help123

Hello!
I need help Hence the username.

I have a work trip coming up (let me repeat, a WORK trip, so I will not be seeing ALL the sites) and I just need some advice on renting and driving through various countries. I know this is an aggressive itinerary but I did something similar from the Netherlands down to Austria last year and it worked well. Also, I will be obtaining an International Driving Permit.

Itinerary is:
Day 1, Friday: Fly into Trieste, shuttle from the airport to hotel in Rovinj (is there a better way?)
Day 2, Saturday: Pick up rental car from Sixt in Rovinj, explore Istria
Day 3, Sunday: Explore Istria
Day 4, Monday: Drive to Zagreb for business meetings
Day 5, Tuesday: Drive to Ljubljana for business meetings
Day 6, Wednesday: Ljubljana meetings
Day 7, Thursday: Drive to Vienna for business meetings
Day 8, Friday: Either stay in Vienna or drive to Brno, Czech Republic for meetings
Day 9, Saturday: Drive to Prague
Day 10, Sunday: Drop car off at Prague airport in the evening, stay in Prague for a conference for the week

My questions about transportation are:
1) Is there a better way to get from the Trieste airport to my hotel in Rovinj than a hired shuttle?
2) Is driving all of this the best way? I will have to go to various businesses but maybe train + taxi is sometimes better/cheaper in some of the countries. I've looked into the possibility of renting cars and returning in the same country and then taking trains from major city to major city... the cost + the headache of it don't seem much better than the costly rental.
3) My quoted car rental + insurance is about $1,100... through my research it seems about the same if I pick up the car in Rovinj, Zagreb, or even Ljubljana. Is there a cheaper place that I'm missing?
4) I'm renting through Sixt and they don't seem to know much when I called. What kind of fees are we talking about for border fees? How about the Vignettes? Can Sixt provide the Vignettes or do I have to buy them in each country?

My business meeting each day will only take probably 2 hours max if I were to guess. I've done some research so far and have things in mind to visit, but would not mind if anyone wanted to give me a recommendation of the ONE thing they would ABSOLUTELY see in each place. I know that might be impossible to do

Also, since I'm asking advise I might as well ask this one:
I'm a female and will be traveling with one other female friend... is everywhere pretty safe? We aren't stupid and take precautions even in our hometown in Florida but is there anything specific I should be aware of? From what I've read, every place sounds like it will be wonderful!

Thanks so much.

suze

Welcome to Fodors! But you put your post in the United States forum, you want it to be on the Europe forum for the information you request.

Moderator1

Moved to the Europe Forum

help123

Thank you! I wondered why I could only select US states

kja

I'm a woman who has been to all of these wonderful places solo and felt perfectly comfortable in all of them. Just take normal precautions.


I would only drive when you absolutely must! A huge part of your fee is for dropping off in a different country than where you are picking the car -- you are paying for someone to return the car. So if you do decide to rent, try to pick up and return in one country, then get to the next country, pick up and return, repeat.

If you return the car in Zagreb after exploring Istria, you can easily take a train (or bus) to Ljubljana.
You can then take a bus or (longer) train from Ljubljana to Vienna.
Bus or train from Vienna to Brno.
Bus or train from Brno to Prague.
You can check your options on rome2rio.com -- just be sure to click through to the underlying links, as the main web page is not sensitive to seasonal variation in schedules. And BTW, no need to "sign in" to rome2rio -- just use it.

fourfortravel

A few comments and questions:

Day 1, Friday: Fly into Trieste, shuttle from the airport to hotel in Rovinj (is there a better way?)
Day 2, Saturday: Pick up rental car from Sixt in Rovinj, explore Istria
Day 3, Sunday: Explore Istria

Is there a reason you are not remaining in Trieste?

What do you mean by, "Explore Istria?" The peninsula spans three countries (Italy, Slovenia, Croatia) and exploring all three will require slowdowns at the border crossings; and might require extra fees for the cross-border and/or transiting through Slovenia rental car (we had to rent a car once after ours was hit, and the Slovenia transit fee was somewhere around €50). You will have to purchase your own vignettes.

Day 7, Thursday: Drive to Vienna for business meetings
Day 8, Friday: Either stay in Vienna or drive to Brno, Czech Republic for meetings

The drive from Ljubljana is straightforward, though you might want to give yourself time to stop for photos along the way. The alps along this route through Slovenia are quite pretty. Also, Slovenian drivers tend to be a bit intense; the speed tempo is more or less a guideline for them.

