Best way to get from Venice to Karlovac, Croatia?
 

Heading to Venice and environs in April. Wanting to investigate family tree in Karlovac, Croatia.

Can I train from Venice into Croatia? Would it be best to rent a car, say in Trieste, instead?

What could I expect driving time from Trieste to Karlovac? Where would be best place to rent car... in Trieste? Or over the Croatian border somewhere? If latter, where?

Thanks!

Train connections are on www.bahn.de but are not very convenient.
There are trains every hour from Venezia to Trieste, but it's then easier and quicker by bus. The bus station in Trieste is next door to the railway station. There are buses to Rijeka, then buses from there to Karlovac. Timetables are on www.autotrans.hr (search for Trieste-Rijeka, then Rijeka-Karlovac). The total travelling time from Tieste is about four hours or so. Note that Trieste is near the Slovenian border. The bus will travel a short distance through Slovenia to the Croatian border.

Hire a car in Venice or Trieste, whichever suits you best. Tell the hire firm you will drive to Croatia and back, and they will give you the necessary card. Also, you will need a sticker to travel in Slovenia. The car may have the sticker already, if not, pick one up at a gas station before crossing the border.

For cheaper than above usually hop a regional train

to Trieste then walk across the street to the bus station

buy a ticket for anywhere you want in Croatia cheaply

from 5-10 euro or so.

Cheapest best way to do it I know of...

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Geoff, really appreciate the links!

One other question. I speak little Italian and no Croatian. Can I get by in Croatia?

Thanks!

We have been to Croatia twice, Slovenia once and Italy numerous times and always get by with English and a few words of each language. We try and learn basics like please, thank you, one, two, one way, return, good morning, etc. You will find with smiles and gestures you can usually manage and generally people in the tourist industy, in hotels and restaurants etc speak some English.

We also hired a car with Hertz in Trieste and drove through Slovenia into Croatia and back again. We had to tell Hertz in advance we wanted to take the car into the other countries and we also bought the vignette (sticker) for the car immediately over the Slovenian border. I was glad I'd researched what we wanted and the prices because in this instance the woman spoke no English and I spoke no Slovene (Slovenian?) but I just pointed to the poster on the wall and paid what was required.

Kay

Kay, how did you find the roads/signage in Croatia? I'm thinking I'd rather drive than take the bus to Karlovac. If it is easy to rent and the roads are good.

What about speed limits in Croatia? do they have them or is it a free for all? :)

I drove in Croatia in 2009 and found driving there very easy and I was nervous about it ahead of time (I don't know two words of the language). The signs were easy, many in English, everything well marked. The A1 (fairly new) is nicer than any US freeway I've driven on; the minor roads were not bad either. I drove from Zagreb to Plitvice Lakes Park (driving through Karlovac - it's the A1 exit to continue to Plitvice) and on to Dubrovnik. Driving in Dubrovnik itself was by far the most challenging part of my driving time in Croatia - everything is very tight and tends to take you in circles. But you don't seem to be headed to Dubrovnik. Everything else was a piece of cake.

My only warning is that Croatian drivers can be VERY aggressive at passing. On a two lane road they will pass with seemingly little passing room, and that can be unnerving at first. But to be honest, I found myself driving just like them after a couple of days. I got used to it quickly.

I'd probably take the bus/train to Croatia and rent a car there - would probably be cheapest. You can take a night train from Venice to Zagreb I believe - I don't like night trains but that would probably be cheapest. It's an easy drive to Karlovac from Zagreb. But the train to Trieste/bus on to Croatia may be quicker and more convenient.

You really need to get to Plitvice Lakes Park if you rent a car, since you will be so close - an amazing park that your ancestors surely visited. It's full of waterfalls and huge turquoise lakes full of trout! Don't miss it!

Oh, and yes there are certainly speed limits in Croatia. I didn't see many cops patrolling the roads, and the locals seemed to drive much faster than the limits. I didn't push my speed too much.

I rented in Zagreb with Sixt via Auto Europe - the best deal I could get at the time. My car smelled like an ash tray and was a tiny 5 speed but otherwise it was fun to drive and no issues with the rental. Hertz and Budget may have affiliates there too. Check Kayak, depends on the city. Zagreb being a huge city gives you many car rental options.

I don't recall having any problems at all, though my husband did more driving than me. We didn't do a lot of mileage, only from Trieste to Piran, on to Rovinj, across to Opatija then back to Trieste. Most of that from memory was on minor roads with very little traffic but that was the off season. A lot of road signs are international so you hopefully won't have a problem, there are definitely speed limits. If you are a confident driver in your own country you shouldn't have any problems.

We did have one problem in a sleepy village where the road was blocked by a big black labrador who had decided to sleep on the road, where the sun was shining. The owner rushed out of her house, horrified at holding up the traffic (ours was the only car) but we were laughing and waved and she smiled and waved too, dragging the dog away :-). We found the Croatians to be very nice people.

Kay

Thanks Andrew and Kay!

(Kay, I'm glad you think Croats are nice; both my great-grandparents and my maternal grandfather were born in Karlovac. Of course, they were considered "Austrians" back then [in 1870's, this area was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire] and then on the 1920 US census, wrote in "Yugoslavia" since the division of the area in 1918. [country name merry-go-round!])

Hi, interesting that you mention they were Austrians back then. We knew that borders had moved and countries carved up after wars but were really surprised to see that Rovinj looked very Italian (was part of the Venetian empire) but Opatija looked completely different, just like Austria (which it once was).

In Opatija there were the traditional cafes with wonderful cakes and coffee but in Rovinj it was more about pasta and pizza. There must be people in countries such as Croatia who have lived in the same house, in the same town for years yet their 'nationality' has changed. It must be very strange to live through that.

We experienced a very similar thing in Castelrotto, in the Dolomite area of Italy. Everything about it felt Austrian and that's because it once was Austria and the locals all speak German.

Have a great time on your trip.
Kay

The Istrian peninsula and some of the islands were part of Italy between the two world wars. I remember once speaking to two old ladies in a bus shelter in Veli Losinj which was part of Italy when they were born. They spoke Italian to one another, but Croatian to other people. They were sisters and told me their mother had been born in Austria though the family had always lived in the same place. In less than a hundred years, the area has been part of Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia and now Croatia. There is still a daily newspaper in Italian ('La Voce del Popolo') and local radio stations in Italian.

Interesting, indeed!

sarge56, good luck on teh search. We were in Karlovac back in 2007 because some of my husband's Croatian relatives emigrated to the US from the Karlovac area - and, as you said, some of them listed Austrian and some Yugoslavian on their immigration forms, depending on the year they came to the US. Even more odd, their hometown is now part of Slovenia - the town is less than 1 km across the border.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Karlovac and plan to go back because we did not really do any ancestral research. If I can remember the name, there was a delicious bakery where we had breakfast - I will search for my notes to see if we wrote it down. Best of luck!

Driving in Croatia was easy. Don't miss Plitvice!! It is beautiful. Thanks for your nice thoughts on the nearly-dearly departed maitaitom post, by the way. I'm not so easy to kill, although Tracy is thinking about it now that I've been back home for a few weeks. Croatia is wonderful!! Have fun.

((H))

Thanks much, MTT. I've decided we just can't get it done on this trip. Perhaps next trip. I really wanted to do it this trip, as my cousin is traveling with me and she has as much interest in the family history as I do. Her father and my mother were twins.

Alas, Italy calls again. But I'll start planning Croatia/Italy for fall 2012!

SO glad to see you are back on the boards! You were sorely missed!

Best to Saint Tracy. :)