Trieste is a good airport to fly to if you intend on travelling to the regions of Istria or Kvarner in Croatia. Furthermore, it's not even such a bad place to fly to if you're trying to reach Croatia's capital, Zagreb - there is a just-over-4-hour bus service (except Sundays and Mondays) to here.

There's also a bus service all the way to Dubrovnik...but it is a long, overnight journey, and there are better ways of reaching that part of Croatia! (If you want to fly to Italy to reach Dubrovnik, you should definitely fly to Bari.)

NOTE: Trieste is called Trst in Croatian.

Trieste - Rijeka by Bus
There are several buses a day on this route, with a journey time of only 2 or 2 and a half hours long. The services are run by Croatian bus company Autotrans - you can find timetables on their site or on the Trieste Bus Station website.

Buses depart from the main bus station in Trieste, situated at Piazza della Liberta 11 (next to the main railway station).

For a timetable of buses from Trieste Airport to the main bus station, see the APT website. The website is not in English, unfortunately, but you can perform a search on it in the box on the right of the screen by selecting "Ronchi D.L. Aeroporto F.V.G." as your departure point, and Trieste (and then "Trieste P.zza Liberta (Autostazione)") as your arrival point. Buses from the airport to Trieste take about 50 minutes.

Trieste - Pula by Bus
See timetables on the Trieste Bus Station website. As shown there, 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!

Buses depart from the main bus station in Trieste, situated at Piazza della Liberta 11 (next to the main railway station).

Se above (under "Trieste - Rijeka by bus") for details of how to get from Trieste Airport to Trieste Bus Station.

Trieste - Istria by Ferry
Trieste Lines have a new catamaran service for summer 2011 - they are operating routes daily (except Mondays) to Rovinj and Pula (and Piran in Slovenia) from the end of June to mid-September.

Trieste - Zagreb by Bus
There is a daily bus (except Sundays and Mondays) that departs Trieste at 5pm, arriving in Zagreb at 9.15pm. This is run by Croatian company Croatia Bus.

Trieste - Split/Dubrovnik by Bus
There are daily bus services from Trieste to both Split and Dubrovnik, run by Croatian bus company Autotrans - you can find timetables on their site or on the Trieste Bus Station website. However, the journey takes 10.5 hours to Split, and 15 hours to Dubrovnik, so it may not be the most comfortable option!

If you trying to reach Split or Dubrovnik, or somewhere near those cities, we would recommend flying 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, Birmingham and Bristol

Useful Travel Links
Trieste Airport Information on getting to/from the airport
Trieste Bus Station
Trenitalia Train timetables for journeys within Italy
Die Bahn European train timetables