Travel from Austria to Croatia
 

My husband and I will be traveling to France for a friend's wedding in July, and decided to take advantage of the proximity of other countries and visit Austria and Croatia as well. We are both in our late twenties and are open to various modes of travel, although we would prefer overnight travel as to not lose precious time during the day. We are having a hard time finding a cheap, fast, and easy way to travel from Salzburg, Austria to Croatia. We were planning to get to Croatia and then rent a car to drive along the coast, is this a good idea? I heard the roads are pretty good and the views are amazing. We are looking to stay in a beach town and pretty much relax as this will be the last leg of our trip. Any suggestions for towns to stay in and accomodations are welcome as well. Thank you!

How about a train to Ljubljana leaving around 1am, arriving 6am, there is then a train leaving for Rijeka at 6.30am. You could explore Ljubljana for a few hours and take a lunchtime train instead.

I have driven the Croatian coast all the way down to Albania and yes it is lovely the whole way - Split and especially Dubrovnik are so so neat. You may want to avail yourself of the ferries that also ply the coast if not wanting to rent a car - they hug the coast the whole way but also stop at several neat islands, like one Marco Polo once lived on.

anyway for a lot of great info on European night trains and what you will find on them as to various types of accommodations from private doubles - rather pricey to shared couchette accommodations check out these IMO fantastic sites - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Traffic will be more intense during that period and to go down the coastline will take time and bit of patience.

But then you will have the time to gaze. :)


I suggest Brela and most of the southern Dalmatia below Zadar and Split.


Punta Rata Brela
Gotovo sve plaže na makarskoj rivijeri nose Plavu zastavu kao simbol čistoće i uređenosti, a plaža Punta Rata, izabrana je među 10 najljepših plaža na svijetu i najljepša u Europe.


(Almost all of the beaches of makarska riviera have the blue flag as symbol of purity and Punta Rata is been chosen among 10 most beautiful beaches in the world i the most beautiful in Europe)

link:
http://onecroatia.info/top10/top-10-.../#.UPn72GdNmM8

We flew Vienna to Dubrovnik with Croatia Airlines. IMO I would rather spend my day relaxing on the beach or enjoying the sunshine in Croatia than traveling by train, or at least fly one way and drive the coast in a rental car.

Thank you all so much for your replies! I really appreciate the help.