubljana, and most walkers fly into the capital and travel onward by bus.