On Day 8, if you stay in Vienna, would you then miss your Brno meetings?

You might just consider dropping the car in Vienna. For the seven years we have lived here, the motorway between Vienna and Prague has been under construction and restoration, so traffic can be a bear, especially on a Friday. Trains run frequently and conveniently along the Vienna-Brno-Prague route. And of course, no need for a car in Prague.

I am also an occasional solo female traveler and have traveled about the region without problems. Normal precautions are all that I can suggest.

kja

Given that you said you would "explore Istria" between Rovinj and Zagreb, I had -- perhaps mistakenly? -- assumed that you meant to explore a bit of Croatian Istria, and if so, that plan seems very reasonable to me. JMO.

help123

Thank you for all of the input!
Yes, forgive my vagueness, "explore Istria" means based out of Rovinj, down to Pula and up to Motovun.

Day 8, I will go wherever the meetings end up being (they are not all setup yet). And it sounds like taking a rental car from Ljubljana would give some beautiful views! I'm not scared of the aggressive drivers as I can sometimes be the same way

Thank you KJA for the railway website... I had seen that on another thread but couldn't find it when I was ready to look into it (of course).

I finally received a reply back via email from the car rental company and the border fee is only 45 Euros for my trip apparently, not as bad as I expected.

isabel

Driving in the Croatia/Slovenia part of the trip makes sense as trains are not as good there but maybe you can do trains for the rest of it. And to avoid picking up in one country and returning in another could you pick up the car in Trieste (avoiding the problem of how to get to Rovinj) and drive to Croatia and Slovenia, then the short drive back to Trieste so you can return the car at the same place you picked it up. Then do the rest by train.

Michael

I finally received a reply back via email from the car rental company and the border fee is only 45 Euros for my trip apparently, not as bad as I expected.

Is that a drop-off fee or some fee for taking the car out of the country? I have difficulty believing that it is that low. A car with Croatian plates will have to be driven back to Croatia from Prague, and that is an expensive proposition unless by luck another renter has already asked for just such a car.

kja

Picking up a rental in Trieste only makes sense if (a) you are already in Europe to begin or (b) have time to spend a day or two there before picking up the car. Although many people are not aware of it, there is mounting evidence that driving with jet lag is just as dangerous -- to yourself and others -- as driving drunk, and nothing you can do will prevent the microsleeps (which you might not even notice) that are the apparent culprit. Seriously -- NOT a good idea, no matter whether you sleep on the flight and no matter your prior experience! And please be patient with me if you think I’m being overly adamant, but I know too many people who have died or been seriously injured in accidents to which jet lag was a contributing factor, and I know too many people who will spend the rest of their lives dealing with the knowledge that they were responsible for accidents that resulted in multiple deaths, including those of children, all because they were too confident in their ability to drive safely with jet lag. The issue has become a bit of a cause célèbre for me.

And before you commit to driving when public transportation is available, consider whether you will be able to enjoy the views if driving (some of those roads require attention!) and whether you might want some time to truly relax or to study / work before your meetings (in which case a train or bus might provide valuable time).

Hope that helps!

neckervd

If you MUST fly into Trieste Ronchi dei Legionari and if you arrive there NOT jetlagged:
Rent your car at Trieste airport and do a loop Trieste airport - RA13 - E751 - Rovinj - Zagreb - Ljubljana - Trieste airport, drop off the car and go on by train: Monfalcone dp 20.57 - Udine ar 21.51, dp 23.01 (overnight train with sleeping cars) - Vienna ar 7.55am.

Vienna - Brno - Prague: see above.

help123

The 45 Euros is in addition to the exorbitant one-way fee.

The Triest-loop car rental option is interesting... but knowing myself after long flights (this one is overnight for me), I think I should just take the shuttle. I wish I had the time to spend a night in Trieste, but I think I'd rather spend 3 in the Croatian Istria area instead.

neckervd

If you would stay in the Slovenian part of the Istrian coast (Piran, Portoroz or so), you could either do more or less the same loop, drop off your car at Nova Gorica and reach the overnight train from Gorizia Centrale (dp 21.19)
or
proceed to Lake Bled, Maribor or wherever you want, drop off the car there and reach Vienna by train, for example:
Maribor dp 18.20 - Vienna ar 22.02
Lesce Bled dp 16.13 - Vienna ar 21.35