Ljubljana to Venice: train, bus, driving or transfer

Ljubljana and Venice are 240 km apart, which is nothing in European terms and yet surprisingly awkward to travel between. The two cities are separated by a border, a mountain range's worth of geography and two rail networks that have never much liked each other.

The train, and why it disappoints people

There is no fast direct train. The journey runs via Villa Opicina or Trieste with a change, and takes the better part of a day for what a car does in under three hours. Rail enthusiasts enjoy it. Travellers with a hotel booking in Venice usually do not.

Seasonal direct services appear and disappear. Check before you plan around one, and check the actual travel date rather than the timetable page.

The bus

FlixBus and GoOpti run this route several times a day for roughly 20 to 40 EUR, taking around four hours including the border. This is the sensible option for a solo traveller who does not mind a coach, and it is genuinely good value.

The limitations are the usual ones: fixed departure times, a bus station at each end rather than an address, and a luggage allowance that assumes you are not carrying much.

Driving yourself

A hire car is the flexible option and the one with the most traps. Slovenian motorways require a vignette. Italian motorways charge tolls. Venice itself cannot be driven into at all: you park at Piazzale Roma or Mestre, at 25 to 30 EUR a day, and continue by vaporetto.

Also check whether your rental agreement allows the car to leave Slovenia. Many do; some charge for the privilege; a few forbid it, and finding out at the border is an expensive way to learn.

A private transfer

Door to door in about three hours, leaving when you choose. From Ljubljana we charge from €275 for the sedan and from €340 for the five-seat van, per car, with the Italian motorway tolls already in the price.

For one person that is expensive against a 30 EUR bus ticket. For four it is comparable, and it takes an hour less each way, ends at your hotel rather than at Piazzale Roma, and does not care that your flight from Venice leaves at six in the morning.

Marco Polo airport is a different question

A great many people making this journey are not going to Venice at all: they are catching a flight from Marco Polo. The airport is on the mainland north of the city, so a transfer takes you straight to the terminal and skips the water entirely.

If that is your trip, work backwards from the check-in time rather than the flight time, and allow for the border. It is inside Schengen and normally open, but police checks reappear at short notice and a queue at Fernetiči can add half an hour.

The short version

• Alone and not in a hurry: take the bus.
• Two people, flexible on time: the bus, unless the schedule fights you.
• Three or more, or an early flight, or a hotel deep in Venice: a private car costs about the same per head and saves the day.
• Never the train, unless the train is the point.