Traveling Back to the US From Ljublijana Versus Another City Such As Vienna

Well, you've got several things working against you.

First, Ljubljana, while a lovely little city, doesn't have any nonstop long-haul flights to North America. So you're going to have to fly from there to a hub first, then continue onward.

Second, Louisville doesn't have any nonstops to Europe, either, so you'll need to connect in a US hub, too.

Third, there's the timing of flights from Europe to the US. To make it home to the US in one day can be a challenge if you do not live in/near a major hub on (or very close to) the east coast. Midwest or (good luck) west coast is more difficult. Because most flights TO Europe from North America are redeyes, most flights back FROM Europe to North America are daytime flights.

Because you will need to connect at both ends, this means your options for getting home in a single day may dwindle to near zero.

Take a look at Frankfurt as your connecting hub in Europe. It's close to Ljubljana, and has a lot of nonstops to US east coast cities (United/Lufthansa have a ton of flights).

The key is to get an early start: you gotta catch an early morning flight outta Ljubljana, and then you need to connect with a longhaul flight to a US hub (try to find one that leaves before noon), and then there needs to be a connecting flight to Louisville after that longhaul arrives. So you really have to thread the needle to pull this off.

Pity those who live not just "out west" but in a small market city out west requiring a final connecting flight. It can be very hard to make it home in a single day. Sometimes you need to bite the bullet and pre-position yourself the night before departure at a major hub in Europe, that way you can catch a long flight to North America early the next morning.

Good luck.

Yes. Use tge disadvantage to your advantage and go to Vienna if that interests you. You spent a lot to cross the ocean and back so get all you can out of it.

Does the tour end in Ljubljana or somewhere else in Slovenia? The problem is as mentioned that Ljubljana has a very small airport with only a limited amount of flights. Going to Vienna will give you a lot more options. And if you want to see Vienna, why not take the chance and visit it?

The other hitch is that your tour ends in Bled - so some logistics ahead of you.

That's a 6-hour train ride from Ljubljana to Vienna.

Me, I'd probably try to make something work with that earlier morning Ljubljana to Frankfurt departure. Quick glance shows lots of flight options from Frankfurt to Louisville.

The better plan, IMO, is a late afternoon flight from Ljubljana to a hub city like Munich, Frankfurt or Vienna, overnight near the airport there and then catch morning flight to the US. That gives you a little more time to enjoy Ljubljana and a less stressful flight home.

and then catch morning flight to the US.

No! And then spend 4 nights in Vienna. like the OP said "I am considering traveling to Vienna the day the tour ends, spending a couple of days in Vienna and then flying out of Vienna". And since the tour skips Vienna, great idea.

We took that tour last summer and flew home from the Venice airport because of the difficult/lengthy flight connections that you describe. It was a three hour drive from Bled. We ended up with a direct flight Venice to Philadelphia, then a very short flight home to Pittsburgh. Vienna would be a good option too, in my opinion, especially if you had wanted to visit there anyway.

Like the OP also said

We were going to save Vienna for another trip so I am open to suggestions of other cities that are easily reachable from Ljublijana that might have better flight options to the US.

Which is why other opinions are being posted.
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So, make your way into Ljubljana from Bled. I've always enjoyed my stays at the Best Western Premier Hotel Slon, great location to enjoy the afternoon and evening before catching that early morning flight to Frankfurt and beyond. The Sion will arrange for a morning taxi to the airport, which you can pay for through the hotel.

My flights home are always 3-leg flights, it's a full travel day and I just put my head down and get on with it. There are no other options.

Good Luck.

Yes, I am curious about the experience of others who have traveled from Bled/Ljublijana to cities other than Vienna to fly back to the US. My husband and I have discussed further and after a 2 week tour we are pretty beat so adding on several days in Vienna is not optimal. Considering that, what city would you choose to fly out of and, in your experience, what is the best way to get to chosen city?

