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Car rental Split - Trieste - is there an easier way than this?

Posted by (Australia) on

Hi everyone,

We are travelling from Split (then to Plitvice) to Trieste via Slovenia in September - this portion of the trip is about a week long.

The options I have worked out are:

  1. Hire a car in Split, drop at Trieste airport. Pro is obviously, this is convenient. The one way fee seems to be around the $800AU mark though which is a little ridiculous!

  2. Hire a car in Split - drop in Zagreb (not in our itinerary as it stands), then get a train to Ljubljana, hire another car there, drop it in Koper (near the Slovenian border) and get a bus from there to Trieste. This option wont have a drop off fee but its more inconvenient and also 2 short car hires will probably be more expensive than a single week hire anyway.

  3. Hire a car in Split, drop in Zagreb, then get a train to Ljubljana and not have a car in Slovenia and rely on day tours or public transport.

In Slovenia, we want to explore some small places near Ljubljana, go to Bled, see Skojcan Caves and go to Lipica Horse Stud. I want to be there for a while and see the performance, go on a carriage ride and tour the stables. There are day trips from Ljubljana that cover the caves and the stud farm, but I'm not sure they'd stay there for the length of time I want to. If that's the compromise we end up making, that's ok, but I'd like to think about all of the options first.

I know there would be lots of people that have done this route and I would love to know how you did it. I feel like I haven't found the right balance between cost and convenience yet. Can anyone help?

Regards

Cathy

Posted by
5687 posts

Another option: hire the car in Split, return it in Ljubljana (or Koper). You're still going to have a one-way drop fee but might be a lot less than the drop in Trieste. At least you'd save time changing cars between Croatia and Slovenia. At worst, the bus from Ljubljana to Trieste is about 90 minutes - or probably two hours by train (direct trains Ljubljana to Trieste are supposed to resume service in June).

Check Sixt's website for a comparison rate. Maybe the longer car hire will almost balance out the drop fee - or make it close enough. You can get quotes now for car hires - car in Croatia + car in Slovenia or car Croatia + Slovenia with drop fee, and see if the difference in price is worth the convenience and time you save. Check Auto Europe and EconomyCarRentals too (not sure they allow multi-country hire).

If you hire in Croatia and drive to Slovenia, be sure to buy a vignette driving pass (sticker) at the border, at a gas station - otherwise you risk a steep fine if caught driving without one. If you hire a car in Slovenia, it should already have a vignette. Croatia uses tolls.

I think you'll want a car in Slovenia. You can always just rent a car for a day at a time in Ljubljana at worst.

Posted by
111 posts

Hi Andrew :-) Thanks heaps for those ideas. I’ll do some comparison shopping. I’d rather just have the one car. I agree about the car in Slovenia. We want to explore by ourselves and take some time with photography.

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