The Postojna Cave train: the railway that carries you inside

The reason Postojna Cave train is searched almost five times as often as Postojna Cave tickets is that people have seen a photograph of it and want to know if it is real. It is. An open railway runs into the cave, and the visit begins with a ride rather than a descent — through tunnel and chamber, under formations you would otherwise never reach, to the point where the guided walk starts.

What that does to your day is simple and worth saying out loud: it puts you deep inside the cave without a long walk in and a long walk back out. That is why the listings that name it sound so pleased about it. $131 calls it the excitement of boarding and riding a fun underground train. $74 describes seeing the underground passages, galleries and chambers by train. $132 calls it an adventurous ride with a special train into Postojna Cave. $122 calls it an electric train through part of the karst cave system, and $57 describes exploring the cave by electric train. Six listings, six ways of saying the same thing: the train is the visit’s first act.

Then comes the walking half, and this is where the cave earns its other search terms. The listings describe the stalactites and stalagmites, the galleries and the chambers, and the creature Postojna is known for: the blind salamander the listings call the human fish or the cave dragon, in the vivarium. Underground the conditions do not change with the season — it is cool in there all year round, whatever the karst is doing above — which is one of the few things about this trip that is the same in January and July. Bring a jacket in August; you will want it.

And because the train is part of the cave entry rather than a separate product, the practical question is the one from the tickets page: does your fare include the entry? Four of the thirteen trips here do, three discount it through the operator’s agency, and six leave it to you. None of them can sell you the train on its own, and none of them needs to.

Every trip on this site visits Postojna Cave, so every trip on this site rides the train. What differs is what the listing says about it, what else the day contains and whether the entry that covers the ride is in the fare. Here is the whole field, with the table underneath.

The short day, with the train named: four trips. $131 is our top pick — six hours, pickup inside Ljubljana, an English-speaking driver-guide, entrance to the cave and to Predjama Castle, an audio guide at the castle and skip-the-line, with a listing that leads on the underground train and the blind salamanders; 2,655 reviews at 4.8. $122 is five and a half hours with the entrance fee for both sights in the fare and the electric train named in its highlights; 166 reviews at 4.8. $74 is five and a half hours in a vehicle capped at eight with licensed driver-guides, skip-the-line and a ten per cent ticket discount, describing the passages, galleries and chambers seen by train; 413 reviews at 4.9. $57 is the lowest fare on the site: six hours, a minivan of eight, a driver and a central meeting point, with the electric train and the cliff castle in its description; 37 reviews at 4.9.

The short day, train unnamed: two trips. $83 runs six hours with a driver-guide, a multilingual audio guide and WiFi, and leads on the cave system, the castle under the cliff and the dragon fish in the vivarium; 202 reviews at 4.7. $78 is the shortest day here at five hours, a minivan of no more than eight with an English-speaking guide and central pickup, describing the cave and its stalactites and stalagmites; 32 reviews at 4.9. Neither mentions the railway in its highlights, and both visit the same cave.

The long days: seven trips, ten to eleven and a half hours. $132 is the one that names the train most warmly — an adventurous ride with a special train into the cave, the human fish, the legend of the knight Erazem at Predjama, a pletna boat to Bled island and Bled Castle, in ten hours at 4.9 across 271 reviews. $160 is the listing that ties the train to the ticket, stating the Postojna entry as the train ride plus the guided cave tour, with the Predjama ticket and a walking tour of Piran; 43 reviews at 4.7. $194 is eleven and a half hours with entry to the cave, Predjama and Bled Castle and a Bled cream cake, 852 reviews at 4.8. $137 is eleven hours with a licensed guide, lake viewpoints and a thirteen per cent ticket discount, at 5.0 across 135 reviews. $113 is ten hours to the cave, the largest cave castle in the world and Piran, at 4.9 across 392 reviews. $166 and $103 are the eleven-and-a-half- and eleven-hour versions with a driver-guide and transport covered.

If you want the train and the castle with nothing left to arrange, book $131. Our top pick: six hours, entrance to Postojna Cave and to Predjama Castle in the fare, skip-the-line, an audio guide at the castle, an English-speaking driver-guide and pickup at designated points inside Ljubljana. Its highlights lead on boarding the underground train and on the blind salamanders that live down there. 2,655 reviews at 4.8 — nothing else here comes close on evidence.

If you want the same thing shorter and cheaper, book $122. Five and a half hours, an English-speaking guide, comfortable transport and the entrance fee for the cave and the castle included, with the electric train through the karst system named in the listing. 166 reviews at 4.8.

If you want the lowest fare, book $57. Six hours, a driver and a minivan of eight from a central meeting point, at 4.9 across 37 reviews, describing the cave explored by electric train. The entry is not in the fare, so add it when you compare. $78 is the five-hour alternative with an English-speaking guide.

If you want a guide and a discounted ticket, book $74. Five and a half hours with professional licensed driver-guides, skip-the-line, air-conditioned transport for up to eight and ten per cent off the cave and castle tickets, at 4.9 across 413 reviews. Its highlights are the clearest on what the walk after the train actually shows: the formations, the fauna, the passages and galleries and chambers.

If you want the train inside a full day of Slovenia, book $132 or $160. Ten hours each: the first adds Lake Bled, a pletna boat to the island and Bled Castle in a small group at 4.9 across 271 reviews; the second adds the Adriatic at Piran and is the one listing that states the train ride as part of the entry ticket.