The Secovlje Salt Pans, ten kilometres south of Piran on the Croatian border, are the largest and best-preserved Adriatic salt works still in production. Several square kilometres of low embankments enclose a maze of evaporation pools, separated by raised walkways and dotted with the small wooden houses that once sheltered the salt-makers and their families.
The site is protected as a nature park and is one of the most important birdwatching locations in Slovenia — over two hundred species recorded, including avocets and black-winged stilts. The Lera and Fontanigge sectors each have visitor entrances; allow a half-day to walk the trails. The simple Lepa Vida spa, on the edge of the pans, uses salt-pan mud and brine in its treatments.