Old Railways, River Trails and Smugglers: Slovenia’s Slow-Travel Experiences Win European Recognition

At the 2026 Destination of Sustainable Cultural Tourism Awards, Slovenian projects secured three top-three positions across two categories. This year's awards attracted 72 entries from 23 European countries, with an international expert jury selecting 19 finalists.

Their common thread is not a single destination or even a single type of experience. Instead, they show how existing landscapes, routes and stories can be reimagined for a slower and more immersive way of travelling.

From railway tracks to cycle tracks

The Štrekna Cycling Route took second place in the Active, Slow and Accessible Cultural Tourism category.

Its story begins with a former railway corridor, now transformed into a dedicated cycling route connecting towns and villages across the Koroška and Šaleška Valley regions. Rather than treating the route simply as cycling infrastructure, the project connects the journey with the natural and cultural heritage encountered along the way.

The result is a route where the journey itself becomes the experience – an example of how obsolete infrastructure can be given a new role in contemporary tourism.

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Following the Drava through landscapes and stories

Third place in the same category went to the Drava Bike, which follows the river for around 145 kilometres through Slovenia before continuing for another 65 kilometres into Croatia.

Its six Slovenian stages connect much more than points on a map. Cyclists encounter historic towns and castles, industrial and technical heritage, traditional timber rafting, vineyards, gastronomy and communities whose histories have long been shaped by the river.

The long-term ambition is equally telling: to develop Drava Bike from a cycle route into a cycling destination, encouraging visitors not simply to pass through, but to stop and spend more time exploring the places along the way.

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Crossing a border in the footsteps of smugglers

The third Slovenian award takes the idea of crossing borders rather more literally.

Smuggle Tour (Šverc tura) received third place in the Transnational Thematic Tourism Products involving Culture and Heritage category. The experience explores the history and stories of smuggling along the Slovenian-Italian border, turning a once tightly controlled frontier into the setting for a contemporary cross-border cultural experience.

The border itself becomes part of the story – not simply something to cross, but a way to understand the communities, memories and everyday ingenuity that developed on either side of it.

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Slow travel as a way of reading a landscape

A former railway, a river and an international border may seem to have little in common. Yet each provides a line through the landscape that visitors can follow – and a reason to look more closely at the places along it.

Together, the three European awards point towards a broader direction in Slovenian tourism: using cycling, walking and storytelling not simply to move visitors through a destination, but to reveal the cultural layers that might otherwise be missed.

Sometimes the most interesting way to discover Slovenia is not to head straight for its best-known sights, but to follow an old railway, keep a river beside you – or retrace a route once known mainly to smugglers.

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