ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours Explores Star-Studded Region Historically Dubbed Carinthia, A Time-Warp Known Today as Slovenia with a Dollop of Austria
OutdoorHub 10.03.12
Book a 2013 Departure by Nov. 15 and Save $200 per Person
ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours, that in 1972 became the first North American tour company to offer bike tours in Europe (http://www.experienceplus.com/), for the first time brings guests into a little-known mountainous but star-studded region named Carinthia in history but today known as Slovenia (with a slice of Austria).
Cycling the Lakes of Austria and Slovenia Plus! Ljubljana is an 11-day/10-night cycling tour through a region with rarified air that has inspired such luminaries born here as Gustav Mahler, composer; Peter Handke, playwright; Wolfgang Puck, chef; and Franz Klammer, alpine skier, to name a few.
The per person double rate is $4,250 ($600 single supplement) inclusive of accommodations at local inns near town centers, eight dinners with wine or beer, all breakfasts, bicycles, van support and two to three bilingual tour leaders. Guests booking by Nov. 15, 2012, for June 16-23 and Sept. 9-16, 2013, departures save $200 per person. A shorter 8-day version is $3,250 per person double ($500 single supplement) before the early booking discount.
See: http://www.experienceplus.com/tours/tours.html?tid=2950 – 11 Day Tour
See: http://www.experienceplus.com/tours/tours.html?tid=2949 – 8 Day Tour
New for 2013, the trip dips into Austria and Italy before crisscrossing Slovenia’s Goldenhorn route that takes its name from a mythic white buck with golden horns that was said to have lived in the region. Slovenia is an area about the size of New Jersey with the 9,000-foot Julian Alps, 6,000 miles of trails and a relatively undiscovered territory for cyclists who experience easy to moderate rides of, on average, 41 miles a day on bike paths and intimate roads. The itinerary follows river valleys through the Alps into Slovenia’s Lake District, including famous Lake Bled.
Slovenia’s glacial streams, lakes and towns mingle gothic with baroque and medieval to make a pristine pastiche, likened to yesteryear’s Italy. ExperiencePlus! is the only operator that devotes well over a week to exploring this small-but-mighty crossroads of Slavic, Austrian/German and Italian culture by bicycle by starting in Austria and traveling south into Slovenia. Cyclists are introduced to quiet back roads, traditional ways of life, and some of Europe’s most overlooked cosmopolitan cities—Klagenfurt, Villach, and the elegant capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana—as well as world-famous natural wonders including Lake Bled, Lake Bohinj Savica waterfall, and the Kokra River preserve near historic Kranj. Guests also spend time visiting a cheese making farm. The benefit of bicycle travel allows guests to stop, visit and chat with craftspeople and learn about day-to-day life and how traditional iconic hay huts are constructed.
“This is considered one of our easier bike tours even though you ride through stunning alpine valleys,” explains the company’s co-director, Maria Elena Price. “We’ve carefully designed our route and itinerary to appeal to both the avid and occasional active cyclist creating easy access to this extraordinary mountainous region of Europe regardless of prior experience or ability.”
