< Juliana Trail Slovenia hiking & landscape photography
The Juliana Trail is an award-winning new long-distance hiking trail through the Julian Alps and Triglav National Park in Slovenia. The Juliana makes a 270km circuit of the country's highest and most famous mountain, Triglav, without actually climbing it – the idea being to encourage visitors to explore the surrounding area, to promote slow travel in Slovenia and reduce overcrowding and trail erosion on Triglav itself. The trail begins in Kranjska gora and takes in Mojstrana at the entrance to the Vrata Valley, Radovljica, Bled, the Pokljuka plateau, Lake Bohinj, Baška grapa, Tolmin, Kobarid and Bovec in the Soča Valley, Log pod Mangartom, crossing the Predel Pass into Italy for a stage before returning to Kranjska gora in Slovenia. A 60km extension to the main Juliana loop leads from Tolmin up onto the hills to the west of the Soča Valley, then south through the Goriška brda region to Solkan, an area studded with WW1 relics which is also crossed by the Pot Miru or Walk of Peace, and is also one of Slovenia's best wine regions . Zelenci Nature Reserve, Peričnik Waterfall, the Vintgar Gorge and the Tolmin Gorges are just some of the many places to visit just a short detour from the main trail. I wrote the first guidebook to the Juliana Trail (Cicerone, 2023).