Why Digital Nomads Are Choosing Slovenia

What happens when an American content creator discovers a hidden winter workation village in Bovec after clicking on a random Instagram ad? Why would a Spanish digital nomad leave Madrid and Budapest behind for life in Ljubljana? And why did a Slovenian entrepreneur living in Barcelona decide to return home just as Slovenia launched its new digital nomad visa?

In the first-ever video episode of Feel Slovenia The Podcast, host Dr. Noah Charney sits down with three digital nomads whose personal stories reveal a different side of Slovenia — one that goes far beyond postcard images of Lake Bled.

Guests include American travel creator Ben Herskowitz, who spent the winter living in Bovec as part of a rural digital nomad community; Fernando Cantero, a Spanish remote worker who found in Slovenia the perfect balance between mountains, nature, safety, and quality of life; and Dino Kovačević, founder of WorkFromSlovenia.si, who offers insight into Slovenia’s growing digital nomad ecosystem and the impact of the country’s new digital nomad visa launched in November 2025.

Together, they discuss everything from coworking spaces and bureaucracy to hidden alpine villages, local traditions, and the surprisingly strong sense of community foreigners can find in Slovenia.

More than just a conversation about remote work, the episode explores why Slovenia is increasingly attracting people searching for something many destinations have lost: authenticity, connection to nature, slower living, and genuine human interaction. From Ljubljana and Maribor to Bovec, Triglav National Park, and lesser-known corners of the country, the episode paints a vivid portrait of Slovenia through the eyes of foreigners who unexpectedly found a place that feels like home. 

Feel Slovenia the Podcast is brought to you by the Slovenian Tourist Board and hosted by Dr Noah Charney.

For more inspirational content, check out www.slovenia.info and our social media channels, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Tripadvisor.

Transcript

Why Digital Nomads Are Choosing Slovenia

Ben Herskowitz: I knew zero things about Slovenia other than Luka Dončić is from here. And we walked into it with the whole group of us nomads with really no idea what to expect. 

Fernando Cantero: I was looking for something, more little, let's say, a little city, cozy city, and I was missing mountains. Perfect combination of nature, mountains, these cozy little cities.

Living a very proper life, very connected to nature. 

Ben Herskowitz: I really didn't know anything about the country, and I've been really pleasantly surprised. In reality, I think it's one of the coolest winter destinations that feels very similar to where I grew up, and it's very rural, lots of farms, very focused on small business.

Dr Noah Charney: Welcome to Feel Slovenia, the podcast now in video. Today, we're talking about digital nomads. Slovenia is such a great country for digital nomads. It's in the heart of Central Europe. It's one of the safest and greenest countries in the world. The population speaks excellent English. It's really well-connected.

It's in the heart of the EU and the Schengen Area, and it's logistically an easy place for foreigners to come and bring their work with them. As of the 21st of November 2025, Slovenia introduced a digital nomad visa that allows you to come for up to one year and work remotely. It streamlines this process and makes it a welcome place for travelers from around the world to bring their work and live in this beautiful country.

But what's it like to actually be here? Well, today I'm joined by three digital nomads who have made Slovenia their temporary home. So what's it really like to build a life here? Not just stay for a short time, but for a long haul. Uh, let's get started. I'd love to hear how each of you decided to come to Slovenia.

What was the tipping point, and was it more emotional or strategic? Ben, maybe you could start. 

Ben Herskowitz: I actually found out about a workation for digital nomads, which is kind of a community-based thing to bring nomads together and find a sense of community. And I found it through a Instagram ad actually, which is the first time I've ever found anything through that.

I knew zero things about Slovenia other than Luka Dončić is from here. And just booked a flight, and now I've been here for three months at this workation experiencing rural Slovenian life, and I absolutely love it. 

Dr Noah Charney: We'll work on the pronunciation. Luka Dončić. 

Ben Herskowitz: Dončić. 

Dr Noah Charney: But that you're doing great if you know who he is ...

Sorry. We're already approving of your content. So we'll come back to hearing more about Bovec, where you're based in particular, 'cause that's a beautiful spot, but it's not on everyone's traffic pattern, especially when they first come to Slovenia. So I'd like to circle back to that, but Dino, you wanna tell us a little bit about how you decided to come?

