Hi guys,

Today, I am taking you with me to visit Vilenica Cave in Slovenia (->map).
This cave is about 6 km away from the Slovenian city of Sežana and 10 km away from the Italian border, near the city of Opicina.

I went to visit that cave with my partner the 8th of April 2018.
I wanted to go there in February but it is only opened to visitors between the 1st of April and the 31st of November.
I had already visited the Postojna Cave and the Skocjan Cave (both in Slovenia) 2 years ago.
These 2 caves are very popular here, especially Postojna Cave which is very very touristy.
This time, I wanted to visit a beautiful cave but smaller and not too touristy.

When we arrived there, I liked the greenery that was all around.
The little street leading to the entrance of the cave is surrounded by the forrest.
The parking is near a house where visitors can enter to purchase tickets.
The entrance of the cave is next to the house (about 30 meters away).

The cave can only be visited on Sundays at 15h00 and 17h00.
We arrived 20 minutes before 15h00 and we walked a bit in the park just next to the house.
There are massive stones in this park and some of them have some designs handcratfted by “Marco Pogačnik” (Slovenian artist).
I really liked walking around the park and looking at designs on some of those stones.

15h05.
The tour guide went out of the house to take us and walk towards the entrance of the cave.
We were 6 visitors. 5 visitors living in slovenia (including us) and 1 visitor from Italy.
About 2 minutes after the beginning of the tour, a group of 5 latecomers joined us down in the cave.
The guide asked them where they came from and one of them answered (in English) that they all came from France.
Since the guide could only speak Slovenian and Italian, that was a problem.
I told him that my partner (who is Slovenian) speaks fluent French and that she could translate what he said so that the French speakers could understand.
This, my friends, is very important to know.
Since we are living near the Italian border, many non-Slovenians visitors come from Italy.
Therefore, many tour guides speak Italian because they have to be able to communicate with them.
But some of the guides do not speak English.
Before the beginning of the tour, make sure that you ask if the guide speaks english.

Once the language problem was resolved, the tour of the cave resumed.
I was quite impressed to learn that this cave was the oldest tourist cave in the world.
The first tourists who visited that cave were recorded in 1633.
Almost 400 years ago. That is incredible !

My first impression when we started moving inside the cave was that is was much bigger that I thought.
I expected to see a cave with only one big cavern.
But it was much more than that.
The cave was very long and there were a lot of caverns.
The guide told us that the cave is about 1300 meters long and has a 180 meters depth.
But tourists can only go as far as 450 meters.

I was amazed to see a large variety of shapes and colors in that cave.
One of the most intense moments was when we arrived in a very large room where the guide showed us a 20 meters high stalagmite.
Woah, that stalagmite was massive. He also showed us some strange and funny shapes.
A tiny piece of rock looked like a fairy and other pieces of rock had the shape of animals.
Before leaving that room, the guide asked us to stay silent and he closed all the lights in that cavern.
He wanted us to hear all the sounds without being able to see.
All of a sudden, it was pitch-black and we could really focus on all the little sounds (like drops of water falling down on a puddle of water).
It was really an interesting experience.

16h37.
We all got out of the cave.
The tour was supposed to last only 1 hour but it finally turned out to be much longer.
Since the guide had to translate in Italian (for one visitor) and my partner had to translate in French (for the 5 latecomers), it took a bit more time.
But I found that it was very entertaining and interesting.
The fact that we spoke 3 different languages (Slovenian/Italian/French) during that tour was a lot of fun for us and for the guide as well.

All in all, this cave turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of the beginning of 2018.
I didn’t expect much but at the end, I saw a lot of beautiful things and I learned a lot.
The ticket was only 10 €. The value for money is very excellent.
I really recommend you to go visit that cave.

 

My tips for Vilenica Cave:

1/ Take a look at the handcrafted designs on the big Stones in the park, next to the house.
2/ Hold on tight to the banister because some of the steps are very slippery.
3/ There are about 520 steps. Be ready for that!
4/ Do not bring kids under 7 or 8 even if it is allowed (very slippery steps).
5/ If you do not speak Slovenian or Italian, call them before to ask if the tour guide speaks English.
6/ In case the guide might not speak English, make sure one of you understand Slovenian or Italian.
7/ Go visit the Lipica Stud Farm (just 4,5 km away from the cave).