Planning a trip to Slovenia and looking for real world examples of Slovenia travel budgets… and wondering if Slovenia is expensive?
We’ve been there!
We weren’t quite sure what to expect when it came to planning our first Slovenia travel budget.
On the one hand, we knew that countries on the the Balkan Peninsula tend to be less expensive to visit than places like France or Italy, but we also knew that Slovenia was one of the more expensive Balkan countries to travel in (after all, it’s also a Central European country).
And, to jump the price up higher, we planned to rent a car for a week while there.
The Slovenia travel budget outlined here reflects our exact expenses during a 2 week trip to Slovenia in late June and early July–in other words, some of the most expensive times to visit the country.
These expenses represent our time spent backpacking the country on what we would consider a flashpacker budget. Basically, no to dorm rooms, yes to a/c, and no to major luxuries.
We spent 12 full days in the country, averaging a total Slovenia travel budget of $109.24/day for two people, or $54.62 per person, per day. This added up to a total cost of $1,310.86 for our nearly 2-week trip.
Our time spent backpacking Slovenia took us to Piran, Ljubljana, Bled, Triglav National Park, Lake Bohinj, and several other short stops along the way, such as Vintgar Gorge and the Skocjan Caves.
All expenses are listed in USD unless otherwise noted, and, as usual for our travel budget roundups, we don’t include the costs of entering or leaving the country here, as those expenses can vary so dramatically depending on your starting point.
(In our case, this Slovenia road trip was part of our planned 6 month round the world trip).
A Quick 2026 Note on Planning a Slovenia Travel Budget
Before going any further, I need to point out that our travel budget for Slovenia is quite dated at this point: it covers our Slovenia trip from 2016!
Back in our first couple years of full-time travel, I published lots of these country-specific budget roundups, including, for example, our trip budgets for Croatia, Morocco, Mexico, Thailand, and more.
Obviously, I had no idea back then that I’d still be a full-time travel blogger a decade later, and accounting for inflation wasn’t on my mind!
However, as I’ve been updating all of our blog posts (honestly, that’s most of my job these days), it has been fascinating seeing which places have experienced more or less inflation from the perspective of foreign travelers.
… And of the places I catalogued back then, I think Slovenia is probably among the highest hit.
By planning ahead and traveling during shoulder or off season, you can probably achieve a vaguely similar budget to the one we experienced, but you’ll have to work much harder for it than we did back then.
As of updating this blog post in August 2026, lodging and attraction prices have increased hand-over-fist from what we experienced, often more than doubling.
When browsing Discover Cars, it looks like to achieve a similar car rental price to what we experienced during our summer trip, you’d need to book no sooner than November.
Visiting the Vintgar Gorge cost us 4 Euro/person, today, the price is 15 Euro.
I’ve kept our blog post cataloging our personal expenses below, but suffice it to say that if you’re looking for a (foreign)-budget-friendly mountain destination in Europe, Slovenia is far from the least expensive… but it’s phenomenal, and we still desperately hope to go back again in the next few years!
Our Lodging Costs in Slovenia
Total: $565.43 for 13 nights
At an average of $43.49/night, lodging didn’t break our Slovenia travel budget.
The most expensive lodging was in Piran, where we paid $67.66/night for a private room.
The cheapest was our private Airbnb apartment in Triglav National Park. $32.72/night was a bargain in our opinion, and the fantastic views and amazing hosts made it even better.
Our Transportation Budget in Slovenia
Total: $393.21
The largest portion of this (okay, basically all of it) was our rental car.
We rented the car for seven days, and the daily rate was very low (around $15/day). We raised that price significantly by adding on $0 deductible/excess insurance, which is possibly overkill but was a safety blanket that we wanted.
Gas was expensive, but not unbearable.
What did sting was the $37.80 fee that we paid to Hertz for forgetting to top off the tank upon returning the car. Oops.
Our Restaurant Expenses in Slovenia
Total: $173.21
I don’t even want to know how much of that total is gelato–I’m guessing maybe $15 worth? However expensive Slovenia gelato was (and it felt very affordable), it was worth it.
Our most memorable restaurant meal, surprisingly, was at a place called Pop’s Place Burger Bar on the river in Ljubljana.
We weren’t expecting anything but a mediocre and overpriced taste of home, but what we got instead was the most delicious cheeseburger that I can ever remember eating.
The service was just as incredible. Our waiter felt so bad about forgetting the ketchup that we asked for (and didn’t end up needing: it would have been an insult to the burger) that he brought us out a free slice of cheesecake.
