Interrail pass for Slovenia+Croatia - worth it?

[ronconcoke]

Hi, we're planning to travel by train from the UK to Slovenia and Croatia next summer (2 adults, one teen, one under-11). Just seen there's a Black Friday Interrail offer so am tempted to get it. However I'm not sure what train services are like between the places we're thinking of going to (nothing booked as yet).

Can anyone tell me if there are decent train services between the following destinations please (otherwise we'll take buses etc in which case an Interrail pass might be a waste of money):

Ljubljana - Lake Bled & Bohinj
Slavica(?) waterfall
Rovinj
Zadar
Plitvice lakes
Zagreb

We're planning to take Eurostar and then two sleepers from Brussels to Ljubljana and from Zagreb on our return.
Thanks!

Man at seat 61 website answers that for you.

It may be worth it to get to/from the main cities but we found buses to be a much better option than trains for travel within both countries. They were frequent, efficient and cheap as chips.

Thanks - yes I'm using him to plan it but wondered if anyone here could also shed some light.

Thanks for that, I'll look into buses too.

Rovinj and Plitvice aren’t on train lines at all. Not sure about the rest.

I have used the train between Zagreb and Ljubljana and separately Ljubljana to Bled, and again Bled all the way back to Zagreb. You would need other modes of transport to reach the other destinations on your list. International trains between Croatia and Slovenia only ran about 4 times a day when we did it and not always at desirable times of day. Some of the trains are also sleeper trains which means less seats available than a normal train, reservations well in advance are crucial or you can be stuck without a seat. There are more frequent domestic trains running which you can use to get to the border but then you'd have to Uber or bus or walk (it looks about 2km) between the closest stations on either side of border, Dobova (Slovenia) and Harmica (Croatia). I wish we'd done this instead of waiting for 3+ hours for the next international train when we flew in.

FLIXBUS are cheap and frequent between towns in Slovenia and Croatia. You can do a day trip from Ljubljana to Trieste for about €15 return.
Theres also a scenic train route that’s just come into service between Trieste and Ljubljana but I haven’t tried it yet.

Sorry, Trieste To Fiume/Riyeka.
rail-away.com/2024/04/28/inaugural-villa-opicina-rijeka-train/

Having done some similar research recently, I think you'd probably find it much cheaper to buy your main train journeys way in advance instead of buying these interrail passes. The main cost will be the eurostar and the sleeper and these should be much cheaper bought early.

Enjoy!