Travel in Croatia
 

I will be flying into Dubrovnik in mid Sept. Planning to travel Dubrovnik-Split by bus, possibly visit Hvar and take ferry from Split to Ancona. (looks like Split-Hvar-Ancona is only in high season) Any advice? Will share any learning. Padhraicin

September is wonderful - it's still warm, the August crowds are back in their retrospective countries, there's a bit of the coming fall in the air at night, everything is still open. Do try and get to Hvar - seeing an island would be a nice counter point to Dubrovnik (mainland).

(Another week and a half and I'm off to Brac and Hvar for 2 weeks)

Hi Padhraicin,

I'm sorry I can't answer your question as I am trying to gather more info on Croatia too. I was just curious to know what airline are you flying to Dubrovnik, and from where does the flight originate?

We live in California and I'm finding that getting to Dubrovnik it's quite a schlep. I'm thinking that we should stay the night once we get to Europe before continuing on to Dubrovnik. but I don't know if we should fly into Dubrovnik via Frankfurt or Rome or where?

Thanks

Wantagig,

Several ways you can get to Croatia. You can get a cheap flight to a European gateway (London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Rome, etc) and then take another flight onto Croatia.

When I was researching, found the cheapest and best way for me was to go to a gateway (london was my choice) and take another flight to DBV from there. I have a non-stop on BA to London and then another non-stop to DBV (BA again, RT Croatia to London was less than $270!). I do have to overnight in London on the way back. But all in all, it costs less than my trip originating from the US to DBV (by almost $500, including hotel!).
United has flights that have one connection in Vienna but most are very tight.
Did not look into connecting through Rome or Frankfurt.
I used travelocity and kayak to look up the intra-Europe flight as preliminaries to get an idea of what was available and cheap and doable in terms of time.

We flew from DC to Munich on United and connected to Zagreb via Croatian Airlines. For the return flight,we flew out of Dubrovnik through Frankfurt. British Airways also seemed to have a big presence in Dubrovnik airport.

I think the base rate for flights booked through Croatian Airlines may look like they are more expensive than the less expensive European airlines, but I think the other way there are hidden costs. Friends of mine who booked through Ryan airlines flew Croatian airlines but had to pay several hundred dollars extra in what appeared to be a tariff upon check in at the airport. We booked through United Airlines, and Croatian Airlines is one of their partners, so it was all booked through United.

wantagig -
I have flown NYC-London-Dubrovnik and NYC-Frankfurt-Split. I arrange my flights through PanAdriatic -

http://www.panadriatic.com/

I think my round trip this year was close to $800 - up from around $700 last year.

Thanks to Nibblette, Barbara and Carta. Each one of you gave me some great ideas to help with my planning.

Padhracin: I googled "ferry, Split - Ancona" and I found this website. I saw on their website their sailing-schedule up until 10/2/05. I typed in 9/22/05 (just picked that date for fun) and got a long schedule that shows that basically every couple of days there is a ferry from Spit to Ancona that sails at 9 pm and arrives Ancona at 7 am.

I hope this helps.

http://www.jadrolinija.hr/default.aspx?lang=2
http://www.jadrolinija.hr/default.aspx?dpid=1305

I can't help much regarding flight schedules, but maybe my website can help while you are in Croatia.

Here's the URL:
http://www.travel.stv77.com/croatia/croatia.htm

Holy cow sssteve,

What a great website! I'll be devouring it tonight. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the advice. In reply to wantagig I am flying from Dublin, Ireland with Aer Lingus. If you plan to include Ireland on your trip then check out www.aerlingus.com. They do good deals to Dubrovnik and to other european cities.
Also check out www.ryanair.ie for flights from Dublin, Ireland to other european cities.

Thank you Padhraicin,

We have talked numerous times of visiting Ireland. I have heard so much of its extreme beauty and the friendly people. It'd be wonderful to visit Ireland for a few days first. Thanks for the flight info too.

Please do re-post after your trip to let us know your impressions of Croatia.

Just for perspective here are my plans....

We are flying ATL - FRA - Split and then out of Dubrovnik - FRA - ATL.. The flights were about 1100 inlcuding taxes. 9/4 - 9/23.

With 2 small children (4.5 and 2) we are being VERY leisurely 2 Days Split, 10 Days Hvar, 6 Days Dubrovnik.... more than we need to SEE things but taking advantage of a chance to slow down and enjoy la dolce vita before starting new jobs.

We are renting apartments. Went through travel agent because we wanted solid plans, we'll see how that goes.

Happy to hear here about the weather in September, we are counting on lots of time hanging out at the beach...in the water.

Also happy to hear about potential to do day trip to Korcula from Dubrovnik and some day trips from Hvar.

Will provide report once we return....

An acquaintence in Hvar mentioned that August has been a very wet month (also for parts of Italy) but that it looks as if the weather is stabelising and September will be perfect for the grape harvest.

(8 more days - not that I'm counting)

Never got back to report on my trip to Croatia last year! We flew Dublin, Ireland to Dubrovnik. Stayed there for 2 nights. I think it was enough time, unless we were to plan day trips out of the city. We got a bus from Dubrovnik to Split and stayed for a night. Just got accommodation when we arrived in the tourist office in Split. Next day got a ferry to Hvar. Spent a wonderful few days on the island. Then returned to Split and got overnight ferry from Split to Ancona, Italy.
In general, impressions of Croatia:
accommodation inexpensive and stayed in rooms in peoples homes - simple and exceptionally clean; people friendly' scenery stunning; food great.

We are flying from DUB to Munich Aug. 2nd on a new service that began in May. Two one-way tickets on afternoon flight ran $156 including all taxes and fees. If you can be flexible with the dates only 2 a week now it is a bargain try airline search for Hapag-Lloyd Express. Good luck!