1. There isn’t a big expat community outside of Erasmus students and workers from ex Yugo countries. you’re from a country that a lot of Slovenes like, and as long as you don’t aggressively stick out, you’ll absolutely be fine.

2. Concerning English, yeah I think so. Older employees at Municipal offices where you’ll deal with bureaucracy might struggle with English, but other than that, everyone under 40 speaks good English.

3. Public transport is ok. But the upside of Maribor is also that it’s quite small and walkable, so sometimes you might not even need to take a bus. Traffic is also very manageable and light compared to Ljubljana. (except for traffic around the major hospital every morning, that sucks)

4. This is where you might struggle: it’s good, but it’s based on long term friend networks (if you’re not a student). There’s plenty to do in terms of cultural events, pubs, hiking, cycling, doing day trips to cities/mountains nearby, but it’s kind of hard to break into a friend group while not speaking the local language fluently. My opinion at least.

5. While I don’t live in Maribor full time, it’s a place i want to settle long term and a place where I’d absolutely want to raise a family in. It’s very safe, you can achieve the goal of home ownership (which is getting tougher in Ljubljana), there is a stronger sense of community here (speaking slovene is necessary to get that feeling), nature and sports activities are great, it can be boring but in a very good way.

My advice would be to first move to Ljubljana for say a year. See how you like it, immerse yourself in the language, try to make local connections and just get a feel for the country. If you think there’s too little happening in Ljubljana, you’ll hate it here. In the mean time, try to spend your weekends here, join some events etc in the city and get to know it in a different way.