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Aviano, Italy to Ljubljana - best travel option without a car

Hey, highly-informed travelers , we need your help:
We will be in Italy in late April, spending a weekend with family in Aviano. After research, we found that train/bus travel to Ljubljana takes around five hours. [We won't have a car for what is a 2.5 hr drive.] We want to use the Go Opti shuttle service to Ljubljana, which is much quicker. Is it best to train to Venice and then meet Go Opti, or are there other towns the shuttle service goes through? [ I also have a message into go Opti.]
Thanks so much for your always so helpful advice!

Posted by
1090 posts

Go Opti should be able to take you the entire journey. We used them from Verona to Ljubljana and they were excellent.

Posted by
19637 posts

The Go Opti site says that Udine is a pick-up location. Udine is 1 1/2 hour from Aviano by train, and a lot closer to Ljubljana than Venice.
BTW, Aviano is more like 3 1/2 to 4 hours from Ljubljana by car.

Posted by
4614 posts

Thanks for all of your input.
My understanding is that taking a train includes train/bus transfers, which are time-consuming, and not always very relaxing. I have seen references to direct trains from Venice, but can't find any, unless it is only a seasonal service.
Please keep sharing your experiences. Thx!

Posted by
4614 posts

Scythian,
Thanks for your incredibly detailed info. You must know the area well!

Posted by
4614 posts

I keep getting frustrated with the online transportation sites, so any help is very appreciated . I keep getting "no tickets available" responses when I plug in dates, such as Monday April 22.

We will be at near the Aviano AFB, with family. Using bus/trains, can we leave this area in the morning, spend some time in Trieste, and then continue on to Ljubljana in late afternoon? I'm not finding a variety of times that would make this possible. Thx so much again.

Posted by
5687 posts

Pat, I'd work backwards: figure out how you'd get from Trieste to Ljubljana and what time you need to leave Trieste. You have trains, buses, and GoOpti to choose from. There is one Slovenian train going from Trieste Centrale in the early evening (19:07). If that's too late (gets in at 21:48), there's an earlier train leaving Villa Opicina (kind of a suburb of Trieste) at 17:40 (arrives 19:39). You can get to Villa Opicina by local bus (unless the old historic tram is running again) or taxi (If you have a lot of bags, take the taxi).

https://www.slo-zeleznice.si/en/

Or take a bus directly from Trieste (next to train station) at 17:00 (arrives 18:44) or 17:45 (arrives 19:20). And maybe a FlixBus at 16:45

https://getbybus.com/en/
https://www.flixbus.com/

Or book a GoOpti transfer from Trieste.

One you figure out how you are leaving Trieste and what time, figure out how early in the day you could get there.

Looking at the Trenitalia website, I see your best bet is [edit] leaving Aviano at 8:30 and get into Trieste at 11:03 on 4/22.

https://www.trenitalia.com/


You don't need to buy tickets for the Slovenia train in advance, either, so unless you decide to take a bus or GoOpti, no need to buy anything in advance. Bus tickets (FlixBus, at least) do get more expensive closer to the last minute.