best way from Losinj to Milan?

Is this a test? Cause this isn't very easy. Drive or somehow get to Pula. Take the ferry to Venice if you are there during the warmer months. From Venice take a train to Milan. There are also airports in Rijeka and Pula in case you find a direct flight, but unlikely.

Yes, this is going to be an adventure. Rome2rio kicks up all sorts of interesting routes (hello, Split!), but it doesn't seem to hit them all. I used the BusCroatia website to get more information on buses from Mali Losinj. Without checking exact departure times, I'm guessing these might be two of the simplest options:

• Bus (including ferry leg) to Zagreb and flight Zagreb-Milan. You could also travel by train Zagreb-Ljubljana-Milan. Zagreb and Ljubljana are very interesting cities worth multiple days each. How much time do you have?

• Bus (including ferry leg) to Rijeka, bus Rijeka-Trieste, train Trieste-Milan. I believe the Rijeka-Trieste bus is infrequent (typical of border-crossing bus routes), so putting this itinerary together could be challenging. This appears to be the shortest land route, mileage-wise.

Note that this is based on information gleaned from the web, not personal experience, though I have traveled from Slovenia to Croatia by bus.

acraven, is it easy to get from Split to Milan? Someone told me we could take a sea plane down the coast to Split. If it is easier to get to Milan from Split, perhaps we could do that from Losinj and then to Milan? Is it a flight from Split? Thanks for help!

Pula, which has an airport, is much closer to Losinj than Split. I have never heard of seaplanes in this area.

www.skyscanner.com can help you find most European airlines. Some flights won't run every day on less popular routes. If Milan doesn't have good results, Rome might, instead (4 hours by train to Milan). You can also try a more general search just to "Italy."

I've only taken one intra-European flight in the last 20 years, so I can't provide much info about flight legs.

The Split routing requires two ferries to reach Zadar (nice city), transfer to Zadar bus station, bus to Split (also very nice), transfer to Split airport, then flight from Split to Milan. Total transit time about 14 hours. That includes a connecting flight (usually through Germany or Austria). I found some on skyscanner.com that can get you from Split to Milan in 3 to 5 hours or so, priced in the $250-$450 range. But good heavens, there's a lot that could go wrong with such a convoluted routing. You could also take the two ferries to Zadar and a third ferry across to Ancona, then take the train up to Milan, but that takes about twice as long.

It takes less time to go Mali Losinj to Zagreb than Mali Losinj to Split, and the former trip is a single bus ride (I guess bus gets loaded on ferry). Less likely to have a major problem with that. There are far fewer decent connections between Zagreb and Milan, however. In a quick look on skyscanner.com, I found just a few Vienna connections taking 3 to 4 hours and costing under $300 US.

As it happens, my one recent European connecting flight was Zagreb to Amsterdam on Air Croatia, so I've actually seen the Zagreb airport. Unfortunately, I opted to spend the night out near the airport so I wouldn't have to worry about missing my early-morning flight and I paid no attention to the distance from the city. The airport's not terribly far from the bus station, though, and it didn't take me long to check in for my flight.

I Googled a bit more and found the autostazionetrieste.it website. It shows 6 daily buses from Rijeka to Trieste, but the latest departs at 1:30 PM. Travel time is about 2 hours. I don't know how that departure time would fit with the ferry to Rijeka. It's not safe to rely totally on internet schedules for buses and ferries. You need to verify on the ground. Sometimes a local tourist office can help, but on many occasions you need to be in the departure city (or make a phone call to the departure city) to get reliable information.

I'm not sure how much time you have or how many people are in your party. You said "We", so I assume there are at least two of you. It might be worth considering ferry to Rijeka, taxi from Rijeka to Trieste, then train to Milan. Rome2rio.com estimates the cost of a taxi at $320 to $380 and the distance at under 50 miles. That time is only a rough estimate, because there are two border crossings.

Again, the ferry from Pula to Venice is a good option. It is fast.

Yes, Rome2rio says the Pula-Venice ferry takes about 3 hours and 15 minutes. But that ferry only runs May to September and 3 times a week, if the online info can be believed. The ferry that used to run Losinj-Pula seems to have been discontinued.

Getting to the Pula-Venice ferry would probably require a bus (with ferry link) to Rijeka and a bus back from Rijeka to Pula (there seem to be plenty of those, taking between 1 and 2 hours). Maybe one could transfer in Opatija rather than going all the way into Rijeka. If the timing of the ferry is just right for c_fc1, this could be a viable route.

acraven- we don't know a lot about this person's trip. I'm assuming this is taking place in the warmer months as winter on Losinj seems like a strange idea. I am also assuming they have a car. Losinj is very remote. I should have mentioned that there are ferries to Venice also from Porec, Rovinj and Umag. All in Istria and close together.

If the author has a car, it might be worthwhile dropping it as close to Trieste as possible and then continue with a taxi or try to arrange a cross-border drop-off in Trieste or at least Koper, which is a very short bus or taxi ride from Trieste. Cross-border drop-offs are usually very expensive, although a local company could be more willing to do it at a reasonable price than a large corporation, especially since the distance from Croatia in this case is very short.

Alternatively, you could also consider a shuttle transfer from Rijeka to Trieste, Venice or even straight to the airport in Milan. I know Go Opti has an extensive network but there might be local alternatives as well.

Another out of the box idea: Croatia Airlines is launching a Pula - Dubrovnik service in May. From Dubrovnik, you can take an Easyjet flight to Milan.

Would it make more sense to get a ferry to (Rijeka?) bus to Trieste and spend a night in Trieste, then take the train to Milan?

To get to the mainland, you can take the Krilo catamaran to Rijeka or a bus (Autotrans) that ends in Zagreb, stopping in Rijeka and all along the coast (so you could transfer to Pula before Rijeka).
So, I think your best bet is to figure out what will give you the easiest transfer to Milan and work backward. Probably Trieste?

Edited--I thought that Venezia lines still operated a boat from Losinj, but not so.