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Ninety seconds on Virje Waterfall
Virje is about 5 km from the centre of Bovec, a drive of around 10 minutes. From Plužna, the road towards the artificial lake at the hydropower plant is signed for Virje, and it narrows in places. In July and August organised public transport also runs to the fall.
Yes. A paid car park near the start of the trail charges by the hour, with separate rates for cars, vehicles with more than five seats and motorbikes. Motorhomes and buses are not allowed.
No. Bathing in the pool under the waterfall is not allowed at Virje, and the water is icy cold in any case. The fall and the pools beneath it are for looking at and photographing only.
Early spring brings the most water, when snow melts in the high mountains. Autumn is also a strong season, and the fall is at its most dramatic after rain or the day after heavy rainfall.
Walk the short trail to the basin below Virje, where a broad fall splits into many strands and lands in two blue-green pools.
Virje is the Glijun stream dropping in a multi-stranded fall about 12 metres high and 20 metres wide. Because it is wider than it is tall, the water comes down as a row of separate strands rather than a single sheet.
Below it, the basin holds two blue-green pools. The stream rises at a typical karst spring and is fed by underground water from the Kanin range. That water starts out on the high Kanin plateaus.
A hydroelectric plant nearby also draws on the stream. The volume at the fall therefore depends on its needs as well as on the weather and the time of year.
In winter the fall can freeze into a cascade of ice.
From the car park, take the trail to the fall and come back the same way. Nearly all of the visit is time spent at the fall itself.
Without a car, walk in from Plužna instead. The fall is about 15 to 20 minutes from the village on foot. Save time for Boka Falls or Great Soča Gorge as well.
When the flow is heavy, the drizzle thrown off the fall makes it almost impossible to get close, so stand further back for the view. The fall is in shade early in the morning.
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