We liked riding in Slovenia a lot. Here are a few (hopefully) practical tips for those that decide to ride here:
 
Entering Slovenia from Italy: we came from Italy to the east on the SS646 over the Passo Tanamea and this is recommended. It’s a bit of grind but a great road surface and there is no traffic; plus, it’s off the beaten track! If you’re heading to Bovec or Kobarid from there the traffic is heavy from the intersection with 203 for the last 10 k to either destination.  Another way to come into Slovenia from Italy (which I did in 2009) was to ride from Cividale (In Italy) on the SS54 and 102 to Kobarid and that was easy, minimal climbing, minimal traffic. The most common way to ride in is from Tarvisio (Italy) to Kranjska Gora (which we also did) which is part of a formal bike route, has a cycleway,  is mostly flat, and where you will see many more cyclists. 

Entering/exiting Ljubljana: we entered Ljubljana from the SW riding from Vrhnika on the 409 and rode the adjacent cycleway all the way into Ljubljana (thank you Michael and Anne Hutchings for letting us know there was a cycleway!). It wasn’t attractive but it was stress free, except for some construction and lots of intersections. We did not ride out of Ljubljana to the east but took the train to Zidani Most and rode the rest of the way to Celje.  (I could not find any detailed discussion for how to ride out of Ljubljana to the north or east -anybody?)

Entering/exiting Celje: lots of riders have commented on the busy traffic coming into Celje from the east or west.  Because of that we rode in from the south and this was very good, lovely country cycling.  There was a nice bike trail all the way from Lasko to Celje, most of it right along the river with a beautiful bike bridge. We rode in on a cycleway that put us 200 meters from our old town hotel. As far as leaving Celje we rode east on Askerceva Utica before turning east (right) onto Bukovziak heading to Prosenisko.  These roads, although busy, all had very nice cycleways so it was no problem. (We eventually connected up with the 687 through Poljacane and this was a very nice rural ride, short spiky hills, highly recommended.)

Entering/exiting Maribor: we entered from the south. There is a long 13 k ride through an industrial area to reach the old town but there was either a cycleway or small roads the whole way.  Outside of Maribor we picked up the Traska cesta and then the Titova cesta and rode over the Meljski Most (bridge). It wasn’t scenic but practical and easy.

Trains and Bikes: We only took the train twice, so take our advice with the appropriate grain of salt, but we did learn some stuff! The trains are very cheap and half price on weekends. (Our one hour ride to Zidani  Most was 1.70€ per ticket and 1.50€ per bike). 

Slovenia has an excellent, easy to use train schedule along with a ticket purchasing site (in English) at potniski.sz.si .   You have to download the app to purchase tickets. It also tells you which trains allow bikes. The bad news: it doesn’t let you purchase your required separate bike ticket online and you do that AFTER you load your bike on the car and the train conductor comes around. You have to pay cash for the bike tickets. 

We saw several trains with separate bike cars but the train we rode only had a small space in the wheelchair section. Altogether there were 5 bikes smashed in on our day, with a train conductor who was excellent at working with everyone to move them in and out.  The trains were roll on/roll off, not the type with 3 steep steps. 

Advice: get to the station early to deal with the unknowns (which track, which car, crowds, stairs)  and try not to pick connections that are tight (although many of you do it with panache!)

Signage: it’s more challenging to read signs given the Slavic language but it works in context.  Most intersections have bike and ped signage and drivers are polite and obey the signs. As far as cycleway directions, the signage was spotty; unlike say in Austria on the Alpe Adriatic ride where you could almost do the ride without a map. Here there was only occasional signage. As with most places, it helps to know the small towns en route. ( Note from Dave: Jill understates her near encyclopedic knowledge of our routes. I'm convinced she could ride our entire schedule without navigational assistance from Google or Komoot!)