Mojca Knez Jovan
Mother, active recreationist and Laško native
Laško is my hometown. The current situation we are faced with in 2020 makes me realise that it can be the best holiday destination for my family.
What do we expect from a family break?
When my partner Jakob and I are choosing a holiday destination for us and our seven-year old daughter Iša, we first check, if the place offers activities in the nature. If we can hike or ride a bicycle and if there is a family-friendly climbing wall or pool. We are not fond of doing nothing all day. We prefer active holidays!
My partner and I still book holiday destinations the way we did before we were parents, the only difference being that now everything must also be suitable for our daughter. We still choose what we want, but adopt the intensity and difficulty of the challenges to our daughter. This is why we prefer easy biking trails instead of difficult uphill rides, easy hiking trails instead of mountaineering and pools with slides instead of Olympic-size swimming pools. What makes our holiday destination even more attractive is a children’s playground and other outdoor places where children can play.
When I look around, I realise that we live in a town which offers it all! We could easily take a vacation in our hometown and fulfil our wishes.
We like to explore and try new dishes
Before we head somewhere, we always check the food offer and what the local cuisine is like. My husband and I know that Iša sometimes only wants French fries and we definitely grant her this wish on vacation. But since we are not quite fond of pizzerias, which are almost the same everywhere, our daughter also gets to experience local delicacies and goods which are typical for the area we are discovering. We discover the undiscovered! As a family, we like to explore individually – with the help of the information we get at tourist information centres, in printed or online guides, during interaction with locals and every once in a while with a local guide.
If we would live somewhere else and would be interested in a vacation in Laško, we would act the same. First, we would look for online information and then send an inquiry to TIC to find out what they would recommend besides visiting the two thermal spas. I am sure they would easily impress us, for example with the HoneyBrew Tour, where Iša could learn about honey and bees, or with a visit to the farms. Just like the majority of children of her age, our daughter likes everything about farm animals – especially horses. Since cuisine is important to us, we would definitely pay attention to the Taste Laško brand and also the recommendations with regard to this superb offer and integrate it into our holiday plans.
What would we recommend to the families?
When friends ask us about what to see in Laško, we tell them about our experience. We like almost everything Laško has to offer and we usually tell them that this is a small town but it offers more than some large destinations. We like to take a hike in the surrounding hills and discover the town with Iša in a creative way. Since she has known how to read, we often make a stop at the notice boards to get the idea abot what we can discover next. We like to learn about the old market town centre. Here, almost every house has its own story!
Iša likes to hear the story about the secret tunnel, which is believed to have led from the Aškerc Square to the Tabor Castle. This is why we often go search for the tunnel entry. As we have not found it yet, we take a walk along the marked trail. At the castle there is a playground and the always intriguing castle stories, a beautiful view of the town and sometimes we even have dinner at the excellent restaurant.
When we choose to explore the surroundings, our top destinations are the Lahomniški Sopot waterfall, which can be reached from the Trail leading from Sloge to Log, Rimske Toplice with giant sequoias in the park by Rimske Terme and the Slapšak Farm with the Polhova jama cave. In addition to this, we like swimming pools at Thermana Laško with indoor and outdoor water tube slides and the body slide, the lazy river and the wave pool.
When I think about my hometown of Laško as a tourist, I realize why my husband Jakob, who comes from the neighbouring Celje, likes Laško so much! We have everything a person needs to relax: pleasant spots in the nature, a small but interesting town centre, just the right amount of events, delicious food and friendly locals.
Meet you in Laško, right?
