Can anyone tell me the best way to fly into Croatia? I would be coming from South Africa - I would imagine that I would have to fly into a large international hub and then take a smaller airline? Does anyone know what airlines would fly into Croatia?

I am totally clueless about where to start so any help is appreciated!

jenhack, after extensively trying to plan a trip to Croatia I decided that its definitely not an easy (or cheap) country to get into!

It would probably be cheaper to fly into another city (Venice, Rome, London, etc.) and then fly from there to Croatia. For flights going to Croatia, check out Croatia Airlines (http://www.croatiaairlines.hr/Defaul...airlines.hr/en) and British Airways. For cheaper options, I've used Europe by Air (http://www.europebyair.com/eba/English_us/default.jsp). They use many cheaper airlines, Croatia Airlines being one of them, but at cheaper rates than the actual Croatia Airlines website (which offers cheap flights within Croatia but the flights generating outside of Croatia seem to be very expensive).

You could also consider taking an overnight ferry from Italy. Ancona and Bari both have overnight ferries that leave late at night and arrive in Croatia (southern Dalmatia) very early in the morning. Check out http://www.jadrolinija.hr/default.aspx?lang=2.

Others who have been will probably be able to give you better advice, but hopefully some of this will help.

Good luck!
Tracy

Zagreb , Dubrovnik and Spit three mayor airports in Croatia are well served with european hubs as Frankfurt, Paris, London, Vienna or Rome, especially during summer time. "Croatia airlines is a member of "Star alliance group" same as "Lufthansa" so You can check there for some fares.Check also low fare airlines as "SkyEurope" , "Germanwings" or "Wizzair" too.

Check out http://www.whichbudget.com/. Work the site backwards. Start with flights from Croatia and it will give you the major connection points available. You will discover that only Dubrovnik offers possible cheap flights from London and Manchester, and that all the other airports in Croatia offer flights mainly from northern Germany and Norway.

Europe By Air www.europebyair.com has flights from Rome to both Zagreb and Split. One way is $99 plus tax. I'm not sure if they will sell to you if you are in SA but it would be worth a try.

I'm looking into cheap flights into Croatia at present.

Wizzair.com fly London Luton into Zagreb

British Airways fly London Gatwick into Split

Easyjet.co.uk flies Gatwick - Llubjlana (OK, it's in Slovenia but an easy bus ride down to Istria and according to a recent trip report I read here Slovenia is beautiful and cheap too)

Thomsonfly.com goes Bristol - Pula (Tuesdays only, also fly from Birmingham and Bournemouth)

Ryanair.com flies London Stansted - Trieste and Treviso (then take a bus or train into Croatia) but they dont have the really cheap flights up yet for July

Bus or train or ferry from Venice (you can fly there from anywhere surely?)

Ferry from Bari

Dubrovnik I cant help with at all as I'm not looking to go there this trip - not enough time sadly!

And look at...

www.visit-croatia.com for lots more information

Have a great trip and post back to tell us what you decided to do...

Marking for future reference

British Air also flies from Gatwick to Dubrovnik.

Thanks so much for all the help. Croatia is always mentioned as the "perfect" holiday destination for South Africans, particularly regarding cost. They of course don't mention that it is not so easy to get there.

I'll still look into it though! Julia_t - thanks for mentioning Slovenia - it might be well worth looking into that too.

I've only just joined this forum and I really appreciate that people are replying to my question!

If You need more informations and tips about Croatia feel free to ask. Im right there