The Valley of The Seven Lakes Hike in Slovenia
The Valley of the Seven Lakes hike in Slovenia – specifically Triglav National Park – is THE hike for stunning alpine views. Lakes, mountains, huts, cows, etc – it’s all found here. Keep reading for the key information and our experience on the Valley of the Seven Lakes hike! Our all time favourite hike in Slovenia definitely had to be the Kamnik Saddle, but this hike was a VERY close second.
The Valley of the Seven Lakes Hike
The Valley of the Seven Lakes Hike is found in Triglav National Park. This park is easily accessed from the Lake Bohinj area! We stayed at the cutest airbnb in Srednja Vas v Bohinju (just 5 minutes away from Lake Bohinj and also just a 20-25 minute drive away from the hike!).
Hike Information
The Stats
- Distance: 24-25km
- Elevation: Approximately 1,400m
- Time: About 8-12 hours depending on speed – usually split over two days but doable as a one day hike!
- Type: Loop
- All Trails Link
The Hut
There are a few huts in the area, and I believe many people come to this area as a multiple day hike to head to the higher parts of the park (i.e. climbing Mt Triglav) so there are a few options! However the hut this blog will focus on is called “Zasavska koča na Prehodavcih”.
The huts are full of bunkbeds (no separate rooms), and there are washrooms / running water there. The washrooms are outside during the day, inside during the night. There are no showers (so bring wet wipes). We also brought our own sleeping bag liner to avoid paying the extra cost for this. There is indoor and outdoor seating to admire the vista’s and the kitchen offers some GREAT food.
The Booking Information
Definitely book your hut in advance as soon as you know the dates you are looking to book for, especially for this hike as it’s a popular one and can get busy during the summer months. You can find the booking link here. They have a few different huts with options, but select the type of reservation and how many you are booking for.
How To Get There
Getting to this hike is either more expensive OR trickier than anticipated. There is free public transportation that will take you up to the park, however that requires some waiting & patience (as you never really know how long it’ll take you to get to the top / back down the next day). We decided to drive to the top and find parking instead (as per the All Trails directions – we use All Trails for almost everything!), but this costed 20 Euros for 24 hours (so if you miss the 24 hour period and go into the next hour, it will be 40 Euros total – plan your hike accordingly!).
Our Experience
We did this hike in two days, staying at the hut called Zasavska koča na Prehodavcih. This hike was definitely long – I don’t know if it was the gloomy weather, or the fact that we just did the Kamnik Saddle hike, but it felt like it went on forever! However, the insane views, cows, and the experience made it all worth it.
We arrived at the parking lot just after noon – there is parking all along the street right beside the hike (on the All Trails), but also if you continue there’s a large parking lot. People do the hike as a day hike, but also as an overnight hike, so it’s likely you’ll find some available parking. There are many cars here and MANY people in the park, but I guess they start earlier than we do as we didn’t run into too many people.
Although the hike is mostly a loop, the first part is a there and back section to the first lake. This short stint will bring you to the first lake (Planina pro Jezeru) with stunning Slovenian alpine cottages and a beautiful view. From the lake we took the trail to the right – I don’t know how others usually do the trail but this worked for us! In our opinion, the views to the right are better walking into the trail as there is more of the rocky / alpine scenery – but you can’t really go wrong here. We also thought it’d be shorter to get to the hut as we were in for a long day, but I don’t think that was true.
To get to the hut we passed through so many different scenes – cow meadows, alpine cottages, rocky vistas, and alpine lakes. As we got closer to the hut, there was still some snowy areas (in July!) that required some careful walking as it could be potentially dangerous. There’s also a ton of rocky scrambling, but again careful walking is all that is needed to pass these areas. It took us about 5 hours to get to the top of continuous hiking!
Once we got to the hut, we were assigned our beds. We stayed in the main hut – the downstairs was the hang out area / food area, the upstairs is where the bunk beds were. They push most bunk beds together so it’s a double bed (great for couples / friends), but there are a few single bunk beds for those travelling alone. There were probably about 15 bunk beds in the room so it’s definitely a busy spot – bring earplugs / sleeping mask / etc. There also was no shower, an indoor toilet (for night hours), an outdoor toilet 2 minutes away (during day hours), and running water a quick walk away. The best part – the views! You are sitting in the middle of the mountains and it is seriously serene. In the evening, mountain goats come to enjoy some food and you’ll have front row seats. The hut had a few food options including the usual stews and crepes – plus snacks / water / beer / wine. What more could you ask for.
After am average sleep, we got up early to try and get some breakfast in and head down to the car to avoid another 20 Euro fee for parking (spoiler alert – I was slow and we didn’t make it back in time!). Around 6am we had some breakfast and packed up for the road, continuing the loop down to the car. It took us about another 5 hours of hiking this day, going past numerous huts, meadows, lakes, and some really beautiful views. It started to drizzle and the backcountry of Slovenia just looked so beautiful in the rain!
Countless hours of hiking later, we finally made it back to the car. Slovenia has some of the BEST hiking we have ever done, and the views are seriously out of this world! If you’re an avid hiker, we would definitely recommend this hike in Slovenia and the Kamnik Saddle hike – two of our favourite hikes ever.
Thanks For Reading!
If you have questions about this hike feel free to leave them below and we will get back to you. We also have other posts on Slovenia and a guide you can find over at our thatch page that gives you a full week itinerary for Slovenia!