Dino Kovačević: Sure, of course. Originally, I'm anyway from Slovenia, so but I'm coming back, I'm returning back to Slovenia to my home country from Barcelona, from Spain. I have been there for a few years and just decided that it's time for me to really come back to the roots, to connect back with my country, with everything that it has to offer, especially now in the lights of opening up to digital nomads, the whole movement and everything.

And I think I came back at the right time, so I'm happy, to be back here. 

Dr Noah Charney: That's always a good sign when somebody goes elsewhere and decides, "You know what? It's pretty cool here," and comes back for more. Excellent. And, Fernando, tell us about your journey. How did you come to Slovenia? 

Fernando Cantero: Well, I've been living like a digital nomad for four or five years.

And after spending the last two years between Budapest and Madrid, I was looking for something, uh- more little, let's say, a little city, cozy city. And I was missing mountains because in Hungary there's no mountains. I've been in Estonia also, and there's no mountains. And I think, here it's the perfect combination of nature, mountains, these cozy little cities, very accessible, so I decided to come here.

Dr Noah Charney: We're so glad that you did. It's really exciting times because the digital nomad visa can bring interesting creatives who might not otherwise think to come to Slovenia and make it as easy and smooth as possible. So Dino, from the inside, how do you see the digital nomad residence option changing the global conversation about Slovenia?

I imagine it's more than just symbolic, but how does it reposition the country? 

Dino Kovačević: I think it repositions the country very well. I'll say it like this: though the digital nomad visa itself might not be the, the main decisioning factor for digital nomads to really come to Slovenia, it does put Slovenia on the map in terms of possibilities, and it's an indication that things are gonna start developing in terms of digital nomad infrastructure, everything that can be offered to digital nomads, and that certain new activities, after all, are gonna be started organizing, such as location retreats, maybe some villages, nomad villages, where people, digital nomads from all around the world can just start meeting and start experiencing what Slovenia has to offer.

Dr Noah Charney: Speaking of digital nomad villages, it sounds like you found one. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? 

Ben Herskowitz: Yeah. The digital nomad community where I'm staying in Bovec, it's from a company called Hubs Travel, and basically they have a solution for kind of this loneliness that sometimes affects digital nomads, while also solving the problem where a lot of the times digital nomad-friendly places, all of a sudden the locals become priced out because they're coming in with more income and pricing out or taking all these housing opportunities.

And instead, when you take rural villages like Bovec, who kinda lost a lot of their winter tourism because the ski resort closed, now you have people coming in and filling these empty apartments during the winter when it's basically dead, and bringing a bit of life to the village while also keeping it affordable and helping support local businesses.

And for me, the biggest thing with my travels and just being a nomad is making sure that my being in a place is not hurting the local economy, as much as possible. And that's kinda why I picked this place, Bovec specifically, and that it's in the mountains and near skiing and very close to amazing hiking trails.

Dr Noah Charney: It sounds like a really symbiotic relationship with the local community and the guests. That's perfect. So before you got here, how did you imagine life would be in Slovenia? And now that you've been here for a little while, what has surprised you? Would you like to start, Fernando? 

Fernando Cantero: It's a bit tricky question because I've been here before. Okay. Visiting and going to the mountains, so I made my idea of how life is here. But I have to say that I settled here last July. It was summertime. Everything was shining. Warm weather, lots of lights. So for me, it's like living a very proper life, very connected to nature.

That I think it's very important for me. You got this need of being outdoors all day because the city, Ljubljana, is vibrating every day. You need to go to this mountain or to this lake, or I want to see this waterfall. So there's lots of things to do. So for me, it's like this energetic kind of life being here.

Dr Noah Charney: When you returned from Barcelona, what did you think it would be like for you having returned to your homeland, and then what surprised you? 

Dino Kovačević: What surprised me is that in the meantime, probably Slovenia didn't change as much as on its own. It’s probably something that I changed. 

Dr Noah Charney: Ben, what about you? Your vision and the reality. 

Ben Herskowitz: I had basically no idea what to expect from Slovenia 'cause I really didn't know anything about the country. I've been really pleasantly surprised by what Slovenia is like because it's actually a country, and specifically where I'm at in Bovec, that feels very similar to where I grew up.

I'm from Vermont in the US, and it's very rural, lots of farms, very focused on small business and local friendliness of everyone knowing each other in these smaller villages. So for me, being in Bovec feels like being home. So that's been, like, really amazing for me, especially to have that in a different part of the world. I've loved that. 

