Velika Planina is considered to be one of the largest and most beautiful Alpine pastures not only in Slovenia but in the whole of Europe, covering almost 600 hectares of pastureland. It is also one of the most unique pastures you will find, as it is dotted with more than 50 semicircular wooden cottages that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Local herdsmen drive cattle up from the valleys each end of May and remain on Velika Planina for the rest of the summer season. The herdsmen also produce dairy products, including butter and cheese, which they often sell to visitors.
Velika Planina is located at an elevation of around 1,600 metres in the heart of the Kamnik-Savinja Alps. It is accessible by cable car from the Kamniska Bistrica village, which is around a 50-minute drive from our place. The journey to the this high-elevation pasture comes in 2 stages, first an exciting cable-car ride and then a a 15-minute chairlift ride or a relatively easy half an hour walk on a gentle slope – simply follow the signposts up the hill for about two kilometres and you’ll reach a highland plain filled with 50+ shingle-roofed dwellings enclosed within neat fences. Some avid hikers also choose to walk up the mountain without taking the cable car, a semi-difficult hike on a well-marked trail that begins in the Stahovica village. The car parks are large and free at both the cable car terminus and in Stahovica.
Velika Planina is dotted with 63 shingle-roofed, semicircular wooden huts that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. (photo: Bojan Kolman)
Velika Planina literally means ‘big mountain’ and the name refers to a large alpine plateau high up in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps north of Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana. (photo: Drazen Stader/ slovenia.info)
Velika Planina has few permanent residents, but in the summer it becomes populated with herdsmen who bring their cattle up to graze on the mountain pastures as they have done for many centuries. (photo: Drazen Stader / slovenia.info)
Velika Planina is one of very few herders’ settlements of this scale that still exist in Europe and where the traditional Alpine herdsmen’s culture is still alive. (photo: Ana Pogacar / slovenia.info)
Located at an elevation between 1,500 and 1,666 metres in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps, and accessible by cable car, Velika Planina is one of the largest and most beautiful Alpine pastures in Europe. (photo: Ales Frelih / slovenia.info)
Reaching the Velika Planina plateau requires a steep 2+ hour hike from the valley below or else you can make use of the cable car located about 10 kilometres north of the town of Kamnik. (photo: Jost Gantar / slovenia.info)
Lying at about 1500 meters above sea level, it is a very popular place for hiking and relaxing in the summer months. (photo: Jost Gantar/ slovenia.info)
Velika Planina is the place to be for winter and snow lovers. (photo: Iztok Medja / slovenia.info)
Velika Planina is transformed into a winter wonderland over the winter. (photo: Iztok Medja / slovenia.info)
Shingle-roofed, semicircular wooden huts look even more picturesque when they are covered with a white blanket of snow. (photo: Iztok Medja / slovenia.info)
In the winter everything is covered in white and so beautiful. (photo: Jost Gantar / slovenia.info)
In 1939, the shepherds of Velika Planina built the Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows. It is particularly known for its Christmas Eve midnight mass. (photo: Iztok Medja / slovenia.info)
The Trnic cheese is a particularly interesting specialty of Velika Planina. It’s made from curd, cream and salt and shaped into mounds that resemble women’s breasts. It is decorated with special ornaments which are embossed onto the cheese with little wooden boards with various carved patterns on them. (photo: David Lotric / slovenia.info)
The Trnic cheese is Slovenian culinary particularity that has been made on Velika Planina for centuries. (photo: Nea Culpa d.o.o. / slovenia.info)
More info about Velika Planina: All You Need To Know To Visit Velika Planina
Location:
The bottom station of the cable car to Velika planina is located in Kamniska Bistrica:
Address: Kamniska Bistrica 3, 1242 Stahovica, Slovenia
Latitude and Longitude coordinates 46.312218, 14.606744
GPS coordinates: 46° 18′ 43.9848” N 14° 36′ 24.2784” E
Velika Planina Address: Velika Planina 1, 1242 Stahovica, Slovenia
Velika Planina latitude and Longitude coordinates: 46.303798, 14.625965
Velika Planina GPS coordinates: 46° 18′ 13.6728” N 14° 37′ 33.474” E
Traditional region: Upper Carniola (Slovene: Gorenjska)
Municipality: Kamnik
Directions from Apartments Fine Stay to Velika Planina (drive 64 km, 55 minutes + cable car ride + chairlift ride or half an hour walk)
Directions from Apartments Fine Stay Bled to Velika Planina (drive 62 km, 55 minutes + cable car ride + chairlift ride or half an hour walk)
