The Lah family set up six small wooden cabins and one larger cabin, divided into two rooms, by Bloke Lake three years ago. They built it with their own hands, using timber from nearby forests. The houses are made from pine, oak and cherry wood. The heart and soul of Park Idila is Martina Lah, an innkeeper, a businessperson, a tourist worker, a waitress, a laundress, a farmer and a mother of four children. She handles all this and more. In addition to tourist accommodation, the family owns an inn at Bloke and a farm with 120 cows. Ms Lah has strong faith in the family’s project, Park Idila, which has already cost more than half a million euros, without taking into account the work that the family has invested into it; and there has been a lot of work, since they built virtually everything on their own.

Tourist facilities, which include 6 small wooden cabins and one with 2 rooms and solid furniture made in the family’s workshop, have been fully booked throughout the spring and the summer. The resort can accommodate up to 30 guests, most of them domestic but with an increasing number of foreign guests. The cabins attract guests who are fond of tranquillity and unspoilt nature, who like to cycle, walk and swim in the nearby lake. Recently, more and more visitors come to observe the brown bear in its natural habitat, as there are several specialised observation sites in the vicinity.

In 2015, Park Idila welcomed 2,000 guests by Lake Bloke, and the Lahs hope for this year to be equally or even more successful. They are pleased and honoured to be mentioned in the Guardian – the article was published this July - and consider the positive review as a sign that they are on the right path.

Barbara Renčof, Televizija Slovenija; translated by K. Z.