Best of Ljubljana – In Your Pocket: The Local Slovenia Blog

Best of Spring in Ljubljana 2018

Spring is objectively the best season, but what are the best things about spring in Ljubljana? Our local editorial team has done the difficult part and narrowed down all of their favourites in eight different categories, and now it’s up to our readers to make the final decision by casting their votes! Aside from extra daylight and flowers blooming, nothing is more noticeable in Ljubljana in spring than cafés, which is why we’ve included three separate categories for them, namely, Best Riverside Café, Best Garden or Terrace and Best Coffee. Outdoor activities are well represented with categories for Families & Kids, Parks & Green Spaces and Fitness Centres, since it’s never too early to start getting in shape for beach season. We’ve also included Golf Courses throughout the country, because we’re optimistic that 2018 is the year in which golf finally catches on, and last but not least, our readers need to vote for their favourites Car Rentals companies, since car is the best way to see all that the sunny side of the Alps has to offer.

Voting will be open from 12 – 26 March, and votes can be cast once per person (or device) per week*, and the winners will be announced at a special event in early April. Thanks in advance to all the voters and best of luck to all the finalists! All questions, comments and angry screeds can be sent to ljubljana@inyourpocket.com.

*Please don’t cheat in our poll. By cheating we mean using technological means to vote multiple times in the same poll. Individual computers, phones and other devices are allowed to vote once per week for the duration of the competition. Unfortunately, as Edward Snowden can tell you, nothing on the internet is 100% secure. Nevertheless, we take every reasonable precaution to prevent cheating in our polls, and we also reserve the right to not count votes that were obviously cast through illegitimate means, and/or take other necessary action in such circumstances. If you decide to cheat anyway, please don’t get angry and threaten us with legal action when/if we catch you. We are only trying to keep the polls as fair as possible, and we can assure you that we NEVER favour one venue over another. We honestly don’t care who wins any given poll, as long as the votes of our readers are counted fairly and equally. If you’d like further explanation of our rules or have any questions regarding our poll, please feel free to email us at ljubljana@inyourpocket.com.

2018 Best of Culture in Ljubljana

Every year on 8 February, Slovenia celebrates its National Day of Culture in honour of the great 19th-century poet and cultural iconic France Prešeren, which is not only a work-free holiday but among other events and festivities the vast majority of the country’s cultural institutions offer free admission to the public. At Ljubljana In Your Pocket each year we mark the event by asking our readers help us select the best of the city’s culture, and 2018 has special significance, as it’s been officially recognised as the European Year of Cultural Heritage.

To mark the occasion, we’ve pulled out all the stops and expanded our usual handful of categories to a total of nine, in order to more fully cover the diverse cultural scene in the capital city. Voting will be open from 17 – 31 January, and votes* can be cast once per week. The winners will be announced at a special event on 7 February, with the results also being published in the forthcoming March-April edition of our printed guide. Thanks in advance to all the voters and best of luck to all of the finalists!

*Please don’t cheat on our poll. By cheating, we mean using technological means to vote multiple times in the same poll. Individual computers, phones and other devices are allowed to vote once per week for the duration of the competition. Unfortunately, as Edward Snowden can tell you, nothing on the internet is 100% secure. Nevertheless, we take every reasonable precaution to prevent cheating in our polls, and we also reserve the right to not count votes that were obviously cast through illegitimate means, and/or take other necessary action in such circumstances. If you decide to cheat anyway, please don’t get angry and threaten us with legal action when/if we catch you. We are only trying to keep the polls as fair as possible, and we can assure you that we NEVER favour one venue over another. We honestly don’t care who wins any given poll, as long as the votes of our readers are counted fairly and equally. If you’d like further explanation of our rules or have any questions regarding our poll, please feel free to email us at ljubljana@inyourpocket.com.

Best Nightlife in Ljubljana 2018

Colourful trees, foggy mornings, chilly evenings, yes, it’s definitely that time of year again – the time of year when we ask all of Ljubljana’s party people, beer drinkers, students, hipsters, wine connoisseurs, concertgoers, pool sharks, clubbers, jazzophiles, cigar aficionados and night owls what their favourite after-dark destinations are, as it’s time for our 8th annual Best Nightlife competition!

As in years past, our expert editorial team (several of whom may or may not have a drinking problem) narrowed down the countless choices to shortlists of ten finalists in each of our nine categories, and we then turned things over to our dear readers to decide which venues were the most popular in town for 2018. Voting was open from 15 October till 15 November, and the final results (listed below) were announced at a special awards ceremony on 30 November. Thanks to all the voters, congratulations to all the winners and na zdravje to everyone!

BEST BAR

1. ŽMAUC 21.1%
2. Centralna Postaja 16.4%
3. Lepa Žoga 14.9%

BEST PUB

1. PIVNICA UNION 30.9%
2. Cutty Sark 24.6%
3. Sax Pub 12.7%

BEST CLUB

1. KLUB K4 28.2%
2. Cirkus 18.8%
3. Cvetličarna 18%

BEST LOUNGE BAR

1. KAVARNA ROG 24.4%
2. As Aperitivo 16.4%
3. Sputnik 16.1%

BEST LIVE MUSIC

1. KINO ŠIŠKA 43%
2. Cvetličarna 24.6%
3. Orto Bar 8.4%

BEST WINE BAR

1. DVORNI BAR 26.1%
2. Šuklje Wine Bar 22.7%
3. Movia 12.1%

BEST ALTERNATIVE VENUE

1. GALA HALA 31.2%
2. Klub Tiffany 16.3%
3. Channel Zero 10.1%

BEST LATE NIGHT LEISURE

1. BILJARDNA HIŠA 30.6%
2. Kolosej 18.3%
3. Klub 300 15.3%

BEST LATE NIGHT SNACK

1. BUREK OLIMPIJA 36.9%
2. Nobel Burek 17.7%
3. Hot Horse 10.2%

BEST ADULT ENTERTAINMENT

1. HARD CORE CLUB 36.6%
2. Rocco 25.3%
3. Escape 11.5%

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Best Nightlife in Ljubljana 2017