Fly to Frankfurt or Amsterdam. Doesn't really matter as long as you can get a long sleep over layover.

I don't know if Turkish Air flies your route, but their IST Yotel hotel in the gate area is perfect for this.

Have you checked with the airlines directly? When I was booking airfare in this region, the travel websites didn’t even show many flights that I found by going direct to the airline site. It didn’t exactly save me money, but it allowed me to find a regular connecting flight plan.

The other option I didn’t see mentioned is Venice, which is also fairly close by bus and will have a lot routes connecting to the states.

I think you're trying to get home, not trying to add another city, extending your trip, and enjoy your visit there.

For me, the real questions would boil down to logistical choices/tradeoffs:

• Is it possible to do this (get home) in one day, or would it involve a positioning flight the day before, plus an overnight, before the actual flight(s) home?
• What's your budget/tolerance for cost/complexity?

Maybe Vienna is a good choice (it's a reasonably large city, with a moderate amount of international flights, plenty of options for an overnight accommodation, is a pleasant-enough place to spend the night and maybe a few hours - and as a bonus is a destination you're interested in, though you won't actually "see" it this time, you'll just pass through and maybe get a fleeting glimpse). Same goes for many other cities scattered across Europe. I'd look first at hubs and popular destinations that are close to Ljubljana: Venice, Milan, Vienna, Munich, and other places easily connected by rail. Frankfurt is a bit further, but has so many flight options to the US I'd give it a look.

Have you booked your outbound flights yet? Got any airline preferences? Those should/may be part of the mix as you mull over your options, too.

First question I'd ask is, can I pull this off (get all the way home) in one day? That should be fairly easy to discover, and you'll see a price (cost in $ and time/convenience). If that's painful (too expensive, too awful for time/connections, whatever), then start looking at what your options for getting home would be if you could start anywhere - because if you're going to have to first get to another city and spend the night, frankly, Ljubljana is close enough to most of Europe to do that - either by train or by a short flight - the day before.

How easy is it to get from (insert any major European hub airport) to Louisville in one day? (I don't know, but if I'm finding it hard to get home to Louisville in a single day from Ljubljana, then I'd be asking myself: well, from where CAN I get home to Louisville in a single day? and look at getting there the night before.

Bottom line: For someone who lives in a "small market" city in North America, getting home from central Europe in a day may be challenging no matter when you start from; starting from a small market European city makes it more challenging. The further east you start from, the more challenging it gets. Until you start looking so far east, you think it's crazy. But...

Here's one that will sound crazy, but might be worth a look: Fly home via Istanbul - in a single day. I know, I know, I'm crazy. Perhaps, but consider the following: Turkish Airlines flies everywhere. OK, not to Louisville, but they do fly from Ljubljana to Istanbul - every day - and they have a morning flight. With enough time in Instanbul to connect to their nonstop to Chicago, from where you could connect to a United flight to Louisville. I have not checked every day, but on the days I looked at, you could do this all in one day. Connection times and prices looked reasonable to me. It would get you all the way home on the same day. It includes all the necessary components:

1. A morning flight out of Ljubljana to Istanbul (departs 8:50 am)
2. A long flight from Istanbul to a US hub (Chicago) but arrives there early enough to let you catch a flight to Louisville...
3. A late day connecting flight to Louisville (on United).

Two legs on Turkish Airlines, last leg on United. They're partners so you could do it all on a single ticket, check bags all the way through. Reasonable layover times (2 hours in Istanbul, 3 hours in Chicago). Start 8:30 am in Ljubljana, get home to Louisville 11:30 pm same day. Time en route is just short of 21 hours.

Some will be outraged at the idea of flying east (to Istanbul) and then flying "west" but it gets you there.

Another (perhaps less outrage-inducing) option below...

I don't know if Turkish Air flies your route, but their IST Yotel
hotel in the gate area is perfect for this.

They do indeed, and no Yotel or Hotel or overnight in/near the airport is necessary. Do it all in one day.

