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Train travel vs rental car in Slovenia and Croatia

Train travel vs rental car in Slovenia and Croatia

Old Jan 19th, 2017, 06:37 PM
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Train travel vs rental car in Slovenia and Croatia

I am hoping to get some advice on the ease of train travel in Slovenia and Croatia. I am debating whether we will be able to get around easily without renting a car. If a rental car is advisable, should we pick up in Venice?
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Old Jan 19th, 2017, 07:12 PM
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Train travel is not much of an option in most of Croatia. There's a train from Zagreb to Split, a few trains between Croatia and Slovenia, and some local trains but otherwise, not much inside the country. If you don't have a rental car, you'll need to rely mostly on buses and ferries to get around. (If you want to go to Plitvice Lakes National Park, which is close to Zagreb, you'll need to take the bus, not the train).

Picking up the rental car in Venice is surely the most convenient if you are going to have a car and drive all the way south to Dubrovnik, but dropping the car in a different country usually incurs a steep one-way drop fee. So unless you don't mind paying that big fee, or you plan to drive back to Italy somehow (ferry across the Adriatic or drive all the way back the way you came to Venice), it usually makes more sense to pick up the car somewhere in northern Croatia like Zagreb or Rijeka (both have train service to Ljubljana) and drop it say in Dubrovnik at the end.

To get from Venice to Ljubljana, take a shuttle like GoOpti or a train to Trieste + bus to Ljubljana. You can get up to Lake Bled easily by bus, and you won't need a car in Ljubljana itself.

Driving in Croatia is easy at least for Americans. I've driven there twice. Expect any rental car to have a manual transmission unless you pay extra for an automatic.
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Old Jan 19th, 2017, 07:19 PM
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Thank you Andrew. So if someone is going to rent a car for Croatia, should they just rent it for Slovenia as well? Or do you recommend train travel in Slovenia if we are on a budget, and then car rental in Croatia?
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Old Jan 19th, 2017, 07:22 PM
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The buses work fine in both countries. Before you decide to rent a car, remember that the driver will not be able to enjoy the scenery.
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Old Jan 19th, 2017, 07:30 PM
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What do you want to do in Slovenia? Many people stick to Ljubljana and Lake Bled - easy to get between them by bus, and easy to get from Ljubljana to Croatia by train (or bus). (Slovenia's train network is slightly better than Croatia's - if you prefer trains to buses as I do, just look for your best option place to place, and if it's a train, take it; otherwise, take the bus).

If you want to get out to more than Bled and Ljubljana, you can still do it by bus, but having a car makes it a lot easier. Really depends what you want to see and how flexible you are.

I rented a car in Slovenia in 2011 for a few days to drive from Ljubljana to Bled, over the Julian Alps via the Vrsic Pass and down into the Soca Valley, stopped in Kobarid, then dropped the car near Piran (and headed back to Italy). I could never have done this trip by bus and seen everything I saw.

You could do something similar to what I did and drop the car near Piran (a beautiful seaside town), then catch a bus south to somewhere like Rovinj, if you are going to Istria, and rent another car there. Or if you aren't planning to go to Istria, rent the car and return it in Ljubljana, then take the train to Zagreb.

FYI, try sites like EconomyCarRentals, Kemwel, and Auto Europe for local rental car rates in Slovenia and Croatia. You'll get more local car companies than just Hertz and Budget through these sites and should be much cheaper rates, too. One-way car rentals within Croatia and Slovenia should not be more expensive than a round trip rental unless you do a very short rental of only a few days.

Depending on your itinerary in Dalmatia, you could rent the car in Zagreb and drop it in Split and use the ferries and buses the rest of the way down to say Dubrovnik. A car may help explore on the islands if you are visiting, but if you stay in the towns themselves you probably won't want/need a car, and you'll be able to use passenger-only catamarans instead of relying on car ferries.
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Old Jan 19th, 2017, 07:33 PM
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thursdaysd: The buses work fine in both countries. Before you decide to rent a car, remember that the driver will not be able to enjoy the scenery.

That's very true, but remember, some of us like to stop and take pictures at various points. And some of us simply hate long bus rides, whether they are scenic or not.
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Old Jan 19th, 2017, 08:10 PM
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And some of us hate the strain of driving, and navigating (although GPS has helped), and dealing with narrow winding roads (in the country) and streets (in town), and finding parking etc. etc. I am very happy that public transport is so good in Europe and Asia so I don't have to drive.
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Old Jan 19th, 2017, 08:26 PM
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With the possible exceptions of the Plitvice Lakes and Istria, Croatia and Slovenia are, IME, extraordinarly easy to visit by public transportaion.

As thursdaysd noted, viewing the scenery is MUCH easier if not driving. And while having a car can offer a freedom not otherwise available and a chance to see places that are not readily visited via public transportation, there are also some downsides:

- For one thing, some of those “oh, doesn’t that look charming!” places aren’t actually that charming, and by the time you get back on the road, you can end up with less time than might be ideal for visiting the places that were your priorities.

