Please sign in to post.

Croatia to Trieste

Posting here because the Croatia forum does not get much play.

Rick's Croatia book (5th edition, no date) has a map showing rail lines in and around Croatia. The line between Rijeka and Ljubljana has a spur heading west from Pivka that appears to reach Trieste. However, it does not.

According to bahn.de, one changes trains at Pivka for Sezana. At Sezana, one waits 1 hour 19 minutes for a train from Sezana to Villa Opicina. And there, with a 90-minute "übergang" ( transfer time, as I read it) one catches a bus or taxi to Trieste. No bus number is given. Apparently there is a border crossing somewhere in there.

Does anyone have more specific information about this route? How far would that bus or taxi ride be? Why the 90 minutes?

We do not want to rent a car to take from Croatia to Trieste because of the drop fees. So this appears to be one of the few ways to connect with Trieste. (Apparently there is also a bus route from towns in Istria, but we will likely be coming from Split).

I see the Lipica stud farm is very close to Trieste and near this route, so if there were a way to incorporate a stop there, I would be very happy. But I can't tell where we would leave the train to do that.

Thanks for your help.

Posted by
16027 posts

Ok, I have answered my own question! The Lipica stud farm is at Sezana, and Villa Opicina is a town in Italy a few km away. It is the end of the train line, but an historic tram/funicular connects Villa Opicina with Trieste 390 meters below:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trieste–Opicina_tramway

I think I will follow up on this option. Sounds more fun and interesting than the overnight ferry from Split to Ancona.

But I would still love to hear from anyone who has been to this area and has more information on the trains and buses. I would still like to get to the stud farm somehow.

Posted by
513 posts

I was working in Northern Italy a couple of years back and we took a day to visit the Stud Farm. We did the guided tour which was available then in several different languages - 15 euros as I recall. It was well worth it. We drove there and I believe it took us around 45 minutes to reach the farm from Trieste Italy.

Posted by
2119 posts

Hi Lola -- Years ago, in mid-September, we took an overnight ferry from Split to Rijeka, and then a bus from Rijeka to Trieste. The ferry landed in Rijeka at 6 am, the bus left at 2 pm and we were in Trieste by 4:30 pm. it was a really nice, comfortable bus. I'm sure the schedules have changed but you might check into this.

If you end up doing this, it was an easy walk to the bus station. We purchased our tickets and left our bags in a holding area in the pizza shop next door, so we didn't have to drag them around Rijeka with us for 6 hours.

Also, there's a tourist information office at the end of the bus/train station in Trieste which had lists of hotels available in various locations & price ranges, in case you haven't reserved in advance (which we hadn't).