For another, and more efficient option (time-wise), you could go via Munich and Chicago on Lufthansa, with a slightly later departure and a slightly earlier arrival at home - about 15 hours end-to-end. But that looks more expensive (if you go via Istanbul on Turkish, prices around $1500, while going on Lufthansa via Munich cracks $2000).

I like flying Turkish Airlines more than I like flying Lufthansa, so personally I'd go with the longer flight (I'm not a fan of Lufthansa in Coach - my last Lufthansa flight from Seattle to Frankfurt in Coach - on the way to Ljubljana, by the way - convinced me that I needed to start flying business class on long, ocean-spanning trips, but I digress...).

For those who have not sworn off globe-spanning flights in Coach, you would be making a tradeoff between:

• Lower price, longer time in the seat (arguably a more comfortable ride with more amenities) on Turkish via Istanbul, or..
• Higher price, less time in the seat (IMHO a less comfortable ride with less service) on Lufthansa via Munich

So, you can do this - get home in one day. It'll be a long day no matter how you do it, but I prefer to get home in one day when possible. Hope the above helps a bit.

Caveat: I did not check every day, don't know the details of your trip. I picked a random day in May for the above comparisons. But you do have some options that won't require a positioning flight and an overnight. You may have to play around with dates/times and also consider your outbound flights, too. Getting there will be relatively easy; getting home in a single day is the trickier bit. Good luck.

My husband and I have discussed further and after a 2 week tour we are pretty beat so adding on several days in Vienna is not optimal. Considering that, what city would you choose to fly out of and, in your experience, what is the best way to get to chosen city?

As I mentioned above we flew home after this tour from Venice. I neglected to mention that we an (very) early morning Go Opti Shuttle from Bled to Venice airport (book online). Our flight left Venice around 12:30 pm I think, and we were there at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Very easy and affordable too.

Just to let everyone who was so helpful with suggestions know what we finally booked.....We are traveling from Ljubljana to Frankfurt via Lufthansa the afternoon of the day the tour ends. We opted for paying more than we would have preferred for a direct flight so as not to spend several hours sitting in airports. We booked accommodations just 5 minutes away from the airport for the evening and will be on a morning flight to the US, arriving home around 7:30 pm EST. I must say that of all of our trips to Europe this is the most we have ever spent on flights..easily double what we usually spend. Since my husband and I are both 73 we book every trip as if it could be our last so it is what it is!!

We are going on the same tour in September. What worked for us is making our connection in Amsterdam. It took a while to come up with a plan. We are taking the train from Ljubljana to Salzburg and spending a few days. Then train to Munich for klm flight to Amsterdam and then home to Boston. It seems the two hubs that work the best are Amsterdam and Paris and so many people have said to stay away from Charles DeGaulle airport if possible. Have fun!

gnask4, I wish I had known about avoiding Paris. We fly over through Charles DeGaulle from Detroit. Flying from the middle of the country presents many more challenges than starting out on the East coast it seems. Fingers crossed everything goes well. We have had less than stellar experiences on United so are flying Delta. The cost of flights is unbelievable. We have never paid this much to fly to Europe. $1800 each plus another $400 to get from Ljublijana to Frankfurt!!

I detest Chucky D. But to save a few a few hundred $ I will suffer it. You will do fine. Go, enjoy, fret less.

We opted for paying more than we would have preferred for a direct flight so as not to spend several hours sitting in airports ... arriving home around 7:30 pm EST.

There are a myriad of flying options and sometimes the most direct option is just the best option to choose ... ya just gotta chock it up to the cost of doing business.

You made a good choice by flying back from Frankfurt. That extra cost is irrelevant.

I would have suggested going by day train from Ljubljana to Vienna as the night train's transfer time is less than " agreeable " (otherwise I myself would have taken that), and fly back from that city if you could get such a flight. Vienna flies to LAX so that would not pose any problem for me.