What is the best way to travel from venice to Dubrovnik in Nov.? Also would like to journey to Athens from Dubrovnik, Train or plane. Also any hotels in both places would be helpful. Thanks Lou

I'm not sure if this is the BEST way, but check it out. Train from Venice to Rijeka (www.trenitalia.it) then Train to Split (www.hznet.hr) and bus from Split to Dubrovnik (www.croatiabus.hr) OR fly from Rijeka to Dubrovnik (www.croatiaairlines.hr). Good luck!

There are no direct routes by train. Either take a train to Trieste, bus to Rijeka, then Jadrolinija's twice-weekly coastal ship to Dubrovnik (www.jadrolinija.hr), or trains to Ancona, overnight ship to Split by Blue Line (www.bli-ferry.com), Jadrolinija or Tirrenia (www.tirrenia.it), then a bus, or trains to Bari, then Jadrolinija's weekly overnight ship.

You can fly from Venice to Rome on Ryanair for cheap. You can fly from Rome to Dubrovnik on Croatia Air also for cheap.

You'd have to switch airports in Rome. Not sure if that's more of a hassle than trains/ferries/busses. Of course, there's nothing wrong with overnighting in Rome on the way!

offwego, this is an aside as I don't mean to hijack this thread, but every time I've tried to use Croatia Air for flights between Rome and Dubrovnik it gives me a ridiculousy high rate. I just tried again, using the random date of November 10, and the rate it quoated me, in euroes, is 437.79. I don't consider this cheap in the least. Is there something I'm doing wrong? How do I get to the cheaper fares?

Tracy

Sorry for my spelling errors. That was supposed to be "and the rate it quoted me, in euros"...sorry about that!

tcreath

That's odd. We flew that route last year and I remember it being cheap. Like $100. Did you try booking round trip? Sometimes they really punish you on one-way.

Let me mess with it and see what I come up with.

OK I referred back to my notes and this is what we did:

We used Europebyair.com who sells USD99 "passes" from city to city. We flew on Coratia Air but did not book through them.

If you fly from Rome to Dubrovnik, you use two passes becuase you have to connect through Zagreb (kinda out of the way but still faster than trains, etc).

We actually flew from Rome to Split (one pass-$99), stayed in Hvar a few days then ferried on to Dubrovnik.

The original poster could also fly from Venice to Bari with Europebyair (One $99 pass) then take the overnight ferry from Bari to Dubrovnik (39 euro pp)

Hope that helps clarify.

Tcreath -does your itinerary have you beginning from or ending in Rome?

offwego, thank you so much for your reply. I have browsed through the Europe by Air website and it seems like a great deal. I

don't have a set itinerary yet, but we were considering flying into Rome (our favorite place!), staying a night or two, and then flying to Dubrovnik, mostly because the flights from the U.S. to Croatia seem so expensive. We considered basically flying into Dubrovnik from Rome, and working our way north towards Zagreb. I'm having some problems coming up with a decent itinerary. With Europe by Air I believe there must be a minimum of three flights, correct? Does the flight to Dubrovnik via Zagreb count as two of the flights? I could fly from Zagreb to somewhere else, perhaps London, to fly home. Details details!

Thanks again for the info!

I'm just back from Croatia/Rome last week and used "europe by air" so thought I'd jump in. You don't need to do three flights -- we just did the one -- Split to Rome. You do have to pay the tax at the airport before checking in with Croatia Air and I think it came to around $40 US dollars per ticket (there were three of us). I can check my notes at home later to give you an exact amount. It was very easy to do and maybe took five minutes. Let me know if you have any questions.

Yes CollK is right, there is no minimum with Europe by Air. And yes, you do have to pay the tax at the airport BEFORE you get in the ticket line.

If you're thinking about Zagreb too, then you could fly open jaw into Rome, fly to Split ($99) and stay in Hvar (highly recommended) ferry or bus (cheap) to Dubrovnik, fly from Dubrovnik to Zagreb ($99)

Then from Zagreb you could fly to London, Paris, AMsterdam, etc etc for $99 and then fly home from there.

A side note-the ferries don't run as often in the off season and you may have to plan your whole trip around when you can catch the ferry from Hvar to Dubrovnik. I didn't like that ferry and would take the bus had I to do it over.

There is a direct bus service from Trieste to Dubrovnik: http://www.saf.ud.it/orariPercorsi/ts-dubrovnik.pdf
And of course from venice to Trieste it's less than 2 hours by trtain: www.trenitalia.com.

Thank you both for your replies on Europe by Air. Sorry for my confusion! For some reason I thought that there was a three-flight minimum for the flightpass, although I don't know where I even got that idea from. Not having to do a three-flight minimum makes Europe by Air a pretty good deal!

Thanks again!
Tracy