A visit to the Slovenian ski resort of Vogel over New Year provided a pleasant surprise in terms of experiencing one of the friendliest, accomodating and most cosmopolitan countries in Europe.

I can recommend staying at the Hotel Jezero on the Bohinj lake, or there is an excellent youth hostel just up the road where good reviews were made by some other people staying there. Watch out for the ski bus from Bohinj to the resort of Vogel; there are only three in the morning and two in the evening and two of these did not turn up on New Year's Day (I hope it was the fact that it was a bank holiday), so if you have a car there is lots of parking at the foot of the mountain.

Talking of driving to Slovenia, we flew to Venice and drove the 3 hours in a hire car which was excellent value using the snow-forecast.com member discount with Holiday Autos. A word of advice to anyone with a Tomtom GPS - the "fastest route" takes you on a hair raising traverse of several valleys along steep, icy inclines with sparse guardrails. It provides an interesting insight to rural life in Slovenia, but is not recommended for the faint hearted. The regular route on the motorways via Ljubljana takes a similar time.

Once at Vogel ski resort, there is only one way up: an 80 person capacity gondola, so be prepared for a bit of a wait or get there early in the morning. In Vogel itself, the resort is small but incredibly friendly and queues are minimal. I managed to cover all the lifts and runs on a snowboard in under 3 hours, but it provided a relaxing break with stunning views over the 45m deep Bohinj lake, the famous mountain of Triglav and the ranges of the Julian Alps.

Everything in Slovenia was excellent value, and those who want a high standard of ski lessons or kit hire in Vogel are recommended to go to the Servis Finžgar shop at the top of the gondola.

I'd like to return to Vogel again for the snow and also in the summer where there are many opportunities for kayaking, canyoning, trails and mountain biking.