About the portal

 

 

Experience nature in the neighbourhood of your home, city, region!

The Ljubljana Urban Region integrates 26 municipalities of the Central Slovenia. A diverse landscape of the region with Alpine mountains, hills and rivers, a moor, wetlands and gorges provides many opportunities for active spending of leisure time and exploring natural beauties.

The portal www.gremonapot.si facilitates planning of individual and group recreational activities, school and other educational and sport events, trips and work gatherings.

The trails are suitable for pleasant afternoon walks, cycling or hiking trips, as well as for more demanding excursions for sports enthusiasts. Starting and end points of the hiking trails are accessible by public transport (city and regional buses and trains).

'Gremo na pot' – a friendly web guide on the region

The portal www.gremonapot.si was designed as an advanced web application intended to present the selected content in a user-friendly manner. The proposed trails are represented by descriptions of the routes and information on their difficulty and length. All texts are accompanied by a variety of graphic and cartographic materials and the route profile. Data on the trails may be downloaded to your GPS device or printed.

Discover the beauties of the region

In order to offer more trails and to reach the widest range of enthusiasts who love spending their leisure time actively, we invite you to submit your proposals for new trails, comments and initiatives to the following e-mail address: info@gremonapot.si

Philosophy of the portal

The portal is designed to be open and broad, allowing upgrading and subsequent connection of all interested parties, not only in the Ljubljana urban region but also outside the regional borders.

Hiking and cycling routes have been selected on the basis of the following criteria:

  1. The routes uniformly encompass the entire Ljubljana urban region and enable outward connections (interregional cooperation);
  2. The routes are 'coloured' with attractive points from the world of nature, culture, history, tourism, sport and other things;
  3. Accessibility of routes: marked hiking and cycling routes arranged on the pre-existing trails, pathways and roads (connectivity with the public transport);
  4. Contribution to the local development: cooperation of eight communities in the Ljubljana urban region, with the potential for association of other interested parties, while promoting the usage of the existing infrastructure and services, as well as building new facilities.

The target groups of the portal are recreational enthusiasts and trippers (cyclists, hikers, runners), domestic and foreign tourists, and pupils. The portal is also useful for more demanding groups and organised cycling. The part concerning city maps for cyclists is intended for daily users who use their bikes as a means of transport for their way to work, school and while running errands.

Using a user-friendly display of tourist offer potential and information the website will offer, we expect an increase in visit and use of this offer, and at the same time, the content of the website will encourage people to live healthier including a great deal of recreation.

Description of the portal

Cycling and hiking routes are presented on the website www.gremonapot.si, where each route is described in detail, including an extensive text in the form of a 'story' spiced with photos of sights of interest along the route. The description includes the main cultural, historical and natural sights located along the routes, catering offer as well as advice, information, description of the terrain and other associated issues. Interesting and useful links are also available.

The portal includes two thematic sections: cycling routes and hiking routes. The design of both sections is unified, and they will be interchangeable and mutually supplementary. The portal may be accessed via www.gremonapot.si or via the link on the website of the participating municipality.

The portal is designed interactively. Users can choose their route according to various criteria, such as the name of the route, length, difference in altitude, level of difficulty and duration – each in ascending or descending order.

When a specific route has been selected, it is shown in a separate window on the map and it can be magnified or reduced as desired. The marked points of interest can be reviewed and the route can be printed if necessary.

In addition to displaying the selected route on the map, the portal also displays the longitudinal profile of the route, which shows inclinations (ascents and descents) by category of difficulty and the type of surface on which the route is set (asphalt, macadam, field trail). By moving the cursor across the profile, the position of the route is displayed on the map, enabling the user to thoroughly overview the location of individual demanding or less demanding sections.

All routes and markings on the routes are geocoded (geographical coordinates are added to the points in order to establish their spatial position). In addition, more demanding users using GPS devices can use coordinate transfer function to download 'track' of the route (a set of coordinate points forming the route) to their computers and subsequently to the GPS device. The file for coordinate transfer is provided in standard GPX format.

Descriptions of the routes are spiced with numerous photos showing sights of interest along the route.

The emphasis is on natural, and cultural and historical content, and tourist offer along the route.

The portal also includes interactive maps for cyclists and maps of footpaths in Ljubljana and other towns in the participating municipalities which display the existing cycle lanes in towns. In the future, the portal will also include maps.

