Post RS “Best of Central Europe” trip ideas

What time of year will this be happening?

I'm not a relax-in-a-little-coastal-town person, so I really don't have experience to call on here. Lake Bled is near Ljubljana, but Ljubljana doesn't have a lot of air links, and even rail links are limited. But I think GoOpti offers shuttle service from Ljubljana to some other cities in the area. If one of them is Trieste, perhaps you can find an attractive option in that part of Italy. Afterward, you could fly out of Venice.

You can use a site like this to suss out direct flights from Ljubljana:
https://www.flightsfrom.com/LJU
For heading back to Croatia, we’d need to know how many days you have. It’s not difficult so much, but time consuming as there are few direct flights from LJU, so I’d also look at your overland options. Once in Croatia, the bus will get you most places.

I’ve appreciated much of fellow forum poster Mr. E’s advice to others
for their specific questions regarding this region. Thank you!

I will take that as an "enough of you" comment. 🤣🤣🤣

But one quick note for process. I think your choices for a flight are going to be limited to Rovinj or Ljubljana or Zagreb or Zadar. So you can go to Google Flights and put in, for instance:
Depart: Zadar /
Destination: Europe /
Stops: Nonstop
and then give yourself a few days to reach the airport city, maybe you see something new along the way, and put in the departure date. For instance Bled to Plitvice to Zadar seems to work. Zadar has Italy connections. Or Ljubljana has flights another country that I love with beautiful oceanfront destinations and its just a few hours from Bled. See what pops up. Because many will be discount airlines and they dont always fly every day, you might want to try several days.

Thanks everyone!
Nothing is set in stone at this point but I would like to have 3 nights at my next stop and one day of travelling- but hopefully not more than one connection- whatever it may be.
Venice may be a good flight on the way home. But again, that involves getting to the airport on vaporetto or private water taxi. Not ideal but it would work.
If it seems too difficult to stick to Croatia as wrap up, I’m sure I could find something simple to do, but would like to find something in Croatia as I’ve never been there before and would like to maximize my travel!
Thanks!

Also- thinking going end of August/September maybe just September…

Lisa, would you consider lakefront instead of oceanfront? If so, an option would be Salzburg and a Salzkammergut lake town like St. Wolfgang or Berchtesgaden in Germany, and then Munich, which has a major airport. Logistically, you can go by train from Bled to Salzburg, and easily go by bus from Salzburg to the two towns I mentioned.

And, Mr. E, noooo!

This is the reason we all have successful and magical trips- when we reach out to folks who have been there/done that. It’s the difference between sobbing in the rain at the train station after everything goes haywire or/ and laughing with joy at the wonderful trip you are having! Hehe I may be a big dramatic but actually NO.. I seem to remember those days! 😉 planning makes the ultimate difference!

Has driving been completely ruled out?
Rijeka airport and Pula airport may have seasonal flights worth looking into.

Thank you, those are very excellent choices. I have travelled to Salzburg and Munich many times while working (which of course isn’t the same as vacationing)
But I have never been to Croatia. So hoping to focus there.
I’ve been to Prague and Krakow. Never to Budapest or any of the other locations on this trip.
I guess I should have emphasized Croatian locations from the beginning but trying to keep my options open!
I appreciate all of the thoughts and feedback, it gives me a lot of food for thought!

GO opti is something I noticed earlier here and I will check it out. I’ve never been to Trieste so that is something that is definitely on my radar! Thank you!

I have ruled driving out.
It’s one of the reasons I do Rick Steves instead of travelling independently nowadays.
I can travel independently with trains planes, uber etc. so I’m not too hands-tied at this point… thankfully!
I’m hoping to hear some more thoughts and will respond later,
Thank you all for your wonderful feedback. This is fun, isn’t it!
Take care and thanks for any input.

I would like the make the most of my travel, and would like to extend
the trip with a little “splurge” self guided add- on after the tour
perhaps, to an easy to reach and beautiful oceanfront or island
location. Simple- oceanfront, relaxing, , pretty and charming
location. Time to chill.

