A Responsible Boutique Tour Operator Creating Mountain Biking Stories, Naturally. Trans Slovenia™ tours are operated by Visit GoodPlace – our outdoor agency specialised in cycling, hiking and wildlife tours. Our tours explore destinations that include a wealth of natural beauty, rich history, vibrant culture, delicious cuisine and great outdoors. We develop them working with nature, being friendly to travelers and locals at the same time. Browse MTB tours See other tours Get in touch Our Story Our story did not start with the establishment of the company in 2015, but 5 years earlier when the Institute of Sustainable Tourism GoodPlace was born. This organization now plays an important role in the development of sustainable tourism in Slovenia and globally. Trans Slovenia™ and Visit GoodPlace are therefore just a continuation of our mission. They’re a place where we bring our knowledge and sustainable tourism products to life. Our mission Our mission is to create authentic and unique experiences for our guests while supporting responsible travel and nature preservation. Sustainability policy We aim to minimize negative effects on the natural and social environment and maximize benefits to local businesses. See sustainability policy Founders We believe in a green future. Jan Klavora CEO, founder Jan is responsible for the development of some of the most successful MTB and cycling tourism products in the region - Trans Slovenia, Trans Dinarica, Trans Croatia and Bike Slovenia Green Route, which was named one of the best products in 2020 by the Guardian and National Geographic. In addition to running Trans Slovenia™ and Visit GoodPlace, he also helps destinations and businesses with development of outdoor tourism products. Jana Apih Sustainable tourism expert, founder Jana is one of the founders of Institute of Sustainable Tourism GoodPlace and a partner of Visit GoodPlace outdoor agency. She is an ambassador of green “development” and a big supporter of teamwork. She deeply believes that greatness can only be achieved by networking and collaboration. This green traveler and sportswoman radiates energy that connects people, showing the remarkable ability to empower others to see the solution in place of encountering problems. Katja Defrančeski COO, founder Katja is the first lady of Visit GoodPlace and the perfect fit to our team, sharing her enthusiasm for outdoor activities, a creative environment and interesting work in diverse fields. Finding her way back to her soul team, she introduced a fresh and simple energy, with effective solutions to the product creation. An organizer by heart and a partner, she easily spreads her never ending energy, making sure that the outcome she provides gives clear, simple and comprehensive results. She is constantly in search of balance, finding her peace in travels, tasting good food and wines and can always be found in a good company. Matic Klanjšček Cartography expert and cycling guide, founder Being a geodesist by profession, Matic had been active in the field of cartography and marine hydrography for a long time, he made a decision to start his own business (and later on to join the Visit GoodPlace team), which is partly connected with primary expertise of spatial informatics and gradually more and more with mountain bike guiding and the growth of tourism products related to it. During his youth he was active in sports, particularly in athletics at the beginning, but later on he was more devoted to mountaineering challenges. As climbing and expeditions took a lot of time, the passion for alpinism was progressively replaced by cycling. In recent years, mountain biking connected with guiding, which represents the basic form of spending free time, and gradually also working time actively, has stood out. Andrej Bandelj Tour designer, cartographer, guide An experienced guy like Andrej is extremely welcome in our agency. Passionate hiker, mountain biker, trail runner, and traveler has more than 18 years of experience in guiding. He is a licensed tourist guide and mountain bike guide, and an author of Geographic excursions guidebooks. His professional skills and excellent knowledge of Slovenia and the Balkans also come useful at Visit GoodPlace. He deals with route preparation, as well as leading cycling and hiking tours. Katja Škerjanc Customer support Katja is happiest when she is outside. She loves nature and all kinds of sports in nature (her top 3 are surfing, snowboarding, and mountain biking), adventures, traveling, and chasing sunrises and sunsets. She likes to listen to music - she prefers live concerts - and creates music as a member of an orchestra). In our agency, as a caring, positive person, and excellent team player, she takes care of the communication with clients and providers (hotels, guides, ...), where knowledge of