Goals

The goals of the project are:

  • Designing a new comprehensive regional portal including tourist offer.
  • Increasing recognisability of the region.
  • Ensuring durability of the product.
  • Providing state-of -the-art information support.

This portal is meant to encourage as many people as possible to become mobile in terms of hiking and cycling (which belongs to the segment of 'sustainable mobility'), both for everyday errands, and for the needs of recreation and healthy lifestyle in general, to raise awareness of environmental preservation and to bring closer points of interest, some already known and others still undiscovered. Thereby, the portal relates to the segment of tourism and sport, as the cycling routes try to encompass as many interesting and attractive points from the world of nature, culture, history, sport, cuisine and similar as possible. In conducting the project, it is essential to cooperate with the local tourist, sport and other organisations which will provide support and participate in the inclusion of local tourist and sport offer.

The cycling portal includes routes established on the pre-existing roads, pathways and cart tracks, but is does not include setting up new infrastructure. However, new infrastructure is absolutely necessary in some sections, therefore the portal also presents a starting point for continuation of the project, which is joining, connection and, if necessary, construction of new cycling infrastructure – at first cycle lanes and paths, and later facilities (service, stands, bike sheds, bike rentals, etc.).

Cycling is important from several perspectives, which are intended to encourage and positively influence:

  • Sustainable mobility: by using bicycles, we would like to diminish individual car traffic,
  • Safety: to provide safe and interesting tours attractive to a wide range of users,
  • Health: younger and older people on the bicycle, under the motto: 'Healthy and Instructive',
  • Identity: teaching, school and other thematic routes, stimulating the sense of belonging,
  • Rural development: to present all beautiful and interesting corners of the Ljubljana urban region and its surroundings.

From the point of view of a cyclist or a hiker, routes must be diverse, attractive, plentiful in panoramic views and individual sights along the route, or otherwise attractive, and must offer refreshment points (restaurants, snack bars etc.) and potential service facilities (bicycle services, gas stations etc.). In designing routes for cycling trips, we tried to consider all of the abovementioned requirements and set up the tours in such a way that they run on asphalt roads with less traffic, macadam and forest trails and cart tracks. It is important for the tour to be round. The beginning and end of each tour are therefore at the same location, which increases attractiveness of the route (it is not repetitive) and it means easier logistics in general (more useful for cyclists and hikers from other areas of Slovenia). The proposed resting spots and viewpoints are determined in respect of the length and difficulty of the tour and have been established to maintain a reasonable ratio between recreational cycling and hiking, and tourist sightseeing.

At stage 1, the portal included 29 cycling and 8 hiking routes. Upgrade of the project increased the number by 40 cycling and 25 hiking routes which include various areas of the Ljubljana urban region. These routes will be gradually added in suitable time intervals ensuring the long-lasting attractiveness of the portal. The routes are intended for different target groups: from families with children to average recreational enthusiasts, and last but not least, mountain bikers and hikers.

Routes demanding special preparation and 'extremist' routes are not envisaged.

Everyone who will use these routes for cycling or hiking must be aware that they are not alone in the traffic, they must respect and take care of living and non-living nature and adapt to local habits and customs, therefore the portal also includes 'Useful Instructions' with information on values, ethics, environment protection, first aid, 'first lessons in cycling' and more.

Long-term goals

Setting up the portal is only the beginning of the activity, and at the same time, the foundation on which an actual increase in the quality of the recreational and tourist offer in the Ljubljana urban region will be based in the future.

The upcoming subprojects are:

  • Construction of cycling and hiking routes in the region,
  • Marking of roads, and cycling and hiking routes,
  • Setting up information panels,
  • Preparing a printed guide and maps,
  • Construction of bike sheds and service facilities at entry points,
  • Providing bicycle rentals at entry points,
  • Training guides for guiding along the routes,
  • Providing recreational offer along the routes (jogging trails, other recreational facilities).

Conclusion

It is important to understand the portal as the starting point or foundation on which safe, economic and sustainable country will be built.

The first goal are 'recreational tours', but very soon we would like to show and prove that safe cycling can be the most suitable form of mobility for daily migrations, such as a trip to school, work, shopping etc. To achieve this, cooperation with educational institutions (raising awareness, information, sustainable development), employers (bike sheds, showers and dressing rooms in companies) and shopping centres (bike sheds, established cycle lanes) is required.

But first, safe pathways must be provided.

Safety is one of the key factors when selecting a means of transport, therefore people should be encouraged to use a safe and healthy form of mobility – for the right orientation, for a healthy education, for our descendants.