Mountain biking tour from the heart of the Julian Alps to the Mediterranean town of Piran by the Adriatic Sea.
Mountain Biking along extraordinary single trails, on remote gravel roads, high mountain mule tracks, forest roads, through vineyards,… through western Slovenia, is one of the most beautiful biking experiences. For all biking »overachievers«, this mountain biking adventures can be compared to a well known Michelin star for gourmets. One simply goes on the tour because it is full of greatness, with a lot of geographical diversity, cycling dynamics and a good measure of pampering along the way.
I’ve become acquainted with Trans Slovenija Tour a decade ago and it has simply enthrilled me. Not so much due to mountain biking on trails, which are by the way not scarce, but due to the variety of the terrain, the explorative-connecting biking along with a good dose of unique locations – remarkable destinations. For an example: you jump on a bike and ride it across the Alps, Soca Valley and red Karst region all the way to the Adriatic Sea.
In a few days of biking you are able to connect the most beautiful part of the Julian Alps and Triglav National Park with the charming town of Piran by the Adriatic. Along the way are numerous amazing towns, delicious culinary, simplicity of the locals, … Farms, vineyards, restaurants, natural wonders which are difficult to access, crystal clear rivers, … This tour is considered a pure biking delight.
Trans Slovenia tour offers a unique experience – it is an escape from the »Crazyness!« of every day. This is achieved by daily biking tours on secluded paths and villages and returning back to urban environment. As a mountain biker it means a lot to me that I can clear my head, focus and set out on a daily dose of biking, knowing that I will return to a comfortable bed and tasty dinner. I am the type of biker that likes a certain amount of comfort. And this is exactly what this mountain biking tour across the western Slovenia offers, as it is considered as various in just the right amount, the stages are very varied, full of challenges and wonderful trails.
I won’t say that the daily stages are easy, that they don’t require a certain amount of basic biking preparedness, but they are also not demanding. Wonderful is the fact that a biker can choose between an easier and more demanding trail – daily stage – according to the altitude, length and difficultness of the terrain – technically more demanding and easier trails as well as beautiful gravel roads. Therefore this tour is appropriate for a wide specter of biking enthusiasts and long distance biking tours.
When we speak about mountain biking and experiencing a landscape, we mostly think of a fresh biking destination, which offers something special, which isn’t overcrowded and burdened. A tour which offers a biker a certain amount of exploration, adventure and enjoyment. We, mountain bikers, are a certain sort of people, for it is important to us that we obtain a sufficient amount of good riding. Trans MTB Slovenia is just that, a long distance biking tour, which offers a lot of excellent biking in remarkable surroundings, in areas where many hearty people live and work.
When I rode this full tour for the first time a few years ago I didn’t stop. I return to it to this day and treat myself to certain stages of the trail, the ones that enthrill me. There is so much variety in this amazing tour that one never gets tired of it. Especially due to the fact that the landscape on the trail changes all the time, there is always something new going on, extra options to treat your taste buds as well as other things on offer, which are needed for a satisfied and happy biker.
At the end I can write that this Trans MTB Slovenia is one of those biking adventures you simply must experience. It is worth every drop of sweat, worth that good feeling of tiredness at the end of each stage, muddy stains as well as a possible bruise or two. All of those little things that a mountain biker needs for a great biking day.
Written by Matey Mejovsek; Photography by Matey Mejovsek, Andrej Remškar and Lajf inc.
