I am last minute planning travel for the spring of this year and wish I had thought of Slovenia earlier. (Leaning toward northern Italy at this point). Slovenia looks great, but transportation connections seem problematic if going by public transport. I don't have Rick's book at this stage, only Lonely Planet. I know Rick favors Ljubljana and Bled, my own research shows Piran and Ptuj also look very promising. The problem is that all of the places mentioned are different directions from Ljubljana and the busses are sometimes not that frequent. Plus you usually have to pass back through Ljubljana. That and as other threads have pointed out Ljubljana is expensive to fly into/out of. Make more sense to fly into Zagreb but crafting an itinerary that makes sense seems a challenge. Is there some magic to transit planning in Slovenia, or do you just have to accept it's more challenging than many other countries? Any advice is welcome, thanks in advance.
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Portland, Oregon
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I've visited Ljubljana four times. Never flown directly in. Flying directly to Venice has worked well for me the last few times. It's about a 2.5 to 3 hours shuttle from there to Ljubljana. (e.g. GoOpti.) I would fly into Zagreb too if that ever worked better; last trip, I started on the east coast of the US and got a direct flight to Venice from there. Direct flights are ideal.
There are frequent buses from Ljubljana to Bled and back. There are trains and buses to Ptuj (the oldest town in Slovenia but very small - I spent a few hours only, probably enough). A direct bus from Ljubljana to Piran. (Or GoOpti.) Piran is an adorable seaside town. But I visited in late September, on a warm weekend when I was able to go swimming. Piran makes more sense as an overnight (you could start or end there connected to Venice by bus and train via Trieste or GoOpti). Maribor is a larger town near Ptuj where I overnighted on one trip; a day trip from there to Ptuj one day worked well, by train.
But driving is easy in Slovenia and probably affordable if you rent a car outside of summer. (Plan to get an International Driving Permit though if you do plan to drive there.) You don't need a car to get so easily from city to city, but having a car between Ljubljana and Bled offered a lot of additional sightseeing opportunities I would have missed otherwise. There's a lovely town called Skofja Loka between Bled and Ljubljana. The drive from Skofja Loka through the mountains, via Jamnik and Kropa, is very scenic and lovely.