Most of my adventures are snuck in around projects or work. Traveling for many is seen as exotic, ex

We were struggling to find the best way to get to Slovenia from Italy the week before our trip. Idealistic thoughts of renting a car and the flexibility it would provide filled nile cruise ship reviews our minds. It wasn t until we saw how cheap it was that it became a possibility. With Sixt , an economy car (Renault Twingo or similar) was $32.97/day. The insurance  will cover minor scratches, bumps and buises nile cruise ship reviews but, as with any car, crashing it isn t recommended. They offer a third party insurance, however, for any who like to be safe. We rented one for 36 hours and I was charged $65.94 (50,59€)
Going from Trieste, Italy to Lake Bled, Slovenia, for example, is only a 1.5 hour drive. The buses depart nile cruise ship reviews right next to the Trieste train station to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia at 7AM. Round trip rides take 2 hours and weekend fares go at 41,50€ for the whole thing. Nice enough, right?
The only problem is it ll make your adventure a 24 hour one since the Sunday bus departs at 5AM. I work at 9AM, so taking the same bus on Monday would get me into Padova around 9:15AM. From there I m still 30 minutes from my desk and have to wait on the bus schedules. James would have been worse off because nile cruise ship reviews he s in Milan, much farther from Trieste.
You d also have to book another night at your hostel or bnb. But most importantly you d be missing out on the rest of Slovenia by only seeing the capital. I ve heard it has cool architecture and cafés, but I prefer more active adventures.
Which is why we decided to forgo the capital entirely and hit lots of specific sites. I mention nile cruise ship reviews them later. (And will probably blog about them later.) We ended up taking a bus at 7AM in Trieste for 3€ to Koper, Slovenia. It is a coastal town. (If you have time swing by the beaches of the Adriatic Sea an hour nearby!) Though the schedule said the bus ride would take an hour, it actually took 30 minutes given that it was early and there wasn t any traffic. nile cruise ship reviews If you miss this one the next hop over isn t until noon. A taxi ride will run you $35.
1. Cars are manual. nile cruise ship reviews Sorry, but most cars in europe are. That s what people learn with. Luckily, I had someone who knows how to drive manual transmission. The cheapest automatic shift car is $56.45. (Find a travel buddy? Or ask your Euro neighbors to teach you? Though its always better to have a travel buddy to split costs with.)
nile cruise ship reviews 2. There are Sixt s all over Slovenia. You can pick one up right from Lake Bled at the same rates. The only difference is the location s hours. So if you re flying into the country, there s one at the airport.
4. You just need a valid driver s license. I read lots of forums and we took the risk that no one would ask us for an International Driver nile cruise ship reviews s License. In the end the Sixt representative just took James Rhode Island license and never asked about the IDL. You can get them for $15 at any AAA. It takes time to process and its basically nile cruise ship reviews just a translation of your driver s license. In Slovenia at least, their policy is that if its in a Roman character based language no arabic or chinese symbols then your DL will do. Apparently, if you get pulled over by a police, they may ask for it and fine you. At least with the rental car you ll have Slovenian license nile cruise ship reviews plates so you ll look like a local from behind. nile cruise ship reviews We had no time or way of getting an IDL so we skipped it. Many avid travelers do too.
5. You need a credit card with $300 on it. They just need to hold the amount as collateral. So pay some off your credit card. Or if you  have one of those debit/credit cards that can be charged as credit cards, it will work too. That s what I used. Don t panic about the money hold. I saw it back on my account by Tuesday afternoon. But if you re running low in foreign countries this could be a problem since you won t be able to access it until things are processed. Given that your entire rental nile cruise ship reviews took place over the weekend, the initial hold doesn t get in until Monday 9AM. So the money is available Tuesday. Lastly, the longer your rental the more your credit card hold will be. Though it might vary with age. This information wasn t made explicit to us, so you ve been warned!
7. Gas is around $1.50/liter or $5/gallon. But European cars get  very good gas mileage and we only had to fill the tank once. After dividing our travel + gas sum by 2, it was around $50 for the trip.
Will allow you to see breathtaking sights like the photos I ve posted here. In fact, all of these were taken along the drives. We just pulled over to the side of the highway or road and ran out to explore. From the Lake Bled area, we drove to the mountains of the Triglav National Park (1hr) to the Soča River (1hr) and back to Lake Bled (3hrs because we took a different route). This was all in a day. Probably the most beautiful nile cruise ship reviews day of my life because we decided to go white water kayaking on the Soča. But this was until the next day when we saw the dreamy lake. It took longer on our way back since we decided to go around the mountains. On the drive up, I discovered what switchbacks and hair pins are. They re best taken slow so as not to induce vomiting. There are 2 main highways you ll need. The 1 and the 2. On either you should only drive on the left side if you mean it. People will tail you even if you re going 120km/hr (75 mph). The highways are easy enough to locate on most maps and there are signs along the way for the cities you ll need along your path. We bought a map for 1€ and it turned nile cruise ship reviews out to be an awesome investment. Don t get lost and get one! (Or get lost and discover beautiful unknowns.) The smaller paths are country roads. You re likely to drive past people s homes and old men sitting outside sipping nile cruise ship reviews coffee at cafés. They are  very  narrow. You have to be careful if you re rounding a corner. Fortunately, the roads are not very traveled on so cars trickle up every now and then. On our second day after spending nile cruise ship reviews the day on Lake Bled, we took a detour to the Škocjan Caves on our way back to Koper where we rented the car.
(Of course, none of this applies if you aren t going for the weekend or on a time constraint. If you stumbled on this because you weren t sure what to do, I still say go with a car. Unless you have more than 4 days for your trip. At this point you can take a bus from your starting point and hop around other buses fairly cheaply. This  website  shows you how to start from the Northeast tip of Italy.)
Tags : Car rental europe , Country Roads in Slovenia , Getting to Lake Bled , Getting to Skocjan Caves , Getting to Soca River , Highways , IDL , International Driver's nile cruise ship reviews License , Lake Bled , Rental Car , Renting a car in Slovenia , Sixt , Slovenia , Travel
Most of my adventures are snuck in around projects or work. Traveling for many is seen as exotic, expensive or something you do when you retire. (And it can be.) But I see it as a way of life. Applying to over-seas opportunities, scholarships, fellowships...I have MIT to thank for opening up the world to me. And I will forever be grateful [ ... ]
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