An Overnight Train That Sells Itself Before It Even Departs
By the time the Adriatic Express rolled out of Warsaw Central for its first 2026 departure on June 26, its cheapest tickets had already been gone for weeks. Promotional fares went on sale May 5 and disappeared almost immediately, a signal of just how much appetite exists for a comfortable, scenery-rich alternative to short-haul flying between Central Europe and the Croatian coast.
The seasonal service, operated jointly by PKP Intercity and České dráhy, runs from Warsaw to Rijeka across Poland, Czechia, Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia. The total distance is approximately 1,240 kilometres, and the journey takes roughly 18 to 19 hours, about an hour less than last season thanks to routing improvements. Trains depart Warsaw at around 2:00 PM and pull into Rijeka near 10:00 AM the following morning, meaning passengers wake up at the Adriatic rather than losing a full day to transit.
What Changed for 2026
Frequency is the headline upgrade. The train now runs six days a week, every day except Saturday, compared with four departures per week in the previous summer. That alone meaningfully expands flexibility for travelers building multi-stop itineraries.
The route also gained a structural change in Slovenia. When the train reaches Ljubljana, it splits: one section continues to Rijeka as before, while a newly added coach detaches and proceeds to Koper, Slovenia's main Adriatic port. Separately, passengers can buy combined tickets that include a bus transfer from Ljubljana onward to Trieste in northeastern Italy, broadening the service into a genuine multi-country gateway rather than a point-to-point connection.
Ticket Options Still Available
Although promotional allocations are gone for July, standard seats and sleeper berths remain available for many late-summer departures through the official PKP Intercity booking platform. Base second-class seated fares start at approximately €44.90. Couchette sleeper berths, which let passengers rest properly overnight, are priced between roughly €69.90 and €89.90 one way. The service runs until August 28, 2026.
The Slow Travel Appeal
The Adriatic Express fits squarely into a broader shift in how European travelers are thinking about getting somewhere. Combining transport and accommodation into a single overnight leg, passing through Vienna and Ljubljana without setting foot in an airport, and waking up steps from the sea addresses several frustrations at once: unpredictable flight delays, baggage fees, and the environmental cost of short-haul aviation. The route's sustained sell-out pace suggests this is not a niche preference but a mainstream one.
Why It Matters for Hosts
Independent accommodation operators in Rijeka, Koper, and the surrounding Adriatic coast have a concrete opportunity here. Guests arriving by the Adriatic Express land at around 10:00 AM, earlier than most flight arrivals and without the fatigue of a dawn departure. Communicating flexible early check-in options, even for a modest fee, directly addresses the rhythm of this train's schedule. Equally, operators in Ljubljana and Koper can position themselves as stopovers for travelers splitting the journey or exploring the new Koper branch, rather than treating the train purely as a through-service to Croatia. Highlighting the train connection in pre-arrival communications, and offering luggage storage for guests who want to explore before rooms are ready, turns an operational detail into a genuine hospitality differentiator.
Details in this post were first reported by Travel and Tour World. Qontaktly publishes this blog for independent hospitality operators and the travelers they host across Indonesia and Poland.
First reported by Warsaw Travel.