both, active tourism itself, and locations in and around Slovenia is of great help. Monja Ferčec Marketing Monja is our copywriting and marketing wizard. She's a sociologist and advertising specialist by day, but when she's not nerding out over language and data, she's getting her adrenaline fix by climbing boulders and exploring the great outdoors. She loves growing our online engagement, followers, and her forearms. Matevž Hribar Content creator, van driver By education, Matevž is a mechatronics engineer, but he has been doing everything else since student times (although mechanical knowledge comes in handy when he needs to repair a bicycle in the middle of the forest). For many years he was creating content in the auto-moto media, raced off-road motorcycles, and rode with tourists on motorcycles all over Europe. In recent years he prefers to exchange noisy machines for bicycles, freediving fins, cross-country skis, or hiking and farming boots. His passion for creating authentic and entertaining content, be it texts, photos, or videos, is still there. In Visit GoodPlace, he’s taking care of our social media channels, e-mail news, and the website, and helps with van transfers of our guests. Jani Golob Bike fleet administrator, van driver You will hardly find Jani in a stationary position, be it in private or professional life. The professional truck driver makes sure that our bikes are in perfect condition where they need to be: at the start of your new adventure. Later, Jani and his van will also meet you at the end of the tour and drive you (and the bicycles) back to the starting point, to the hotel, or to the airport. He’s also a passionate cyclist on his own (on-road and off-road), especially for longer distances. When this is not possible - in winter – he likes to go skiing or hiking. And guess what, all three of his kids compete in cross country. “Today’s tourism trend always uses the word ‘authenticity,’ but using the word isn’t enough. For behavior to be real, locals should believe it’s right for their community. If visitors enjoy it, great, but not as the first concern.” - Jan Klavora for Bicycling Magazine “In Slovenia, just bringing in tourists without a sustainability strategy is worse than having no tourists. Our hope for Bike Slovenia Green is that destinations here, and elsewhere in the world, realize you can be responsible and popular. The larger goal is to show responsibility and tourism are the same.” - Jana Apih for Bicycling Magazine Top quality service Quality over quantity. Ask our guests. We did the Trans Slovenia 01 with 14 guys from Belgium It was a wonderful experience. We are impressed by the beautiful country and the openness of the people. Our guide Andrej was very pleasant. It was nice that he knew a lot about the history of the country. He is also flexible and pleasant to deal with. We rent hardtail, fully and e-bikes. They were all from a very good quality. Congratulations to Good-place who has made this trip work so well! Jan, Belgium See source Incredible MTB tour in beautiful Slovenia! I visited Slovenia for the first time with a group of friends and we decided to explore the country on a bike. Visit GoodPlace team was amazing! They gave us great information and advice, and offered us top level support during the Trans Slovenia 01 tour. Already on the first day we discovered that Slovenia is extremely beautiful. We loved the views of the mountains, valleys, rivers, vineyards and the sea! Also the food in our hotels was delicious. I hope to come back next year and make another tour. Thank you! Andres, Argentina See source Absolute EPIC tour! Highly recommend Visit GoodPlace My friend and I recently did a tour with Visit GoodPlace and I cannot speak highly enough of this company. Their attention to detail, efforts to ensure we had a good trip, communication, routes provided and accommodation were absolutely brilliant. Great company! We did the Trans Slovenia 04 tour which was tough, but absolutely worth the uphill climbs for the epic downhill runs. Slovenia is a stunning country and traveling from the north to south you get to see it all. Sean, UK See source Outstanding / Faultless We recently cycled self-guided for one week. From our first contact with the company their service and response was outstanding. And the whole trip was exactly as promised. This is our 14th tour around the world and this is one of the very best. Great bikes, great accommodation, fabulous routes. A very thorough, reliable and professional company. We hope to bike with you again and wish more cycle companies were of your very high standard. Thank you Katja and all the Visit GoodPlace team! Sophie, Australia See source Would you like to travel with us? We would love to hear from you. Tell us about your travel plans and wishes. Get in touch Let’s connect.
