A clean, easy to navigate, friendly city. (Ljubljana)

Member Name: h27gooner

Product:	Ljubljana
Date:	29/05/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small, nice weather.

Disadvantages: Any longer than a few days and you'll get bored.

I took my wife to Ljubljana in late October as a suprise birthday present. We flew on Easyjet from Stansted which cost only £140 for us both. On arrival, we found the airport to be modern and, as it was only small, easy to navigate. Buses and taxi's were plentiful and we caught a bus which took us into the city centre in about 40 minutes and cost about £5 each. As ljubljana is so small you can walk everywhere. Even when we went the sun was shining and it was comfortable to sit outside during the day. There is a main square in the centre of the city and from here you can follow a number of pleasant streets which spoke off. Alongside the square is the river which is travered by a strange "double bridge". Further along the river you will find a market, both of the fruit and veg kind and, as the weekend, the flea market type.

The "dragon bridge" is one of the recommended sights. This is a small, old bridge with 2 large dragons on either pillar. Worth a quick look but nothing special. We visited a couple of places. One of them was a beautiful cathedral which was very gothic and had some interesting carvings on the outside and particularly the large copper external doors. There is also a fun science museum where you can do various experiments and they do regular, small displays. Kids would be especially interested.

The tourist centre is very good and the staff were helpful. For shopping there are some quite expensive, upmarket shops but to be honest little else. Even the "tourist" shops are quite expensive. There is an out of town retail park if you're desperate and it is served by a couple of buses. The best site to see is the castle which overlooks the city. You can walk up or take the funicular. From here you get a great view of the city.

By night there are a number of clubs and bars which range in both age, type of music and price. We sampled most types and they were all great. There is also a "pub" called the Ship which is very good. Local beer is also good.

All in all we enjoyed the trip and the people were friendly. Worth a visit but I'd say only go for a long weekend because it's so small you'll run out of things to do if you stay longer.

Summary: An ideal weekend break destination.