Dr Noah Charney: How about the admin and bureaucracy? I'm always curious about this. To me, 'cause I used to live in Italy, and there, there's a lot of bureaucracy, and things still don't work here. I find that there's bureaucracy, but then things seem to work. What was your experience with like the first month?

Was it easy enough to get your stuff sorted and to get your papers in order and whatnot? Or was it labyrinthine in any way? 

Dr Noah Charney: Maybe you go first, please. 

Fernando Cantero: For me, it was kind of easy. I got my tax number in three days. All the bureaucracy is internet oriented. So you can send all the documents via email or via internet. I think bureaucracy is kind of easy. I think Slovenia is doing some kind of effort to make things easier for foreigners. I would say it's perfect. 

Dr Noah Charney: It's similar to Italy. It can be a little bit chaotic, and there's always a magic piece of paper you didn't know existed and that you needed yesterday. And you have no idea how to get it, and neither does the person in front of you. I'm familiar with that system. In terms of where you chose to base yourself, Ljubljana's probably an obvious choice.

Maribor is only an obvious choice if you know Maribor, Bovec is not an obvious choice at all. So, you picked Bovec because these Instagram ads, normally it's like things you don't think you want or restaurants that you'd like to be eating and they know your algorithm. So you just had this magic thing pop up and it said, "Come to..." What did it actually say, actually? 

Ben Herskowitz: It was basically just a ad for the hubs travel community. And I was looking for a place where I'd be able to post up for two to three months for the winter and get a snowy winter experience and be able to ski. And most of the digital nomad things I was looking at that are community-based are really expensive, so this was the most affordable price I'd found for anything of that sort. And since it was a rural community and a rural location and a community, that's like what I was looking for, so I just went ahead and booked it, and it ended up being the perfect choice. 

Dr Noah Charney: So it was the experience that led you rather than the specific location? 

Ben Herskowitz: Definitely. Up until flying here, I still didn't really know much about Bovec or what awaited me really, 'cause there wasn't that much information when I was booking everything. I just knew there were some ski mountains around the area, and it looked like a nice rural mountain town. And I think that sense of community that I knew I was gonna have in a rural location, which is usually the biggest issue as a nomad, is I wanna be in rural mountain locations, but it's pretty hard to meet people in those places unless you're going somewhere where there's specifically a community already. So once I found that, it was all good. 

Dr Noah Charney: Were you also led by the idea of what content creation I'm going to be able to make here, or was that a secondary consideration? 

Ben Herskowitz: That was definitely a secondary consideration. Originally, I was just coming here for three months to take a break from content creation 'cause it'd been a really busy travel year, just all over the world, and I just needed a break. But then upon arriving here, I kinda got more inspired again about making ski videos and showcasing a different part of Europe that most people don't go to, especially as an American and kinda got my creative spark back for that between Slovenia, Italy, and some weekend trips we did.

So, now I have been actually creating content while I've been here, which I didn't think I was originally gonna do, and also making videos for the hubs travel that I'm doing because I realized how amazing it was, and I was like, "Oh, I want more people to experience this because this is a solution to a problem I've been finding all over the world for digital nomads."

Dr Noah Charney: That's great, and it's also good to hear that you were inspired enough by the place you chose that you wanted to do extra work in effect, even if you're on a quiet sort of winter getaway. 

Dr Noah Charney: Maribor is much cooler than most people realize, and I have a feeling it's a great place to live.

Tell me a little bit about why you chose Maribor. 

Dino Kovačević: Very good question. I'll borrow your words. So, if Ljubljana is an obvious choice, I'll say Maribor should be an obvious choice. After all, being the second biggest city in Slovenia, it has everything that Ljubljana has to offer in terms of infrastructure and everything that you need within the city.

But what I love about Maribor is that it has nature, amazing nature surrounding it even closer to the city. People are amazing. Very nice starts here. Amazing folks. Food, probably it's one of the best food regions in Slovenia, and also it has... (that's what statistics say) way more sun than central Slovenia, especially Ljubljana. So considering all this, and I think Ljubljana is also becoming a bit too crowded. I think people start to discover other cities, bigger towns, cities in Slovenia to just settle there, so as opposed to Ljubljana. 

