A surprise trip to a small European country yields new lessons about traffic

Imagine commuting inside of a postcard everyday. Sounds great, except for the whole 2D aspect, right?

My wife, Momo, and I did not know we would be doing just that on our recent weeklong vacation to Slovenia. The small central European country — formerly part of Yugoslavia and flanked by Italy, Austria and Croatia — may have a fraction of the traffic complexities metro Atlanta has, but we observed a few notable things.

Our trip here was a surprise, thanks to travel agency Journee, which asks vacationers to fill out a questionnaire and then matches them with an itinerary. Travelers get packing lists and clues beforehand but open envelopes at the airport to find their connecting flight and final destination. This Slovenia trip is our third with Journee, which sent us last year to the Azores and to Iceland in 2024.

We split our time between the cute, classic capital of Ljubljana and the picturesque tourist town of Bled, on a gorgeous lake of the same name.

Ljubljana is split by a river, and city planners mapped routes around the waterway’s banks. Walking and biking paths hug the river and plenty of bridges cross it.

Many blocks inside what is called the old town are closed to vehicles, so pedestrians can easily meander in and out cafes, pubs and shops.

We took a 6-mile bicycle tour on our first full day in Ljubljana. The terrain is fairly flat and almost every street has bike lanes or wide sidewalks. Many locals are on two wheels. Drivers and pedestrians are so used to cyclists that very few bikers even wear helmets.

Slovenia’s clean, well-maintained and bicycle-friendly roads crisscross its sparkling, beautiful landscape. (Courtesy of Doug Turnbull)

This is very European and on par with my experiences in London, Paris and especially Amsterdam. Momo and I do not own bicycles and we rarely ride them. When I told the guide I never ride, he said, “Of course, you are from America.”

Side note: Having just disembarked from a car in Ljubljana, we forgot to look both ways and almost got nailed by a cyclist. They just shook their heads.

The paths, sidewalks and streets are also very well maintained. Of course, doing this is far easier in a smaller and less populated country (Slovenia’s 2.1 million population is about a third of metro Atlanta’s). But our threshold for road damage both in Atlanta and in the U.S. seems to be far higher.

We enjoyed multiple hikes to viewing points off Lake Bled and the 3-mile shoreline path was as smooth as the view was sparkling.

Walking and biking are so engrained in this culture that these paths have to be in top shape. And tourism is a good reason, too.

We also noticed the glaring lack of litter, both in the city and in less dense areas. Recycling and cleaning up seem to be woven deeply into Slovenian life. Applied to traffic, less trash means fewer vehicles are swerving or having tires damaged. It also means drains are less likely to clog and flood the roads.

Ljubljana also funds a free, small electric trolley that ferries people around its main districts. That is a nice touch for people less able to travel by foot or bike.

Sure, traffic can get heavy in the high tourist season or as people from other parts of Europe pass to and from Croatia. But commuting as passengers in vehicles on short drives, on long walks and on a bike tour was a lovely experience for both of us.