Rare mskaufman Posted February 25 #1 Share Posted February 25 Any recommendations for how to do a day in Slovenia (from Trieste) that includes Ljubljana and Lake Bled. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Hlitner Posted February 25 #2 Share Posted February 25 Rent a car. Hank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mskaufman Posted February 26 Author #3 Share Posted February 26 Thanks Hank, Still would like to see other options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mapleleaves Posted February 26 #4 Share Posted February 26 FlixBus ? Check the Tourist Info Centers for Trieste and for Ljubljana. Since they're geared towards tourism. they usually provide options on how to get there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mskaufman Posted February 27 Author #5 Share Posted February 27 We thought of renting a car, as Hank suggests. The other option seems to be an organized tour (about $100 - $130 per person). For two people the cost is similar to renting a car from a major agency (when you consider gas, parking, etc). However, would like to hear a good review on the tour option. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare alserrod Posted February 27 #6 Share Posted February 27 On 2/25/2024 at 3:54 AM, mskaufman said: Any recommendations for how to do a day in Slovenia (from Trieste) that includes Ljubljana and Lake Bled. On 2/25/2024 at 5:20 AM, Hlitner said: Rent a car. Hank I was in that area several years ago. I had a direct (and very cheap) flight from my hometown to Venice airport. I wondered how to move from Venice to destination in Slovenia and Croatia and, later, rent a car there. It was almost impossible. It is awful but in railway terms, a lot of countries work like islands. This is, a better or worse national network but barely linked with other boundaring countries (for instance, AFAIK, Bosnia hasn't international trains, thus it is a "railway island"). In this case you will see a lot of trains from Trieste to the rest of Italy but not with Slovenian, Austrian or Croatian cities in the surroundings. I rented a car. I remembered to compare different prices, terms and conditions. Half out of them didn't accepted international voyages, other ones had an extra for border crossing. I found a major company with an offer that let me cross any border without an extra fee. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Hlitner Posted February 27 #7 Share Posted February 27 3 hours ago, alserrod said: I was in that area several years ago. I had a direct (and very cheap) flight from my hometown to Venice airport. I wondered how to move from Venice to destination in Slovenia and Croatia and, later, rent a car there. It was almost impossible. It is awful but in railway terms, a lot of countries work like islands. This is, a better or worse national network but barely linked with other boundaring countries (for instance, AFAIK, Bosnia hasn't international trains, thus it is a "railway island"). In this case you will see a lot of trains from Trieste to the rest of Italy but not with Slovenian, Austrian or Croatian cities in the surroundings. I rented a car. I remembered to compare different prices, terms and conditions. Half out of them didn't accepted international voyages, other ones had an extra for border crossing. I found a major company with an offer that let me cross any border without an extra fee. We had no problem arranging for a rental car with Europcar. Would have also been fine with both Avis and Hertz. There was no extra charge for driving into Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and Germany as long as we dropped the car back in Italy (we are flying home from Malpensa). In the last few years we have had very few issues with driving into some of the Eastern European countries and things have really improved in the last 20 years. But, it can be very difficult (or expensive) to do a one-way rental between countries. The one country that causes me a lot of heartache is when we want to drive into Switzerland where they only sell long-term Vignettes for about 50 Euros! I find their system annoying and anti-tourist so will sometimes design my routes to completely avoid that country. Hank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare alserrod Posted February 27 #8 Share Posted February 27 Hello Slovenia has a vignette too. You can buy (I am not sure if things have changed) for 1 week, 1 month or 1 year (in that case it is from December previous year to January next year so you do not have to change vignette exactly on January 1st). You can buy in several shops, petrol stations, all borders with motorway and in some motorway entrances. It is a fee.... but the rest of motorways are free after paying 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Hlitner Posted February 27 #9 Share Posted February 27 34 minutes ago, alserrod said: Hello Slovenia has a vignette too. You can buy (I am not sure if things have changed) for 1 week, 1 month or 1 year (in that case it is from December previous year to January next year so you do not have to change vignette exactly on January 1st). You can buy in several shops, petrol stations, all borders with motorway and in some motorway entrances. It is a fee.... but the rest of motorways are free after paying Yeah, we did notice that little requirement. The good news is that they sell a 7 day Vignette and its now possible to simply do it online (the Vignette is electronic with no sticker). The 7 day will be fine for us since we will quickly transit Slovenia on our way to Croatia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzeus1924 Posted February 27 #10 Share Posted February 27 Hello, We have a trip booked through TripAdvisor for Lake Bled and Ljubljana Tour from Trieste. Looking forward to it! They pick up at hotels in Trieste or at the cruise port if you prefer. B 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mskaufman Posted February 28 Author #11 Share Posted February 28 7 hours ago, bzeus1924 said: Hello, We have a trip booked through TripAdvisor for Lake Bled and Ljubljana Tour from Trieste. Looking forward to it! They pick up at hotels in Trieste or at the cruise port if you prefer. B We are going in July. If you are before us, a review would be great, Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzeus1924 Posted February 29 #12 Share Posted February 29 We are going in May and will review for you. Can't wait! B 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mskaufman Posted March 1 Author #13 Share Posted March 1 Great!