Lipica stud farm and skocjan caves day tour from ljubljana

In the southwestern part of Slovenia stretches a region called Kras (Karst). It is a land of rare beauty, secret underground waters and caves, special climate and scarce vegetation. And right there in a picturesque village of Lipica for more than 400 years beautiful, white horses called Lipizzaners have been bred.

A local guide will take the visitors on a guided tour through the stables pointing out different methods of stages of breeding and training of these noble animals. A special feature is a show-program of a star Lipizzaner studs performing the excellence of what they have learnt in their school of training.

The Skocjan caves have an extremely complex system of cave passages in a total length of 5.8 km. The caves are the biggest and best known natural phenomenon within the classical Karst area. With the shifting of sink holes in the geological past, numerous collapsed valleys have formed at the contact point where flysch meets limestone under the caverns. With their depth of 163 meters, Velika dolina and Mala dolina charm every visitor. The finest view of both valleys with the natural bridge and the cave that separates them is from an observation point.

The caves, with an immense underground gorge and halls, are the beginning of the Skocjan underground system The caves probably have the biggest cave hall in Europe, measuring 12,000 square meters (1.2 hectares) in cross section. The Reka river runs underground for almost 40 kilometres, to the sources of the Timav in the Gulf of Trieste (Italy).