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Popular Things To Do | Other Things To Do Tips | All Tips (76) Postojna is only famous for one thing, and that is the huge 25km cave complex under the ground. It is a great tourist draw from all over, especially with Italians, Austrians and Germans, and for good reason: it is fantastic. The caves are fascinating from both a geological and historic perspective, and are simply astonishing to experience. The grand stalagmites and stalactites have taken tens of thousands of years to form. At about 30-40,000 years per meter, and many standing several meters tall, the age of the caves is staggering. Historically too, they have been important, and deep within the cave you can walk across a bridge built by Russian prisoners during the first world war, and as you exit on the train that drives you 5km into the heart of the complex, you pass many blackened caverns, caused by the Partizans of WW2 blowing up the Nazi fuel depot built inside the caves.
The ticket costs about 3000 SIT, and includes a 5km train journey and a guided tour of about a couple of kilometers of the best sections, in English, Italian, German or, of course, Slovenian. The cost is definitely well worth it, which cannot be said for the overpriced fast food stalls that have proliferated outside the entrance. It's also worth noting that no matter how hot it is outside, the caves are distinctly chilly, with a constant year round temperature of about 8 degrees centigrade. You'll need a pullover in order to be comfortable, although you won't freeze without one. Leave a Comment
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The Caves at Postojna are the #1 tourist attraction in Slovenia, 1 1/2 hour tours are given year round in English, Slovene, Italian and German, some tours are also in French. You can see the time table on the attached website, currently in high season from May-September there are tours every hour from 9am-6pm, less frequently in off season.
The tour starts with a 2km amusement park style train ride that whizzes you through the caves to the start of the walking tour which is broken down into individual groups by language. Our guide wasn't very enthusiastic perhaps she needed a little more sunlight in her daily diet! But she gave us an adequate amount of information on the formations we were seeing as we walked through and gave us the history of the Russian bridge, built in 1916 by Russian prisoners of war. At the end we were treated to a Norwegian chorus that was in our group performing a couple of tunes in the Concert Hall.
Tickets are 18E or you can get a combination ticket if seeing something else in the area. We got a combined ticket for Postojna Caves and Predjama Castle for 23E, a savings of 2E per person, credit cards including Visa accepted. Leave a Comment
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If you are visiting Postojna Caves, it is easy to combine with a visit to Predjama Castle, 9 km away. Even if you don't have time to visit the interior, I'd still recommend at least driving by if you are in the area as the setting, built into the side of a cave, is the coolest thing about this castle. It's easy to understand why they thought this was a good place for a fortress/castle, can't get to it from the top, can't get to it from the bottom and the caves provide secret passageways for the residents to elude invaders and get vital supplies. The formal entrance is through a drawbridge.
The 1st castle on this site was thought to have been built in the 12th century. At the time of Erasmus (Erazem) in the 15th century it was operating as a fortress, probably not very pleasant to live in but a safe place to hide from his pursuers. The castle was modified in 1570 by Ivan Kobenzl, the castle was restored to look like it was in his day. In the 1800s it was owned by a count and a prince and is now open for tourism.
If you do have time to visit the interior, I thought it was interesting but not a must see. You can get a combination ticket for the Cave and the Castle and save 2E per person. We spent around 40 minutes here.
See my Predjama page for more information. Leave a Comment
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Our guide explained to us that the primary minerals in the caves in Slovenia were what gave them their colors, white is from calcium, black is from magnesium and red is from iron.
The main feature at the Postojna Cave is the wide variety of stalactites and stalagmites that are found there. They are formed by the dripping over 1000s of years of calcium carbonate and other minerals, stalactites hang from the ceiling, stalagmites grow from the floor. In time many of these formations meet becoming columns.
Some of the interesting formations you'll see at Postojna is thin drips that look like spaghetti; formations that look like curtains, so thin that the light shines through them; large columns where the stalactites meet the stalagmites, two of them are the symbols of the cave, a pillar and one that resembles an ice cream cone and what seems to be a fixture at caves, one that looks like a pipe organ.
