Flying to Slovenia from NYC

First check Google Flights to look for easy connections - an open jaw into Ljubljana out of Dubrovnik.

If that doesn't yield anything, try into Venice out of Dubrovnik. It's a 2-3 hour shuttle ride direct from Marco Polo airport in Venice to Ljubljana. You might find a direct flight into Venice from New York. Also check flying into Zagreb, out of Dubrovnik. If you had planned to rent a car, picking it up in Zagreb after flying in, driving to Slovenia, then driving back down to Dubrovnik makes sense: a car picked up and returned in the same country is usually a lot cheaper than renting in Slovenia returning in Croatia - a steep one-way fee is often incurred.

You may have to stage in cities like Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, or London and book separate flights to/from Slovenia and Croatia. Or, doing that may save you some money. Obviously from New York you have a lot of direct flight options. Look for direct flights from those staging cities to/from Ljubljana and Dubrovnik too. It's a bit of manual work - maybe SkyScanner will make it easier if you try them. FYI, there are also some direct flights Dubrovnik to Venice (some days), in case you are able to stage there.

A quick search on Wikipedia tells me Frankfurt and Zurich offer the most international flights to Ljubljana. However, I would use websites such as kayak and skyscanner to search for suitable flights that balance cost with convenience.

Are you sure you just need a one-way fight? These can be very expensive. Why not use the search engines mentioned above to find a less expensive multicity flight - from New York into Ljubljana, and from Dubrovnik back to New York?

Right - don't book flights as one way flights - book "open jaw" or "multi-city" - into one city, out of another to fly home, on the same ticket. Book individual flights within Europe to/from Slovenia and Croatia as separate tickets, as needed, if that saves a lot of money vs trying to book everything on one ticket.

Yes, I meant multi city.....NYC>TBD then Dubrovnik>NYC.
Like the idea of flying to Zagreb and renting car there to avoid fees.
Was going to fly into Venice, take shuttle to Ljub., rent car there for a few days,
then train to Zagreb, rent car there and drive through Croatia with it returning it in Dubrovnik. Flying to Zagreb and rentingcar there makes much more sense and it's only 2 hours or so from Zagreb to Ljub. it seems so same travel time as from Venice.
Thanks!

If you end up flying into Zagreb and using a Croatian rental for the Slovenian part of your trip, make sure to buy a vignette (toll sticker) and apply it to the inside of the windshield before entering Slovenia. You can buy one at most gas stations between Zagreb and the border, they cost €15 for 7 days or €30 for 30 days. If you rent in Slovenia, the car will already come equipped with the vignette. In Croatia, tolls are paid when exiting the highway with cash or card.

Thanks for the car rental tip. While I've read a lot about large fees for renting in Slovenia and dropping off in Croatia, a travel planner I've been speaking with says they use a company where that is not an issue. Will have to figure it out.

Yes, there's a Slovenian company called Idealrent that charges no "drop fee," but when I compared their prices once vs. others, I noticed the daily rate was much higher than the others. All that matters is the total cost of renting the car including all fees, so make sure that's what you compare.

For example, I see you can rent a compact car in May with Sixt for two weeks for a daily rate of $7.79/day USD...but the drop fee is $484.79 USD - $767.63 total after all taxes and fees. Rent the same car with Sixt in Zagreb and though the daily rate is $25.10/day, the total price is $453.96 (no one-way fee). That's the price you want to compare. (To be fair, $314 for the effective "drop fee" may be worth the convenience in some cases.)

A Slovenian car dropped off in Dubrovnik likely has to be fetched by someone and driven back to Slovenia (unless they are lucky enough to rent it to someone else driving north and dropping in Slovenia at the end). And that's not free for the rental company.

We did a flight from DC to Ljubljana late last year. We went through Icelandair (quick layover in Reykjavik) and then through Zurich. I know 2 stops sounds like a lot but it really wasn't bad and the price was good. You'll almost certainly have to go through Zurich, especially if you are taking Adria into Ljubljana. We flew home from Dubrovnik too. Enjoy the trip -- such a beautiful part of the world!

Adria has flights between Ljubljana and many European capitals. Could be that flying via Zurich and Reykjavik is the cheapest from NYC, but it's certainly possible to fly to Ljubljana with one connection in say Paris or Amsterdam. Or just fly directly to Venice and take a shuttle to Ljubljana, could be the easiest and maybe the cheapest way.