By: Olivia Bush
A Look at Apogee’s New Adventures!
Hey everyone! We feel like a broken record because of how much we’ve been shouting it from the rooftops since mid-July, but we’re so excited to officially share that Apogee is heading to Slovenia for the first time ever in 2027! We will also be making our way back to the Dolomites next summer with a re-vamped itinerary that will feel like a wholly new trip.
We’re excited to share more about these itineraries and what students on our newest trips can expect this summer, but before we dive into those details, you might be wondering: Wait, didn’t Apogee already have trips in both Croatia and the Dolomites last year? Are these two trips basically the same thing?
We are changing the existing itineraries around a little bit and adding new, exciting components to both trips. We’re giving our former Dolomite Mountains & Croatian Coast trip a bit of a facelift for 2027, and it will now be our Dolomites Explorer trip. Dolomites Explorer will have a higher Challenge Level than the previous iteration, and the trip will start differently, with an adventure through the mountains and rivers of Bavaria, followed by a few extra days exploring a new, striking section of the Dolomites, in addition to our classic five-night trek on the Alta Via 1. And our Slovenian Mountains & Croatian Coast trip will begin in the Julian Alps of Slovenia where the group will embark on a stunning hut-to-hut hiking circuit, before descending to the Croatian Coast for some beautiful coastal hiking and kayaking.
While both trips take place in an incredible part of Europe, they offer very different experiences for our students. And in September, fellow Apogee Director Miles and I had the chance to scout both trips in one whirlwind week: checking out the trails, accommodations, towns, and partners that our groups will encounter to make these new adventures unforgettable. What better way to share those updates than with a scouting report from our trip to Slovenia and the Dolomites?
So… What exactly does a Scouting Trip entail?
I know, I know, scouting sounds like a pretty incredible way to spend a week. Let me tell you, if you like to keep moving, it definitely is! But there’s a lot more to it than hiking beautiful mountains and eating gelato.
Months of preparation go into every Apogee trip, and scouting is a very important part of that process. Before we bring a group of students somewhere new, we want to experience the hikes, transportation, accommodations, activities, food, and logistics ourselves. We’re looking for the best routes, figuring out where things could get tricky, and meeting with local outfitters and guides to make sure that what looks good on paper actually works for our Apogee groups.
In short, we try to work out as many of the kinks as possible before our leaders and students hit the ground running in the summer.
So, after establishing that little bit of background, let’s zoom out and take you through our whirlwind week!
Day 1: Hello, Slovenia!
Miles and I met up in Bled, Slovenia, in the evening, and were immediately greeted by an absolute downpour. We’re talking multiple inches of rain in a span of 24 hours, flooded streets… the works. So much for those pristine Lake Bled mountain views we had been eagerly awaiting!
We tried to take advantage of the quiet streets, enjoyed a scrumptious pizza dinner, and headed to bed to sleep off the jet lag. We had a big week ahead of us, and tomorrow, the hiking would (hopefully) begin!
Day 2: When Plans Change…
We woke up to… more rain. After checking the radar, it unfortunately didn’t look good for our big day of scouting the local hiking trails.
But as anyone who spends time outdoors knows, sometimes you have to pivot! Instead of spending the day scouting hiking routes, we switched gears and focused on finding a great outfitter partner for our future Slovenian Mountains & Croatian Coast groups. We also met with a few local guides who talked us through some of our key questions about routes, transportation, and accommodations in the area.
This turned out to be time well spent, because we were able to meet with several prospective stand up paddleboarding companies for our groups to work with. When considering a new outfitter we require a staffing and risk management questionnaire, seek online reviews and personal references, and always do our best to meet the outfitter face-to-face. After meeting with several, I’m happy to report that we found partners that exceeded our admittedly lofty expectations, and will be a joy to work with! Just like that, an exciting piece of the 2027 puzzle fell into place!
Day 3: Lake Bohinj
Finally, the rain started to fade, and we made our way from the picturesque Lake Bled to the equally stunning Lake Bohinj.
Almost immediately, we knew this place was special. The lake was an incredible emerald color, surrounded by rocky mountains. It had exactly the kind of combination we look for when planning an Apogee trip: incredible scenery, opportunities for adventure, and a charming nearby town for resupplying.
We spent the day exploring several day hikes near the lake, getting only the occasional drizzle this time, and then turned our attention toward preparing for the next section of our journey; our excursion up and into the mountain hut system where we’d be spending the following night.
Day 4: Hut Hiking
The part of the Slovenian itinerary we were most looking forward to was the incredible hut-to-hut hike we had mapped out, which will take our groups on a stunning circuit of the Triglav National Park. Because we were squeezing so many logistics into a condensed timeframe during our scouting trip, we needed to complete the hiking route that our students will undertake over the course of three days into just two days.