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennybear Posted March 2 #14 Share Posted March 2 (edited) On 2/27/2024 at 3:37 AM, Hlitner said: We had no problem arranging for a rental car with Europcar. Would have also been fine with both Avis and Hertz. There was no extra charge for driving into Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and Germany as long as we dropped the car back in Italy (we are flying home from Malpensa). In the last few years we have had very few issues with driving into some of the Eastern European countries and things have really improved in the last 20 years. But, it can be very difficult (or expensive) to do a one-way rental between countries. The one country that causes me a lot of heartache is when we want to drive into Switzerland where they only sell long-term Vignettes for about 50 Euros! I find their system annoying and anti-tourist so will sometimes design my routes to completely avoid that country. Hank Surely 50 euro is not a deal breaker for such a beautiful country🤷♀️. I think I have spent more in tolls in Italy. Switzerland is one of the most expensive places to visit but the scenery is sublime. Full disclosure I am part Swiss. 😁 Edited March 2 by bennybear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Hlitner Posted March 2 #15 Share Posted March 2 1 hour ago, bennybear said: Surely 50 euro is not a deal breaker for such a beautiful country🤷♀️. I think I have spent more in tolls in Italy. Switzerland is one of the most expensive places to visit but the scenery is sublime. Full disclosure I am part Swiss. 😁 We can agree about Switzerland and have been there many times. But when just wanting to get through a small part of the country on our way to other places. we have no use for a 1 year Vignette. If we plan on spending some time in the country, then no problem. Hank 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mskaufman Posted March 3 Author #16 Share Posted March 3 We have done some more research and are likely to spend another day in Trieste and save this part of Slovenia for a future cruise. There seems to be enough in Trieste to keep us busy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzeus1924 Posted June 18 #17 Share Posted June 18 On 2/27/2024 at 10:45 PM, mskaufman said: We are going in July. If you are before us, a review would be great, Thanks I am happy to report that this was an amazing tour! It was a little more time in a bus than we would have liked but that was because we had to stop in Kotor to pick up tourists from a ship in port, and more so because of people dallying around at a rest stop. Was supposed to be a quick 10 minute stop but we were there for over half an hour waiting for stragglers. This gave us a bit less time at Lake Bled but this was completely on other travelers, not on the tour company. Lake Bled was gorgeous and though we only had about an hour and a half there (which meant no time to take the boat to the island in the middle of the lake), it was still absolutely beautiful and worth the drive. We unfortunately had to wait again for stragglers who didn't listen to the return time for the meeting point. We then drove to Ljubliana and my husband and I were absolutely in love with it! Everything was beautiful and walkable and there were so many little restaurants and shops to see, as well as of course the architecture. Our guide gave us a brief talk to let us know where things were and some key things to hit, then we had time on our own for a few hours. Hubby and I are foodies so went off the main area to a beautiful restaurant for an amazing lunch, then explored the old town on foot. Again we had to wait for other travelers (the same 4 people every time!), then headed back to Trieste. The guide gave us a commentary throughout our drives which was amusing, but not excessively chatty which I liked. Hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Hlitner Posted June 18 #18 Share Posted June 18 Guess I never followed-up on this thread from our earlier posts. As previously posted, when we debarked our ship on May 1 we picked -up our rental car in Trieste (had to go the airport since everything in town was closed for the holiday) and drove to Lake Bled. We spent a few nights at the lake area, and really enjoyed ourselves. The area around the lake is very walkable (there are paved paths and some dirt trails) and we enjoyed a few decent meals in the town. Once we left Lake Bled, we worked or way up to Austria, across the Innsbruck, and finally down to Italy and our final destination of Malpensa (Milan's major airport). For those that end a cruise in Trieste, there are so many decent post cruise options. The only limiting factors are your free time, budget, and spirit of adventure. We could go back 10 times and never repeat anything close to the same driving itinerary. Hank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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