Farm Stay in Ljubno, Slovenia

As soon as we decided on going to Slovenia, I knew I wanted us staying at a local farm stay.

On our way to the farm stay, we stopped to hike at Velika Plannina which is a largest shepherd settlement in Europe. You take a cable car up and hike about 45 mins before you come to the settlement. The homes and landscape are like nothing we have ever seen before. You walk among the cows (and all of their poop...there was a lot) and are transported back in time. Being up there you get a small sense of what it must feel like to live there! Some of the homes keep their doors open for you to come and try their local cheese. The kiddos were all about the samples and insisted on buying some! We met another family from the States (which we have found is very few as Slovenia is so unknown and quite a ways to travel) so we enjoyed being able to explore with another family. As we were making our way back a huge storm came through so we had to run to the mountain hut to seek shelter. The experience quickly reminded Kyle and me about our storm boat ride in Thailand. The kids were total troopers about it and mostly were giggling through it all.

After we had our fun at Velika Plannina, we headed to our farm stay. Eco-tourism is super popular as farming has been a big part of Slovenia's history and culture. Many farm stays are located in Logar Valley but many of them were booked by the time we booked them. It ended up being such a blessing. We stayed at Farmstay Visconik and it was simply perfection. The farm is located towards the top of the mountain range instead of being down in the valley, so the views were breathtaking (such a cliché phrase but it captures it perfectly). 

The farm has been owned and operated by the Visconik family for hundreds of years. The mom is the primary chef, the dad tends to the land, and the two daughters help with the tourism business. There are cows, goats and chickens. The highlight for the kiddos were the goats. We saw the dad give them maple leaves on the first day and every day after, we were exploring the land finding more maple leaves for the kids to give to them. 

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As the farm is 25 minutes from the closet town, the farm provides breakfast and dinner. The food here told a story. Everything they served has been raised and grown on their farm. Breakfast was a plethora of cured meats, eggs of your choice, freshly baked treats, homemade jams and marmalade and every version of dairy you could imagine plus more. Everything was presented beautifully with the smallest but most significant extra touches of details which showcased the pride and work had gone into the meal. Dinners consisted of a soup as a starter and the biggest portion of meat, vegetables and some kind of potato. The dinner portions they provided could have easily served 8 people versus the 4 of us. The dinners carried a different weight (both figuratively and literally). There was still the same love and pride but a heaviness to them. The portions and the types of food told more of the hardship that existed. You could tell that the family had worked hard for what they were offering and that these meals were meant to sustain you and give you strength for the days to come. For those that know our kids, especially Zane, they have a picky palate. Generally quick to dismiss anything new and really only eat things they truly love. During our stay, we made sure that they understood that every piece of food in front of them, from the fruits to the yogurt to the soup to the meat to the dessert, someone worked hard for it and something was raised then used to make it. It was amazing during our last dinner to hear Zane say "I don't love this food but I am going to eat it because they worked hard for it". We hope that it is these small but important lessons that they take away from this trip. We know they won't remember every moment or every detail, but we hope that it is things like this that are long lasting. 

Outside of spending time on the farm, there was a summit hike within a 10-minute drive of the house - Smrekovec. What's amazing about Slovenia is that it is truly built around the hiking culture. Throughout the country and mountains, there are mountain huts at the bottom or the top of these hikes. Many people enjoy hut to hut hiking - where you literally hike from one hut to the next in order to get food and shelter. We will absolutely be coming back to do that! But for now, we are taking advantage of the amazing food at the huts and doing as many hikes as our legs will allow us!

While the hike was only about 30 minutes to the summit, we worked for it! It was the first hike that I've ever personally experienced where you feel like you just got plopped into the Sound of Music! Yes, we sang those songs while up there. It was the kind of view that you wanted to twirl in circles while smiling and laughing. 

 

Visconik was an opportunity for all of us to truly slow down. We leaned into countless hours of swinging, playing Briscola (Zane's new favorite card game), finding maple leaves, and simply just soaking in the views.