We were visiting with a friend in Split. Yesterday we were scheduled to fly to UK from Dubrovnik on BA at 3:55 pm.

So, after careful study of the bus schedule we decided to take the 8am bus from Split to Dubrovnik. The earlier 6:15am bus just seemed too early. The printed schedule for our 8am bus was showing arrival in Dubrovnik at 12:30pm. The fare was 114HK or ~$23US per person, but it does not include a charge for checked luggage (nobody told us until we were boarding the bus in the morning). It was ~$1.50 per every checked luggage. No biggie, just wish somebody warned us before, as we had just enough Korunas for the airport bus from Dubrovnik bus station to the airport.

We were little surprised that at 12:30pm the bus made a scheduled stop in Bosnia-Herzogovina rest stop where it was announced it will be a 15 minute lunch stop. <b>We were still at least 1 hour away from Dubrovnik bus station at that time.</b>

We realized at that time that we may have a problem catching our BA flight to London.

If we did miss it then we would be stuck in Dubrovnik for 2 nights as BA only flies this route every 2 days.

With arrival time around 2pm we were resigned to take a taxi to the airport at ~$75. The Atlas bus from the bus station to the airport is $7 per person.

We did make the airport bus at 1:55pm with 5 minutes to spare and at the end it all worked out but we want to post this story as a warning. The bus trip is not 4.5 hours as advertized. It's almost 6 hours with many short stops to drop off packages/locals and 2 longer stops.

This is true of the bus in just about every country, I find. They are always late. But it's a good warning.

I caught a bus from Split to Dubrovnik on Christmas Day, and it took slightly under four and a half hours. Of course there was little traffic on the roads.
Long distance buses in Croatia have always charged for luggage. Any decent guide book should tell you about this.

Countries vary. I would set my watch by Swiss busses but Croatia Herzogovenia nah

<i>Any decent guide book should tell you about this.</i>,

I don't do guide books....sorry. I'm a traveler, not a tourist.

It wasn't a big deal, as I already stated in my OP, but I wish the ticket agent told us about the luggage charge when we bought the tickets day earlier. At the end I changed 10BPs at the Dubrovnik bus station and we had enough to pay for the Dubrovnik-DBV airport bus so no biggie.

AAFrequentFlyer wrote: &quot;I don't do guide books....sorry. I'm a traveler, not a tourist.&quot;

Your choice, but you should always be prepared to accept the consequences of the choices you make. That includes being ignorant of some of the norms in the places you visit. If, as GeoffHamer points out, charging for luggage is the norm in Croatia, then the ticket agent would have had no reason to mention it.

as i said, and will say it again <b>no biggie</b>

which part of that you have a hard time understanding?

Our main concern was the printed schedule and the lack of concern from the 2 drivers on the bus when questioned about it. They or their union decided that no matter what, they will have lunch at this rest stop and talk to the 2 girls in the gift shop for an extra 5-10 minutes, knowing well that we are at least 1 to 1.5 hour as it was.....We were an hour away from Dubrovnik, could they not wait until they got there to have their lunch?

AAFrequentFlyer wrote: &quot;which part of that you have a hard time understanding?&quot;

Your claim that it is no biggie, yet you complained about it and when it was pointed out to you that such charges are the norm, you still complained about not being told.

do you have reading comprehension problem?

<i>It was ~$1.50 per every checked luggage. <b>No biggie</b>, just wish somebody warned us before,</i>

and again,

<i>It wasn't a big deal</i>

and once again,

<i>as i said, and will say it again no biggie</i>

No, I don't have a reading comprehension problem. Further, I am capable of conducting a debate without being intentionally offensive to my interlocutor.

I also saw: &quot;but it does not include a charge for checked luggage (nobody told us until we were boarding the bus in the morning).&quot; and &quot;but I wish the ticket agent told us about the luggage charge when we bought the tickets&quot;.

I don't care if you choose not to read guidebooks, but I suggest that you make an exception and buy a guide to good manners.

allow me to explain to you one more time...

in my op I said:

<b>I <u>just wish</u></b>,

I didn't say that it should be a rule.

I dealt with the consequence of not having this knowledge without any problems. It was a <b>traveler</b> moment. I prefer it that way. YMMV.

I only posted that part of info as a warning to others that perhaps may be in the same situation at some point...

Wow, someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning! Take a few deep breaths and count to 10.

I think when you made that silly, old &quot;traveler&quot; vs. &quot;tourist&quot; remark, you opened yourself up to some less than positive comment.

We took the bus in December from Dubrovnik-Split and it was right about 4.5 hours. I could certainly see how it's just an estimate though- the road is windy and mostly a 2 lane, so if you get behind a slow truck or if they have to make lots of stops, it would add time. We loved the pit stop in Bosnia, not that we've now &quot;seen&quot; Bosnia, but it added a bit more to the trip to grab lunch there. There's a tip to definitely be aware of- and was in both of the guidebooks we carried- have your passports available for check.

EmilyMB wrote: &quot;...and was in both of the guidebooks we carried...&quot;

TWO guidebooks? Isn't that overdoing it a bit?

<b>EmilyMB&lt;/n&gt;,

My friend and I questioned the printed schedule to begin with and here is why.

He drove down to Dubrovnik to pick us up. He recently moved to Croatia with his Croatian wife and they live in Trogir.

When we drove from Dubrovnik to Trogir in his car, speeding the whole way, the same route, it took us 4.5 hours. Granted, Trogir is about .5 hour drive past Split but nevertheless the trip from Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik (dep 8:30am) took us 4.5 hours and he was speeding, bypassing any trucks, most cars. We arrived at their beautiful hillside mansion at about 1:10pm.

As a side story, he was pulled over just outside Dubrovnik for speeding. The cops caught him on radar so there was no disputing the ticket, but they let him go after he paid a 300 Korunas(~$60US) &quot;fine&quot; in cash. His other choice was a written ticket, ~600 Korunas fine, a long and very detailed safety vehicle check, etc...

The reason I brought that up was the fact that he was speeding the whole way. The &quot;fine/bribe&quot; did not deter him from getting home as soon as possible.

So, 4.5 hours in a private car, bypassing, speeding, etc., granted the drive was about 30km longer, but how can a bus that stops frequently and often and has 2 longer scheduled stops make the Split-Dubrovnik route in 4.5 hours?

</b>

sorry about the bold lettering, aghhh

Fodor's, editing feature, the sooner the better...

&quot;I don't do guide books....sorry. I'm a traveler, not a tourist.&quot; So traveler = ignorant and tourist = informed? Why on earth would you not read a guide book? Why wouldn't you want information on logistics, history, local customs?

I'm a fan of international politics, local customs, etc., so I do read non-fiction books, international newspapers, magazines. I'm not ignorant to any local customs. I've travelled all over the world and I have been very lucky to find the &quot;unknown&quot; places, restaurants and meet many people and became true lifetime friends with number of the them just because I don't do the &quot;guide book&quot; thing. I'm not saying that this is the way for everybody. For many the guidebooks work and it's just great. For me, they don't. I know what I want to see and everything else just falls in place.

Why some of you are so fixed on my little report that the luggage charge exists and I didn't know about?

As I said in my OP, <b>I just wished</b> somebody at the bus station told us about it. They didn't, we paid, we got more cash later, life goes on....

My first Fodor conversation, so I'm a little nervous jumping into the fray here....

1) Two guidebooks- 1 Europe on a shoe string since we were in Rome too and 1 for Croatia. To each their own. Some don't carry any, some may carry several. We all have different travel personalities and we (fiance and I) can always enjoy ourselves and relax more with more information, whether we read it or not or its just available. I fell in love with Lonely Planet on my first big trip- Kenya 1999- because during down time, I could read about the history, economy, places we weren't able to see, etc- all stuff that gave me a better appreciation for where I was visiting. And more educational than the latest fiction novel- which is generally where my down time on vacation gets spent.

2) I would question why you would get down to literally your last few dollars in a foreign country. Things happen- like an unexpected fee or perhaps an increase in an airport departure tax. One of my favorite simple pleasures is after crossing security, going to the airport gift shop and finding some use for the last $10-20USD in their currency that I have with me. For example, when we did this at Split, we bought a bottle of Croatian Zinfandel.

3) If you're in a foreign country and the next flight out is in two days- why cut it close for an extra hour and 45 minutes of sleep? Things happen!

And your post would be more aptly titled- &quot;Had trouble with bus schedule&quot;. I find the little things like this to be adventurous and one of the joys of travel, which is why I guess I plan (couple extra dollars, couple extra hours) so that if an adventure comes, you can roll with it.

All said and done- to each their own. I chose to reply to your post to give another viewpoint on the bus schedule, should someone be searching in the future.

We were not down to the last $, far from it. We did know that there was no departure tax. We did not plan on buying and duty free at the DBV airport so we planned accordingly. Have enough Korunas to get us to the airport.

If an emergency happened, we did have some US cash and unlimited CCs but many of the payments in Croatia, like the busses tickets, need to be paid in local cash, so we planned accordingly.