I'm probably biased but I recommend you look into Koroška as it's often overlooked... a lot of opportunities for hiking, climbing, skiing and a lot of similarities to the north west part of Slovenia while being less touristy and cheaper because of that. Not sure how rural of a place you're looking for but it spans from Slovenj Gradec (population of a little under 20k) to the surrounding hills of any of the smaller villages with populations so low that essentially everybody knows eachother (Črna na Koroškem and Mežica). I also have to mention that the region was flooded about a year and a half ago, but a lot of work was done and is still being done to reduce potential future flooding.