Dr Noah Charney: Fernando, Ljubljana's probably the default choice that most people would make if they're not sure where else to go. You talked a little bit about why you chose it, but maybe now that you're there, was there anything that caught you off guard or you needed to adjust to culturally? Or having lived in a number of places in Europe, there was not too much of a shift? 

Fernando Cantero: There's not too much to change, and Ljubljana is an open city. There's lots of foreigners there, so you feel, or at least I feel like home from the first day. You know, there's no shifting needed.

Dr Noah Charney: That’s good. That means that everybody's welcome and it's really easy to adapt. What about work life? Has anything about being in Slovenia changed your productivity, your routine, or your ambitions related to the work that you do as a digital nomad?

You wanna go first maybe? 

Dino Kovačević: So what changed for me is living in Barcelona being a big city and all around Spain and everything, it's a way more fast-paced life than here in Slovenia, which now coming back to Slovenia, I see this at this point in my life fits me way more.

So it's a way slower life. I have way more time that I can spend in nature. Obviously, there's way more nature in Maribor and in general in Slovenia than in Barcelona and surrounding of Barcelona. So, we have way more time to spend to go out to mountains, hike, and so on. Plus, coming back to what I said regarding the slow life, just again, new town, new city to experience in a slower mode, taking our time to really explore it, to dive into the community and everything, as opposed to just going to events in Barcelona, which is amazing, and going to the beach and enjoying all the activities that are happening there. It's amazing, but it's also at the same time tiring. Which in Slovenia, again, a bit slower, everything is perfect. 

Dr Noah Charney: There's a work-life balance. I had that too when I lived in London or Rome. There's so much to do. 

Dino Kovačević: Yeah.

Dr Noah Charney: And when you, especially if you're younger, if you don't have a family, then okay. But then it's the work-life balance ... and there are fewer things to tempt you, but then you choose more selectively, and you maybe have a deeper experience of them. 

Dino Kovačević: Very well put. Thanks. 

Dr Noah Charney: Ben, I understand you came across an unusual and exotic festival. Can you tell us a little bit about what you saw and experienced?

Ben Herskowitz: I was lucky enough to go to one of Slovenia's traditional carnivals, which was the Drežnica Carnival in the town of Drežnica, and it's one of the oldest ones in Slovenia, or, like, one of the oldest traditional ones in Slovenia. And it was definitely an experience that I had not expected. We walked into it with the whole group of us nomads with really no idea what to expect. And before knowing the whole story and what was everything going on, we were just speechless 'cause it was pure chaos of different things happening.

Dr Noah Charney: Walk us through what you saw that left you speechless, 'cause it's quite visually distinctive. 

Ben Herskowitz: So basically, as we arrived, the whole village was kind of still putting everything together, and then you start having people coming out in, like, monster costumes. And there's, like, the “tagrdi” and the “talepi”. It's the ugly ones and the pretty ones. And the ugly ones are like the bad winter spirits, and basically the gist of the whole carnival is to usher out winter and welcome spring. And so you're getting rid of the evil winter spirits, and you're welcoming the better energy spring spirits.

It’s also traditional for the boys to become men at the carnival. And so the ugly ones, these monsters, are basically running around with these little bags full of ash, and they're, like, whipping the kids who are, are basically running away from them. And so you just see kids, like, running back and forth with these monsters chasing them, and the monsters have these giant cowbells on them too, like Swiss cowbells.

And so it's just super loud. You got them running both directions. And then at the same time, there's basically a bunch of other characters like a policeman, a doctor, there's like this fat pig man kind of thing. I still don't even know what that name was. And all of this is also going on at the same time.

So they were making like a applesauce, apple liquor type of thing, and then there's also the doctor that's taking people out of the crowd and giving them shots and healing them. And then eventually the fat man becomes ill, and the whole community kinda comes together with a few volunteers, which ended up being my friends, to basically cut this guy open and take meat, and there was a dead crow in there and a few other things, and throw it into the crowd and then stitch him back up, and now he was saved, and they're jumping around.

And I'm not sure what that part had to do with the other part of the tradition. I think they kinda have a little bit of freedom to put on a show. But overall it's such an amazing experience that I don't think a lot of foreigners get to experience, especially that specific festival. I was very happy that we got to see that and that I got to make a video and share that with the world because these type of traditions, which I also talked about in the video, the world's modernizing at a very scary rate, and places that are still doing traditions like this and still staying true to their roots are becoming more and more rare.

And so it's really special to get to experience something like that. 

