Here’s our guide for the assorted options you can use to travel from Trieste to Croatia. You should consider flying to Trieste if you’re intending on travelling to some of the more northern (coastal) regions of Croatia, such as Istria or the Kvarner region. It’s also not a bad place to fly to if you’re trying to reach Croatia’s capital, Zagreb, as there’s daily early evening bus services that take just over four hours.
NOTE: Trieste is called Trst in Croatian.
Travelling from Trieste to Rijeka by Bus
There are several buses a day from Trieste to Rijeka, with a journey time of only about 2 hours. The services are run by Flixbus – you can find timetables on their site from where you can also purchase tickets. These Flixbus buses generally start in Venice, stopping at Venice Airport (and sometimes Trieste Airport too) although some of them originate from further afield in Italy, such as from Florence, Bologna, Turin or Milan, or even from Lyon in France.
Buses depart from the main bus station in Trieste, situated at Piazza della Liberta 11 (next to the main railway station).
Should you need it, for a timetable of buses from Trieste Airport to the main bus station, see the the website of the bus operator APT Gorizia. This page on their site lists details of timetables; under the heading “Servizio Aeroporto”, you will find a PDF showing times for bus line G51 which sees buses running from “AEROPORTO Trieste Airport” to Trieste.
Airport buses run pretty frequently but do watch out for buses that only operate on particular days e.g. Mondays to Fridays, or Saturdays only. Buses from the airport to Trieste take about 50 minutes.
Travelling from Trieste to Rijeka by Train
As of 2024, there is now a seasonal (from the end of April through to September) train service that runs from Villa Opicina near Trieste to Rijeka. A daily service, the journey time is just over 2 hours. You can use the bus – numbers 2, 4 or 64 – to travel from Trieste to Villa Opicina to start off your journey.
Take a look at the ever-helpful Die Bahn website to see details of this international train route.
Travelling from Trieste to Porec and Rovinj by Ferry
In fact, by hydrofoil!
Italian company Liberty Lines runs a summer service (end of June to early September) that runs a few times a week from Trieste to Porec and/or Rovinj. Some sailings stop at Piran in Slovenia on the way, and some also continue on to the island of Losinj.
Read more here: Trieste to Istria Ferry Returns for 2025.
Travelling from Trieste to Pula by Bus
See timetables on the Trieste Bus Station website. Some of these buses stop at other Istrian towns along the way, such as Buje, Buzet, Porec and Rovinj. Not ALL do, so please double-check timetables!
You can also find bus times on the websites of the Croatian bus companies FILS and Brioni which operate the buses. They also provide online booking of tickets.
Buses depart from the main bus station in Trieste, situated at Piazza della Liberta 11 (next to the main railway station).
See above (under “Travelling from Trieste to Rijeka by bus”) for details of how to get from Trieste Airport to Trieste Bus Station.
Travelling from Trieste to Zagreb by Bus
There are now several daily buses from Trieste to Zagreb operated by Flixbus. Journey time is around 4 hours.
Travelling from Trieste to Split or Dubrovnik by Bus
There is no longer a direct bus from Trieste to Split or Dubrovnik.
If you’re trying to reach one of these two cities from Trieste, we would recommend travelling down the Italian side of the Adriatic to Ancona (for Split) or Bari (for Dubrovnik) instead and then getting a ferry across.
Flights from the UK to Trieste
- Ryanair Flights from London Stansted
Useful Travel Links
- Trieste Airport Additional information on getting to/from the airport, as well as details of flights from elsewhere in Europe
- Trieste Bus Station
- Trenitalia Train timetables for journeys within Italy
- Die Bahn European train timetables