NEW YORK, NY.- A lifetime in travel has passed since Ljubljana was named the European Commission’s “green capital” for 2016, but philosophically little has changed for the capital of Slovenia. Ljubljana is still an international model for sustainability, with more than 1,600 shared-bicycle docking sites, a car-free urban center and about 5,900 square feet of green space on average per citizen. It remains quintessentially Central European: Just look to the hilltop castle that guards the cobbled squares straddling the Ljubljanica River. That’s not to say this city of nearly 300,000, which is framed by the Julian and Kamnik-Savinja Alps and traces its history back more than 5,000 years, hasn’t evolved. In recent years, Ljubljana opened Michelin-starred restaurants, UNESCO recognized the city for its urban design and, in classic Slovene recycle-and-reuse fashion, the city reopened a former bicycle factory last fall as a creative hub with open studios, galleries and shops.
ITNIERARY
Friday
3 p.m. | Open the kitchen
Dive right into Ljubljana’s local-first gourmet attitude at the Open Kitchen, a street-food market wedged between the fruit and vegetable vendors of the outdoor Central Market, the Cathedral of St. Nicholas and the Triple Bridge, which anchors the city center. Locals and tourists gather amid more than 50 stands for a wide variety of creations — including Asian delicacies and Slovene fare like baked veal, sausages and pork ribs (dishes average 8 euros, or about $8.50) — each Friday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. (10 p.m. in the summer). The tradition has come to symbolize the country’s emergence as one of Europe’s most innovative food locales.
4:30 p.m. | Re-cycle creativity
Slovenia is obsessed with two-wheeled locomotion; its pro cyclists have dominated international racing in recent years. Embrace the fanaticism by visiting the nearly 100,000-square-foot Center Rog, where a former bicycle factory once produced Yugoslavia’s most famous bike brand, Rog. The building, which reopened last fall and is protected for its national heritage, has been re-imagined into a heaven for anyone who creates. Visitors can participate in an array of workshops and peruse studios and production laboratories that specialize in textiles, woodworking, metalwork and more, and that include a FabLab with 3D printers. The 150-year-old complex also houses a public library, cafes, restaurants and shops, as well as a sprawling park with fig, apple and plum trees.
6 p.m. | Storm the castle
Ljubljana Castle, a 15th-century fortification atop Castle Hill that is reachable from the city center by a 10-minute trail walk or by funicular (6 euros for a return ticket), has played a critical role in life here since the Bronze Age. Today, the castle (base entry, 12 euros) has culinary attractions, events and an arsenal of activities, including an exhibition on Slovene history and an escape-room-inspired adventure game. After exploring, but still within the citadel, find your table at the Michelin-starred Restaurant Strelec, a cylindrical dining room inside the Archers’ Tower. Choose from five-, seven- or nine-course menus (90 euros, 110 euros or 130 euros; wine pairings extra) that change weekly. Standout dishes include venison tartare; turbot filet served with Adriatic prawns; baked lamb with potatoes, red peppers and eggplant; and, for dessert, hazelnut mousse on a chocolate brownie with bergamot cream.
9:30 p.m. | Retreat to the cellar
After dinner, stay on Castle Hill for a glass of vino at Grajska Vinoteka. For generations, grapes were grown around the fortress. After a nearly century-long hiatus, vines were replanted in 2016. Taste a castle-grown chardonnay variety called belpin (5 euros per glass), or another of some 200 other Slovene wines served with an accompanying prosciutto and cheese plate (from 28 euros). Back in the city center, stop at Dvorni Bar, where revelers sit on the outside steps or riverside tables. In its 20th year, Dvorni serves more than 100 wines by the glass, focusing on the country’s nine wine-growing districts. Try the teran (3.80 euros), a dry red from the Karst region. Reservations are recommended.
Saturday
9 a.m. | Fuel up with brunch
Start the day at Bazilika, a bistro spilling onto French Revolution Square. Dishes here are made from family recipes that the owner, Darja Koncarevic (who teaches culinary workshops at Center Rog), has also assembled into cookbooks. Take a spot on the terrace and order the salmon-and-leek quiche (7 euros), a slice of cranberry-orange cake (3.20 euros) and a cappuccino (2.20 euros). Then walk 15 minutes along the river to Cukrarna Gallery (opens at 10 a.m., 8 euros), which shows contemporary art in a former sugar refinery built in 1828. Opened in 2021, Cukrarna rotates exhibitions and events featuring edgy multimedia works that both question and honor the country’s cultural heritage.
