rancherswife

My adult daughter and I are hoping to travel through Croatia next September. Reading through the travel reports and the forum is helpful for deciding which locations to visit but most travelers seem to be from from Europe and have different options for traveling to Croatia. Are there US travelers that can offer advice on the most convenient (and cheapest) way to get from Florida to Croatia? We plan to fly direct from Florida to a hub in Europe and then find a direct flight into Dubrovnik with a direct return from Zagreb back to the European hub. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights from the US to Croatia. I would appreciate suggestions on the best routes and airlines. Is there a European hub city that lends itself to a convenient stop over so we can break up the journey a bit before going on to Croatia. At my age those overnight flights are brutal! It's early in our planning so we have time to explore flight options.

adrienne

Sorry to say that you'll have to do the costing for flights as there are so many variables. First, Florida has lots of airports so you need to find which airlines fly from a convenient airport to you and then see what the routing is.

Second, no one but you knows when you'll be traveling and your flexibility. Sometimes you can save money if you can move your dates around.

Third, I believe you mean non-stop flights, not direct. Direct flights make one or more stops but you don't change planes. There are few direct flights any more.

Fourth, I would not break the journey in some city that is not on your itinerary. It's best to get the long flight over with as soon as possible. The day you arrive in Europe you are likely to be jet lagged so why not continue traveling that day rather than waste it and then taking part of another day to get to your destination.

Also, if you stop en route you'll need to pay departure taxes for the country you stop in (could be up to $100+) per ticket. And then the tickets may cost you more since the trip would be 2 tickets to get to Dubrovnik rather than 1 ticket.

kja

FWIW, you might also check flights into/out of cities just outside of Croatia. I flew through Munich to (lovely) Sarajevo and from (delightful) Ljubljana through Frankfurt.

thursdaysd

Use the multi-city option on kayak.com. Looks likes a combination of Lufthansa and Croatian airlines. No need to book the European leg separately.

nukesafe

The last time we did this (from Seattle a few years ago)) we had a looong layover in Amsterdam. If you are stuck with a long layover, there are worse airports to spend your time in than Amsterdam. You could possibly even pop into town for a bit.

One site we have found to check lots of possibilities is Hipmunk. http://www.hipmunk.com/

From which airport in Florida would you prefer to depart?

Andrew

You can read my trip report from 2009 (click on my name to find it). FYI, on this trip, I flew from the US to Milan, trained over to Venice, bus to Ljubljana, Slovenia, and then took a train to Zagreb, Croatia to start the Croatian part of the trip. I ended the Croatian part by flying from Split, Croatia back to Paris, spending two nights there, and then flying home to the US.

Yes, adding Italy (and Slovenia) at the front of my trip and Paris at the end added more time, but my open jaw into Milan/out of Paris was much cheaper than the other flight options I priced out at that time, so the extra hotel nights were in effect paid for by savings in airfare. Meanwhile, I was over my jet lag by the time I got to Croatia, plus I got to enjoy Venice and Paris as a bonus! If you consider that sort of option, you might find it easier to get to/from Croatia vs. trying to fly in/out directly and "see only Croatia." I guess it depends how much time you have to travel and how complicated you wish to make your connections. (I find this sort of thing kind of fun.)

You can also fly into Amsterdam (as mentioned above) or other cities like London, which may have cheap flights via easyJet into/out of Croatia, but this may involve at least one overnight in London. As above, if you compare prices, it could turn out to be the same price overall to spend a few nights in London and fly through there vs. trying to fly direct in one day at a higher airfare.

Croatia Airlines generally has cheap fares within Croatia as well if you want to get between Zagreb, Split, and Dubrovnik quickly if that helps your trip planning within the country. (They also fly to most European capitols but the fares are a bit higher than their domestic fares.)

Kevina

Put Venice on your list of entry or exit airports. From there, you have good transports links with Croatia.

Ackislander

Fly nonstop FL to Munich if you can, London next, Frankfurt if it makes economic sense. Air Croatia can take you from any of these points.

Hulu is good for checking prices, but it won't be cheap, or isn't when I have looked. Once in the country, it is not expensive, though, so don't give up because the flights cost a lot.

