Bled holiday home rental, Spodnje Gorje with walking, beach/lake nearby, balcony/terrace, rural retreat, TV, DVD

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O'Brien's Lodge (house)

Home description

It’s a perfect place to recharge your batteries with a good book, or to get back in touch with Nature with a long bike ride or hike in the National Park. Appetites have never been sharper in this mountain air, or sleep so deep!

The essentials:
Newly renovated house 3km from Bled
Sleeps 6 in 3 bedrooms and the sofabed gives room for an additional 2
River and mountain views, on edge of Triglav National Park
The area is popular with outdoor types - hiking, fishing, swimming, skiing, caving, biking and white water rafting are all nearby
On the edge of a village that has amenities such as a supemarket, restaurant and bar all within a few minutes walk
15 minutes from Austria, 40 minutes from Italian border resort
Numerous day-trips possible: Soča Valley, Ljubljana, Postojna Caves, Piran, Slovene and Croatian coasts, Tarvisio, Udine, Venice, Zagreb
30 minutes from ski resorts

4km to this beautiful view	Plenty of parking space
Master bedroom with balcony access	Kitchen with all mod-cons and antique wooden benches to sit

To see more photos please visit http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/40834

The Gorenska region

Gorenjska, or Upper Carniola, is the north eastern region of Slovenia. It is bordered by the Julian Alps, and partially contains Triglav National Park. It has several medieval market towns of historical note, and in the foothills of the mountains lots of untouched traditional villages. It is one of the best places to see the traditional Slovene hay drying racks and to wander through scenes of pastoral wonder, enjoying the fresh green meadowlands and sparkling lakes and rivers....The Slovene people are down to earth and friendly and the pleasures of a cold Slovene beer drunk in a sunny village square or a cappucino in one of the medeival town centres unique. There really is something different to experience every day.

Bled / Spodnje Gorje area

The house is on the edge of a village called Spodnje Gorje. A small supermarket is within a 10 minute walk, and the nearest bar and restaurant a five minute stroll up the hill (Gostilna Fortuna). Fortuna has great mushroom soup served in the local speciality hollowed out bread, and also great schnitzel and venison salami.

1. Bled: Everyone should hire a rowing boat and take themselves over to the island, although you can of course pay someone to take you instead. The water is warm enough (27˚C in summer) for swimming several months of the year and a couple of beaches are easily accessible from the house. If you’re lucky, it freezes over completely in the winter. Bled has lots of good restaurants (click here for our favourites), and one or two late night bars. Pub Bled is a popular spot in the evenings for drinking Laško beer and dancing

2. Radovljica: pretty medieval town a couple of miles from Bled. The bee-keeping museum is worth a visit – we’ve been twice as the content is so unexpectedly interesting! You can see how bee-keeping has changed with the ages in Slovenia, and see local folk-art with the painted bee hive panel display

3. Bohinj: driving to the Vogel ski resort cable car gives you an idea of the sheer size of this lake. You can hike to a waterfall at one end of the lake, or go canoeing. A local stable takes you to the shores of the lake on horseback

4. Soča Valley: you’ll be stunned by how blue the water is (it’s the limestone). This is where the main white water rafting outfits are. There’s a great war museum in Kobarid (also known as Caporetto, where Hemmingway wrote a Farewell to Arms)

5. Vintgar Gorge: peaceful walk near the house along a gorge to a waterfall, with wooden bridges passing over white water and rock pools

6. Ljubljana: we love Sundays at the bustling antique market on the river, with bargain hunting followed by pivo in one of the waterfront cafes. You can take the train to LJ from Bled, spend the evening bar-hopping and clubbing, and take a taxi back to Spodnje Gorje for around 50 quid

7. Austria: the lake resorts of Carinthia attract a respectable, sedate crowd. Nice for watching the yachts and eating schnitzel in the sun

8. Tarvisio: Nearest Italian town and nice for shopping and eating

O’Brien Lodge is well stocked with maps and guidebooks for your perusal – ideal for planning sight-seeing trips.

How to get there

Bled is very accessible and is easy to reach by car from north east Italy, southern Austria and northern Croatia. You can reach it from a number of airports that have connections to all over Europe, including with budget airlines, and it’s easy to get to by train from a number of major cities.

