Adventure | Eat & sleep |

The Slovenia Green Gourmet Route welcomes 5 new destinations

The award-winning cycling itinerary adds stages and expands its culinary delights
by Monja Ferčec
April 19, 2023 · 3 min read

The Slovenia Green Gourmet Route has been covered extensively by the top tier of travel media. Adventure Cyclist magazine called it “a route that thought of everything.” Lonely Planet wrote about the cycling itinerary multiple times, in multiple languages. Vogue described it as a “moveable feast centered on sustainability.” Earlier this year, National Geographic magazine named the Slovenia Green Gourmet Route, or SGGR, one of its 25 Best of the World travel destinations for 2023. The award — considered among the industry’s most prestigious designations — announced the SGGR as one of the year’s “breathtaking places and experiences.”

As important and positive as those accolades are, the Slovenia Green Gourmet Route has no intentions of resting on its laurels.

This spring, the route welcomes five new destinations: Škofja Loka, Kranj, Radovljica, Postojna, and Krško. Each brings its own flavor to the tasty, and increasingly popular, blend that is a near-perfect way for a rapidly evolving world of travelers who want to mix pleasure with adventure and responsibility. Combining food, Slovenia Green-certified destinations, beautiful and varied landscapes, challenging and safe cycling, and “the world’s most sustainable country,” the SGGR has something for everyone … but never forgets its roots — the communities scattered across this magnificent Central European nation.

 

The Slovenia Green Gourmet Route crisscrosses nearly all of Slovenia

 

In Škofja Loka, cyclists and food lovers will find one of the most hospitable towns in the country, complete with an inviting town square, castles, incredible restaurants, churches, manor houses on the confluence of the trout-filled Poljanska Sora and Selška Sora Rivers. Just up the road, in Kranj, which is wedged between the Sava and Kokra rivers and is considered the gateway or “Capital of the Slovenian Alps.” Radovljica, around 20 kilometers to the northwest, is a haven for hiking, cycling, and fishing, but it is also the home to the “biggest chocolate event” in the country. Postojna, best known for its famous caves and the Predjama castle, will astound visitors with its hospitality and attractions. Along the Sava, in the country’s southeastern corner, Krško will be an eye-opener for those not familiar with this perfect cycling destination with extraordinary food.

As a larger overall itinerary, the Slovenia Green Gourmet Route crisscrosses nearly all of Slovenia, which was named the European Region of Gastronomy for 2021. The path provides all the information independent travelers and cyclists need and then takes them along mostly remote asphalt byways and forest roads. This gourmet trail focuses on wine and food as it takes adventurers to vineyards, farms, and Michelin-starred restaurants (Michelin awarded Slovenia its first stars in 2020).

 

The purpose of the SGGR is to provide independent travelers with information, maps, and suggested itineraries so they can investigate Slovenia’s unheralded, but world-class, wine and food culture.

 

The purpose of the SGGR is to provide independent travelers with information, maps, and suggested itineraries so they can investigate Slovenia’s unheralded, but world-class, wine and food culture. The route only visits cities, towns, and villages that are internationally green certified — designations earned as sustainable destinations and responsible-travel stewards.

Starting from Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, the route pedals under the Alps, parallels the Soča Valley, hugs the Italian border, rides into the Vipava Valley, rolls into the Karst Region, and then heads to Maribor, along the Drava River. The route’s itinerary traverses perched villages, glacial lakes, and rolling farms, and only stops in “green-certified” destinations … one of only three fully green routes in the world (the other two are also here in Slovenia).

With five new destinations added to an already great route, Slovenia just keeps getting better and better as a place to mix food, culture, and adventure,

says Jan Klavora, one of SGGR’s designers and a director at Good Place, which created the route. “We are constantly looking for ways to showcase the fantastic places throughout Slovenia and to provide people with a smart way to see our country as a whole.”

#adventure travel #bike slovenia green #cuisine #cycling #cycling tour #gastronomy #Green destinations #outdoor adventures #slovenia #travel

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