11:30 a.m. | Shop along the river
In a town as sustainability-minded as Ljubljana, details matter. Experience that local-first intentionality at IKA, a boutique near Town Square with products like scarves, handbags, jewelry and day planners by around 100 Slovene artists and designers. A 10-minute walk across the river takes you to Dapper, which sells denim, hemp and linen clothing produced under its own brand, Evio (jeans from 179 euros to 249 euros), as well as biodynamic and organic regional wines. Reward your discoveries with a pre-lunch treat at Yauya, a patisserie where single-portion cakes and bite-size chocolates are made on the premises. Try the BB Cloud (7.20 euros): warm, nutty banana bread topped with cold mascarpone in a crunchy caramel glaze.
1 p.m. | Break with a slice
Stay on the left bank of the Ljubljanica to enjoy results of a reverse-immigrant tale: Greg Yurkovich, a Slovene American, grew up in California and moved to Ljubljana to craft Neapolitan-style pizza made with organic ingredients. His Pop’s Pizza, which also serves wine, craft beers and cocktails, makes the Sinatra (14.90 euros) with Friulian pancetta, fior di latte mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes. After, take a stroll along the river to Cacao, a cafe and dessert shop with an outdoor ice-cream stand, where locals line up for scoops (2.60 euros for one) in flavors like Madagascar vanilla, Santo Domingo chocolate and salty caramel so delicious it ends conversations.
2 p.m. | Walk with the creator
Take a closer look at the city with a walking tour (run by the city tourism office) of creations by Joze Plecnik, the architect who helped shape the capital during the early 20th century. According to UNESCO, which placed “Plecnik’s Ljubljana” on the World Heritage List in 2021, the innovative urban designer changed the identity of Ljubljana “from a provincial city into the symbolic capital of the Slovenian people.” The two-hour stroll (95 euros for two people) visits designs of his such as the balustraded stone Triple Bridge leading to Prešernov Trg (the main square), the National and University Library with its staggered brick-and-stone facade, the city’s porticoed market and the renovated Križanke Summer Theater. End your walk at the tranquil two-story Plecnik House (8 euros), in the leafy Trnovo neighborhood, where he lived and designed many of his masterpieces.
4:30 p.m. | Float to happy hour
Drift into the evening with a 50-minute boat tour on the Ljubljanica River aboard a 33-foot electric-powered wooden boat, the Barka Ljubljanica. Passing beneath many of the spots where you’ve shopped, eaten and imbibed, the route goes upriver toward the Ljubljana Marshes — a World Heritage Site dating back millenniums, where the remains of pile dwellings, or prehistoric houses built on stilts, and the world’s oldest wheel were found — before turning around. Back on land, duck into Makalonca, a bar on the left bank under Ribja Brv, or the Fish Bridge. Order a half-liter bottle of ice-cold Makalonca pale ale (5.80 euros) at a table on the terrace directly above the rushing water.
6:30 p.m. | Taste sustainability
Take a taxi to Gric, a decades-old family-run restaurant, 16 miles west of Ljubljana, where nearly all ingredients are foraged or grown on-site or within a three-mile radius. The restaurant, now led by the chef Luka Kosir, has a Michelin star and a Michelin green star for sustainable gastronomy. The seven- and 11-course tasting menus (110 euros and 150 euros, wine-pairing on request), served in a dining room with views across forested alpine foothills, combine experimentation and tradition. Start with the duck egg served with tomato, pork crackling and radicchio. The dry-aged beef served with pine-needle oil, birch syrup and pears is unforgettable. Finish with a glass of Quinta do Infantado white port and early plums served with almonds and carob ice cream.
