Bled was just about one of the most entertaining little places I visited along my trip so far, mostly because of the Jahela backpacker hostel I decided to stay at. It was only 15€ a night including breakfast and pick-up/drop-off at the train station. I though “Wow, either this is an amazing deal or this is some kind of hole in the ground that I’m going to really regret…” I noticed that it got good reviews so I gave it a try. I soon discovered why they pick-up and drop off (it is way out of town… much further in normal kilometers than in “tourist kilometers” ie: the distance locals tell tourists) but it was still a charming little place.
The meals were very generous, the breakfast had a different kind of egg for every day of the week and the diner for 6€ had about 4 courses of more local type cuisine! The nice thing about the hostel was that because it was so tiny it was very social and everyone got to know everyone else very quickly.
The town itself was very nice place to relax for a few days. The lake is warm and many people go swim in it. One of my favourite hikes was in the Vintgar gorge. I also visited Bohinj lake and the waterfall right by it. You can take little trains to get to the waterfall but there is an entrance fee to go see it. I thought the Vintgar gorge (picture below) was more worthwhile.
Now that Slovenia has moved over to the Euro things have pretty much leveled out pricewise with the rest of Europe so it’s not cheap like it once was. That being said the scenery is beautiful enough to justify the inflation. All the streams and lakes are like natural aquariums, they have such clear water that you can see right down to the bottom and see the details of the fish swimming just below the surface of the water.