Kobla ski resort must seek relevance and a realistic rebirth

It is several years, perhaps half a decade ago, since I last wrote about the proposed Bohinj 2864 ski centre, an ambitious project to not only reactivate the redundant Kobla 'resort' above Bohinjska Bistrica, but to develop it into a Tirol-type winter sports' destination that are ten-a-penny in neighbouring Austria. Slovenia has never sought to…

Third time’s a charm: Hotel Bohinj finally lives up to its name and location

My first memories of Bohinj's then Hotel Kompas stem from the late-1990's, a time when Slovenia was still in its infancy as an independent state. Although the era of Marshal Tito's rule over what by 1991 became the former Yugoslavia had concluded on his death in 1980, Slovenia's briefly fraught secession from the collective of…

Hotel Zlatorog: Decline, fall, and rebirth

The imminent demolition of Bohinj's iconic Hotel Zlatorog is now the best and realistically only course of action available to an ailing edifice left to wither on the vine by its previous owner. Once favoured by Marshal Tito as a bucolic setting in which to receive fellow Non-Aligned and Communist leaders when Slovenia formed the…

Lake Bohinj sets the agenda for responsible, sustainable tourism

The four sides of Lake Bohinj afford visitors diverse pleasures and limitations, but the body of water itself has become the subject of much debate along a common theme: limiting the impact on its ecosystem from outside influences, both human and otherwise. The road along the southern edge of Bohinjsko Jezero links Ribcev Laz, where…

Bohinj strives for greater balance between agriculture and sustainable tourism

One of my earliest memories of vacationing in Slovenia's Bohinj region was of a headscarf-wearing lady of indeterminate age, perhaps in her late fifties or early sixties, cutting pasture grass by hand; in other words, with a scythe - before placing the presumed silage in a back-mounted basket. Now, if I was to ask you…

The Maritime Alps of Slovenia and Italy may see more snow and glacier consolidation, but deny Climate Change at your peril

Standing up to your knees in snow at 1,800 metres above sea level whilst at a ski resort is not an unusual occurrence in itself but indicates one potential anomaly: assuming the scenario doesn't relate to off piste terrain then why hasn't the particular area been groomed for winter sports aficionados? The answer might surprise,…

Slovenia: Europe’s exemplar of alpine custodianship

To me, Slovenia has always punched above its weight as an alpine nation. It can of course be argued that the modern day border that wraps around a territory occupied by 2 million inhabits has within it quite by chance some of the most dramatic mountainscapes of Europe, but it isn't necessarily what you have…

History and its location demand much from a rebooted Hotel Zlatorog

To be at the very end, neglected, and alone through no fault of your own has to be the ultimate insult to injury when an inadvertent, but preventable, fall from grace has brought about such a sad demise. This though has been the fate of Bohinj's Hotel Zlatorog, once one of the most famous establishments…

Bohinj’s Hotel Bellevue seeks a happy ending that Agatha Christie would approve of

It is difficult to comprehend the reputational and financial implications that Bohinj must have suffered in the last decade from the simultaneous decay of many of its preeminent hotels, in particular the Zlatorog, Ski Hotel, and the Bellevue. Tourism has never been an industry which the area places its unswerving faith in and dependence on,…

Enforced pause in tourism enables Bohinj to reaffirm its commitment to soft, sustainable tourism

It is now over 20 years since I first visited Slovenia's Lake Bohinj, but until recent times changes to the area's preeminent hotel stock had been painfully, glacially slow, if that is to say that the inexorable decline of many of its most famous tourist accommodation has only in recent times started to be arrested.…

The dawn of a new era for Bohinj, which seeks to strike an appropriate balance between tourism and tradition

It has been a few years since I last visited the Bohinj region, having been until relatively recent times a frequent vacationer to Ribcev Laz. As the hotel stock dwindled, precipitating a sharp reduction in available rooms which to some extent drove up prices, I found it easier to get my alpine kicks in neighbouring…

What a refreshing change: Bohinj seeks symbiosis where tourism is secondary to local sensibilities

Making tourism work has at times been hard going for the Bohinj region of Slovenia during the last few years. If losing hundreds of guest bedrooms as the inexorable decline and eventual closure of historic hotels the Zlatorog and Bellevue wasn't a bitter enough pill to swallow(along with deteriorating fortunes at the Ski Hotel Vogel…

Only when the well becomes dry will the Alps appreciate the worth of its water

The effects on the Alps of increasingly hot summers can be seen in the shrinking of many of its permanent ice fields. Evidence of retreating glaciers is hardly revelatory but hand in hand with greater amounts of meltwater entering upland rivers is the lack of natural precipitation in the mountains, often leaving farmers with an…

Bohinj: Green winters offer an opportunity to diversify away from traditional winter sports

Amid the now annual summer stampede to Lake Bohinj its potential as an all year-round destination is increasingly overlooked. It is though the very reason why winter visitor numbers have significantly declined that the local municipality and tourist association are pinning their hopes on rebalancing Bohinj's appeal as a holiday location for all seasons. The…

Bohinj: A desire for better, not more tourism conflicts with its bucket list reputation

It was June 1999, with the dying embers of the Kosovo conflict but several hundred miles away from my vacation in Slovenia's Bohinj region. What though to many without any knowledge of Yugoslavia and the relative geographic proximity of its former component parts was a risky location for my holiday, could not have proven to…

Bohinj’s Ski Hotel Vogel: An important example of Yugoslav Architecture to be preserved, or swept away?

Without the high-profile visitors of yesteryear Bohinj's Ski Hotel Vogel is rarely mentioned, other than to group it with other failing or derelict tourist accommodation,  in the same breath as its iconic counterparts the Zlatorog and Bellevue. I doubt President Tito and his peers from the Non-Aligned Movement and various otherwise ostracised Communist regimes would…

Sunrose 7 Boutique Hotel sets the standard high for new Bohinj hoteliers

An enforced pause of tourism activity in Slovenia's Bohinj region will inevitably have led to much thought and discussion as to the future direction in which this ecologically sensitive slice of the Triglav National Park will travel post Covid-19, and how the demands and expectations from larger numbers of visitors can be met without compromising…

Has Covid-19 bought alpine tourism some much needed time to reflect on its future?

Reliant on perhaps up to 90% of visitors from outside its borders to sustain a tourism economy, Austria's Tirol region will be nervously anticipating a sharp drop in revenue during its forthcoming summer season. As though border restrictions with its neighbouring countries are slowly relaxed, will a 'make do and mend' hiatus to its usual…

Bohinj: Hotel Bellevue seeks novel solution to meld modernity with ‘Agatha Christie’ history

Little did I realise in May 2004 that my eight day stay in Lake Bohinj's Hotel Bellevue was in effect the nascent stages of its own ersatz funeral wake, that would only conclude over a decade later. I had previously vacationed in the Bohinj region three out of the previous five years, all within the…

Bohinj: Hotel Zlatorog takes its first steps into a new era

It has now been several years since I first wrote on the plight befalling many of the Bohinj region's foremost accommodation providers, and how their descent from icons of yesteryear to sweated assets by apathetic owners finally bottomed out into closed down dereliction and decay. One of the many articles I authored about this collective…