It was an incredibly kind and unnecessary gesture, and the cheesecake was almost as good as the burger itself–and that’s really saying something.
At $32.72 out the door (including Jeremy’s beer), it was our most expensive meal in Slovenia, but the only thing wrong with the price tag was that we didn’t go back and have dinner there again.
Our Grocery Expenses in Slovenia
Total: $66.69
Groceries were inexpensive in Slovenia.
This amount fed us almost all of our meals for a full week when staying in Triglav National Park, plus some snacks that made it to Ljubljana with us after.
We tried to avoid “American” brands like Pringles, which are popular but extremely overpriced compared to the local stuff and shopped for the cheapest available produce to keep the prices down even further.
Our Tour + Excursion Travel Budget for Slovenia
Total: $76.71
A full $35.58 of this is made up of our memorable visit to Skocjan Caves, which was worth every penny.
Miscellaneous Trip to Slovenia Costs
Total: $35.61
We only had one miscellaneous cost factored into our Slovenia travel budget: a trip to the camera store.
During the first month of our trip, we managed to lose one of our lens caps and were using a sock to keep the lens that we weren’t using at the moment safe (we carry two lenses with us).
Obviously, this was not a long-term solution.
Our camera was also a bit sandy in some of its creases from its time in the Sahara Desert and generally bouncing around in our backpack, so we picked up a lens cloth and some basic cleaning supplies as well.
Our Verdict: Is Slovenia Expensive?
So, is Slovenia expensive?
Based on our experiences, we didn’t think so, though there’s no doubt that Sarajevo, the nearby capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is cheaper to explore than Slovenia’s capital of Ljubljana!
Our cost of travel in Slovenia is a great example of utilizing our moderate budget style.
Sure, we could have done this country much more inexpensively by refusing to rent a car, but we got so much more out of backpacking Slovenia by investing the money into getting one, and we fully believe that the tradeoff was worth it.
After crunching the numbers for our Slovenia travel budget, we’re completely satisfied with what we ended up spending, and on our next trip to Slovenia (because there will definitely be a next trip!), we think it would be easy enough to stick to this budget again if necessary.
2026 Update: Well, I definitely no longer think that, but I do still think Slovenia is worth the money!
Read More About Traveling Slovenia & Beyond
Have an upcoming trip to Slovenia and want to keep planning?
We’d love to be part of it!
You can browse the rest of our Slovenia blog posts here, or check out these guides:
- The Perfect 7 Day Slovenia Road Trip Itinerary (Alps, City & Sea!)
- The Ultimate 10 Days in Croatia Itinerary
- Our Cozy High Tatras Hiking Trip in Slovakia (& Why You Should Visit)
- 25 Beautiful Places to Visit in Slovenia
- 21 Offbeat & Cheap European Destinations to Visit
Slovenia is hella expensive even for British standard! 10 euros for parking to see a gorge?? And then another 10 for entry fee? I haven’t paid that much even in Iceland
My boyfriend and I have two weeks this summer to travel after I graduate from graduate school. We want to travel to Italy and Slovenia. I was thinking we would do Tuscany for four days, 2 days in Venice, and then Venice to Slovenia. How do you suggest we get from Italy to Slovenia? I saw bus/train is an option. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks!
Congrats on your upcoming graduation!
That sounds like a wonderful itinerary, and similar to how we entered Slovenia ourselves.
We were staying in Trieste rather than Venice right before visiting Slovenia, but we opted to take a bus from there to Piran. I believe we made a change in Portorož, though I could be mistaken about that part.
It worked like a charm, though, and we’d happily use that route again if needed. 🙂
Hi, thanks so much for such a great trip report. I am thinking of going there next July, and wondered if you could please tell me where you booked your car through? I am thinking it was Hertz , did you book direct on their website or through an agency? Many thanks for that
Hi Sam!
I honestly don’t remember who we rented our car through, we have zero brand loyalty when it comes to renting cars and opt for the best deal. Discover Cars is a good aggregate for comparing the prices and inclusions of the different companies in the area, and we recommend checking there. 🙂
Hi, just reading your budget for Slovenia and one way you can cut down is to buy an annual car rental waiver insurance which is valid worldwide. It removes the need for paying those inflated costs to reduce the excess on the basic insurance. Look into it
Depends on your situation! We’ve looked into this before and didn’t find it cost-effective, but of course, rates vary widely.