Dr Noah Charney: That's wonderful, and also to see it through your eyes. If people Google Slovenia, they probably come across a different, similar festival in Ptuj – the Kurentovanje. But this is one of the more exotic ones, and it's great not only that you got to see it, but that you preserved it in video form and shared it. That sounds very distinctive. 

Ben Herskowitz: I was very grateful for that. 

Dr Noah Charney: Dino, I understand you have a professional relationship with digital nomads, not only being one. Can you tell us a little bit about that? 

Dino Kovačević: Of course, sure. First of all, I'll say I love it how Ben put it, cause that's, that's the gist of what we're trying to achieve and what we're trying to show to people, digital nomads that are coming to Slovenia. With my partner, we have Work From Slovenia, which is in a nutshell, a portal, where we try to offer everything, all the information and everything that's available to digital nomads, remote workers, foreigners that are coming and trying to experience Slovenia. Everything on one page, and everything that Slovenia has to offer in terms of what you can do besides just Ljubljana.

Nothing’s wrong with Ljubljana, but there's way more, Slovenia has way more to offer. Similar festivals like this, which even I, sorry, even I don't know, specifically about this festival. But we're trying to present to foreigners what you can do and how you can experience Slovenia in a different way, as opposed to just what you can see when you Google it 

Dr Noah Charney: So if you're interested in digital nomading your way to Slovenia, what's the website? 

Dino Kovačević: WorkFromSlovenia.si. 

Dr Noah Charney: WorkFromSlovenia.si. Yes. Okay, that's excellent and good to know. I'm curious, people who have contacted you, what are the frequently asked questions? Or where do people have trouble? 

Dino Kovačević: Obviously, the first question, especially now in the lights of digital nomad visa are all the questions regarding visa. How to get it, why are they not responding at the administrative unit, and so on and so on. Not to go too much into details, 'cause that's probably even out of our boundaries, so that's something that ministries have to deal with as well.

But we're here to help digital nomads or whoever wants to come on, on this visa. These are usually the first questions. But then on the opposite, on a more positive side, there are as well very nice questions that we love receiving, for example, where we can go and experience bees ...

So whatever, if somebody's interested in bees, how they can engage in that community, or how they can meet someone that's doing that's collecting honey and so on. Or there are, for example, people that are interesting in brewing beer. Obviously, Slovenia has a lot of also microbreweries and everything.

Kamnik, you know, being one of the bigger ones, at least in terms of breweries. So, we're trying to provide as one as well then with such information and this is something that really fills my soul, fills my heart, that people are seeing Slovenia also in different light, not just nature, not just Ljubljana, but also everything that it has to offer.

Dr Noah Charney: I'm smiling at Dino because, he's from Kamnik and I live in Kamnik. And many years ago I wrote an article with the question, "Is Kamnik the microbrew capital of the world?" And the answer was, "I don't know," but I put a question mark in the title so it wasn't misleading. Yeah. But then if you Google, the algorithms have picked up that Kamnik is the microbrew capital of the world.

But the only article that anybody can find is the one that I wrote. So it's one of these things where if you say a fact loudly enough, even if it's not actually a fact, it becomes a fact. So this sounds like a perfect resource for anybody interested in this, and if they have questions. At least when I moved here, it was tricky to do if you didn't have a local who knew the language who was gonna help you. Nowadays, is it easy enough that you don't need a local? 

Ben Herskowitz: No, I haven't really done any of that kind of paperwork or stuff, so I'm not really sure. But just as far as being here, I've felt like I can get around on my own.

Dr Noah Charney: People speak decent English everywhere you go. 

Ben Herskowitz: Yeah.

Dr Noah Charney: In rural areas, then they're very happy to try at least. 'Cause they're enthusiastic about foreigners, which isn't the case in all countries. Some countries that have a lot more tourists, they're less enthusiastic. In here, everybody's really welcoming.

Ben Herskowitz: That's specifically, why I do the travel: to try and be in places where there's not many tourists, because people are very excited then to share their culture and share what the place is like where they're from. And Bovec is very much like that. Katarina, who runs the Bovec Workation thing, she's always saying how all the locals in Bovec we're like the celebrities to them.

They all know us. They all know, where we live and always see us around the town and are always just very excited to have people in Bovec during the winter now. 

Dr Noah Charney: What about for you? Was it logistically easy enough to get sorted? 

