Vienna to Ljubljana, via Graz or via Villach

By train via Graz and Maribor

This is the eastern route. Slovenske železnice suggests eight daily departures from Ljubljana, from 5am to 5.50pm, reaching Vienna between 11.07am and midnight, and seven the other way, from 5.53am to 6.53pm. The journey takes around six hours with the change at Graz. Trains call at Celje, Pragersko and Maribor, so it suits you if you want to stop in Maribor or Ptuj. That stretch is covered in Ljubljana to Maribor.

By train via Villach and Jesenice

This is the western route, through the Alps. Seven departures from Ljubljana, from 5.42am to 5.27pm, change at Villach and reach Vienna every two hours, from 11.07am to 11.07pm. From Vienna, trains leave at 53 minutes past every other hour, from 6.53am to 4.53pm, plus one at 5.53pm, and reach Ljubljana between 12.27pm and 11.18pm. It drops you close to Bled and Kranjska Gora if you’re heading for the Julian Alps, and Jesenice is where you’d change for the line to Bled Jezero, the station by the lake.

Fares and First Minute

The standard second-class fare is €88.70 via Maribor and €105.60 via Jesenice. With First Minute Europe, the joint offer from Slovenske železnice and Austrian Railways, tickets start at €39.90 from Ljubljana and €29.90 from Maribor or Celje, and children aged 6 to 15 travel free with an adult. Seats are limited, the ticket is valid for two days, can’t be refunded or changed and doesn’t include a seat reservation. More international offers are in trains to Slovenia.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Ljubljana on Expedia and filter by area before price.

Vienna to Ljubljana by coach

If you’d rather go by road without driving, FlixBus and Nomago are, according to the Tourist Board, the operators running the most coaches between Ljubljana and Vienna, and both also run direct to Vienna airport. From the airport, if you prefer the train, the CAT gets you to central Vienna in 16 minutes, according to the Slovenian Tourist Board, and from Vienna’s main station you pick up either of the two rail routes above. If you’re coming from further away or still deciding how to travel, first see how to get to Slovenia.

By car, with two vignettes

Centre to centre it’s about 383 km, a good four hours without traffic by my OpenStreetMap calculation. You need both the Austrian and the Slovenian vignette. Via Graz you enter Slovenia at Maribor, the same way in as from Hungary, covered in Budapest to Ljubljana; via Villach, DARS charges for the Karavanke tunnel outside the vignette, €9 per car. How to buy the Slovenian one without overpaying is in the Slovenian vignette.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Ljubljana and pick one that fits your day.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Ljubljana on Booking.com and filter by area before price.