Think of it as a Pollock painting of landscapes on a pocket-sized canvas: a range of sunlit mountaintops here, a dash of meadowy flatlands there, rolling green hills interspersed with patches of forests teeming with wildlife and drips of crystal-clear lakes and rivers flowing out to the glistening sea. All that under a canopy of highly diverse weather conditions. Everything just an hour's drive from the capital, a mini speckled canvas all of its own. Luckily, this is one of those rare Pollocks that won't break the bank - Slovenia is considered one of the most affordable places in Central Europe.

And in the unlikely case you don't find everything you're looking for, a quick hop across the border can yield medieval Italian towns, giant Austrian glaciers or rugged Croatian islands aplenty.