Eastern Slovenia Wine & Towns
Connect Celje, Ptuj, Jeruzalem and Maribor on a four-day circuit through Slovenia’s less-visited east.
- Allow
- 4 days
- Route
- 372 km
- Drive time
- 4 hr 35 min
- Stops
- 6
Eastern Slovenia trades Alpine drama for layers: Celje’s counts, Ptuj’s red roofs, the vineyard curves around Jeruzalem and Maribor’s riverfront. Distances are modest, which leaves time for castles, markets, thermal pauses and meals rather than constant relocation.
Wine roads only work with a sober driver. Book tastings, keep village lanes slow and do not confuse the legal limit with a sensible plan; the most relaxed version uses a wine-country overnight and local transport for the tasting afternoon.
The road, in one glance
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Drawing the route…
The route earns
its distance
Each pin is selected as a place to do something—not merely proof that you passed through.
Photo: Andrew Milligan Sumo · CC BY 2.0Ljubljana
Leave the capital eastbound after its car-free days are complete.
Ljubljana (spoken Slovene: Lublana; also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia, located along a trade route between the northern Adriatic Sea and the Danube region, north of the country's largest marsh, it has been inhabited since prehistoric times. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center and the seat of the Urban Municipality of Ljubljana.
Photo: Reisevogel · CC BY-SA 4.0Celje
Roman traces and the hilltop Old Castle introduce a city shaped by the powerful Counts of Celje.
Celje ( (T)SEL-yay; Slovene:; German: Cilli ) is the third-largest city in Slovenia. It is a regional center of the traditional Slovenian region of Styria and the administrative seat of the Urban Municipality of Celje. The town is located below Upper Celje Castle at the confluence of the Savinja, Hudinja, Ložnica, and Voglajna rivers in the lower Savinja Valley, and at the crossing of the roads connecting Ljubljana, Maribor, Velenje, and the Central Sava Valley.
Photo: Ptuj-mestnaHisa1.JPG : Sl-Ziga uploaded and derivative work: MrPanyGoff · Public domainPtuj
Slovenia’s oldest recorded town spreads red roofs beneath a castle above the Drava.
Ptuj is the eighth-largest town of Slovenia, located in the traditional region of Styria (northeastern Slovenia). It is the seat of the Municipality of Ptuj. Being the oldest recorded city in Slovenia, it has been inhabited since the late Stone Age and developed from a Roman military fort, located at a strategically important crossing of the Drava River along a prehistoric trade route between the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic.
Photo: claire rowland · CC BY 2.0Jeruzalem wine hills
Terraced vines, small roads and hilltop churches create the east’s most photogenic rural drive.
Jeruzalem is a small settlement in the eastern part of the Slovene Hills (Slovene: Slovenske gorice) in the Municipality of Ljutomer in northeastern Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria and is now included in the Mura Statistical Region.
Photo: Vlada Republike Slovenije · Public domainMaribor
The Drava riverfront, Lent district and old vine make a lively final city base.
Maribor (UK: MARR-ib-or, US: MAR-, Slovene:; also known by other historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Lower Styria. It is the seat of the Urban Municipality of Maribor and the Drava Statistical Region. Maribor is also the economic, administrative, educational, and cultural centre of eastern Slovenia.
Photo: Shabicht · CC BY-SA 4.0Žiče Charterhouse
A former Carthusian monastery in a secluded valley gives the return to Ljubljana a contemplative stop.
Žiče Charterhouse, also Seiz Charterhouse (German: Kartäuserkloster Seiz, Latin: Domus in Valle Sancti Johannis), was a Carthusian monastery or Charterhouse in the narrow valley of Žičnica Creek, also known as Saint John the Baptist Valley (Slovene: dolina svetega Janeza Krstnika) after the church dedicated to St. John the Baptist at the monastery near the village of Žiče (German: Seitzdorf) and at settlement Špitalič pri Slovenskih Konjicah in the Municipality of Slovenske Konjice in northeastern Slovenia.
Drive the conditions,
not the itinerary.
Vineyard roads are local working roads. Keep speed low, make room for farm vehicles and use a designated driver for every tasting day.
Checked against
the people who run it
Distances and driving times are planning estimates. Conditions, closures, ferries, permits and park rules can change, so check the linked official guidance before setting out.