Vogel: the back story

About Vogel: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Ski Resorts Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Vogel is a ski area unlike any other in the Alps. You leave the car beside Slovenia’s largest lake, step into a cable car and, a few minutes later, step out at 1,535 metres on a balcony above the water, with Triglav, the country’s highest mountain, filling the horizon.

The lake and the mountain

Lake Bohinj lies in a glacial valley inside Triglav National Park, Slovenia’s only national park, and Vogel rises straight from its southern shore. The cable car starts at 569 metres in Ukanc, at the quiet western end of the lake, and climbs 956 metres in a single span to the upper station at 1,535 metres. From there, on a clear day, the whole Bohinj valley lies below you and Triglav stands across it.

A ski area on a high balcony

Above the upper station, the operator, Žičnice Vogel Bohinj, runs up to 22 km of pistes, depending on the snow, served by nine lifts: the cable car, the Zadnji Vogel gondola, the Orlove glave and Brunarica four-seat chairlifts, the Šija single chair, T-bars, and a magic carpet in the children’s park. The longest run, the Žagarjev graben, is 6.8 km. There is a snow park, and there are no black runs: Vogel is a mountain for confident cruising, families and the view.

Ski above a frozen lake, with Triglav on the horizon.

Huts and Bohinj cooking

Lunch is part of the day. The Merjasec hut, at 1,535 metres, serves Bohinj dishes such as veal ajmoht and goulash with trdinka polenta; Viharnik, at the top of the cable car, has the panorama; and the small Orlove glave hut sits at the top of its chairlift. Down in the valley, a new generation of restaurants, from Vila Muhr’s tasting menus to Majer’ca in Stara Fužina, cooks with lake trout, mohant cheese and Bohinj blueberries.

Every budget

An adult day pass cost €45 in 2025/26, and children under six ski free with their parents. Families can stay in apartments and inns in Bohinjska Bistrica and ride the Bohinj ski bus for a €2 day ticket; for comfort, Hotel Jezero and Hotel Bohinj stand a short walk from the lake at Ribčev Laz.

Our advice: go up early on a clear morning for the view, lunch at Merjasec, and keep an afternoon for the lake itself. Check the conditions on vogel.si before you travel: on windy days the cable car may stop, and the season depends on the snow.

Vogel in brief

From Žičnice Vogel Bohinj (vogel.si) and the Bohinj tourist board (bohinj.si), October 2026.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Vogel: the back story before you go.