Trieste to Slovenia

[JustThinking23]

I am currently on the Gem. Today was scheduled to be a tendering into Venice. Three days ago the itinerary changed to stay at in Trieste today, where we boarded yesterday. This was somewhat expected based on prior Norwegian cruises. I had altered my itinerary a week and a half ago to spend more time in Venice prior to the cruise. 

 

Right after the email regarding the itinerary change came, I reserved a car from Avis for today. Avis and Hertz share a location that is about a 10 minute walk from the ship. The airport is quite far, so not rent there if you can all help it. 

 

Without too much time to plan ( the weekend was spent enjoying Venice ) we headed out to Bled, Slovakia after picking up the car. This was about a 2 hour drive each way.  The castle and lake are the top 2 most visited spots in Slovenia. We did very much enjoy our visit and discussed coming back for a visit sometime in the future. 

 

We had thought about visiting the caves that are the third most visited spot and in Slovenia, but decided to spend time exploring Trieste instead. 

 

On the way back my 23 year old son was driving. At the border between Slovenia and Italy he was pulled over. Before we even knew why we were pulled over we shared the car rental contract and US drivers license, so it was obvious that we were tourists. It was explained that we had a toll violation. So, yes we had not understood the signs at the border and did not pay the toll. True!  What happened next seemed way overblown to me. 

 

They took my son’s license, passport and the rental agreement back to their van. There were 2 vehicles and 3 officers involved. After about 10 minutes of running the papers, they told my son to follow them to their van. My daughter thought that one of the officers was reaching for her handcuffs. This heighten our concern considerably. He was in the back of the police van for a considerable time. My wife tried to check on him, but was told to return to our car. 

 

At this point my wife screamed at me to “call someone!”  I always take a picture from the daily newsletter of the port agent for that port, so that is who I called. The person I talked to could not do anything in Slovenia, but promised to email the ship and call the port agent in Slovenia. He also assured us that this did not seem routine…

 

After about 20 minutes he returned to our car and said that he needed money. My wife ended up paying hundreds of Euros in fines by credit card on the spot. Totally seems like a shakedown.  

 

Obviously this put quite a different spin on our day in Slovenia and changed my recommendation for other cruisers to spend a day in Trieste. If you do decide to do what we did and drive yourself, research the toll system. I think the way it works is it costs 15 Euro to use the tolls for a week. But don’t take my word for it!

 

So yes, we did have a toll violation, but the response seemed way too much for me. The officers were not friendly, helpful or considerate at all. It felt that we were detained for a much more serious reason infraction. 

 

I had thought that the tourism loss for Venice could be a gain for Slovenia, but we can’t recommend going there after our day. 

 

As we returned to the ship, the chief security officer was waiting for us and stopped us to check on us. The general manager also was aware of our story and pictures as well. 
 

Anyone know a Slovenian lawyer who can help with an appeal?

[kimandtim]

So sorry you guys went through that.  Has the rental car company been of any help?  Thats so unforturnate as I have heard that Slovenia is absolutely beautiful. We always obtain an international drivers license (from AAA)  when renting cars abroad.  I don't know that it would have made a difference in your case but maybe it would have? Regardless, I am sorry that your family went through that.

[RD64]

Their country their rules! I would not waste my time trying to fight it with an appeal.Quite frankly - you are American - they know it - an easy target. If you are limited to speaking English and no Italian, German, French, etc. that just complicates the situation. And no disrespect but if you chose to ignore the toll sign  due to not understanding, or otherwise, that is a very expensive mistake.

[CruiseMH]

18 hours ago, RD64 said:

Quite frankly - you are American - they know it - an easy target.

 

I can assure you they do the exact same with everybody. 😉

If you are american,german, spanish,your own car,rental car...doesn`t matter.

If you don`t have paid the toll they will charge you a fine. there are very few special agreements(e.g. between Austria and germany) to collect the fine from you once you are back. But in 95 % of the cases you have to pay the fine right on the spot. We germans have the same issue in Switzerland.

