Interrail Route Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

notmeagain

Hey,

Going interrailing later in the summer and this in the only grey area of our intinerary. In short the plan is to go from budapest to zagreb to ljubjlana. One of the lads wants to fit in a visit to croatia along with this. I was thinking zagreb to split, up to zadar, back to zagreb and on to ljubjlana.

Anyone else fit croatia into their interrailing plans in any other way? We're planning to start in amsterdam, go through eastern europe and finish in Germany but are always open to changes.....

Thanks.......

notmeagain

Anyone?

drunkenfool

hey there,
went interrailing myself, great time!
we hit croatia as well, did split and some of the islands. We got a train to zagreb and the wait for the train to split was too long so we got a bus which took about 11 long hours. Was definitely worth going to croatia, the only problem we came accross is accomodation, which we got scammed by a little old lady once we come off the bus. As far as i know there is no hostel in split, and most of the accomodation is done by local people renting out their rooms for a few nights to backpackers or whatever and they all wait off the boats, trains and buses and you are swarmed by people offereing you accomodation, so be careful you get what your were offered, refuse and haggle the price if you dont.
We didnt go back up to zagreb but caught a ferry over to italy.
By the way id leave your iternerary pretty open because you always meet people and travel with them for a few days etc etc, all part of the interrailing buzz!!

notmeagain

Thanks,
Was the bus to split subsidised/covered by the normal interrail pass or did you have to pay full fare? Heard the train is pretty slow. How long is the ferry to Italy/ how much did it cost?

drunkenfool

hey,
No i dont think the bus was subsidised, but to be honest i dont remember asking and i dont think it was all that much, max 15euros, not 100% though, cause it was a new currency.
As for the Ferry, it was an overnight ferry think it left at about 10 or 11 and was about 8 hours, it was perfect though, lots of floor space to sleep on and was really nice having a few beers out on the deck and watching the stars go by. I cant remember the name of the town that it goes to, but if you look on your interrail map thingy has a little line from split to italy so you can get it off that. I believe there was a small discount for the boat and again i dont recall it being that much of a hole in the wallet(?) cause it was at the stage of the trip where every penny counts, didnt budget very well at the start and spent a couple of days living off a HUGE baguette with ham and cheese!! I recommened bringing a little notebook and keeping account of how much money you spend every day etc, I didnt do that and i paid for it big time in the end, no more nights out on the piss and almost no food for the last couple of days!!
theres a train station in the town and you can go anywhere from there, might be handier to get back up to germany???? See Italy as well... whatever your into!
Oh and i advise going to Cesky Krumlov, its just an hour or so outside prague and its an amazing little town, theres not all that much to see but its kinda like a pit stop for backpackers, who wanna take a few days off travelling and just getting drunk and whatever else for a couple of days, had a great time there, but book ahead cause the hostels are busy busy!!!

sound_wave

We fitted in Croatia on our interrail trip. We went from ljubjlana to Rijka on the coast near the border of Italy and then after a few days there we travelled onto Zagreb.

Rijka was a nice little port town, lots of Ferries stop there and there was a couple of Irish pubs and irish people in the town as well. Nice, cheap food and cheap beer. There is only one hostel in the town, which is called the Red Cross Hostel. It was a former hospital but did the job and was clean, well maintained and a stones throw from the nearest beach. We met a couple of irish people staying there too.

We tried to get further down the coast to Dubrovnik but we were caught for time. Hope that helps.

drunkenfool

I dont know about you, but thats exactly what i want to stay away from when im abroad, i want to meet people from different countries and chat with the locals and stay out of overpriced irish bars!!
Should have stayed in ireland if thats what you wanted!

Imposter

Via Rijeka is the easiest way to get from Split to Ljubliana. You'll need a bus to Split and then can get a train or probably also a bus to Ljubliana. You could also get a ferry from Split to Rijeka. It's not that expensive. Bus will take quite a while (probably around 8 hours - can't remember exactly), as it drives the coast road all the way up. I'd suggest going to Dubrovnik if you can too. It's magical. If you can affrod it a quick flight from Dubrovnik to Italy or somewhere to the north of craotia, it would save you a lot of travellnig time (dub - rijeka is about 13-14 hours by bus, no train). Flights shouldn't be *that* expensive.

As has been said beware of accomodation in split. Make sure you are staying near the old town or else just refuse to stay there. Some of those people live miles out and it'll cost you a fortune in taxis. I thnk there is a hostel but it was full when I was there.

Wasn't in Uadar so no idea although there is probably a bus to Rijeka from there as that is used as the major transport hub in the north of croatia. I wasn't overly impressed with Rijeka itself either but then after seeing split and dubrovnik it's not hard to see why!

sound_wave

drunkenfool wrote:

I dont know about you, but thats exactly what i want to stay away from when im abroad, i want to meet people from different countries and chat with the locals and stay out of overpriced irish bars!!
Should have stayed in ireland if thats what you wanted!

Good for you. I never said I actually went into these Irish pubs. I was just informing the OP that there was some Irish pubs there if s/he was that way inclined.

As imposter said Dubrovinik is apparently a beautiful place to go and Rijeka would indeed pale in comparison.

notmeagain

Don't think we'll be taking the ferry to Italy.... Do you reckon its worth going the whole way down from zagreb to split just to go back up again to continue on? I know croatia's supposed to be good, but is it that good?

Thanks for the help....

notmeagain

Oh yeah and are any buses subsidided by the interrail pass? No train from split to rijeka to ljubjlana. How much do you think these two buses would cost?
Thanks.

Imposter

notmeagain wrote:

Oh yeah and are any buses subsidided by the interrail pass? No train from split to rijeka to ljubjlana. How much do you think these two buses would cost?
Thanks.

There's definitely a train from Rijeka to Ljubliana.
I got a bus from Dubrovnik to Rijeka and it was about 30 - 40 euros (i think). Split is 2/3rd the distance so probably about 25-30.

The coast is supposed to be the nicest part of croatia so i'd suggest Split and Dubrovnik before Zagreb but that's my opinion and i've not been in Zagreb. The coast is really nice though and i'd suggest a ferry ride if possible (Rijeka - split is possible). The coastline is really spectacular. Jadrolinija is the name of the ferry company. It's a little pricier than the bus but well worth it.