Flights advice from US to dubrovnik
 

Hi!
We are doing a 2.5 week trip to Croatia and Slovenia from mid June. Tickets from our smaller town in Oregon can be really expensive and instead of flying one way to Dubrovnik and out of Zagreb, it is cheaper to fly round trip to Zagreb and then buy a quick one way flight to Dubrovnik. If we use carry on luggage, would it be possible to buy 2 separate tickets, land in Zagreb around 13:10 pm, get through customs and then get on separately bought 14:50 flight out to Dubrovnik? The next one isn't until 22:00. Thanks for any advice!

Or friend whose parents lives in Croatia regularly transfers from Frankfurt to get to Zagreb. Might the cheapest way of doing the itinerary be a RT to and from Frankfurt and then using European cheap airlines for the connection to Dubrovnik and the flight out of the city closest to the end of your trip?

Check out flights on this site: Europe's low cost flights search & booking engine - Flylc.com

Hi Michael,
Thanks! I was actually just seeing that. There is a really reasonable one way fair from Portland through Frankfurt to Dubrovnik. It is using Concord and Lufthansa. Do you or anyone else have any experience with Condor and if it is a good airline?

By separating your trans-Atlantic flights from the European flights you might get more choices. But you would have to give yourself quite a bit of time between flights.

Condor is a low cost carrier. As long as you don’t have dreams of luxury and can handle a bit of discomfort, they are fine.

it used to be you could book Condor through Lufthansa. I would do that, so if there are any issues, Lufthansa will get you there.

or you could spend a day or two in Zabreg, to shake off the flight cobwebs. Then continue to Dubrovnik refreshed.

We flew Condor from Cancun to London 3 years ago business class. The flight and service were fine, although other than having free drinks the business class was not that great. At that point they were owned by Thomas Cook which just went bankrupt-according to wikipedia Condor has been able to restructure but you might want to research that part of the story some more.

I agree jpie. Biz class on Condor is basically what premium economy would be on other airlines. But for coach I would imagine it’s like other low cost flights. I think because of the relationship with Lufthansa they will be safe but these days you never know.

In 2018 we flew Rome to Dubrovnik using Vueling and it was fine. And I'm sure there are many other options as well if flexible about your arrival/departure point to/from Europe. Perhaps look at skyscanner or Dubrovnik airport websites to see which airlines are servicing Dubrovnik?

Whenever I've been to Croatia, Slovenia or anywhere around there I've found by far the best price/time options has been to fly to London (but Frankfurt or other major city with reasonably inexpensive flights from your home town) and then fly easy jet (or any other intra European economy airline) to the final destination. I have always saved HUNDREDS over booking something straight to Croatia, etc. BUT - I schedule an overnight in London or where ever. I generally have more time than money. And I enjoy a little 'mini-break' and get over the jet lag there. But scheduling the second flight on the same day of the transatlantic flight is too risky as far as I'm concerned. Flights are delayed too often to make that feel safe to me. And if you try to schedule the two flights on the same day, but give yourself many hours between them then you are sitting in an airport for many hours.

Condor flies actually thanks to bridge loan of 380 Mio EUR provided by the German Government and looks desperately fo a new owner.

I haven't been to Zagreb but have heard there is quite a bit to see there. Have you considered adding a night or two there? You could then take an inexpensive flight from Zagreb to Dubrovnik and not worry about making a connecting flight. If Zagreb doesn't interest you, the suggestion above of London or another European city might also work well.

Three years ago, we traveled Philadelphia > Frankfurt > Zagreb on Lufthansa, then Zagreb > Dubrovnik on Croatia Airlines. The flights were fine, except a) Frankfurt airport is a gigantic zoo - we had to take a 15 minute bus ride from the the wilds of the tarmac to the terminal, then walk for 1/2 hour to our gate. b) Lufthansa lost my luggage for 3 days - somehow sent it to Ottawa, Canada instead of Frankfurt - I still can't believe I actually received it on the last of our 3 days in Dubrovnik.

Zagreb is a small airport, I think 1:40 should be enough time to connect, assuming of course your incoming flight is on time.

All that being said, and even considering that I got food poisoning in Split and was semi-sick for 4 days, we loved Croatia. Beautiful country, lovely people, good food, lots of interesting places to see. And we spent our last 2 days in Zagreb - interesting, but 2 days was enough there for us.

Are you using a multi-destination search function to research the trans-Atlantic fares? This kind of ticket, into Zagreb and out of Dubrovnik, has to be booked as one itinerary rather than two one-ways. For cheap internal-Europe flights, www.skyscanner.com But also consider trains, helped by www.seat61.com

Unfortunately there is no train between Zagreb and Dubrovnik. Croatia airlines has several flights a day in June and they are not terribly expensive.

If time were no issue, I'd take the train Zagreb to Split and then bus from there. It would be very scenic and more fun than a boring flight. There used to be overnight trains as well, if that's of interest.

In the meantime, CONDOR has been sold to the Polish LOT.
It continues to fly under the brand Condor and with the actual staff.
With Condor, you can fly home from Zagreb, Ljubljana or Venice for almost the same fare as PDX - DBV roundtrip

Thanks all for the good info! I have another plane question I think I will start a new thread for.