internetwiz

Help! I need to cash in some frequent flier points by the end of the month. DH & I want to fly in/out of Dubrovnik and in/out Ljubljana. Because of the nature of the points, we'll need to fly to somewhere in western Europe and take separate flights from there. Which city do you recommend as our jumping off point? I've done some checking and the airline service to both Dubrovnik and Ljubljana looks spotty. I'm concerned about the reliability and safety of these smaller carriers. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

bobthenavigator

Fly to Vienna or Venice and train to Ljubljana.

treplow

I agree with Bobthenavigator, fly to Vienna and take the train.

How do you plan to travel between Dubrovnik and Lubljana? That's probably more of a problem than getting to either D. or L.

Check www.bahn.de for schedules. This is the website of the German RR (Deutsche Bahn), but it covers all of Europe and is very easy to maneuver. Also check trains from Munich.

nbujic

Hi, I agree about the problem with Ljubljana - Dubrovnik connection.
You may have to take a bus from Ljubljana to Zagreb ( a few hours)
and fly from Zagreb to Dubrovnik.
By the way, why Ljubljana ?

nbujic

also, Slovinin air company Adria flys
form Vinna to Ljubljana ( no need to go to Venice)
www.adria.ci

nbujic

one more
croatian airlines fly from Vienna and Zurich to Dubrovnik!

e

internetwiz

Should I be looking at Zagreb instead of Ljubljana? I was under the impression that the train from Vienna took a very long time.

I'm looking at the possibility of flying in and out of Paris instead.

nbujic

hi,
Zagreb is a bigger city with better connections to Europe and Dubrovnik
take a look at
www.croatiaairlines.hr

tcreath

Also consider flying into London. We took BA from Gatwick to Dubrovnik. Depending on when you are traveling, Easyjet and RyanAir may also be a consideration.

AerLingus flies to Dubrovnik from Dublin during the warmer months.

Europebyair.com offers $99 flight passes from various cities in Europe (including Paris) to various Croatian cities. Check out http://www.europebyair.com/efp/index.jsp.

Good luck!
Tracy

Amanda23

We have a very similar situation to yours: We are also going to Croatia and Slovenia but flying into and out of Western Europe on points. After researching many options, we've decided on flying into Paris, then taking a train to Brussels (75 Euros) then flying Wizz Air to Ljubljana for about 20 Euros per ticket (so about 100 Euros a person total for that leg). Then after visting Slovenia and Croatia, we fly home from London, so I've booked a flight from Split to London on British Airways and we paid 90 Euros for each of those tickets. Hope that helps!

WallyKringen

You say "somewhere in western Europe" - can you be more precise? Vienna is much further East than Slovenia and Croatia, so what does that mean? Vienna is normally considered to be in Central Europe, just like Prague and Bratislava etc., and Croatia would be in the Balkans, albeit to the west of Vienna - so what exactly do those rules stipulate?

Look at www.skyscanner.net and leave departure cities open - just to see from which other cities you can fly to those destinations, and consider flying to Venice and taking the train via Trieste, etc. But first clarify that "Western Europe" mystery that makes no sense so far.

Also look at www.whichbudget.com.

internetwiz

Thank you everyone.

I said western Europe because my points only cover certain cities, the furthest east being Munich. I might be able to fly to Vienna if I find a flight under a certain dollar value as these points are through my credit card, not a particular airline.

Has anyone used the europebyair passes? I went to wizzair and was quoted a rate of .01 Euro to fly from Brussels. Before I do anything though, I need to do what Amanda has done and figure out the first leg of my trip.

tcreath

internetwiz, Barb used Europe by Air's airpass on her recent trip to Croatia in October and wrote a trip report about her trip. You may want to do a search for her screenname, Barb, to find her information. Others have used them as well, so you may want to do a search on this board for "flightpass" or something like that.

Good luck!
Tracy