barefootbeach

Hi, just starting to think through a trip to Eastern Europe next September that roughly starts in Krakow, then Prague and Cesky Kromlov, followed by a week Danube cruise on AMA Waterways from Vilshoven, Germany to Budapest, After several days in Budapest, I'd like to rent a car and drive to Slovenia (I know about the drop off charges if you change countries). I've read its better to fly out of a different city than Ljubljana when flying back to US. So, which city would be the best experience to fly from: Zagreb, Venice or Trieste, or Salzburg I.e. Which would have the prettiest drive, better airport, more flights selection? Thanks so much for your help!

Christina

Trieste has a small old airport with hardly any flights, I don't know why you would fly out of there or where you would be flying to.
Most likely, you'd then have to fly to Rome to change planes to go somewhere else. Now if you really want to fly from FCO home, that could work. I guess you know you cannot probably fly to the US from any of those airports, except Venice. There are nonstop flights from JFK to/from Venice. But that depends where you are flying from in the US, I guess.

If it were me, I'd pick based on which airline gave me the best price to fit with my ticket flying into Krakow. Air France might be an option, they do fly from several of those cities to CDG (where you'd have to transfer to go to the US, of course). They even fly from Ljubljana. I imagine other options could be BA connecting in London or United/Lufthansa connectin in Frankfurt, or some airline connecting in Brussels or Zurich.

But that's how I'd decide, not based on drives to the airport. But in terms of flight selections, Trieste would be the worst.

barefootbeach

Thanks Christina...I don't know anything about Trieste....just had a thought....maybe I should just drive back to Budapest and fly from there. That way we could avoid the drop off charge

Andrew

barefootbeach, check Google Flights to see what the flight options are out of LJU home. Why not fly out of there if there are decent flight connections that aren't too expensive? We don't know what your home airport is, and flight options may vary by the day of the week you'd be departint, so we have no idea what the flight connections for you might be like for you - might be entirely different for me flying out a different time of year.

My best flight options to/from Slovenia and Croatia have usually involved Venice or Zagreb. LJU has never panned out, but I do check it every trip to see - because flight selection changes every trip. If the flight times work for a good connection next time, I'd not hesitate to fly into or out of LJU directly.

barefootbeach

Thanks Andrew....I'll check that out

kja

I wonder why you are trying to avoid flying out of Ljubljana? I flew out of it and had no problem.

barefootbeach

There aren't very good flight options to the US from there.

Andrew

Yeah, it's always kind of a trade-off between flight connections vs. extra time to get to another city vs. cost. Several times I've simply staged a night or more at the end of a trip in Paris or Amsterdam so I could get a good (sometimes direct) flight home from there. It helps if you have some desire and interest in spending time in places like that. I don't mind re-visiting Paris and Amsterdam. Not everyone can afford an extra day or two at the end just for that.

Andrew

On another note: had you considered not driving from Budapest to Slovenia and taking a train instead? Then you wouldn't have to worry about the one-way drop fee. There are long direct trains (or maybe one change) once a day. You could break up the long train trip with a stop somewhere like Zagreb or Ptuj, a tiny, charming old town in eastern Slovenia that I think is right on that train line.

rialtogrl

You can fly Lufthansa from Ljubljana to Frankfurt and from there, back to the US. Lufthansa flies direct to several US cities from Frankfurt.

I think the same connections would be from Zagreb or Budapest. You won't save too much time by traveling somewhere else to get home.

If you can, as Andrew suggests, spend a night in London or Amsterdam on the way back, it makes everything a bit more palatable.

rtt0921

Venice and Zagreb are the closest airport that *could* offer better deals for flying back home, but it depends on where you're flying to among other things, so check all three. Don't forget to factor in the costs of transferring to the other airport and the lost time.

Out of curiosity, have you actually priced out renting a car in Budapest and returning in Ljubljana? If there are budget constraints, do so before making any big decisions. Modifying itineraries is much more difficult once you have bought your plane tickets. If you still want a car and end up avoiding the one-way fee, you could take the train to Ljubljana or fly back from Budapest as you mentioned, which isn't such a bad idea. You'd have to do an extra 4.5-hour drive, but if you can save hundreds of dollars it might be worth it.

barefootbeach

Thanks everyone for the good ideas. I m going to look into flight from Zagreb, just to see another city. Or, if I drive back to Budapest, maybe take a different route back and spend a night in Zagreb to break up the drive, but 4 .5 hours isn't bad. BTW, I'll be flying into Krakow so the airline has to be a presence there as well. Lots of time to figure this out.

kja

I wouldn't limit your search to airlines that fly to both Krakow and either Zagreb or Budapest -- see what your search identifies!