Slovenia Soca Valley Road

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Bovec

   Bovec sits at the head of the Soča valley, in a wide bowl of green meadows ringed by limestone walls that look as if they were stacked there deliberately. Kanin rises to the south, the high Julian Alps close in to the east, and the river that gave the valley its name runs cold and unbelievably turquoise just down the road. It is a small town of around sixteen hundred people, but in summer its population of kayakers, rafters, paragliders and riders makes it feel much larger.

   Read the complete Bovec write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Bovec is where the day begins. Next is Kobarid.

2. 2. Kobarid

   Kobarid is a quiet little town in a loud history. In October 1917, in what the Italians know as Caporetto, Austro-Hungarian and German troops broke through the Italian lines on the Isonzo front in the twelfth battle of the river, and the retreat that followed became a byword for catastrophe in Italy. Ernest Hemingway used it as the backdrop for A Farewell to Arms. For two and a half years before that the valley had been a front line, with thousands of men dying in the mountains above, and the town now holds one of the most thoughtful war museums in Europe, which was named European Museum of the Year in 1993.

   Read the complete Kobarid write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kobarid comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tolmin.

3. 3. Tolmin

   Tolmin sits at the meeting of two rivers, the Soča and the Tolminka, in a broad green bowl where the Julian Alps begin to soften toward the Friulian plain. It is the main town of the middle Soča valley, a place with three and a half thousand people, a handful of shops, a market and a cheerful, workaday air, and it makes a good base for riders in the region. Kobarid lies up the valley, Kanal further down, and the Italian town of Cividale del Friuli is beyond the hills to the west.

   Read the complete Near Tolmin write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 38 km into the recorded legs you reach Tolmin. Next is Most na Soci.

4. 4. Most na Soči

   Most na Soči is a small village at a place where water gathers. Here, the emerald Soča river meets the Idrijca, and the combined flow is held back by a dam built in the late 1930s, which created a long and beautifully coloured reservoir. The lake stretches back into the hills between Tolmin and Kanal, and the water often takes on a milky turquoise that makes a long photo stop worthwhile. The houses cluster around the old bridge, which gives the place its name, since most simply means bridge.

   Read the complete Most na Soci write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Most na Soči closes the day.