Posted by It is surprisingly easy and cheap to travel from Germany to Slovenia by train.
There are two direct trains from Munich to Slovenia, both connecting Munich from Ljubljana, the capital of the small country. In our opinion, the direct train connection during the day is particularly interesting. Currently, the Eurocity departs Munich at 12:18 and reaches the first station in Slovenia (Jesenice) after just over five hours.
It takes less than an hour to reach the capital Ljubljana (18:32). The fare is often more than reasonable. If you book a Sprapreis ticket in advance on the internet, a one-way ticket from Munich often costs around 50 euros. This EC train also stops in Slovenia near Lake Bled (in Lesce Bled) at 17:51.
In Slovenia, we could also buy an economy ticket at the station for the return journey. It cost 49 euros in summer 2019 and was valid until Frankfurt. Of course, you can simply get off beforehand (in Stuttgart, for example). It is often even cheaper to buy a ticket online from Deutsche Bahn.
Book day tours Slovenia online
You can book many great day trips within Slovenia by bus online.
Many of these tickets are available on the well-known website Getyourguide.com
– Bus tours to the Postojna Caves: click here
– Tours to and from Lake Bled: click here
– Tours and bus trips Ljubljana: click here
If you have a Bahncard 25, you even get a 25% discount on the entire fare (even on the partial route abroad!). Please note, however, that the Sparpreis is train-bound, i.e. you have to take the train printed on the ticket. Changing or cancelling such tickets will incur costs. By the way, this Eurocity already departs from Frankfurt (8:22) and also stops in Mannheim, Stuttgart, Ulm and Augsburg, for example. From Frankfurt, tickets are usually a bit expensive, but the saver fare still costs well under 100 euros on the majority of days. As far as we know, if you buy the Spar fare in Slovenia, you don’t get a discount with your Bahncard at the ticket counter.
The other train from Germany to Ljubljana is a Euro Night train that departs from Munich. There are also saver fares for this train to Slovenia, some of which are quite cheap. However, I would recommend travelling during the day, the route across the Alps in Austria is not uninteresting.
The railway and other companies also offer long-distance buses to Slovenia. These are often even cheaper than the train.
Book day tours Slovenia online
You can book many great day trips within Slovenia by bus online.
Many of these tickets are available on the well-known website Getyourguide.com
– Bus tours to the Postojna Caves: click here
– Tours to and from Lake Bled: click here
– Tours and bus trips Ljubljana: click here
Since the public transport network in Slovenia is well developed, you don’t necessarily need a car in Slovenia. If you travel by train or plane, you can of course rent a car. This is often cheaper in Slovenia than in Germany, especially outside the high season.
There are many rail connections from Austria to Slovenia. There are several direct trains from Vienna daily, e.g. to Maribor or Ljubljana. From Germany, you can of course also travel to Slovenia by train with a change of trains. Often you change trains to the capital Ljubljana in Villach (Austria), to Maribor in Graz (also Austria). For such connections, too, you can find cheap saver prices for advance bookers on the internet at Deutsche Bahn, often even a few days before the start of the journey. For some time now, the Bahns have even been offering saver fares up to one day before the journey. Travelling to Slovenia by train from Germany is inexpensive. In our research, a ticket from Munich to Ljubljana was almost always cheaper than one to Berlin or Hamburg, for example.
There is currently no rail connection from Italy to Slovenia. It is best to take the train to the Italian border town of Trieste. Next to the main railway station is a large bus station. From here, buses run about 8 times a day during the week to Koper station in Slovenia (journey time about 45 minutes, fare just over €3 in 2019). On Sundays and public holidays in Italy, however, there is only a maximum of one bus per day on the line. On Saturdays, there are significantly fewer than from Monday to Friday.
Hungary is also a neighbouring country of Slovenia. Between Budapest and Ljubljana, a train runs every morning between 8 am and 9 am in both directions. However, this train takes over 8 hours. It takes almost the same amount of time to get to Vienna by train and change trains there to Slovenia.
The connections to Croatia are much better. There are about 6 direct train connections per day between the capital of Slovenia Ljubljana and the capital of Croatia Zagreb. 2 of these trains continue to Blegrad in Serbia (including one night train). There are also good rail connections from Maribor to Zagreb, but you usually have to change trains in the small Slovenian town of Zidani Most. In addition, a train connects Ljubljana with Rijeka on the northern coast of Croatia daily in the early morning. In the other direction, there are 2 train connections daily (midday and evening).
Throughout the former Yugoslavia, buses are more popular than railways on almost all routes. Long-distance buses run more frequently and, above all, on more routes than trains. There are also good bus connections from Slovenia to Germany.
Status of information: Year 2015 and 2019. All information, like everything with us, without guarantee.