Fernando Cantero: Well, in Ljubljana everyone is speaking English, so you don't need to learn the language.

But I would recommend to learn the language just to get more connected to the culture, to the people here. It makes you think different if you know the language of the country. I'm trying to, I have to say, but it's very hard for me. 

Dr Noah Charney: Good for you. 

Fernando Cantero: That's great. And as I said, I would recommend to learn the language. Not needed, especially in the big cities, but it's highly recommended. 

Dr Noah Charney: People appreciate the effort because it's not taken for granted that anyone would bother learning, both because it's tricky to learn and also because everyone speaks English well, that you don't really need it, especially in Ljubljana.

But people certainly appreciate any effort you put in. 

Fernando Cantero: Yeah. Even the, the simplest words like hvala or oprosti or something like that, yeah. I think they appreciate your effort to, to speak the local language, of course. 

Dr Noah Charney: So some of the obvious places people will go, Bled, Ljubljana, Piran Maribor should be obvious, but isn't always.

Bovec also should be obvious, but isn't always. Where have you visited since you've come back that you would recommend to people but they might not think of? You wanna go first? 

Fernando Cantero: I would say Bled. 

Dr Noah Charney: Bled is pretty great. There's a reason these places are frequently visited, but on the other hand, they're so obvious to people that they're gonna find it anyway, and I always think it's more interesting a place that people wouldn't likely find on their own, and Bovec might be one. If you go into that region, it's quick to see how beautiful it is, but it might not be on people's first list. So what about beyond Bovec?

Where have you explored that you like? 

Ben Herskowitz: We've explored a lot of the surrounding areas in Bovec, like Drežnica, Kobarid, I think Tolmin is one of the names of the towns. There's a really good bakery there. Like, we've gone there a lot. But yeah, just these little towns surrounding Bovec are really special.

And then just getting up and hiking around the area into Triglav. It's one of the most beautiful places. We did a incredible hike up to Krn Lake yesterday. There's no snow in the valley, and you drive 20 minutes and hike for an hour and a half, and all of a sudden you're in snow that's higher than your knees, and that's honestly been my favorite thing about that region.

And I think, as you said, Bovec is known to a lot of people now, but I don't think people know it as a winter destination, when in reality I think it's one of the coolest winter destinations because you're getting mild weather and not so much snow in the valley in Bovec, but then you drive 20 minutes and you can be in snow-covered mountains.

So, for people that maybe want a more mild winter, it's the perfect destination to live in the winter. 

Dr Noah Charney: That's a good description. They should have you as the local ambassador of tourism.

Ben Herskowitz: I'd be happy to do it. I love it there. 

Dr Noah Charney: This is a slight expansion of the same question, but if a digital nomad were to write to you and say, "Fernando, I'm gonna come to Slovenia, at first for 10 days. Where should I go beyond Ljubljana?" 

Fernando Cantero: Well, my thing is mountains, of course. So I would say, not only Triglavski National Park, because this is the most known. The Triglav is the mountain you need to climb to be a Slovenian, a real Slovenian. 

Dr Noah Charney: So they say. I haven't been up yet.

Fernando Cantero: Every Slovenian I ask this question say, "I'm not, very sure about that." But I would say not only that part of that. This is the most amazing mountains I've ever seen. Uh, but also Kamnik, Grintovec. There's lots of mountains at the other side, more at the east that should be explored, and they're not crowded.

Yeah, I would say mountains, not only Triglav, explore the other newer ones. 

Dr Noah Charney: And is it easy enough to find your way? Is it well signed and you didn't have trouble? So you could go on your own without a local necessarily to at least some of the, the lower level mountains?

Fernando Cantero: If you're used to mountains, you can do it. I think, it's very visual that you Slovenians love your mountains because everything is clean, everything is well preserved. There's signs everywhere, but not intrusive into the nature, so yeah, you can go by your own. There's, safety if you are used to mountains, of course. 

Dr Noah Charney: We also have a special episode of this podcast, in fact, about, um, mountain safety, where I interviewed mountain rescue teams. So if you're going to book something that's a little bit more adventurous, then it's good to go with a guide.

But for lower level hiking, things are well signed, and it's easy enough to find your way around. 

Fernando Cantero: Yeah. Yeah. 

Dr Noah Charney: Dino, I bet people ask you for itineraries all the time. 

Dino Kovačević: Sure.

