Hello! We have a trip planned the third week of September. Current itinerary: Fly from US to Venice, rent a car and do three nights in Bovec, two nights Ljublijana, two nights Rovinj and then currently planning to drive back to Venice before flying out at noon the last day. We had planned to stay near the airport but seems like a wasted opportunity for a night in Venice. If we returned the car in Rovinj and ferried to Venice the one way fee would likely be very expensive. Considering arranging transport from Venice to Bovec, renting a car (if there are cars available) in Bovec and then returning it in Rovinj, taking ferry to Venice. Fees would be far kess. Does that make sense? Any other recommendations?

First and foremost: After flying from the US, you will not be safe to drive for at least 36 hours. Not safe for you, not safe for anyone else on the road. Anyone who says otherwise has simply been lucky. Don't do it!

Two nights in Ljublijana and two in Rovinj gives you just over a day in each -- VERY little time. Maybe that would work for you; I would want more time. If you want to see any more of Slovenia (e.g., Bled) or any more of Istria (e.g., Porec, the hill towns), then you would do well to consider adding time to each of those places. I'd say a minimum of 3 nights each, but that's just me.

Is Bovec a priority? If not, maybe you can shift some time from it.

Similarly, is Venice a priority for this trip? Maybe you could fly into Ljubljana, spend some time there before picking up your rental car, explore Slovenia and Istria, and fly out of Ljubljana or underrated (to my mind) Zagreb.

Good luck!

Considering that Bovec (Slovenia) and Rovinj (Croatia) are in different countries, you may still face a stiff drop off fee.

I suggest contacting car rental companies (I usually use Auto Europe or Kemwel) and speaking with agents at both to see what your options are. It may be that picking up the car in Venice and also returning it there would be less expensive.

Unless Venice is a must do, and it's a beautiful place so maybe it is, you could fly into Trieste. Pick up and return the car there. We did a similar trip, stayed at Piran which is in Slovenia on the coast, then Rovinj which we loved and we stayed in Opatija too. We hired the car with Hertz and had to tell them for insurance purposes which countries we were driving in. Slovenia had a road tax vignette we bought immediately over the border.

You could potentially do the whole trip using public transport if you wished, although as you are tight on time a car might be faster.

We haven’t hired a car in that area but we didn’t notice any car hire companies in Bovec (it’s small). Nova Gorica would be a better bet, or Venice as already planned or Trieste as mentioned if happy to hire in Italy.

Another option would be to reverse your trip and see if that works better. The bus from Ljubljana takes about 1.5hrs to Trieste if that helps. If you decide to ditch Venice, you could fly into Zagreb (thus hiring and returning in Croatia, but kja has a very valid point if you’re arriving after a long flight).

Another thought: I don't know the specifics, but my understanding is that car rental insurance requirements in Italy are more complicated than in either Croatia or Slovenia. For example, I don't believe you can use rental car insurance offered through credit cards in Italy, while I believe you can in Croatia and Slovenia. That can add considerably to the cost of a car rental.

SO another option, if you want to keep all your current destinations, would be to fly into and out of Ljubljana. Spend the first day and half there before picking up your rental car and heading to Bovec. If taking the car into Italy is a problem, you can leave it in Bovec while you use public transportation from Bovec to Venice and back. Then proceed to Rovinj and back to Ljubljana. Or, as mentioned above, return the car in Zagreb and fly out of that city -- you can easily check the difference in car rental costs.

I still think your plan to visit all of these places in the time you have is ambitious, but this routing might be worth considering if you are committed to the attempt.

2 1/2 days a Bovec, 1 1/2 days at Ljubljana and 1 1/2 days at Rovigno. What's good for? What do you plaln to do at these pllces?

Last year I was in Ljubljana and wanted to spend 3 nights in Venice before flying home from the Venice airport. I used this transport service and it worked very well. It dropped me right at the Piazzale People mover by Piazza Roma from where I was able to pick up the vaporetto.

Play around with this to see if it will work for you. They do serve Rovinji.

goopti.com

As mentioned in other posts, there are some real issues with your plans

• Definitely do not drive on your arrival day.