And with a little imagination you can see all kinds of things in the formations! Leave a Comment
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A railway takes visitors through 2km of preliminary systems before the guided tour starts in the 20km-long underworld system. It's little use trying to describe the vast and fantastic jungles of rock formations; the point is to see them for yourself - breathtaking. Postojna's caves are about four million years old and provide a chilly home for Proteus anguineus, a weird creature that looks like a cross between a bloated sperm and a prawn. Actually it's a sort of salamander, one of whose odd capabilities is to give birth to live young in temperatures above -10°C and to lay eggs if it's colder. They live their seventy-year lives down here in total darkness and hence are blind - and no doubt very confused at being put on display to inquisitive tourists.
Open daily: May - September 9h - 18h tours hourly; October - April 10h - 16h tours every 2 hours; last tour leaves 1hr before closing.
Price: 2990SIT (Students: 1990SIT) Leave a Comment
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A railway takes visitors through 2km of preliminary systems before the guided tour starts in the 20km-long underworld system. It's little use trying to describe the vast and fantastic jungles of rock formations; the point is to see them for yourself - breathtaking. Postojna's caves are about four million years old and provide a chilly home for Proteus anguineus, a weird creature that looks like a cross between a bloated sperm and a prawn. Actually it's a sort of salamander, one of whose odd capabilities is to give birth to live young in temperatures above -10°C and to lay eggs if it's colder. They live their seventy-year lives down here in total darkness and hence are blind - and no doubt very confused at being put on display to inquisitive tourists.
Open daily: May - September 9h - 18h tours hourly; October - April 10h - 16h tours every 2 hours; last tour leaves 1hr before closing.
Price: 2990SIT (Students: 1990SIT) Leave a Comment
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Here you can get the idea of what the caves look inside.
You can see the pathways and where they cross, you can see the immense height and the formations which have been formed during millions of years while the cave itself was already there for much longer....
Drop after drop and every droplet helps building up the most fantastic "buildings" and structures...and that all without our "help".
For information and BOOKING:
Postoajnska jama turizem
see below.... Leave a Comment Address: Jamska c. 30 SLO-6230 PostojnaPhone: +386 (5) 700 01 00Directions: time to use your maps again....Website: www.postojna-cave.com Other Contact: info@postojna-jama.si
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The castle perches on a vertical cliff 123m high; behind it is an extensive system of underground passageways with various hidden exits and a supply of running water. An almost impregnable fortress.
The tickets will stop being sold about half an hour before the castle closes its doors. There is a big possibility that the (un)friendly lady at the reception won't even look at you if you arrive too late and you have to read travel guides to get some information because she will be so rude she won't bother explaining why she slams the door on your face and turns the back on you. That's exactly what happened to me.
Everybody has problems in life but... I've nothing to do with it. Leave a Comment
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Velika Gora (The Great Mountain) is the first cave you visit when you left the train. Here you meet your guide. The great mountains is full of wonderful stalactites and stalagmites (the biggest ones of the whole cave) is fantastic and strange forms. Here you can see the great stalactite which is 115 meters tall and about 250000 years old.
You can see more photos on my travelogue. Leave a Comment
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Your visit of the Postojna Caves started by train. The rails were laid in the cave in 1872 and since 1945 an electric locomotive was use to carry tourists inside the caves.
The journey by train is 10 minutes long and along the trail you can see the Wedding Cave, the Cogress Cave and others caves which give you an idea about what you will see in the cave. Leave a Comment
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Destinations near Postojna- Planina, 7.02 km / 4.37 miles
- Predjama, 7.85 km / 4.88 miles
- Rakek, 8.36 km / 5.20 miles
- Hrusica, 12.65 km / 7.86 miles
- Senozece, 14.95 km / 9.29 miles
- Grahovo, 15.96 km / 9.92 miles
- Ribnica, 16.57 km / 10.30 miles
- Vipava, 21.11 km / 13.12 miles
- Skocjan, 21.15 km / 13.15 miles
- Divaca, 21.68 km / 13.48 miles
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