Slovenia

A glacial Alpine lake in Upper Carniola with Slovenia's only natural island, a Baroque island church and a medieval cliff-top castle — one of the most recognisable images in Central Europe.

The hilltop Ljubljana Castle overlooking a car-free old town of Baroque facades and the Triple Bridge, the life's work of the architect Jože Plečnik, whose Secessionist Ljubljana is one of Central Europe's most personal cityscapes.

A Venetian-style coastal town at the tip of the Istrian peninsula, with Tartini Square, a 14th-century church with a sea-visible campanile, narrow medieval streets and surviving salt pans — one of the most atmospheric towns on the Adriatic.

A 24-kilometre cave system in the Karst region, one of the largest in Europe, with extraordinary stalactite and stalagmite formations and an underground river — open to visitors since 1819.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999, the Škocjan Caves contain one of the largest known underground canyons in Europe, carved by the Reka River over thousands of years — a vast underground space of extraordinary scale and geological significance.

Slovenia's only national park, covering most of the Julian Alps around Mount Triglav, the country's highest peak at 2,864 metres — a landscape of glacial valleys, mountain lakes and rich Alpine wildlife.