• Three nights in a place nets you 2 full days and two nights = 1 full day so you are really dashing. Maybe that is how you like to travel but I would absolutely want more time in Ljublijana and Rovinj

• Car Insurance in Italy

This may be a matter of back to the drawing board and figure out a more realistic itinerary for the short time you have. Taking transfer services from and back to Venice (assuming you have already booked your flights) would be one change I'd consider for sure.

We were in Sperlonga /Anzio from Rome Airport in April for 4 days. No problem with American Express car rental via Auto Europe. Very reasonable as well.

I suspect mike1728 paid for rental car insurance when making the arrangements with Auto Europe -- which is, of course, a fine option and appropriate for Italy. But it is a more expensive proposition than car rental insurance in many countries. Here's a relatively recent thread on the topic:
Rental Car Insurance

What about doing it the other way round? Venice - ferry to Rovinj - hire car and drive back? You'd still have the international drop off fee but I think it solves some of the other issues.

Hi. Thanks for the reply. That's a good challenge on the fatigue concern after a long flight. We hadn't really considered that. We plan to do some hiking and mountain biking in Bovec. We're interested in Ljubljana, but for our purposes could probably even be a day trip. We're going to see what our options are to potentially adjust our flight. We had planned to fly in and out of Venice because it seemed convenient for our route, but not sure that is still the case. A final night in Venice was thought to be an opportunity but may leave us too thin.

Hi all. Thanks for the replies. That's a good challenge on the fatigue concern of driving as soon as we arrive. I don't seem to be affected by jet lag heading that direction, it's just coming back where I run into trouble. That being said, we've always taken public transportation after flying to Europe from the US. I guess we're mostly comfortable with our duration in each place. We generally don't need too much time in our stops. Had allowed for extra time in Bovec because we planned to do some hiking and mountain biking. We had initially planned to stay near the airport when flying out of Venice, but was suggested we actually in Venice Proper since we're so close. I've been, but my partner has not so we may look at eliminating a night near Venice altogether. Flying in and out of Venice seemed to be the most efficient for our trip but I'm not convinced that's still the case. May look at some of the recommendations here and adjust our flights if possible.

Something to consider weather mid/late September can be virtually anything. Not sure I'd plan on serious outdoor stuff. If the weather is nice on the day fine but you won't know until the day.

Exlporing some other options is a good idea, IMO. Let us know if we can help as you consider alternatives.

BTW, the primary danger with driving after crossing multiple time zones is the frequency of micro-sleeps, and you might not even know you are having them. They reflect your biological clock, which must reset once in the new time zone.

Another alternative would be to take a GoOpti transfer from Venice airport to Ljubljana and hire a car when you leave there.

As well as Nova Gorica, you may possibly find that a hire car company in Tolmin could work too (train to Most na Soci).

I would be asking myself how much I would actually be using a car. And work out your best route from Bovec to Ljubljana (obvious choices are via Vrsic pass (if open) or car train from Most na Soci.

it may have changed but when we took the ferry from Venice to Rovinj, it left about 5pm and returned early morning.

This is what we've come up with based on the advice some of you have provided. We're adjusting the trip a bit which will require some back tracking, but likely only adds two hours overall which isn't bad. We're going to hire a transfer from Venice when we fly in, go directly to Ljubljana. Stay for two nights, rent a car and head to Bovec. Understand the weather there will be unpredictable and may keep us from being able to mountain bike, but we'll have the gear to hike in the rain. We did a hike in Switzerland last September and the weather was horrendous. Made for a good story and the beer tasted better afterwards. From Bovec, return the car to Koper, perhaps? From there, bus or hire transfer to Rovinj. We're going to stay in extra night in Rovinj instead of trying to force a night in Venice. Challenges to the plan always welcome.

I suppsose Koper - Rovinj is the only leg where a car would be fine.

The beginning of your trip sounds much better to me, but I'm confused about the end. Are you still planning to fly out of Venice? I like to be near my departure airport the night before my flight unless I'm very certain that nothing will go wrong with transportation.