Holidays with friends in Portoroz in Slovenia

I never really thought of Slovenia as a cool place to visit. Not sure if it was because so many people confuse it with my home country Slovakia while it does not have much in common, or because it is relatively close geographically and thus not so exotic to me like let’s say Mexico or Argentina.

But when we started discussing summer holidays with some Slovak friends and we opted for a road trip, I immediately chose Slovenia. The closest sea from Bratislava where we left from is Italy, Slovenia or Croatia but I used to live in Italy and visited it many many times, and been to Croatia 3 times so this time it was the right time to finally see something also in Slovenia and not just cross it by car/bus.

Slovenian coast is only 46 km long but looking at the map we chose Portoroz (Portorose in English) town straight away. After driving 570 km mostly on the highway, 2 cars with my 8 friends and myself, safely arrived to Portoroz in the early afternoon and left all our stuff at our new home for the next 4 days –Majda apartments.

Like I said, we got to Portoroz by car but in case you can’t do the same, feel free to check out how to get from Bratislava to Portoroz differently.

I know it was me who chose Portoroz in Slovenia but I was still amazed at its Mediterranean beauty. We took it easy while there but walked around a lot to see as much as possible.

If I had to recommend you a few things to do in Portoroz in Slovenia, it would be the following:

• walk the coast both during the day and at night – it has a different feeling to it and the big hotels in the centre of Portoroz are nicely lit up. And when wondering around on Friday/Saturday night, you might get lucky and meet a huge penis like we did.

walking from Portoroz to Bernardino

Marina looked like Cabo San Lucas Marina a little bit

sunset from Portoroz

one of the Portoroz beaches at night

lit up hotels

we found this huge penis when walking

 

• buy souvenirs along the coast – considering you are done with the main souvenirs such as postcards (or me snow globes), my biggest secrets would be 3 things – handmade Native American souvenirs from 2 guys from Ecuador, Jazz steampunk jewelry and also Feniks Art Deco.

Jazz Steampunk jewelry

Feniks Art Deco

 

• my favorite restaurant ever was the Mexican restaurant Papa Chico at the end of the promenade on the left side of the coast – we ate there twice. Everything was more than finger licking, from orgasmic guacamole, to burritos, fajitas, banana frito or chimichanga dessert. Also Paco restaurant is great for salads (we only tried those).

with Monika in Mexican restaurant

guacamole in Papa Chico

fajitas filling

chimichanga dessert

eating Mexican at Papa Chico

 

• the cheapest fresh fruit and vegetables we found in Mercator – even a lot cheaper than at the little local markets.

• I think you can easily drink tap water, I didn’t have any problems, but of course it depends on you.

• there’s a lot of tasty ice cream places along the main coast road, we found a few good ones offering also non-dairy sorbets.
• most of the beaches are rocky ones but with man-made entrances with steps so you enter straight into the deeper water. In the centre of Portoroz there is a sand beach too – for free – but the water is not so deep, it’s more crowded with family and kids, and you will find algae at the bottom. We didn’t see any jellyfish nor sea urchins so it was safe to swim in here.

sunbathing at the closest beach to Majda apartments

 

• there’s big hotels and apartments in Portoroz but not much of other kind of accommodation in between.
• if you are up for some fun, and you are at least a bit fit, I highly recommend bouncy castles and other inflatable toys (or whatever you call a sort of Takeshi’s castle in real) you can find at 2 different places along the Portoroz coast. It’s not just for kids! We watched our guy friends having the biggest fun there ever, jumping all over, playing games and most of all falling down to water every two minutes. I honestly burst out in tiers a few times when laughing so much taking videos of it. It’s definitely worth a few euros (you can even negotiate a discount for a group.)

Takeshi’s castle in Portoroz

 

• Looking for night life? Paprika bar is supposed to be good – and there’s a jacuzzi for 2 if you decide to get some intimate time :D Or, my favorite place was what I call ”the ball” in Porto del mar bar. If I ever have a house, I want one of these. They also have a lot of games, karaoke and good drinks in the bar and lit up trees outside like at Christmas.

coffee time in Porto del Mar

playing games

my favorite place in Portoroz – the ball

Piran

When wondering around, you gotta walk from Portoroz through Bernardino to Piran, the charming peninsula. You could possibly take a 45 min bus, but it would be your loss as the coast is refreshing. Piran, the most preserved cultural monument of Slovenian Istria, reminds a lot Italy with its medieval architecture, narrow streets, churches, gelato, and even the main square with little cafes.

a group photo in the mirror

admiring the Adriatic sea

Piran from further

Piran from closer

ships around

massive jellyfish on the way to Piran

finally got to Piran

Piran port

at the end of the Piran peninsula

Piran beaches are more windy, with bigger waves and we saw huge jellyfish on the way there. Thankfully, the jellyfish were far away from the beach we relaxed at and didn’t bother us at all. We spent maybe 2 hours at the free beach there (the beaches until then on the way were for 10 euros per sunbed for no hotel guests). At the end of the beach where we stayed at there is a graffiti wall with rather cool ship, people and a whale.

the first free beach we saw on the way to Piran

the beach we stayed at

pretty graffiti wall

When in Piran, you cannot miss the main Tartini square, cute port, Cafe Teater for coffee or drinks with coast view (my friends had Sexes drink here and we found out it’s made in Bratislava), Saint George Cathedral, St. Clement’s church, statues all around and just the whole atmosphere. Remember to take a pic of the metal maquette of Piran just outside of Cafe Teater, looks pretty cool with the coast around.

Our Lady of the Health St. Clement’s church

Tartini square

souvenir ships

postcards in Piran

Sexes energy drink we had in Cafe Teater

metal maquette of Piran

a local market

Last tips: In my opinion, many people tried to charge us more than they should, so please check out the prices and bills. And the last tip – choose a great group of friends to visit Portoroz. I know mine was the best … how could it not be if I had a personal masseur there with me too? :D

having a personal masseur rocks

the best group

Aw, and easily you can take photos for another Sexy Saturday in Portoroz and Piran too :)

*** It took me 5 hours to write this post.

Posted in beach, budget travel, Europe, photo, Slovenia, tips, travel Tags: Portoroz in Slovenia