Croatia Travel Forum

Can someone help me figure out how to get from Zagreb to Trieste, Italy on a Sunday? The busses don't run on Sun or Mon. Also, would it be easier to get from Ljubljana to Triese? How?
Thanks in advance.

Zagreb and Triest are not well conected, train would be 7 to 10 hours, 1 to 3 changes, the best connection would be the night train to venice at 23.50 (change in Monfalcone).

The train is probably a better deal and is not very hard. The destination from Zagreb is indeed Monfalcone arriving at 5:42 and connecting with regional train at 6:16 - it takes less, than half hour till Trieste.

If you would miss it, there is a regional train at 6:55, 7:11 and more later. The price is an other question, in all cases it is better to buy the ticket from Dobova (Slovenia) and not Zagreb. Dobova-Monfalcone is either 20 or 25 Euro (from Zagreb much more!) and Monfalcone - Trieste is 2.80 Euro.

So the total:

Zagreb->Dobova is 5 Euro
Dobova->Monfalcone is either 20 or 25 (don't remember)
Monfalcone->Trieste is 2.80

Now what to do - you need to change the train only once (in Monfalcone).
But regarding tickets: just go to the ticket agency in Zagreb and buy a Zagreb->Dobova. That ticket is open and valid on all trains anyway. It is "per-kilometer" ticket.
Than a half hour later (or so) go to the same agency and buy the Dobova->Monfalcone ticket. That ticket is valid only for a particular train, that train is the Euronight Budapest/Moscow/Belgrade -> Venice. You will get an assigned seat in the (Hungarian) coach. In order to save time you may buy a one-month hand-written Monfalcone->Trieste ticket in Zagreb at the same time, that is 2.80 Euro, it is valid on all international trains. If they won't sell you that for some reason (takes longer time to calculate) - than buy it in Moinfalcone, but than you need to validate it.

Go to the Zagreb station and board the said Euronight train. If the Croatian ticket inspector shows up (I doubt because the train ride from Zagreb till Slovenian border is only few minutes) - than show him the Zagreb - Dobova ticket. From Dobova till Monfalcone show your second ticket.

The trick above has a German name called "Stückelung". I.e. the tariff could be weird and sometimes the A-->B-->C ticket is cheaper if you buy A-->B and B-->C separately but use the same train.

Example (we did it with Venice, not with Monfalcone - but same result):

Zagreb->Venice is 40 Euro, Dobova->Venice is 25 Euro. As said, Zagreb->Dobova is 5 Euro. So one saves 10 Euro easily just by doing... nothing, buying two sheets instead of one.

The railway station in Zagreb can sell you the Dobova->Monfalcone ticket without problem and of course the Zagreb->Dobova, too. They could be relaxed people and won't mind to sell the ticket on two sheets. But in Hungary their colleagues won't do the trick (for obvious reason). So if in Hungary we buy one part at, say, Wasteels and the other part at the railway office next to Wasteels. I think, Croats are more relaxed, so you could save yourself one stay in the line.

In all tricky ticket cases: buy the most expensive part (in this case the Dobova-Monfalcone) first. The next would be the Monfalcone-Trieste (to save you time in Monfalcone as you change the trains). The Zagreb-Dobova is really a tiny portion, buy it at last.

If you want to get some sleep: buy the Serbian couchette (14 Euro, always has empty space) or Hungarian sleeper (about the same). Get the surcharge till Sezana (not Monfalcone) and give the attendant a Euro or two, that way is cheaper ;-)

Would it be easier to get to Trieste from Ljubljana?

For trains:
- Same thing and only 5 Euro cheaper - these are the 5 Euro what the Zagreb->Dobova ticket does cost.
- The train is the same, except that it passes Ljubljana at an ungodly hour.

For busses:

I did see a Ljubljana->Mestre (Venice) bus option at the Ljubljana bus station next to the train station two days ago. No idea about the price and the schedule - I did not check because I did not need it.
Very likely that bus passes Triest.

One more option from Ljubljana:

very frequent trains to Nova Gorica, price is under 10 Euro.
Nova Gorica is a divided town, the western part of it has own train station and it is called Gorizia (in Italy). From Gorizia there are trains to all places over north-east Italy, even to Venice.

The problem is: the safest way from Nova Gorica train station to the one in Gorizia is... on foot. Takes about 15-20 minutes, I am not sure as I wasn't there.

There are daily buses from Rijeka to Trieste, and I would say that is the most straightforward route. (Apart from direct bus from Zagreb, of course.)

For instance, you can take the 09.15 or 09.30 bus from Zagreb to Rijeka (arriving at 11.45 / 11.50), and then catch the bus that leaves Rijeka at 14.00 and arrives to Trieste at 16.25.

Timetables:
www.akz.hr (Zagreb bus station)
www.autostazionetrieste.it (Trieste bus station).