Slovenia-Uk- Our overland adventure!

Ljubljana ~ Salzburg ~ Brussels ~ Uk (2024)

We decided to add a bit of adventure into our summer holiday, after flying to Ljubljana we returned home overland by train! So much fun and here are our details:

The night trains leave Saltzburg for Brussels (or Paris) on Mon, Weds and Friday nights- operated by OBB Nightjet trains, around 2200. So we planned to Ljubljana about 9:20 on Friday for Salzburg via a change in Villach. There was typicaly engineering work between Ljubljana and Villach when we were there so we stayed the night in Kranj about 30 mins outside the capital to make the early start less stressful. We loved wondering around Kranj so we were happy with our choice.

We opted to get the slightly earlier train to allow time for a breakfast stop in Villach. In total journey is 4 hrs ish. The break was lovely and we had breakfast by the river before continuing on the Salzburg.

We arrived in Salzburg around lunch time, put our cases in the luggage lockers. We had a few cases and travel car seat which were fine but suddenly felt like we should have had backpacks!

We spent a lovely day and evening in Salzburg. I embarrassed the children making them act out various scenes from the sound of music at all the film locations.

We took the funicular up to the Festungsbahn Fortress and took in the views of Salzburg and the mountains beyond. It’s a lovely place to wander round, climb the tower, a puppet museum and generally a nice place to wile away the evening before our night train. We then grabbed some dinner before boarding our night train at 22:00.

As a family of 5 we booked the couchette which sleeps 6 but we had the full use- you can book them out privately so no one gets the 6th bed.. They consist of 2 triple bunks- which convert from the seats. Had there been 4 of us we would have opted for the 4 berth which is slightly comfier.

The children adored it and loved that we were brought complimentary breakfast of fresh rolls, juice and coffee to our cabin before our arrival in Brussels. We arrived into Brussels around 10am which meant we could have a slow start and enjoy some of the mornings views. Quite often I find night trains get in at 6am and it makes for a rushed start.

We decided not to get straight onto the Eurostar, opting instead to spend a few hours in Brussels to finish off our holiday. We had a great time at Mini Europe and admiring the Atomium. Both are out of the centre but once again we put our cases in the lockers, then took a local train out to Brussels expo/Heysel (Heizel).

We left Brussels for London St Pancras at around 1700 ish. After the obligatory Belgium waffles. It was an exciting end to our holiday and we will be planning an interrailing trip in the future!

Prices for family of 5. (prices as of summer 2024)

£69- Ljubljana- Salzburg

£358- Nightjet Sleeper (these get released quite late- think it was April)

£386- Eurostar (should have booked earlier)

Total- £813