 

On 5/23/2023 at 7:42 PM, JustThinking23 said:

So yes, we did have a toll violation, but the response seemed way too much for me. The officers were not friendly, helpful or considerate at all.

 

 

The problem is that they for sure have heard thousands of stories and explanations in the last decades. So they simply don`t care any more about any exception.

 

So,important tip for all visitors to Europe: EVERY country is taking the toll issue serious.

France, Switzerland,Austria,Slovenia...doesn`t matter.

 

[14ersco]

There are a couple ways to avoid being fined for tolls in Slovenia.  We had done a land tour in Slovenia last summer, after our cruise ship was redeployed.  The pass for tolls can be purchased at gas stations.  Until finding a gas station stick to the local highways and avoid the expressways (the majority require the toll pass).  The Rick Steves guidebook goes into more details on purchasing the toll pass.  Great places to visit in Slovenia from Trieste that don't require using the expressways are Skojan Caves: https://www.park-skocjanske-jame.si/en and the Kolovrat Outdoor Museum (WWI battlefield): https://www.kobariski-muzej.si/en/exhibitions/guided-tours/guided-tours/201803271701139202/the-kolovrat-outdoor-museum/

Edited May 25, 2023 by 14ersco

[Nataly1982]

It takes less than 5 mins to create an account and buy the toll pass online. €15 for a week, fail to do so is €300.

 

https://evinjeta.dars.si/selfcare/en

 

Have you advised your rental company that you are travelling to Slovenia? If yes, I find it hard to believe they haven’t informed you about toll system. 
 

I do feel sorry four your troubles, but “not knowing” is a lousy excuse. 

[John Bull]

4 hours ago, Nataly1982 said:

 

 

Have you advised your rental company that you are travelling to Slovenia? If yes, I find it hard to believe they haven’t informed you about toll system. 
 

 

 

Yes, that occurred to me too.🤔

 

When we researched a road-trip starting & ending in Italy and visiting Slovenia & other countries east of Italy, we found that most rental agencies didn't even permit those border crossings.

So instead we plumped for flying to Dubrovnik for a road trip thro' Croatia - brilliant trip, but even there we had hoops to go thro if we wanted to visit any neighbouring countries with the car.

 

For a car to be pulled-over on a road without toll-booths to check if a toll has been paid on-line sounds very unusual, though perhaps not at a border control point.

I seriously doubt that being American comes into it, but Italian registration plates may well have been the trigger. 

The number of officers is pretty irrelevant at a border crossing, 20 minutes to deal with it doesn't sound unreasonable with the language barrier, and even in the UK failure to pay a £5 parking fee results in a fine of about £80 so "hundreds" of dollars isn't unreasonable if it's $200 or300 rather than $800 or 900.

Clearly payment by card means it was legitimate, and I can understand on-the-spot fines for foreign-registered vehicles - especially where they're leaving the country. I wish authorities in the UK would levy spot-fines on foreign-registered vehicles, they are ignored with impunity if sent to a foreign address. 

The attitude sounds heavy-handed, but perhaps not by eastern-European standards .

 

Best to suck it up & put it down to experience - getting lawyers and appealing sounds very much like good money after bad.

 

JB🙂

 

 

[JustThinking23]

So, Original Poster here. My point to post was to warn others to not repeat my mistakes. In the last 12 months I have been fortunate to drive rental cars in Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy. Did not have any problems in those countries. 
 

Yes, Slovenia can have laws the way the choose , and also choose how they enforce them. As a tourist, I also choose where to visit. This was a huge turn off for me and my family. 
 

The 20 minutes was just to review the documents. It was longer that my son was detained in the police van. 
 

I obviously had not googled “Driving in Slovenia”. If I had, there was a good chance this very helpful link would have come up. https://si.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/local-resources-of-u-s-citizens/driving-auto-accidents/

[edinburgher]

Sorry it happened to you, but you will have learned from this experience and are unlikely to repeat it on future travels,but in many European countries it is common for fines related to traffic violations to be paid "on the spot" so I don't' think that was anything out of the ordinary. And fines can be quite expensive.

