It is certainly possible to travel by train from elsewhere in Europe to Croatia. The main destinations you can reach by rail are Zagreb, Pula, Rijeka and Split. In the case of the latter, however, you'll definitely have to travel via Zagreb. If you're travelling from northeast Italy - perhaps from Venice or Trieste - this can add on quite a few hours to your journey, in which case it is better to travel by bus or ferry.

A great website to research train travel in Europe is the Die Bahn website. You can search for timetables for practically any journey in Europe, including journeys internal to Croatia. If you're searching for journeys to Zagreb, make sure you search for "Zagreb Glavni Kolodvor" ("Zagreb Main Terminal", the main train station in the city).

International train routes to Croatia
Here's a list of some of the direct train routes from European cities to places in Croatia - and approximate journey times - to give you an idea of what routes are possible. Of course, there are more options if you choose a non-direct option!

Ljubljana - Zagreb (7 trains per day) - 2 hours 20 minutes
Ljubljana - Opatija (2 trains) - 2 hours 30 minutes
Ljubljana - Rijeka (2 trains) - 2 hours 45 minutes
Budapest - Zagreb (2 trains) - 6 hours 30 minutes
Belgrade - Zagreb (4 trains) 7 hours 20 minutes
Graz - Zagreb (1 train) - 4 hours
Vienna - Zagreb (2 trains) - 6 hours 35 minutes
Salzburg - Zagreb (3 trains) - 7 hours
Innsbruck - Zagreb (1 train) - 10 hours 35 minutes
Venice Mestre - Zagreb (1 train) - 6 hours 50 minutes
Munich - Zagreb (3 trains) - 9 hours
Frankfurt - Zagreb (1 train) - 12 hours 35 minutes
Stuttgart - Zagreb (1 train) - 11 hours
Zurich - Zagreb (1 train) - 14 hours

Please do check train timetables carefully (on Die Bahn) as not all trains may run every day of the week.

Once in Zagreb, of course, you can then change for trains to a number of other destinations in Croatia. Alternatively, you could transfer to the main bus station in the city for even more options! See Travelling Around by Bus.

Useful Train Websites
Check out the following websites for timetable details:

Croatian Railways
Die Bahn

Booking Train Tickets to Croatia
You can book train tickets to (and within) Croatia using the Rail Europe . Note, however, that you can only book trips online with a travel date of least 7 days in advance, and you can also not book tickets online that require more than 3 legs. However, you can of course split your journey and still make bookings online - e.g. if your journey has 4 legs, split it in two and make 2 bookings of 2 legs each! It is advisable to search for train schedules using the Die Bahn website first, so you know what journeys are possible, and then you can make a booking on the RailEurope site.

Use the RailEurope box below to get started: