Hi,
I’m in the very, very early stages of planning a trip to Croatia – in part, due to all the wonderful comments and trip reports on this board. I also saw some pictures, it looks wonderful.
And based on these pictures, some ‘must do’ are some islands/cities on the coast and Plitvice Park.
However, it seems that getting to Croatia is not as easy – we live in NJ, so we can fly out of either Kennedy or Newark. I was thinking of skipping Zagreb, fly into Dubrovnik, drive up the coast, fly out of ??? – ideas please, maybe Venice? Or do it in opposite direction? But which airline flies into Dubrovnik?
Would it be possible to rent an automatic car? Where from?
We will have 2 weeks, either in May or Sept – 2006 – I told you, very, very early stages, but this year’s vacation is all planned already.
Thanks a lot

Check out this site for cheap intra-European flights and then find a cheap round-trip to the major capital where the flight to Croatia originates:

http://www.whichbudget.com/

My advice would be to start in the North and work your way south. Will you rent a car? I took a bus from Treiste, Italy (not a bad place to visit!) to Rovinj. From there I bused to Reijeka, and ferried to Dubrovnik. The ferries do stop at Split, Hvar and Korcula, so you could get off for a day or two. You could fly out of Dubrovnik but will likely have to make some connections.

Michael,
Thanks for the site.
Grasshopper,
Not sure about renting a car or not - if the combination of buses and ferries would be enough, that would be great (and probably cheaper) but a car gives you more flexibility...I don't know. I guess that depending on the itinerary, we'll have to decide about that.
I'll come back with more questions, thanks.

We ran into the same situation - just trying to get to Dubrovnik. We flew Delta from JFK to Frankfurt, and then Croatia Airlines to Dubrovnik. On our return, we flew Croatia Airlines from Zagreb to Frankfurt, then Delta back to the US.

I usually book air fare myself, but on that trip I used a travel agent in New York (specialize in Croatia travel). I can't recall the name of it (Pan Adriatic?). It was a recommendation from Mark on this board - maybe he will pipe in.

Here is the web site for the travel agency I mentioned in the above post.

http://www.panadriatic.com/main.html

The agent we used lived in Zadar, which was quite helpful to us.

We also used an agent, Paul Laifer Tours which is located in NJ, to book our flights and hotels. Croatia is one of the areas they specialize in, and they use Czech Airlines, which partners with Delta. The agent we used, Tommie, is from Croatia. We were pleased with the price and the service. Unless things have changed, I don't think there are direct flights to Dubrovnik.

Thanks Caroll - and they even have a website

I'll check them out.

I flew out of Venice. It gave me a nice excuse to spend a few days in Venice before flying home. I took the overnight ferry from split to ancona, which was quite unpleasant. It was october so there were fewer options. I've heard the hydrafoil to venice is really fast and nice, but it wasn't running in october.

I looked into a trip similar to yours last year. What I found from New York was:

JFK- London- Dubrovnik ( I think London-Dubrovnik was on Ryan Air or Easy Jet, but it might have been British Air)

JFK- Rome- Dubrovnik ( might have been Split, too)

Also JFK- Venice- Dubrovnik

I am from NY as well and I think the fastest way to do it is to fly to London and then connect onto Croatia. British Airways now has a flight on select days to Split and Dubrovnik. Croatia Airways flies as well but they are currently a lot more expensive than BA. I tend to purchase 2 seperate tickets as I have historically found this much cheaper. Currently, I have bought my ticket from London to Dubrovnik for approx. 150 pounds. I have yet to buy my New York - London ticket but there are tons of carriers for that and hence I am waiting for the price competition to begin.

Thank you all, this is really helpful.
I was afraid in the beginning that it would take hrs and hrs to get there - now, it seems doable, not a lot worse than a flight to any East European country.
Sounds good, and Croatia looks so beautiful!!!
Thanks again