7 Countries in 8 Days (Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia & Netherlands)

We are going to start by saying, this type of trip is not for relaxing. It's fast paced and you go home tired. But we like that.

The countries we checked off our list on this trip were: Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Netherlands. 

When KLM started flying Edmonton to Amsterdam direct, there was a flight sale and we could get to Europe for around $530 return per person. We could only take 1 week off work though, and it was Kay's first time to Europe. It was hard to decide between going and really seeing one city - or doing the fast paced "see everything" trip. 

Of course you cannot actually see everything in Europe in a week. But we did see a lot. And we enjoyed every minute of it. 

The KLM sale offered that price to a list of about 20 different cities in Europe. Again it was hard to decide which to go to as a first. So we picked a city that we couldn't pronounce. 

Ljubljana.

Now that we know how to pronounce it, it's a little embarrassing that we ever thought different lol 

We were able to get a car rental from the Ljubljana airport for CAD$7 per day. That is super cheap. The gas prices is where it started to add up. Gas in Europe is expensive. 

But we saved money by staying in Airbnbs between cities. We have done this kind of trip a couple times. There are pros and cons to this style of trip - same as any. One pro is the cheaper accommodation. We were paying as little as $30/night for some places. As opposed to ~$100/night when we stay in the main touristy areas. 

Another pro of a car trip is seeing the countryside. And having the flexibility of moving on from a place if things don't work out how you expect... more on that later.

Note - if you are renting a vehicle for this type of trip, and you are crossing borders with it, it is important that you check with the rental company first. There may be an extra fee you need to pay to take the car into another country. 

DAY 1 - October 4

We landed in Ljubljana on October 4, picked up the car and headed into the city. Ljubljana is a gorgeous city, Slovenia is a gorgeous country. It is high on our list of recommended places to go. 

After a few hours exploring the city, we headed out towards our airbnb in Kranj - which was about halfway between Ljubljana and our next destination - Lake Bled.

DAY 2 - October 5

Lake Bled is...just wow. The Grand Tour visited lake Bled, and Richard Hammond said if you painted Lake Bled and presented it to someone they would say "you've overdone it." 

That statement is pretty accurate. From the island in the lake, to the castle on the hill, the lush greenery and the quaint town... it's all just picture perfect. It was hard to decide which photos to share with you...

We started our day with breakfast at a cute little cafe, before strolling around the lake. 

We hiked up to the castle, for some beautiful views of the town and lake. Since we still had a lot to see and do that day, we didn't go inside the castle.

The route up to the castle

From there we made our way to Lake Bohinj - another stunning destination in Slovenia. We hope to get back there someday to explore it more fully.

Lake Bohinj

Lake Bohinj

After a brief stop we headed up to Villach, which brought us into Austria. Villach was a really cool town with a modern feel. 

Villach

We continued on and crossed over into Italy. The town of Pontebba was so quaint we had to stop and walk around. We only spent 20 minutes or so. It was so pretty we just had to. That is another benefit of travelling around in a car. When we travel by public transport it's a lot more difficult to do things on a whim. (And if you're on a walking/biking trip you're very much limited by your energy levels).

After checking in with our hosts we explored the town. We had no idea when we booked just how cool of a town Gemona del Friuli would be. We could have spent a day there exploring. Some of the streets are so narrow it was hard to navigate even with our tiny car. 

One of the wide streets in the town

Being in Italy, we had to have pasta for dinner... and being in Italy we didn't have to look very far. Just about every restaurant we had walked by looked like it would have amazing food. When we were finally ready to eat we just picked one, and it was fabulous.

DAY 3 - October 6

We were so excited to visit VENICE. We woke early and had a quick breakfast before leaving Gemona del Friuli. No side roads today - we were heading straight to Venice. It took us just over 2 hours on the highways to get to Venice. Our Airbnb was in Mestre, and we had organized for an early check in. So we dropped off our bags, left the car, and took the train over the bridge. 

You can also drive over to Venice and park just as you come off the bridge. It looked like you wouldn't have a hard time finding parking. Since we had free parking with our accommodation, we opted for the train. Plus we wanted the experience. 

Rather than pick a route, or do any research in advance on what to see in Venice, we just followed our feet. By the end of the day we had covered Santa Croce, San Marco, San Polo and Castello. 

Lunch with a view!

Sunset in Venice

Venice after dark

Three tips that we can pass on for Venice are:

1. We were told that eating by the Rialto Bridge would be overpriced, and it wasn't worth it to try. We ate lunch by the bridge, right against the water. To get waterside seating you have to order drinks. We found the food and wine reasonably priced, having spent under $50 CAD for the two of us. 
2. Aim to have dinner at the same time as the locals. By 8pm the tourists were all but gone, and the locals were starting to come out. The streets were quiet, and it was a neat experience to see Venice so empty. It gets very crowded during the day.
3. You have to pay to use public washrooms. This is true in many European cities. A little life hack we learned, is that if you stop in a cafe and buy a snack or coffee you can use the bathroom for free. There's usually no line up, and it's much cleaner. Of course if you opt to have a drink you're just loading the tank up again haha but then you get to try another cafe later ;-) ... if you're visiting a cafe or restaurant, always use the bathroom before heading out.

