Traveling to Croatia in April

How long is your trip in total? It sounds like you are trying to shoehorn in three widespread destinations - Spain, Croatia, and Prague - in a short time.

As for which way to go, you just have to play with the airfare finder websites to see. Look at Skyscanner for your dates and see which direction works best: http://www.skyscanner.com/

Looking at the Wikipedia pages for each airport, I see that Split and Dubrovnik both have "seasonal" flights to Prague on SmartWings. I don't know for sure, but I doubt April is "the season" yet, so you'll have to make a connection to get from your Croatian city (either one) to Prague. Similarly, you'll almost certainly have to connect to get from Spain to Croatia in April. Meaning, it's a lot of travel to splice Croatia into your itinerary, for just 5 days. (This is a perennial problem with Croatia; it seems to be "right next to" lots of places, but getting there is not nearly as easy as it looks).

I love Croatia (have been there three times, most recently in 2015), but Spain is a large, varied country. I don't know what you're planning there, but I bet there are additional destinations you could see that would be interesting add-ons. Madrid alone has three fabulous day-trip possibilities (all worth a night or two if you have time): Toledo, Segovia and Cuenca. And Barcelona is wonderful, too; it can easily fill a week or more by itself.

If the logistics of traveling to Croatia and on to Prague prove too complex, consider expanding the Spanish part of your itinerary. At that time of year, Andalucía will probably be warmer than Croatia, if that is a factor for you.

Thanks for the advice. I am thinking we probably need to cut out Prague, and figure we will plan another trip there.
We are flying into Spain to meet up with our daughter, then continue to Croatia. I think it makes more sense to just stay there for the week, and spend our time in spilt and Dubrovnik. Have been trying to check airlines from Spain to Croatia, but have been having trouble with them loading.
I will keep trying.

Where in Spain are you departing from? A great trick I learned on this Forum, which I alluded to above but didn't explain: if you want to see all destinations available as nonstop flights from a particular airport, go to that airport's Wikipedia page. For instance, here's Madrid (busiest airport in Spain): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Su%C3%A1rez_Madrid%E2%80%93Barajas_Airport#Airlines_and_destinations

We are flying to Alicante to meet up with our daughter, then the 3 of us wanted to fly into Spilt, travel down to Dubrovnik, and at the end of the week- she flies back to Alicante, and we fly back to States. I have been searching sky scanner, but have not been too successful finding a flight that doesn't take 1 1/2 days to get to Croatia. Any other thoughts are appreciated- thanks.

You have a few options. One is Alicante via Barcelona to Zadar, Split or Dubrovnik with Vueling. Another is a morning Ryanair flight from Alicante to London Stansted, followed by an evening Ryanair flight to Zadar - Ryanair requires separate tickets for each flight, so if you decide for this route, you should allow quite a few hours in London for the transfer.

If you decide to head to the north of Croatia, Ryanair flies Valencia to Trieste direct, from where it's a quick shuttle transfer to Croatia.

Ok- so is it my imagination, or every time I go to check a flight on Iberia or Ryanair it gets more expensive? It certainly is not easy trying to fly from Alicante to spilt. I'm getting frustrated.
Should I wait until Tuesday to check out flights? You always hear tickets are cheaper on tuesdays!

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Hello again. We are trying to make some more specific plans, and I am hoping for some more advice. We are thinking of flying into Dubrovnik, spending 3 nights with side trips, then heading up the coast to spilt for 3 nights with some side trips. I am trying to find a ferry to go up the coast, but the dates I put in show no ferries making the trip. We are traveling April 15-22. Thanks for any help.

The Krilo service between Split and Dubrovnik does not start until May. You will have to take a bus between the two cities.

Thanks for letting me know. So does that mean we can't get over to any of the islands from either Dubrovnik or Spilt during that week?

If the flights are weird, just go to Granada, Ronda, and into Portugal ! I can fill 5 days with Lisbon and Sintra and Obidos !

No, the Jadrolinija ferries to all of the islands are still running, albeit on a limited, winter schedule. There are just no services between Split and Dubrovnik, as the ferries do not link up between the two cities and the Krilo high-speed service does not start running until May, as I've mentioned. Travelling between Split and Dubrovnik in April invariably involves a bus transfer for at least part of the journey.

I recommend checking the sailing schedules at Jadrolinija's official website to get a better idea of which islands are accessible from which port. You can find them here.

You are likely to find that many restaurants, hotels etc on the islands aren't open until May. many restaurants have only outdoor seating and therefore don't open until the weather gets warmer/drier.

You may also be struggling for flights as some of the airlines don't start their summer schedules to Croatia until May.

Ryanair, Easyjet etc sell their seats in price brackets and when the quota at a certain price is sold, the price increases. Fares don't go down, which is why Easyjet offer a money back guarantee if the price is lowered, as they know they will never have to pay out! Tickets for flights within Europe for April have been available for c 6 months, hence the cheaper seats will have sold months ago.