We started the circuit from the lake in the morning and hiked up to a beautiful mountain hut overlooking the water. After a very well-deserved lunch (and coffee) break, we headed back out on the trail and tackled another day’s mileage in the afternoon. Our route took us through dramatic alpine forests and rocky vistas, and we eventually arrived at our destination (the mountain hut where our Apogee group will spend their second night) just as the last few rays of golden sunlight hit the mountain peaks surrounding the hut. It felt like we were in a postcard! It was a stunning end to an action-packed, fantastic day.
As the sunlight faded, the temperatures dropped quickly, so we hurried inside to where a fire was roaring and fellow travelers mingled. We met with our hosts and enjoyed a warm, authentic Slovenian mountain hut meal before we capped the evening off with a few rounds of Monopoly Deal and headed to bed at long last.
Day 5: Cows, Horses & a Drive to Italy
The next morning was stunningly clear as we started to make our way down toward the lake to complete the hut to hut circuit. The views were especially breathtaking today as we enjoyed all of the elevation we had gained yesterday!
We walked through another slew of impressive and diverse landscapes, including mossy forests and remote pastures. We passed cows grazing on the exposed hills, and the sound of cowbells followed us along the trail. Just before reaching the town, we spotted some incredible wild horses soaking up the warm September sun!
Once we arrived back in town, we rewarded ourselves with some pizza and a quick swim in the clear blue waters of the lake before it was time to move on to our next destination. Then we hopped in the car, reluctantly waved goodbye to Slovenia, and headed west. Next stop: the Italian Dolomites!
Day 6: Into the Dolomites
We arrived after dark the previous evening, so we woke up on Day 6 eager to explore the picturesque South Tyrolean town we were in. We had a lot on our to do list for the day (our only day in Italy), but one very important goal superseded all others: finding the best gelato.
… Okay, while that wasn’t actually our day’s primary goal, we did find some potentially life-changing gelato after lunch.
First, though, we spent the morning exploring the beautiful little town where our Dolomites Explorer group will stay, and speaking with the local guides to learn more about the area and all of its attractions. We then headed up the nearby mountain by cable car to around 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) above sea level, where we explored an incredible trail system high above the valleys we had just come out of. The views of the eastern Dolomites and the valleys below dazzled us, and as we reluctantly left, we continued with our day with a reinvigorating pep in our step.
After checking out another beautiful hill hike in the area, it was almost time to move on to the next stop on our scouting journey. But we simply had to end our time in Italy on a culinary high note, so we had a late pizza lunch in the town center and enjoyed the gelato of our dreams before packing up and driving north toward a quaint Bavarian town for our penultimate evening.
Day 7: Whitewater, Hiking & Bavaria
On our final morning, we met with our delightful whitewater rafting guides before we split up for the better part of the day. Miles headed out onto the water with the rafting outfitter partners for a sunny morning of Bavarian whitewater rafting, while I scouted a few hiking options that our group will be able to choose from. It was one final packed morning of adventure before we made our way north to the terminus of our journey: Munich!
Our Dolomites Explorer groups will end their travels in Munich and will celebrate their achievements together in this wonderful multicultural city, so there was plenty for us to do to lay the groundwork for that final portion of the trip. Once we arrived, we explored Munich’s old town, did some sightseeing, checked in with the hosts at the accommodations where our groups will stay, and finished the day with a classic Bavarian dinner at the Viktualienmarkt. As we meandered back to our lodging after dinner and reflected on the past week, we couldn’t quite believe all that we had done! We were flying home the next morning, and just like that, our whirlwind scouting trip was over!
Why Scouting Matters
In just seven days, we crossed through Slovenia, Italy, and Germany (with a few connections through Austria), hiked many kilometers of trails, tested activities, swam in the lakes, met with local outfitters, checked out accommodations, navigated local transportation options, and sampled the local cuisine (including a lot of pizza).
Most importantly, though, we came home with a much better understanding of what the trips will look like for our leaders and students. Of course, we can’t plan for absolutely everything – no one can! However, scouting our trips ahead of time lets us prepare as much as possible so that when our students arrive, we can spend less time worrying about the logistics and more time seeing them thrive.
That’s the whole point of scouting. We want to know what a hike feels like before asking our students to complete it. We want to see how long a transfer actually takes, where a group can stop for lunch, which outfitter has previous experience working with student groups, what the backup options are when it rains, and whether the campsites we see in photos are actually the right fit for a group of teenagers. We learned a lot about all of those considerations and many more, and we left Munich feeling confident and excited about what awaits our groups on both of these trips in 2027 and beyond.
In case it wasn’t already apparent from the grins on our faces in these scouting photos, we can’t wait to bring both of these trips to life in 2027. If reading about Slovenia, the Dolomites, Bavaria, mountain huts, whitewater rafting, and gelato has you ready for an adventure of your own, check out these trips and enroll now while there’s still room!