Okay then, Ljubljana to Podgorica is on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and with a checked bag maybe $150 in 1:15. The tours this year end on Tuesday or Friday so ths works. The flight is at 5:50 so you could make it on Tuesday, the last day of your tour with Rick. The last day or the tour is just breakfast. Go in September, less crowded and maybe better prices.

Three days? Hmmmm. Okay, for the beach stay in Budva. It is one hour from the airport in Podgorica, and I know a reasonably priced driver. Either the Astoria Hotel inside the walls of Budva or the Hotel California near the stunning beaches near Sveti Stefan. Make it four days and do a tour of Kotor, try some prosciutto, drive the P1 and have a meal on the bay in Perast. Then another day a tour of Stari Bar + the beach time.

The Podgorica Airport has a certain Greyhound Bus feel about it https://youtube.com/shorts/mCQruvMKC4U?si=WFMJ6e0e2i7dYSzp 😂
Perast, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd6ErEHPHmg and the Hotel Conte, https://youtu.be/zYJcm2zlXA8?si=w7VstV-oLoVEQLr7
Kotor, https://youtu.be/G7QgBl7XNKU?si=pK1etsEr8UcAlofr
P1 Mountain Road https://youtu.be/QSz5hZVNxQ8?si=kAUpMBWDbSSztzt5 and the stop for Prosciutto at Zora on the P1 https://youtu.be/08il6EXog3o?si=PkQ6Rrueu6c_-U98
Budva, https://youtu.be/TKhHJsb9A0w?si=WsnjJJ_j95TfFAvO and Hotel California https://youtu.be/UcPNf2IK3ys?si=aGUEQWlIrI2GCopY or Hotel Astoria https://youtu.be/FuUZ6Bhk8s4?si=5a_ziuaQi29A3Q_y
Stari Bar, https://youtu.be/OBU56OT78fw?si=tzF65lSmOXSEpWKZ

WOW! Mr. E.
I’m so appreciative!! Truly!!
I can’t wait to check this out. This looks PERFECT in every way.
So my only question is, where do
I send my travel agent fee? 😉
Would you accept me paying it forward- travel tips- to the next traveler when I can?
I can’t wait to check this out!
Have a good evening and thanks a million!
All the best,
Lisa

Well I was going to tell you about going to Salzburg after my Central Europe tour, but you've ruled that out :) I took the train from Lesce Bled train station after the tour ended (shared a cab to the station with other tourmates). I will just note that if you stay in Croatia and are really going in August or September, you will want to try and avoid places that have a big cruise ship presence in those months (Dubrovnik comes to mind). You can look up cruise port schedules and plan accordingly.

Unfortunately you may have a lot of planes, trains, and automobiles required to get somewhere in Croatia that suits your needs and also your convenient to travel home plans. I'm not a beachy person but if it were me, I might go to Venice but then move farther down the coast to a less crowded locale. It might be too warm for my taste that time of year though (but that's me).

FWIW, that tour was probably my favorite RS tour (out of 5) most especially because of the guide (Peter from Budapest). They've changed the itinerary since I went on it, so I definitely recommend you add some time at the front in Prague, they just don't spend enough time there.

lisa g

To answer your question, there might be an idea on my profile page https://community.ricksteves.com/users/50322. Actually I do this for fun. I have the time and I enjoy sharing what I enjoy.

What I posted was one idea, one that I would most enjoy but there are others.

If you go a bit further from Bled, to Zagreb, there are direct flights to Dubrovnik. I dont care what time of year, cruise boats or no crusise boats, Dubrovnik is worth the time. A lot less convenient because you have to get all the way to Zagreb. With a short amount of time like you are discussing I would stick with what you can get to from Ljub.

From Ljub, traveling on a Tuesday there are late flights to Paris and Athens and Podgorica that work. Traveling on Friday, there are late flights to Paris and to Athens. All great for 3 days. Depends on what excites you.