 

 Unfortunately ignorance of the rules is not accepted as an excuse.

 

We have on a few occasions in France and Spain seen train passengers who looked like tourists  fined "on the spot"  despite having tickets for travel , the reason being that they had not validated them either before boarding  in the machines on the plaftorms, or in those which are found on board. Lesson from that is ALWAYS ALWAYS VALIDATE YOUR TICKETS.

 

And here  in Edinburgh the trams carry inspectors working their way through the carriages.who check for valid tickets on almost every tram. As these currently run to/from the airport there must be a fair few tourists who didn't check the rules before travelling and get caught out. We know this because we ourselves have had ticket checks when travelling on them with suitcases.  We assumed (perhaps wrongly but who knows) that we were mistaken for tourists and a possible "fining opportunity" for the inspectors,  who may or may not have a "fine target" to meet.  That we do not know, but  do call us Mr and Mrs Cynical. We actually thought on all three  occasions that if touriss were indeed being targeted, doing so  gave a poor first  impression of our city..

 

As tourists anywhere, it is our own responsibility to check the rules in countries other than our own.

 

Please don't let your experience affect your views of the country or change future plans.  They were only doing their jobs and it was you and your family doing wrong, not them Maybe not now, but some day in the future you might look back and laugh about your run in with the local police force in Slovenia.

[Hlitner]

As one who often rents cars in Europe, we would warn folks (have often done this here on CC) that you need to always check the toll rules (in some countries googling "Vignette" will be helpful) on every country where you intend to drive.  Besides Slovenia, another country that can be a problem is Switzerland and Austria.  We also suggest that folks renting cars review the parking rules for each country.

 

I do find it odd that the OP was not warned by their rental car company.  In fact, it is important to tell the rental car agent of your intent to drive to other countries.  It may be prohibited by your rental contract, or you may have to pay an extra fee to the rental car company.  For example, when we recently rented a car in the Czech Republic, we were required to pay a small extra fee because we were going to drive into Poland.  In our particular case, the extra fee (I think it was about 10 Euros) was a requirement of the insurance that came with the rental car.

 

Hank

[Host Bonjour]

On 5/25/2023 at 7:28 AM, JustThinking23 said:

It was longer that my son was detained in the police van. 

 

But also, you know your son. He's a stranger to the border or toll enforcement, who see and experience any number of things on a daily basis working on a border. How would they know, upon just one glance, that there was nothing to be concerned about?

 

A few episodes of "Locked Up Abroad" and your perspective would be forever changed. Some people pay (or use force) to have "ordinary" looking people cross borders on their behalf, holding whatever it might be they need to transport, convey or activate. Something so simple and common as an unpaid toll would be a first sign to law enforcement might be a possible sign that they should check and see what's up. They did, they were right, but it was just a mistake, nothing more.

For anyone on holiday, these thoughts would be far from anyone's mind. But it's an ordinary reality for border crossings, even in Europe. 

 

On my first ever visit to Europe, despite consuming every single page of my guides, I somehow never knew I had to write myself the travel days on my rail pass...I thought it would happen at the window or the conductor did it. All along the way, either no one asked for the pass, gave it a passing glance, or no conductor passed through.

 

Alas when one passed through on one leg of the journey...maybe from Monaco to Nice before heading north, I handed the pass over and it was thrown at me, along with my passport, and informed I needed to pay however many francs. (few years pre: euro). I handed over the money. It was the last leg of my rail pass. 

 

The next ride was via TGV and so I had a separate ticket for that of course. Go figure.
 

I won't even go into the few glitches with time stamping before entry on the RER to Chatelet or metro...😂 and again, I read the books so much they were crinkled. (I think I was just a bit too excited and overwhelmed!)

 

So so sorry this happened because these things can be exhausting and stressful; I was all, what's up with this dude throwing stuff at me? I didn't even protest and I knew French. Maybe the accent offended him. Who could say. It wouldn't be the only mishap, there would be others on future trips, but you learn how to prepare and cope. And most people are generally kind when you need help, is the thing I encountered most, everywhere I needed it. 🙂 

 

Colleen