Dr Noah Charney: What, what are some of three or four places that you would recommend that might not occur to people? 

Dino Kovačević: Of course. So obviously, being born and raised, and thank you for pointing out Kamnik, uh, being born and raised in Kamnik and proud Kamničan, I have to say Kamnik and Kamnik Savinja Alps, and even if you're not into big mountain hiking or you can just go to Kamniško Sedlo or Velika Planina, amazing mountain. But now, living in Maribor and being also proud Mariborčan, I'll point out Pohorje and everything that Pohorje has to offer, all the surrounding in Pohorje. So you have amazing mountain huts with amazing food. So you can find Ruška Koča, Mariborska Koča, smaller farms where they have also amazing food, where you can go eat, but also obviously many, many hiking paths there. And then besides this also the, a bit lower down eastern part of Slovenia, close to Podčetrtek, you have Jelenov Greben. There it's also very, very nice, especially with families with kids, very nice place to go and visit. Then, I'll have to go to Triglav as well and all the Bohinj surrounding. This is also a very, very nice path. I don't think we pointed out Triglav Seven Lakes, Seven Lakes of Triglav. I think it's also one of the most beautiful paths that you can do, that you can go walking. So I'd point out there's obviously many of them still, but yeah, I'll, I'll stop here and then- That's a 

Dr Noah Charney: Good list. Jelenov Greben. Jeleno Greben. There's a fine line between a greben and a grič. There is Grebenović Grič. 

So, this is not a classic digital hub yet, Slovenia. It's not really on everybody's traffic pattern. Who have you spent time with since you moved back here? And this will be different for everyone. I understand you actually found a, a group of digital buddies. But that came with where you were staying. 

Ben Herskowitz: Yes, exactly. So, like who I've stayed with during my time here, basically the group of digital nomads were... This year it was mainly from the US, Canada, uh, UK, and Spain and Slovakia. It's a diverse group. Last year I think it was more like European based, not as many Americans and Canadians.

To have that community already of people that are working online and also don't know the area, I think it's even more special because all of us are exploring that area for the first time. And what's really nice too is there's the house manager, Katarina and MateJa, and they're both locals from Slovenia, and so they're giving us a lot of ideas of where to go, what to explore, and are kind of also helping with an introduction to Slovenia and making sure that we get the full Slovenian experience of everything there is to see here.

Dr Noah Charney: With your content, you've already presented some of the things that you've encountered here to your audience. What was the reaction like?

Ben Herskowitz: Um, really good actually so far. I think people were all very surprised, how beautiful the mountains and how amazing and scenic Bovec and that surrounding area is. Because, like, as I was saying, in the US there's very little knowledge of Slovenia. I mean, it's common knowledge that we're not so good with our geography. But Slovenia is also just one that we really don't know that much about. When I told a few of my friends, I was like, "Yeah, I'm in Slovenia for the winter," they were like, "Oh, Bratislava, right?" And I was like, "No." 

Dr Noah Charney: Oh, well, sorry to hear that's still a problem, 

Ben Herskowitz: But I was gonna say: yeah, so hopefully, and that's what I try to do with my content, is go to places that you're usually not gonna see Americans, and try and educate and showcase these lesser visited destinations and show how special they are, because mass tourism's a problem everywhere in the world, and especially around the European continent.

And when there's so many places that are so special that haven't been explored yet, it's so important to get those places known about and get more people out to them and figure out what's the best way you can do that sustainably. 

Dr Noah Charney: That's doing a real service in a thoughtful way, so thank you for that.

Ben Herskowitz: Yeah, of course. 

Dr Noah Charney: I'm gonna ask you both as well, who are you hanging out with now that you're here? Are you finding other digital nomads or locals or non-digital nomads? I'm not sure if I'm a non-digital nomad or how that works, but so who are you hanging out with since you've been here? 

Fernando Cantero: Well, I used to go to a co-working place in Ljubljana called Impact Hub, which I recommend, of course. Very kind people. So there's a community of people from Slovenia working there, like, their office, but there's also a rotation of people coming and going and digital nomads, so you can connect with people there in places like that. If you are coming to a city like Ljubljana and you're alone and you want to connect to someone, one of these places I think it's, it's good for you to start. And, well, I, I joined a kung fu club here in Slovenia. 

Dr Noah Charney: I didn't know we had one. 