For the 7th year in a row, we once again asked Ljubljana’s partygoers, students, beer-drinkers, clubbers, connoisseurs, cigar aficionados and overall sophisticates to vote for their favourite nightspots in Ljubljana for our Best Nightlife poll. After receiving more than 20,000 votes last year, we decided to bring some old categories back to the competition and discontinue some others, bringing the total to nine, which includes ones for Nighttime Entertainment, Culture, Live Music (ie venues that regularly host bands and or singers), a bit more upscale Lounge Bars and another dedicated solely to Ljubljana’s famed alternative scene.

As always, the Ljubljana In Your Pocket editorial team narrowed down each category to a shortlist of contenders, and our readers decided who was the best of the best in open voting between 15 November and 15 December 2016. Thanks to everyone who voted, and congratulations to all of the winners and top finishers!

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Best of Summer in Ljubljana 2016

We couldn’t care less if there was a snowstorm in Ljubljana during the last week of April, for us the May Day holidays will always mark unofficial beginning of the season, which means it’s already time once again for our annual Best of Summer in Ljubljana poll.

As in past years the headliners of the 2016 competition include the best summertime attractions and activities, and we’ve once again brought back multiple categories for best terraces (namely restaurant, café and bar/pub), as well as our sweetest category to find out who serves the best ice cream in the town. New categories include a diverse selection of the best tours in Ljubljana, and as much as we detest the word and strongly feel that selfie sticks should either be banned completely or heavily taxed, you can also now vote for the places in the city for taking self-indulgent vanity shots for your social media pages. And last but not least, there’s our shortlist of the best concerts in Ljubljana taking place between last May and early September, which range from Yugo legends and contemporary Slovene rockers to American punk, grunge and hip hop to whatever exactly it is that Alice Cooper does.

Voting in the 9 categories below was open from 11 May till 10 June, and the results were published in the July 2016 issue of our Ljubljana In Your Pocket guide. Congratulations to all the winners and top finishers, and a big thanks to everyone who voted and helped us share the poll. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email us at ljubljana@inyourpocket.com.

*Please don’t cheat in our poll. By cheating we mean using technological means to vote multiple times in the same poll. Individual computers, phones and other devices are allowed to vote once per week for the duration of the competition. Unfortunately, as Angela Merkel can tell you, nothing on the internet is 100% secure. Nevertheless, we take every reasonable precaution to prevent cheating in our polls, and we also reserve the right to not count votes that were obviously cast through illegitimate means, and/or take other necessary action in such circumstances. If you decide to cheat anyway, please don’t get angry and threaten us with legal action when/if we catch you. We are only trying to keep the polls as fair as possible, and we can assure you that we NEVER favour one venue over another. We honestly don’t care who wins any given poll, as long as the votes of our readers are counted fairly and equally. If you’d like further explanation of our rules or have any questions regarding our poll, please feel free to email us at ljubljana@inyourpocket.com.

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Best Restaurants in Ljubljana 2016

In recent years Ljubljana has truly turned into something of a paradise for food-lovers, with countless features published in the international press (Afar, Epircure&Culture), locally-run food tours and food-walks becoming increasingly favoured, and food-related events such as Restaurant Week and Odprta Kuhna turning into some of the most popular activities for both tourists and locals alike.

Of course here at In Your Pocket we’ve been championing Ljubljana’s and Slovenia’s burgeoning culinary scene almost since our inception, and have been running our Best Restaurant poll in some form or another since all the way back in 2010. For the 2016 edition we’ve kept our main competition categories of Gourmet, Slovenian and Balkan cuisine, brought back some old favourites like Pizza and Business Lunch, and added a few completely new ones such as Take Away and Burgers – the latter being a necessity given the extraordinary burger craze that has swept over the city during the past 18 months or so.

Voting in the 11 categories below took place from 15 March till 15 April, and the results will be published in the May/June 2016 issue of our Ljubljana In Your Pocket guide. Votes can be cast once per week per person (or computer/device)*. Thanks to everyone who voted, and congratulations to all of the winners and top finishers in their respective categories. If you have any questions or comments about the poll, feel free to email us at ljubljana@inyourpocket.com.

[The most popular answer for ‘Other’ in Pizza was Garaža with 5.9%]

*Please don’t cheat in our poll. By cheating we mean using technological means to vote multiple times in the same poll. Individual computers, phones and other devices are allowed to vote once per week for the duration of the competition. Unfortunately, as Angela Merkel can tell you, nothing on the internet is 100% secure. Nevertheless, we take every reasonable precaution to prevent cheating in our polls, and we also reserve the right to not count votes that were obviously cast through illegitimate means, and/or take other necessary action in such circumstances. If you decide to cheat anyway, please don’t get angry and threaten us with legal action when/if we catch you. We are only trying to keep the polls as fair as possible, and we can assure you that we NEVER favour one venue over another. We honestly don’t care who wins any given poll, as long as the votes of our readers are counted fairly and equally. If you’d like further explanation of our rules or have any questions regarding our poll, please feel free to email us at ljubljana@inyourpocket.com.

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