Are you one of those persons who leave home to visit one shop and then a day goes by and you suddenly realize you have spent one full day spoiling yourself with shopping and another one with entertaining activities? If that is the case, you just have to visit BTC City when traveling to Ljubljana.
It might be hard to believe that one of the largest shopping and entertainment complexes in Europe is based in Slovenia, which has only 2 million inhabitants - in a country which only covers a little bit more than 20.000 square kilometers.
No, I did not make a mistake – BTC City really offers more than 500 shops for all ages, tastes and budgets. You can buy everything there; from a simple T-shirt to a car. There are shops with healthy food, shops for pets, babies, fitness enthusiasts, shops with clothes, shoes, grocery, furniture etc.
Like every good entertainment area, BTC City also offers a wide range of restaurants, cafés, cake shops and fast food joints. My hubby and I like to visit BTC City just to grab a lunch at their so-called Street food open-air kitchen. The open-air kitchen is an area with cottages serving different types of cuisine – from Thai, Indian, Spanish… Even burgers and a salad corner are not missing.
BTC City also offers a good vegetarian, vegan and gluten free specialized restaurants. For something fresh, visit its farmer’s market.
There are numerous cafés in BTC City, but if you wish to enjoy your coffee in a unique location, go for the Twenty Café in Crystal Palace. The Twenty Café is not just the highest café in Slovenia, but it also offers great views over the BTC City, other parts of Ljubljana and its surrounding areas.
BTC City offers many entertainment options. Besides that, it’s also a great place for hanging out with friends and enjoying different kind of fun experiences. BTC City offers a theatre, which mostly plays comedies (few shows are in English too). You can go and take your friends bowling, have a game of beach-volleyball, go karting, playing tennis or badminton in the Millenium indoor recreation halls. There are quite a few fitness and recreation centres where you can shape your body and take part in numerous group workouts. Or you can go to cinema, including a 3D one. An extremely fun trampoline theme park under the name WOOP opened just recently. You can also test your luck at the Rio Casino.
If you just want to relax and spend some quality time with your family or some romantic time with your loved one, BTC City offers a water park too. The water park Atlantis offers indoor and outdoor pools, saunas, a thermal pool and a special area for kids with water slides.
If you are traveling to Ljubljana with kids and decide to visit BTC City, you can easily drop them off at one of many playground areas, where animators will take good care of them. One of my favorite places for kids is the Mini City, a huge theme park designed as a little city with streets, roads, houses and even a green park. Kids can experience different professions like being a painter, a baker, a bank clerk, a policeman, a fireman… Mini City also includes a café and a cake shop, so whole family can easily spend an hour or two there.
BTC City can be easily reached by public transport. Take the bus number 2, 7, 12, 24 or 27 from the city centre. A really nice option to reach the BTC City is also to rent a bike at one of the Bicikelj stations. The distance from the BTC City to the city centre is only 2.5 kilometres and only 25 kilometres to the Ljubljana airport.
If you enjoy spending more time in these kind of places, there's even a 4-star Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Ljubljana available in BTC City, offering gorgeous rooms and vast parking spaces. It’s just steps away from the hustle and bustle of the shopping and entertainment complex.
Slovenians might be shopaholics, but more than that, we like to treat ourselves with fun activities, be surrounded with friends and like to eat well. That is also why we like to visit BTC City, which is offering us all these things in one place. By visiting it you will definitely get to know another aspect of Ljubljana and its people.