DAY 4 - October 7

We planned to spend the morning in the city of Trieste. Upon arrival however, the streets were absolutely packed, and there wasn't parking anywhere. There was a festival in town that we didn't know about. We drove around for about 10 minutes before we decided to move on. 

We had the town of Poreč marked as a second option. We are so glad that we ended up there. The cobblestone is like marble. It glistens in the sunlight. The whole city was so picturesque. 

As we were walking through a market looking for magnets (we collect magnets from each country we visit), we came across a magnet of what seemed to be the Colosseum in Rome. A quick google search schooled us on the fact that Croatia has its own Colosseum, which is in better condition than the one in Rome. Though it is smaller. 

Again, having the car came in handy. On a whim we decided to make the hour drive to Pula to see this Colosseum. 

SO WORTH IT!!!

Pula is another really cool seaside town. There are a few Roman ruins that you can check out in Pula. 

We visited the Pula Arena.

Pula Arena

Inside the Pula Arena

Museum below the Pula Arena

And we walked past the Temple of Augustus. 

Temple of Augustus

We could have spent more time but we needed to move on to our evening destination in Delnice. 

DAY 5 - October 8

We planned to spend half the day in the capital of Zagreb. We enjoyed the markets, and there was a military parade or something happening at the castle that we got to watch. That was pretty cool.  

After lunch we hit the road again, heading towards Hungary. 

The border between Croatia and Hungary was a very tall fence topped with barbed wire. It felt a little ominous. 

Scarier still was how thoroughly our car was checked at the border stop. The agents took our passports, and searched our entire car, removing our bags and looking inside under seats etc. It was a pretty intense experience. Of course we had nothing to hide, but it just felt weird.

Once we were in the country we had another unnerving experience. We had planned to stay in a beautiful home in Keszthely, right on the lake. When we arrived the host met us in the garden and said we were no longer able to stay in their home but they made arrangements for us to stay in the neighbours home. We went across the street with them and into the small apartment at the back of their house. It wasn't nearly as nice as what we had paid for, but it was getting late and we decided to stay.

The neighbour with whom we were staying started demanding our passports so that he could go and take photocopies. We insisted that we stay with our passports. We were happy for him to take a photocopy - but we were not going to allow him to leave the apartment with our passports and us not accompany him. Eventually he gave up. 

As you can imagine, we were a little on edge. 

We decided to still go about our evening as planned. We went and explored the small town and enjoyed a local meal. We couldn't believe how cheap the food and wine was in Hungary. We both ate - including dessert - and had a half litre of wine for under $15.  

Our apartment continued to be an annoyance through the night. The apartment was so cold. The one heater that they had was facing the bed and made it so that one of us was cooking hot while the other was ice cold. We had to switch places several times during the night.

There were also other problems, perhaps too many to list here.

We are not massive complainers... but this experience was bad. We contacted airbnb about it. In the end we got our money refunded.

DAY 6 - October 9

We packed up and left early in the morning, annoyed after a restless night. 

Determined not to be soured, we went and enjoyed the sunrise on the lake. 

Keszthely, Hungary

Next up we drove to Budapest. The drive was very pleasant. Lots of natural beauty to enjoy along the way. 

This was the first place we encountered tolls though. And it was very hard to figure out what we were supposed to do - since there was no cash booth. Thankfully for us, the car came fitted with a transponder and it was linked to our card. But we hadn't checked with the rental place before we set out. If you rent a car, you should definitely check for that. 

And the city of Budapest... WOW. 

The city was so clean. The people all so well dressed. We spent several hours there before moving on. 

We were heading towards Vienna, when we realized we could sneak in another country - SLOVAKIA. 

A slight detour brought us to the city of Bratislava. And we are so glad we took the extra time. Not only was it a really nice city to visit, but we were able to get another magnet for our collection. 

We had dinner in Bratislava for supper before hitting the road and heading into Vienna, Austria.

DAY 7 - October 10

Vienna is a beautiful city, rich in history and architecture. You can visit the home where Mozart lived in the heart of Vienna. 

The food and coffee was pretty awesome too. 

This wasn't a shopping trip, so we didn't explore this aspect too much - but there appeared to be a lot of high end stores in the city. Seemed like a cool place for a shopping spree!

We needed to finish the day back in Ljubljana for our flight early the next morning. We chose to take the scenic drive, which took us past a town called Melk.

Melk has a baroque age abbey. That's the main attraction. It's a very impressive building, that somehow we don't have photos of. But we do have a photo of the town....

Melk

We also visited the nearby town of Schönbühel, which has a castle overlooking the Danube river. 

Unfortunately the weather was starting to turn, and the drive back to Ljubljana was rainy most of the way. 

We still got some pretty epic views though.

DAY 8 - October 11

Our flight left Ljubljana early in the morning... but our adventures were not done just yet. 

We had an 8 hour layover in Amsterdam. We had friends who never leave the airport on a stopover. It's such a shame. They are missing out on so much. 

We plan our trips so that we have long stopovers in order to explore new places. 

Amsterdam is a very popular destination. And it's not hard to see why. 

After a few hours seeing the city it was time to return to the airport and head home. 

Europe never disappoints. Probably anywhere you choose to go is going to be an amazing choice. 

Hopefully our photos will inspire you to visit these destinations someday.

Dean & Kay