Croatia is worth it, and is even better and probably cheaper if you can go early in October.

rancherswife

Thank you for the helpful and kind responses. You provided great resources to continue the research. Appreciate the tip about departure tax. I didn't think about that. I thought it would be cheaper to book the Europe to Croatia leg separately with Easy Jet or the like but sounds as if one ticket may be a better way to go. Appreciate the encouragement that the trip will be worth it despite the expense of the flight to get there.

thursdaysd

Few more points.

-- If you book with Easyjet or equivalent, look VERY carefully at the additional fees. They can easily up the price to where a national carrier is cheaper.

-- If you have flexibility with your dates, check out this site - http://www.portdubrovnik.hr/girica1.php - for information on cruise ship arrivals so you can avoid the most crowded days.

-- Don't miss Plitvice! I spent two nights/one full day and could have stayed longer.

-- Don't know how long you have, but don't forget that the neighboring countries are also well worth visiting. I'd especially recommend Sarajevo and Ljubljana.

Goldens

We have just returned from Croatia. We went through Frankfurt on the way over and Munich on the return. Munich is your best connection as it is a more manageable airport than Frankfurt.
Munich is also a great place to do a stop over. I would definitely book with one ticket. If your flight is delayed, the airline is responsible for getting you (and your luggage) to your destination. Easyjet (which I really like) is only if you do a stopover.

Croatia has an excellent bus system for moving between cities.

We found that there are very few places in Croatia that accept credit cards. Have a great trip.

yorkshire

If you have a lot of time at your disposal, taking a low cost carrier from another European city may work, but note that this sometimes requires changing airports (not as simple as it sounds, if you want to travel in one day). There are also the pitfalls others have described in terms of not booking on one ticket.
I can recommend http://www.croatiatravel.com/, but I did not pay much less with them than when I booked it myself.

I took a random gander on Kayak.com -- flying from Orlando (of course you may be far from there), and with BA, it was 1300 with only one stopover. That was for May, but it is probably just too early to look at September flights.
good luck!

nukesafe

You should also be aware that September starts the low season and, depending on the time of month, a number of venues start to close down, and ferry schedules may change to less frequent sailings. We were there in September and it was still lovely, with enough restaurants to keep us fed.

Ackislander

I recommended early October because September is still hot. But for a Floridian, that may well be a feature rather than a bug. We didn't run into any closures in early October and were comfortable swimming in the sea.

I would try to figure out when airfares drop from summer to shoulder rates and plan my trip right after that. You don't want to go in real winter.

kleeblatt

I visited Croatia the first week in October. The last week in September was warm und summer-like. Upon my arrival, the weather changed and we had cool winds, rain and the temperatures plummeted. The sea was still warm but the air had turned cool. I was told this happens often during the first part of October though it happened a bit earlier this year.

thursdaysd

I had rain in Dubrovnik mid-October 2011. Things were starting to close down further south in Albania and Montenegro, but there were plenty of cruise ship visitors in Dubrovnik....

rancherswife

Due to my daughter's work schedule we will go the first 3 weeks in September and you are correct, for Floridians, the temperatures will be ideal. I confess, I was stunned at the price of airline tickets through my initial cursory look. I didn't realize $1300 would be the norm and thought I must be missing something. Everyone's comments bring me assurance that is reasonable to expect. I will just have to keep searching for best routes and hope for a good rate to pop up. We have some flexibility to fly out of either Orlando or Miami - although at first look, it appears Miami offers the best rates and connections. Thank you again for your suggestions.

Andrew

I had a similar experience to schuler. After getting some cold/rainy weather in mid-October in Korcula and Split, and finding out from locals that this is normal, I'd recommend people visit the coastal areas in September instead. And it sounds like rancherswife is going to do that anyway - perfect!

rlizard

We are in nw Fl and also plan a trip to Croatia in late Sept/early October. The best fare that I have found is an open jaw Dubrovnik-Venice .We are using reward points and, od I found that oddly we will use fewer points by flying Pensacola to NYC rt then to Dubrovnik and return from Venice to NYC. I checked on MUC,FRK, LON, DUB, VIE and ZAG but the DBK/VCE open jaw was best by 2-300 US/pax. I would love to hear about your trip. Hope you have a wonderful time.

phieaglefan

When we planned our trip to Croatia, which sadly we had to cancel, I had booked FF tickets into Rome with a connection to Ancona, Italy. I then had booked an overnight ferry from Ancona to Split (I believe it was Split, it was 4 years ago).

It's probably not the easiest way to get there, but worked for us due to FF availability.

Happy planning!