We just got back from four incredible days in Slovenia with the kids! We could not have loved it more and are already thinking about when we might go back. I’m planning a bunch of posts on our trip, but in the meantime I wanted to share one of our favorite aspects of this trip — our stay in a Lake Bled treehouse resort, the Garden Village Bled.

“Roughing it”: our Lake Bled treehouse experience at Garden Village Bled

More than 18 months ago, my husband read about a Lake Bled treehouse resort in a newspaper and his interest was instantly piqued. Chris loves camping. I do not.

To be clear, I like being outside and hiking and roasting marshmallows. But I don’t see the attraction of sleeping on the hard ground or peeing in the woods or dealing with bugs, not when there are perfectly good beds to be had. And toilets. And wifi. 

So: the Lake Bled treehouse we were interested in was the Garden Village Bled. Aside from just looking awesome, it also seemed to Chris like the closest he could get me to camping. (Accurate). In late 2016 we started to look at booking for the following year, but found out we were too late to get a 2017 stay in one of the six treehouses on the property. Instead, we ended up booking in July 2017 for our end-of-June 2018 stay.

It was worth. the. wait.

We could not possibly have loved our stay at the Garden Village Bled more, seriously. This “eco-lodge” was incredibly beautiful, the staff was wonderful and the food was excellent. Plus, it was only a five minute walk to Lake Bled, a place that looks like it was ripped out of a damn fairy tale. While the Lake Bled treehouse was absolutely a splurge by our standards, we felt it was worth every penny.

Plus, “glamping” is about the only way I was going camping.

The Garden Village Bled treehouse we stayed in was easily the coolest place we ever stayed in. It was basically a tiny house made entirely of wood (including the key!), which included a little living room, a bathroom with shower, a double bed on the first floor and loft with another double bed and what the kids called the “spider web.”

Outside the treehouse, we had a gorgeous view. We spent time on this patio each evening just chilling out.

Our Lake Bled treehouse was right near the river, so we fell asleep to the sound of the water each night!

On top of the cool surroundings, the resort itself was just nice. The staff were extremely helpful — one called around to a bunch of bike shops and even her friends looking for a tagalong bike for Owen — and the food was excellent. We had a great breakfast buffet each morning (included), and a delicious — if slightly pricey — dinner there on Saturday evening.

The kids enjoyed playing on the small playground, where they met a bunch of other kids who were also staying there, as well as swimming in the “biotope.” I’m not entirely sure what that word means, but basically it was a pool/pond that you could swim in.

The resort also offered massages and a sauna; I did the former. It was great, but when I first got on the table for some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about  various funny TV scenes (Monica from friends and the waxing scene from the 40 Year Old Virgin, just as examples) and ended up giggling like an insane person for the first few minutes of my massage. Probably shouldn’t have had champagne before I went over there?

Overall, I seriously could not recommend the Garden Village Bled enough! It is by far the coolest hotel we’ve ever stayed at, and we’d love to go back one day.

Plus, I mentioned there was wifi, right?

*Note: as I re-read this, I realize it sounds like I’m being paid to advertise it. Unfortunately (for me!), I’m not. We just loved this place a lot. There are affiliate links in this post, however!