Ljubljana, Slovenia to Split, Croatia car rental

We travelled the opposite direction and decided to make one way rentals simpler and cheaper by renting a car in Split and dropping it off in Opatija, Croatia. From there we took a train to Ljubljana, Slovenia and then rented a car for a few days in Slovenia. We also took the bus several times in both Croatia and Slovenia.

As Pauline indicates, you'll want to avoid the (hefty) inter-country drop-off fee that the rental agency will charge if you pick up a car in Slovenia and drop it in Croatia. Therefore, if you arrive in, say, Ljubljana and want a car then pick one up for use in Slovenia. Return it in Ljubljana and take the train to, say, Zagreb and pick up another car. Usually there won't be a drop-off fee added even if you picked up the car in one city and drop it off in another city in the same country (i.e. pick up in Zagreb, drop it off in Split). I'm reticent to make comments regarding insurance, as I can't remember specifically what we did for Croatia, but we have relied on AmEx coverage in Europe in the past. Usually we call them in advance, make sure they cover the country we'll be in, and then give them worst case scenarios regarding accidents, etc. to make sure we understand what they will and will not cover. They also send a .pdf of their coverage T's and C's, something I usually defer to my husband to go over (unless I'm looking for nap-inducing material). However, we've not had any incidents in Europe that would warrant insurance getting involved, so I have no idea how responsive AmEx would be in the event of an accident. Lastly, we used (US-based) AutoEurope.com for our rentals in Croatia, and have always been very pleased with their customer service. As they are a consolidator, the actual rental was through National. Good luck!

Totally agree with other two posters re not taking a car from one country to the other. We traveled in opposite direction than you are planning and took the train from Opatija to Ljubljana (countryside was beautiful). In Spring 2010, we used Sixt car rental and they were great. We picked the car up in Split and returned it in Opatija with NO drop-off charges. Had we returned it in Slovenia, the drop-off fee would have been about 200 Euro. We had a question about driving the car into Slovenia and then returning to Croatia as we wanted to visit the Slovenia coast towns while traveling along the west coast of the Istra Peninsula. It was no problem taking the car into another country (just had to tell them when renting). When I was speaking to the fellow, he said it was less expensive for me if I booked the car on-line. He gave me a quote if I booked through him and he was right - on-line was cheaper. We always buy the CDW as we have friends who had a very bad experience trying to recover costs of damage to a rental car from AmEx. So, I asked the fellow re cost of the insurance. He told me NOT to sign-up for it on-line as it was cheaper for me to buy it directly from the local agent when picking up the car. And again, he was right. With the kind of service (and good advice) we received from Sixt, I am very happy to recommend them.
Also, remember when driving in Slovenia, a vignette is required for travel on the main highways. It is not expensive but the ticket if caught without one is (between 300 & 800 Euros!!!!). Happy travels, Bev

in 2009 we did just what you are planning. we just used the insurance provided by our amex card. yes the drop off fee was pretty stiff, but IMO dropping car off, training, picking up another seemed a bigger pain and time consuming. we were happy we did the car rental ljub to split. and yes you must have a vignette in slovenia but it was provided by the rental company. we used budget/thrifty online booking and it was cheapest at the time. do be sure you document all marks of any kind with the rental company when you pick up the car. we were subjected to the most thorough vehicle inspection we have ever experienced.

We just returned from Slovenia and Croatia. We also followed Rick's suggested itinerary as well. We rented a car in Ljubljana and returned the car in Dubrovnik. I used Sixt and found the rental rate much cheaper than Europecar or other companies such as Budget, Avis etc.
We did get all the insurance and it ended up costing us another 150 euros or so. Your credit card may cover cdw but there are other charges you should consider such as 3rd person liability, theft etc. The one way drop off fee was around 130 euros. I would do it again as having a car gives you much more freedom than public transport.

We just returned from an 19-day trip Vienna-Budapest-Plitvice-Split-Ljubljana-Vienna. We rented from Avis for about 650 (VW Golf - unlimited miles), and got insurance from Travel Guard ($150). It was about the same price as in the US, and gas is now only 2x US prices in Europe. We filled up 4 times, and spent about $150 on gas. For 5 adults, it was pretty cost-effective.

Mindy - We drove from Bled, Slovenia to Dubrovnik, Croatia a couple of years ago. In my research, we could have taken a train to avoid the drop off fees. In the end we decided to pay the drop off fee and save quite a bit of time. We rented through Sixt and it worked out well. The car came with the needed vignette and we opted to take the full coverage CDW. My opinion is that the cost of the CDW is often worth the potential hassle if you have any damage. I don't want to spend any time dealing with a credit card company or other insurance company during or after the trip...