- For another thing, driving can be stressful – and I say that as someone who loves driving! But some roads are challenging, unexpected detours or GPS failures can be a bit daunting, and driving into cities (and finding parking) can make the last part of a long trip less than pleasant.

- Driving – or at least responsible driving – can also pose constraints on the driver. For example, the driver may be unable to truly enjoy spectacular scenery, as s/he needs to pay attention to the road -- sometimes, very careful attention! And depending on how much one eats and one’s size and and how long one relaxes over a meal, even a glass of wine with lunch may carry risks.

- Driving is generally not a particularly green choice – and for some of us, that is a worthy consideration.

- And one of the best things about taking public transportation: It can sometimes give you wonderful opportunities to interact with people from the area, or gain insights into local norms and traditions.

For me, the chance to take public transportation whenever possible while in Croatia was a great joy.

Hope that helps!
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Old Jan 19th, 2017, 11:06 PM
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I agree 1000% with kja and thursdaysd.

Andrew's right - work out where you want to go and see whether a car is the only option to get there. I'd just rent a car when there is no alternative.

There is a single train operator in Slovenia (http://www.slo-zeleznice.si/en/) and one in Croatia (will leave you to search for that as haven't used it) - except for some very local tourist trains.

Slovenian train timetables can be found at http://www.ap-ljubljana.si/en/ (their website seems to have had a facelift). However, in Croatia we found buses to be more regional and to look up timetables sometimes you have to find the local bus company/ies.
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Old Jan 19th, 2017, 11:53 PM
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I hate buses. Get sick in them.
I love trains and dislike planes.
But I also dislike schedule. Knowing I must be back at xx.xx to get on the bus kills my enthusisdm in traveling.

In Slovenia the roads are great and driving is easy. One of our best moments in Slovenia was off road till we reached a small lake and had a pic nic there.

And in order to relieve stress I drink some vodka. Usually one bottle per day is enough.
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Old Jan 20th, 2017, 12:02 AM
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@ WoinParis: Some buses run frequently, so no particular need to watch the clock. More to the point, do you think there's any chance that drinking vodka to deal with the stress of a bus may, in some small part, contribute to your experience of getting sick on buses? After all, the beverage of choice in Slovenia is, I believe, slivovitz, not vodka. ;-)
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Old Jan 20th, 2017, 05:26 AM
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I agree with Andrew. In general we have found that we can do and see a lot more in Europe generally with a car (especially outside the main cities). We rented a car in Vienna (because we found a really good fare on direct flights in/out of Vienna instead of Ljubljana) and drove it all around Slovenia and Istria before heading back. Driving in Slovenia was a breeze. The roads are in excellent condition. It really depends on your itinerary and your interests. We wanted to see more than Ljubljana and Bled. There is no way we could have visited the hilltop towns in Istria and the wonderful wineries without a car. Same for Slovenia - for us the best part was Julian Alps via the Vrsic Pass, Soca river valley and the dead drop gorgeous Logarska Dolina valley. I don't think it would be possible to see all those places without tons of bus/train connections if at all. However if your main interests lie in visiting the cities then a car may not be helpful.
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Old Jan 20th, 2017, 08:51 AM
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Actually, I rent a car as an absolute last resort when I travel to Europe. I am thinking about a trip to France for this spring, and it looks like I would have to rent a car to make part of it practical - so I'm thinking about not even doing that part, just to avoid the car rental (and I have driven in France before). I love trains and would prefer a trip that includes only train travel or minimal bus travel.

But in Croatia, having a car made things much easier for me, especially driving from Zagreb to Plitvice to Split. Similarly, in Slovenia, having a car made it possible for me to see things you could never see using buses. I was able to stop numerous times to take pictures at some of the breathtaking scenery and take my time at various points. I would have greatly regretted having to see them only through a tinted bus window for a split second as we sped by.

And when I visited these countries in shoulder season, traffic was minimal outside the cities, and driving was very easy and pleasant. (Though the drivers are aggressive sometimes and will pass you with minimal passing distance.) In some European countries, cities have resident-only zones that are strictly enforced with cameras, and I've heard plenty of stories of travelers receiving expensive tickets in the mail months after their trips. I don't think there's any of that concern driving in Croatia and Slovenia.

Like WoinParis, I get motion sick on buses (usually not on trains) - I can't read or do much of anything besides stare out the window. My last trip to the Baltics in 2016 consisted of several multi-hour bus trip (limited international trains in that region) that worked out OK but were not exactly fun, especially near the end when I was very ready to get off and get to the next place. At least on a train, you can get up and walk around, and often you can open the windows on the regional trains. I've taken many pictures out of train windows that way. And on more than one train trip, I've kind of regretted that it had seemed to end too quickly - they can be very relaxing and fun.
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