Fernando Cantero: Yeah. It's called Body Mind Ljubljana. So I, I'm going there a couple of days a week, so it's another good option. 

Dr Noah Charney: That's strategic. It's a very good way to meet people if you join some kind of club. It almost ... doesn't matter what it is. But something that you go to regularly and you build a community that way. 

Fernando Cantero: Yeah, of course. If you like sports, you can join, well, cycling club or a running club, whatever. So you have a lot of options to connect to people. And you can also go to a bar and ask for a beer and wait what happens. It's always a good option. 

Dr Noah Charney: Also because of the finite number of expats who live in Slovenia, people tend to find each other. And there are some good Facebook groups, for example, some of them are linguistic, so there's like a Spanish-speaking expat Facebook group. There are a couple of international ones generally. Um, and there are some places, have you been to Črno Zrno Cafe yet? 

Fernando Cantero: No, yet. 

Dr Noah Charney: That's one of the places that everyone seems to gravitate. Yeah. Especially Spanish-speaking folks, 'cause it's run by a Colombian architect. And I was just at his house for dinner two days ago with the Mexican guy who rides around Ljubljana on a bicycle. And those are known figures because it's so small enough that you can't sort of turn the corner without seeing somebody you know, which to me is a really charming aspect of it. Especially because everyone is so welcoming. Who are you hanging out with now that you're a Mariborčan? 

Dino Kovačević: That's a very good question. So it's a mix of both. Obviously, we wanna get back to our roots and connect with people from Maribor, which obviously if we're not from Maribor and if we wanna get into local community, we have to start, hanging out with locals. So obviously we made a very good group of friends there. But also on the other hand- being and wanting to be engaged in digital nomad community, we also joined many of the international groups. Here I have to give credits to my wife. She's especially good in this. There are a few of very good international women groups. So I think there's ladies in Maribor or something similar I can share later or I can send you out. And she started engaging in this kind of groups, and there's from all around the world. So there's a lot of people from USA, and we actually met a few and made really good friends with a couple from US, and they're actually considering Slovenia as one of the destinations where they wanna set their roots, maybe buy a house as well here somewhere in the rural area of Slovenia. There's a very good running club going on, started in Maribor. I think now it spread all across Slovenia, in Koper, Ljubljana, and so on. I think it even grew more in Ljubljana. But these kind of sport activities are usually the best, where you can just meet afterwards, grab a beer, and then after one or two beers, then I think, you become very good friends. 

Dr Noah Charney: So we might need to meet up here in a few years when it's a digital expats episode. Not just nomads, but people actually liked it enough to move permanently as I did. One last question for each of you. For digital nomads, what's good about Slovenia in one sentence? Wanna start? 

Ben Herskowitz: In one sentence?

Dr Noah Charney: Or two or three, whatever. 

Ben Herskowitz: I think the biggest part of Slovenia that's so special is the nature and the mountains and how welcoming people are and how it's still so ingrained in its traditional culture, and you feel that Slovenia is different. It's not completely modernized the way a lot of the other European countries are.

Like, not in a bad way, but just that people are still stuck in their roots, and that's really special these days. 

Dr Noah Charney: That's lovely. 

Fernando Cantero: I totally agree with Ben. [00:40:00] I would only add, uh, that if it's your first experience, I would recommend Slovenia the first one. Because of the easiness, the hospitality of friendly people, safety in the cities also. I think it's important. 

Dr Noah Charney: That's great to hear that it would be your first choice recommendation for a new digital nomad. Now, Dino. 

Dino Kovačević: I'll just point out to Slovenia is that nature is what makes Slovenia so special and the size, obviously the size of it, but nature that it offers on such a small place, and I think then everything goes out of this.

So, all the nature that we have to offer, and then people really connect to this nature, locals as well as foreigners that are coming. 

Dr Noah Charney: It really is. It's logistically easy place to be for foreigners. It's one of the safest countries in the world, one of the greenest. It's easy if you speak English, and people are welcoming and enthusiastic of foreigners, and it's easy to get to and from. So it's got the whole package. And good food. 

Ben Herskowitz: Definitely. 

Dr Noah Charney: An exciting podcast. Thanks to you for watching. This is a new season of Feel Slovenia: The Podcast with video content, not just audio. Please share and subscribe, and thank you to all of the guests for being with me today and for coming to support this country.

And thanks to all of you for watching and listening.