Best options for travel from Lake Bled to Venice

You may want to post your question on transportation section or General question section on the travel forum. You may not get any responses here, but more on the other two sections. This is more about people advising others about their experiences they had on a Rick Steve tour then about traveling around Europe.

The most direct method is to reserve a shuttle operated by www.goopti.com/, from Bled bus station to Venezia Piazzale Roma. If you don't book this from home, but others on the tour are making the same connection, your guide could help arrange a group transport.

Or, you can take a local bus into Ljubljana and connect to the 11:50 a.m. departure by DRD to Venezia Mestre station.

Trains follow a rather indirect path, take 6-7 hours, and usually still include a leg by bus (see schedules online from Lesce Bled station to Venezia S. Lucia station).

We used the shuttle operated by Goopti last year and it worked very well.

Hi Rebecca,
We did this May 2013 after our Eastern Europe tour ended. Check out the DB Bahn web page. What you will need to enter is
Bled Jezero to Venezia Santa Lucia. The train station is on the other side of the Lake and our tour guide arranged a van to take us there, maybe 10Euros. Also, our guide helped us in Prague to purchase our train tickets, again very cheap. Train ride took 5 1/2 hours through some pretty amazing scenery. So here is what happens, you board the local train in Bled Jezero which you take to the end of the line to Nova Gorica, Slovenia. You will than have to take a local bus or taxi to the train station in Gorizia Italy to the Gorizia Centrale (train station).
( you can walk it, but since you don't know where you are going I wouldn't) We used a local bus and it took maybe 10-15 mins tops. At the train station in Gorizia you take the train to Venezia Santa Lucia, if you are staying on the Island.
I believe we took the 8:31 am train and arrived Venice at 1:30pm. Note these trains are local so there is no food service, and I don't remember the WC situation. Note you have 40 min between trains.

Hope this helps.

My husband and I just got home from the Best of Eastern Europe!!!! It was fabulous!!!!

We traveled from Lake Bled to Venice last Sept after the RS Eastern Europe trip. After so much research, this was the easiest way to get to Venice. We booked a train and bus through Rail Europe 5 months before the trip. Call Rail Europe and talk to an agent, they can answer any questions, booking online doesn't help clarify any questions. They will send you the tickets to your home months before the trip. You will want to leave from Lake Bled Lesce train station (as there are 2 stations there) The train trip is about one hour, takes you into Villach, Austria where you catch the bus to Venice. The train and bus station are in the same building. We reserved first class bus seats, very comfortable. The complete trip from Lake Bled to Venice was only 4 hours. Our bus ticket had Venezia Mestre printed on it (bus station on the mainland) I asked the agent and they said not to get off and continue riding into Venezia Santa Lucia, then you are directly on island of Venice if that is where you are staying.
Our tour guide asked us a few days out of the tour ending where we all were departing from. She reviewed our itineraries with all of us. One couple was going on to Venice too, but had not made any arrangements. They discussed other options with her and she said our plan was the best. So they were lucky and got train and bus tickets at the last minute. But I would book ahead.
Our tour guide also arranged taxi rides for everyone to their final destinations (what a wonderful surprise) She even asked the hotel to open up breakfast early for us and she was there to say good-bye.
This really is the best route to take. It ran smoothly and only took 4 hours. We were in Venice by noon that day.

We are also travelling to Venice from Bled after the end of our Best of Eastern European tour . I didn't see a 4 hour train/bus option on the DB Bahn site. Various train/bus options are presented- 1.) Lesce Bled to Villach to Udine to Venice St Lucia (5:43), 2.) Lesce Bled to Villach to Venice St Lucia (5:52), 3.) Lesce Bled to Villach (via bus) to Venice Mestre to Venice St Lucia (6:23) and 4.) Lesce Bled to Villach to Venice Tronchetto and then by People Mover (6:53). While actual travel time may be close to 4 hours by the time you add transfer times you are looking at a bigger time commitment.

The Rail Europe site was unable to give me any options for that route. It tells me to try again later. In addition it wouldn't recognize the Bled Lesce station only Jerezo.

When I go to the Slovenian Rail site, it doesn't even recognize the Lesce Bled station, only the Bled Jezero one which I understand is on the other side of the lake. Which company is running these trains and how would I book them if I don't want to use Rail Europe.

Based on my experience so far the Goopti shuttle seems like the best option.

Any clarifying comments on the above would be appreciated.

Rail Europe train schedule is not out yet for travel between Lake Bled and Venice. You can request online that they email you when the schedule is confirmed to buy your tickets. In 2013 I purchased our train/bus tickets in June for our Sept travel dates from Lesce Bled to Venice. I hope this helps!