Getting around Ljubljana on foot, by LPP bus, by bike or by Kavalir

Buses: €1.50 and no cash

This is the golden rule. You cannot pay with cash on LPP city buses. Use a contactless Visa or Mastercard, including from your phone or watch, or the Urbana card. Before you fly, check that your card does not charge a fee for each foreign transaction, because €1.50 at a time adds up.

A ride in zone 1, which covers the whole city, costs €1.50 under the fares in force since 1 September 2026. The difference between the two ways of paying is the transfer. With Urbana, that ride is valid for 90 minutes even if you change buses; with a bank card, each bus is charged separately. Children up to 6 ride free, as do luggage, buggies and dogs.

Is the Urbana card worth it?

Urbana is the city’s contactless card. It costs €2 and can be topped up to €50. You can buy it at the LPP office, tourist information centres, many newsagents and post offices, and top it up at urbanomats, the green machines at bus stops, which take cash and cards. One Urbana card can pay for several people; tell the driver and they will select the fares. It also pays for the castle funicular and white-zone parking.

My rule of thumb is simple. For two or three odd bus rides, your bank card is enough. If you will be chaining lines or staying several days outside the centre, Urbana pays for itself.

Bikes, Kavalir and the tourist train

The most local option is cycling. The BicikeLJ scheme had clocked 14.07 million rentals by June 2025, with each bike used about eight times a day on average, according to the city, and Nomago electric bikes have been available since 2022. Ljubljana has made the Copenhagenize Index’s top 20 bike-friendly cities three times in a row.

For people who find walking difficult, LPP runs the Kavalir, electric cars carrying up to five people around the pedestrian zone, free, every day from 8am to 8pm. You can flag one down in the street. The Urban tourist train does a loop of 75 to 90 minutes from the town hall, via the castle, Trnovo and Prešeren Square, every 90 minutes; it costs €12 for adults and you can hop on and off that day.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Liubliana before prices climb.

If you arrive by car

Leave it at a park and ride on the edge of town. At Dolgi most or Stožice you pay €1.30 a day, including two bus rides within 24 hours. All the options are in parking in Ljubljana.

Airport and day trips

Jože Pučnik Airport, out at Brnik, is linked to the city by shuttle, taxi and bus. For leaving town, the bus station has frequent services to Bled, Postojna and Kamnik; see day trips from Ljubljana. In December 2025 the city added extra buses and made rides free on some evenings; see Christmas in Ljubljana. Beyond the capital, see getting around Slovenia. And if you will be mixing plenty of bus rides with museums, check whether the Ljubljana Card, which covers city buses, pays off.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Liubliana before prices climb.