Slovenia (Country & Regional Guides - Cadogan)

Affluent, friendly Slovenia, with fairytale lakes and the impressive Julian Alps, is like a quieter mini-Switzerland. Its pretty, comfortably-sized capital city is Ljubljana—a city by the river on which the mythological Argonauts carried the Golden Fleece—with its rich Roman heritage jostling comfortably with Renaissance, Baroque and Art Nouveau façades. Within a couple of hours are the breathtaking Julian Alps, complete with glorious lakes and Triglav National Park. The Karst region is planted with olive groves, vineyards, peach orchards, and cherry trees, and is also the location of some of the most beautiful subterranean worlds on Earth, in the form of over six thousand karst caves and sink holes, of which ten are open to tourists. Experience the Mediterranean coast, and, inland, medieval castles, wine-growing hillsides, small churches and monasteries, mighty forests and gentle birch groves, rounded hills, storks and wind-rattles, floating mills, and healing waters.