Kendov Dvorec

Kendov Dvorec is Slovenia's country-house secret: a manor whose oldest walls date to 1377, on a knoll above the Idrijca river in Spodnja Idrija, an hour west of Ljubljana in the green hill country towards the Soča valley. Restored by a local family and long a Relais & Châteaux member, the house is furnished with nineteenth-century antiques and trimmed throughout with idrija lace—the UNESCO-listed bobbin lacework of the neighbouring mercury-mining town—on bed linens, curtains and tables, a detail that makes the hotel a museum of the valley's craft.

The eleven rooms and suites are individual, romantic and quiet, with painted furniture, timber floors and views over gardens, orchard and the hills. The atmosphere is that of staying with cultivated friends—aperitifs on the terrace, no crowds, deep rural silence at night.

Dinner is the day's event: refined Slovenian cooking built on the valley's trout, žlikrofi dumplings from Idrija, game and wines from Goriška Brda, served in intimate salons or the garden. Idrija's mercury-mine heritage sites, the Franja Partisan Hospital and the emerald Soča river all make easy excursions. For Slovenia beyond Bled and the capital, this is the connoisseur's stop.