The house is 30 minutes from Ljubljana airport (Easyjet, Adria), 40 minutes from Klagenfurt (Ryanair), 1.5-2 hours from Trieste (Ryanair), 2.5-3 hours from Graz (Ryanair), 2.5-3 hours from Venice (Easyjet, BA) and 3-3.5 hours from Salzburg (Ryanair). The closest airport is Brnik Airport, Slovenia: served by Adria Airways and EasyJet. The second closest airport is Klagenfurt, Austria: served by Ryanair and a 40-60 minute drive from Bled.

If you intend to do sightseeing, you will get the most out of your stay if you have a rental car. Bled is a ten minute drive from the house and taxis very late at night are hard to come by unless you pre-book them. There are taxis in Spodnje Gorje and Bled that will be happy to take you around if you give them a little advance warning.

Activities near Bled

Facilities

Further details indoors:
What you get...

The living room is a large seating and dining area, with a traditional tile stove for winter warmth (as well as several radiators). It’s a great place to eat, play cards or watch the river from the windows. The sofa bed is handy for larger groups of friends or families.

A large plasma screen and DVD player is ideal for whiling away a couple of hours with a film - there is (not yet!) any satellite or cable TV service. There is a selection of DVDs for different tastes.

The kitchen has a dishwasher, washing machine with dryer and brand new cooker. A large wooden table with benches provides a more informal sitting area where you can drink your morning coffee, plan the day’s excursions or just stare at the river views outside.

There is a fully stocked bookcase in the twin bedroom, with maps and guidebooks to inspire your activity planning. All three bedrooms have river views and river sound-effects. There are wooden floors throughout and beautiful antique furniture. We've installed a safety gate for children at the top of the stairs. Families with young children should bear in mind that it is not ideal to leave children unsupervised in the garden, as the driveway slopes down to the village road.

Internet access can be arranged at the property via our managing agent - if you bring your own laptop and want to access the internet, they will provide you with a mobile data-card for a small fee.

Further details outdoors:
The house has its own driveway which has parking for three cars, and two balconies for you to enjoy the fresh air and the views.

We recently completed a long renovation project on the house. When we first saw it, it had never been modernised and was dark, cold and crowded. The views and the setting convinced us to take it on. Standing outside at night, seeing the stars and listening to the sound of the river - we had faith that with time and effort it could be transformed into something special. Over a three year period, a local builder completely overhauled the house. He created new windows to let in more light, knocked down walls to expand the living space, and built pine cladding on the exterior of the house to insulate it and make it blend into its natural setting.

We’ve had a great time furnishing it by numerous trips to the Ljubljana antiques market and the bazaars of Sarajevo. More prosaically, we’ve also kitted it out with the IKEA essentials and all mod-cons in the kitchens and bathrooms, including under-floor heating for extra coziness.

Rental rates

Period	From	To	Weekly	Nightly rate		Minimum  stay
				Weekday	Weekend
High Season	31 May 08	28 Sep 08	450£ 450	5656	8585	4 Nights
Low Season	28 Sep 08	21 Dec 08	350£ 350	4040	7575	4 Nights
High Season	21 Dec 08	2 Feb 09	500£ 500	6060	100100	4 Nights
Low Season	2 Feb 09	31 May 09	400£ 400	5050	7575	4 Nights
High Season	31 May 09	1 Nov 09	500£ 500	6060	100100	4 Nights

The owner's weekend rates apply to: Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights

NB: Prices may be subject to change at the owner's discretion.

Minimum stay is 4 nights. Weekend nights - Saturday and Sunday - are a higher cost than weekday nights.

Additional to the rental fee, there is a non-refundable £50 fee, which secures your booking and also enables us to cover the cost of cleaning the property and linen changes etc - this is payable via bank transfer or Paypal on confirmation of the booking.

There is also a refundable damages deposit of £100 - this and the rental rate will both be payable in euros to our property agent on arrival.

Guestbook

"Flippin' marvellous! Had a wonderful time at the house - slept like a baby in my super comfy bed with nothing but the sound of the babbling brook outside to disturb my slumber, ate like a queen in the fantastic kitchen and blissfully drowned myself under the luscious cascade of the shower."

"House was excellent, swimming in the lake was fab. Canonying and rafting was great."

Availability

See below for next 6 months' availability - to see the next 24 months click here

Contact owner

To contact this owner please visit: http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/40834

Contact details for home 40834 Please mention Holiday Lettings
Name:	Lucy O'Brien
Mobile:	+44 (0)7971 425076
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Contact Notes: By mobile telephone, at any time of day
Advertiser joined: 1 Nov 2007 This property added: 1 Nov 2007

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