Lake Bled Travel Guide | Day Trip from Ljubljana, Slovenia

Join us as we visit Lake Bled in this travel guide as a day trip from Ljubljana, Slovenia where we cover the top things to do in Lake Bled including visiting the castle by foot and island by boat trip. Just slightly over an hour by bus and roughly 45 minutes by car Lake Bled is easily accessible from Ljubljana.

With most attractions clustered around the lake a perfect way to spend a day visiting Lake Bled is to walk around the lake, visit Bled Castle, eat local cake and have a leisurely lunch along with taking a boat trip out to the island. All of this can be done in a day allowing you to return to Ljubljana in the early evening.

Let's find out what makes Lake Bled one of the most popular day trips for visitors traveling in Slovenia.

Lake Bled in other languages:

Slovenian: blejsko jezero - blejski grad - blejski otok
German: bleder see - veldeser see - burg veldes

GEAR WE USE

SOCIAL MEDIA & TRAVEL BLOGS

AUDREY:

SAMUEL:

Lake Bled Travel Guide | Day Trip from Ljubljana, Slovenia Video Transcript:

Lake Bled is probably the most popular day trip you can take from Ljubljana. This is a lake that sits on the Julian Alps, and in the middle of the lake you have a small island with a church - it’s about as picturesque as it gets and it draws massive crowds, but first, the journey there.

Bled Castle is a medieval castle that was built on a cliff rising 130 meters over Lake Bled. According to written sources, this is the oldest castle in Slovenia, first being mentioned in a document from the year 1011. The castle is set up around two courtyards which are connected with a staircase. Once you’re there, you can visit the chapel, check out some of the exhibits, watch a demonstration at the castle forge, or eat at the castle coffee shop or restaurant.

After the castle visit, we hiked back down and started our walk along Lake Bled because we were still feeling pretty stuffed from lunch. Little did we know this would take us several hours to complete.

After eating our slice of Bled Cream Cake, or Kremsnita, it was finally time to arrange a boat ride to Bled Island. While you can rent your own row boat to take out on the island, we chose to pay the 14 Euros per person to have someone else do the hard work. However, if you’re with a group of friends or travelling with family, it’s definitely cheaper to just rent a boat and row it yourself.

Bled Island is very small and it got pretty crowded even though it was low season. Forty minutes turned out to be plenty of time to climb up, have a look around, and enjoy some ice cream.

Now one last piece of advice: we visited in the off-season and at the end of the day, we found out there were not enough buses to transport everyone from Lake Bled back to Ljubljana.

We weren’t able to get on one bus because it was full, so we waited an hour and a half for the next one. By then, more day-trippers like us had gathered, and once again, not everyone could get on the bus, leaving a lot of people stranded, having to find a taxi or other alternative.

There was a lot of pushing and shoving, and many visitors with prepaid tickets were visibly upset.

Because our bus was full, this also meant that even though there were several scheduled stops on the way back to Ljubljana, we couldn’t pick up any passengers along the way, many of them who had been waiting for hours.

Lake Bled has experienced a boom in tourism, but the infrastructure to transport people hasn’t quite caught up yet. After a nice day visiting Bled, getting out of there proved to be very chaotic and stressful. Hopefully things will change in the future, but until then, know that leaving at the end can be tricky.

This is part of our Travel in Slovenia video series showcasing Slovenian food, Slovenian culture and Slovenian cuisine.

[notpiazea]

If coming to Slovenia I advise you to just rent a car. It is pretty affordable and you don't have to rely on our public transport + it only takes about 4 hours to drive from one side of the country to the other.
Love from Ljubljana❤

[bhaswatiroychoudhury]

Good Advice at the end. Thanks. I’m planning to visit Ljubljana in February 2023

[BillGreenAZ]

Audrey: "Food, it's our #1 priority". Sam: "It's always our #1 priority."
I love it!

[angeladias]

Back from Ljubljana 3 weeks ago, and bummed that I remembered to leave Lake Bled early enough and eat the Kremsnita . which was so delicious.. but didnt remember your recommendation for the restaurant where you had lunch. Since we did the Vintgar hike in the morning, we which was amazing and climbed up to the castle... we were too knackered to do the hike around the lake. All in all it was a day to remember. On the whole we loved Slovenia, such a charming place with wonderful people. And the Postjona caves were just surreal. Recommend those to anyone visiting Slovenia, either those or the Skocjan.

[melissatravellover]

I am a Travel Agent and ex- Qantas Flight Attendant from Brisbane, Australia! Love watching your videos and have been waiting tonight for you to release this latest video, I have watched every single video of yours! xxxx

[Didafarah]

I can’t wait to go to Europe September. I’ll go there October by the grace of god

[ThatOneSandwichGuy]

Didn't even know Slovenia had a lake you learn something everyday.

[sartassa]

Even through Slovenia is one of Austria's neighboring countries, I have never made it there. Right now I'm about to plan our camping trip for this summer and I got to say your videos are really helping a lot.

[fennyandeisa]

I love your vlog. Thanks Audrey and Sam

[Traveljet]

Hi, thanks for sharing the information and great video. I saw nice autumn foliage. Could you advise roughly which part of the month (I assume its Oct) this was taken? We are planning for an autumn trip to Bled & Ljubljana.

[drewlucero]

The views looked AWESOME, the food looked YUMMY as well till the next one Ta Ta. 🔴🎥👍👍👍👍🎥🔴

[roamingalone]

This video is so informative. Thanks guys!!

[AndyGlavac]

another great video from the 2 of you. I love how you eat and drink and have fun . We will be making this trip in October 2020

[HPN]

Audrey, Sam, thank you again for your wonderful videos and that advice on leaving at the end. We were thinking of visiting Prague and Croatia (watched your videos on Dubrovnik and Split), but this video makes me want to add Lake Bled to our trip. What is it with Sam and his moustache, he kept growing it and shaving it. I swear, in one video he started out without one and at the end, had a full one! Hahaha!

[SoulPrints]

Very informative video . Thanks a lot !!
and beautiful cinematography :)

[aimzee]

That was a great advice at the end of your video about transportation.  I love knowing things like that before I travel to a new place, so thanks!  Also the smooch from Sam was so heart warming! You guys are awesome!

[beckycillis]

We went 5 years ago and had planned to take a bus too. Since there were 4 of us a taxi was cost effective and saved much time. We stayed overnight and our host drove us to the train station which eventually got us back to Italy with our pre purchased tickets. We would love to return and explore Ljubljana!

[Justin-snwm]

Wow! Lake Bled is where I want to get married one day! :)

[MET]

This is such a great vlog!!!! I’m adding it to my list of places I need to travel!! Great Love your music choices!

[matejmatej]

Mmmm kremshnita mmmm best best cake ever i love kremshnita there is never enough of kremshnita and I backe my own greetings from sLOVEnia