9 p.m. | Get into festival mode
The Krizanke Summer Theater becomes the city’s center of attention during the Ljubljana Festival, running from June to September each year. The building began as a church and monastery for religious military orders like the Knights Templar and the Teutonic Knights, but in the 1950s, it became an open-air theater complex with an atrium, courtyard and arcade of arched windows. The festival annually stages musicals, ballet performances and dramas, as well as jazz, pop and symphonic concerts (tickets range from 29 euros to 79 euros). After the show, walk three minutes to Kolibri, one of the city’s few bars dedicated to cocktails. In the swirl of maximalist aesthetics — floral wallpaper, a marble bar and gilded mirrors atop a weathered wooden-plank floor — try the Porn Star Martini (11.50 euros), with Ketel One vodka, Galliano vanilla, lemon juice, vanilla syrup and passion fruit purée.
Sunday
10 a.m. | Recover and reflect
Come full circle by returning to Center Rog and eating breakfast at Kavarna Rog, a cafe with a riverside terrace. Fuel up with poached eggs, foie gras, sautéed spinach, hollandaise and truffles (17.40 euros). Then walk 10 minutes to the Metelkova district, where former military barracks house some of the city’s most dynamic art and history exhibitions. Get a sense of life centuries ago at the National Museum of Slovenia-Metelkova (entry, 8 euros) with furniture, painting and ceramics from the 1300s on. At the Slovene Ethnographic Museum (4.50 euros), around 3,000 pieces fill permanent exhibitions related to folk music, religious customs and other Slovene traditions. Fast forward to the modern era at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (5 euros), where provocative permanent and rotating installations by international artists fill three floors. On the first Sunday of the month, admission at many Ljubljana museums is free.
12:30 p.m. | Cycle out of town
Finish strong with a bicycle ride outside town along the Ljubljanica River and then south to the Ljubljana Marshes to get a clearer understanding of how the city’s pile-dwelling ancestors lived more than 5,000 years ago (rentals from 12 euros per day, with Rent a Bike Ljubljana). This flat, up-and-back 15-mile pedal to the marshes — on the edge of the 52-square-mile Ljubljansko Barje Nature Park — takes you to the recently opened Morostig complex (entry, 12 euros) dedicated to the pile dwellings and the environment surrounding them. Within Morostig, you’ll find an interpretive center with exhibitions about the unique and rich ecosystem; boardwalks leading over the water and grasses; and reconstructed dwellings, which provide a tangible depiction of life perched above the marshes.
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KEY STOPS
Ljubljana Castle, and its Castle Hill, has watched over the capital for millenniums and is the spot for panoramas, wine and dinner in a Michelin-starred restaurant.
Plecnik House, which was the home and studio of the city’s chief 20th-century designer, Joze Plecnik, remains as he left it.
Krizanke Summer Theater, which comes alive from June to September during the Ljubljana Festival, stages pop, jazz and symphonic concerts.
Center Rog, a former bicycle factory, opened last year as an art laboratory with workspaces, a public library, cafes and shops.
WHERE TO EAT
Open Kitchen, a weekly outdoor street-food market, takes place on Fridays next to Ljubljana’s Central Market.
Restaurant Strelec, in the Ljubljana Castle’s Archers’ Tower, is a Michelin-starred restaurant.
Grajska Vinoteka, inside the Ljubljana Castle, has a tasting room, shop and bar with about 200 Slovene wine varieties.
Bazilika is a bistro and cafe on French Revolution Square.
Pop’s Pizza, opened by a Slovene American, specializes in pizza Napoletana.
Makalonca, a bar under the Fish Bridge, is a perfect spot for a cold beer on the floating terrace directly on the river.
Gric is a Michelin-starred restaurant prioritizing garden-grown and foraged ingredients.
WHERE TO STAY
April 1550, in the Old Town and built in 1550, has eight rooms, each with its own character, all meticulously designed to feel like home — only much nicer and with exceptional service. The owners, who live nearby, are on hand for travel tips, and there’s a pastry chef on site for exquisite breakfasts. Rooms start at 260 euros, or about $280.
The Hotel One66 has something for everyone, with full apartments, spacious standard rooms and glamping units, as well as a gym, a superb pizzeria and its own laundromat. Rooms start at 90 euros, and include breakfast.
Tivoli Boutique Inn has 30 rooms across three floors and is a friendly, well-priced hotel with a gracious staff and proximity to Ljubljana’s sprawling Tivoli Park. Rooms start at 80 euros.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.