I dont know where you are departing from the US but if you can make the transatlantic on Turkish Air, then you could spend a few days in Instanbul on the way home.

Hi Lisa,

You mentioned Hvar & Korcula islands. I did the RS Adriatic tour, and it spends two nights in Korcula. I wanted more island time (as it sounds like you do, also), so I planned ahead to skip the bus day to Mostar, and I reserved a quaint B&B at Hvar, instead. I had purchased ferry tickets on-line ahead of time and left from Split the morning the rest of the group left by bus for Mostar. I met up with them again when I reached Korcula the next day. (They arrived early evening; I arrived earlier in the day.). I will mention that I am very comfortable traveling solo, so I had everything reserved and notified my guide a few days early, so she would know I was not expecting her to do any extra work - plus she could see that I’m organized & on time. It all worked very well.

Thanks so much, everyone, for your very detailed and helpful information. I really appreciate it!

The northern islands are pretty too, so don’t feel like you have to get all the way to Korcula/Hvar. Looks like there may be a direct bus from LJU to Rijeka. From there, you can take a catamaran or a bus/ferry combo. For return, largely same route but head to Zagreb instead for flight home.
The bus passes through the island of Cres, which is ruggedly beautiful. I did not stay there and continued on to Mali Losinj. It and Veli Losinj are pretty towns and there is bus service and also a series of bike paths around the area.
https://www.island-losinj.com/transport/catamaran/

Once you figure out where you can get from LJU the quickest, let us know and we can make other suggestions.

We are doing this tour this September to October. And we opted to spend a couple days in Ljubljana since the tour now bypasses L. And then fly home to Pac.NW from Ljubljana. And ditto about Venice - did NOT want to fly out of Venice in early morning. Decided to do this rather than spend a day traveling somewhere else to end our vacation. This tour seems to be a favorite of many forum folks - very excited!

We will be taking this tour in 2027. Planning the start September 4th I think. We will be taking the train from Bled to Vienna for 3 nights and fly home from there. I can’t wait to get signed up

Larry B, when I read your post I went "hmmmmm" then I checked the schedue. Brilliant idea. 5 hours or less, only 2 changes and under 30 euro. Love it.

thanks it seemed like a pretty easy way to get to another city on my bucket list. I believe we will have just one change in Villach. I think RS designs these tours ending in an obscure town to teach you to learn to travel on your own. I know it’s how we have learned

Good morning. We were to depart for this trip a month from now. Recent medical issues caused cancellation. But , god willing, we’ll take this tour in 2027. I had spent a lot of time researching and planning. For post tour - our plan was spend afternoon in Ljubljana (tour over after breakfast) then take Flix bus to Trieste, stay 2 nights. Then train to Ravenna, stay 2 nights. It’s all about the mosaics! Then train to Bologna, again 2 nights. Second visit to Bologna - really great city to visit.
Then train to Freiburg, 2 nights. (Cameron Hewitt’s write up for Freiburg convinced us to visit). Ending with train to Frankfurt - fly home. We fly Condor. Seattle to Prague, Frankfurt to Seattle. Open jaw trip.

Thank you EVERYONE for the fantastic information! Great ideas to mull over and research, I am so looking forward to digging in!

I like Mr. E’s idea of Budva. Last year I had 11 nights in Montenegro and it’s a great country to visit. From there I flew to Ljubljana. It was a cheap (83 euro) and direct flight on Air Montenegro. If you’re considering Budva check out flights because, as noted above, direct flights are not daily. If Dubrovnik is on your wishlist, you can use a fast ferry out of Budva & return the same day.

If you decide not to add a flight to your trip you could consider Piran. I loved it but it’s so small very little to do other than eat, sunbathe and swim. I used the bus between Ljubljana and Piran, which I would not recommend.

I flew home from Venice and used GoOpti from Piran to Venice. If you decide on the suggested Trieste area GoOpti does have Ljubljana to Treiste routes. They provide good value and service.

Have fun researching all the ideas!