Best of Adriatic- before and after

We had similar issue--getting back to SFO. We ended up choosing Vienna because we were familiar with Vienna due to a prior Rick Steves Tour. We knew the ALoft hotel at the airport was super duper easy. In addition there is a Billa market across the parking lot where we loaded up on chocolate, wafer cookies and other goodies to bring back to the states. We had to go through AMS, and had to leave Vienna at 6 am. Another reason to stay on the airport property. The ALoft was walking distance to the terminal-- there are free bag carts to take to the terminal.

We’re experiencing the same. I’m considering flying to Munich because there’s a direct flight out of SFO, spending a couple days and taking the train from there to Ljubljana. Coming home out of Dubrovnik, we need to decide on a major city to fly to, spend a couple of days then back to the west coast with the fewest layovers. Maybe Zurich or London although dealing with Heathrow could be a hassle unless we go somewhere other than into London.

You could possibly fly from Dubrovnik to Newark on United Airlines, but it's a seasonal flight (whatever that means.) You could get back to the West Coast from there.

You could also take the budget airline, Wizz Air, for the short flight up to Vienna. But the only North America flight from Vienna is to Toronto on Air Canada.

Let's face it, the eastern side of the Adriatic is difficult to fly non-stop out of unless you're going to connect thru one of the big European gateway airports.

I combined doing the RS Adriatic tour solo with spending two weeks ahead of time in England & Wales with my husband in June. These were my flights. Flying back, I planned one night in The Netherlands, so I wouldn’t mess up my Delta flight if my Easy Jet flight was late. …and the Easy Jet flight did leave late because of a thunderstorm.

I stayed overnight in Leiden which was a quick & easy train to/from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. I really enjoyed the day in Leiden! (I’ve been to Amsterdam & other cities, previously.)

If my husband & I didn’t have our milestone anniversary trip, I still would have considered a few days in London to be able to work the Delta flights & Easy Jet flight plans with a nice stop along the way. I’ll add my trip reports at the end in case it’s helpful for your plans. Have a great time!

Delta: Spokane to Seattle to London.
Delta: Amsterdam to Seattle to Spokane.

Easy Jet: London Gatwick to Ljubljana.
Easy Jet: Dubrovnik to Amsterdam.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/june-2023-england-wales-trip-report
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/june-2023-trip-report-14-day-rs-best-of-the-adriatic-tour

Yes, I've faced this too on a few trips to the region. I ended one trip to Croatia by stopping in Paris for a few nights and another by stopping in Amsterdam.

On the inbound, it might work to fly into Venice, since that's only about three hours from from Ljubljana by shuttle e.g. GoOpti shuttle or even a bus directly from Marco Polo airport if you time it right. Of course, you could always stop in Venice to start or another town like Trieste on the way to Ljubljana.

I flew to Munich on United and connected to Ljubljana on Air Dolomiti. Very convenient.
On the way home I flew from Dubrovnik to Rome, extended time there, and then flew home.

Toronto is definitely not the only North American city with non-stop flights from Vienna. Austrian flies to Dulles, JFK, Newark and O'Hare--and maybe other cities I overlooked.

In 2015 I flew from Zagreb to Dulles with one change in Europe. Zagreb's a very nice city, but it's a slog from Dubrovnik.

Just returned from the Adriatic tour and like you, found the travel planning particularly tricky. For our dates, Lufthansa had the most flight options to/from Ljubljana. Inbound, we were Delta from Detroit to Frankfurt and then separate ticket on Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Ljubljana. We had planned a return(Lufthansa Discover airlines) from Dubrovnik early evening, spend night at Frankfurt airport hotel and then separate ticket back home next on Delta. Unfortunately, the Dubrovnik airport all but closed down the evening we were flying out so many of us tour members return travel plans were for naught(extra days before we could get out) given cancellations. (Not to add anxiety but see my post under transportation regarding Dubrovnik airport experience) There just aren't that many options getting out of Dubrovnik on short notice with the limited flights being full as is. To that end, in general, if you can grab your initial flight out of Dubrovnik earlier in the day, you have more of a window if something goes haywire. And as you are doing , break the return trip home into multi day. Its a great tour, Happy travels.

Hi, I don’t know where you are coming from on the west coast, but if you could fly into Munich, you could spend a couple of days there then take a train to Ljubljana ( 6.5 hours with one easy change in Villach, Austria- check out the DB app for train connections) I took this train this summer to connect with the Adriatic tour and spent an extra night in Ljubljana.
The tour ends in Dubrovnik, so you can go from there to Frankfurt snd spend a few nights close to the airport in the cute little town of Bacharach along the Rhine river with good connections to Frankfurt airport .
Have a great time. The Adriatic tour is fabulous and I hope that you are lucky enough to get Sanel as your tour guide!
Cheryl

We just did this trip from the west coast also (of Canada), and we flew Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Ljubljana and then Croatian Air from Dubrovnik back to Frankfurt. We flew Air Canada to and from Frankfurt, but that is a major airport and hopefully easy to get to on many airlines. All our flights were with Star Alliance members, so booking was easy on the Air Canada website alone. I have seen others fly in to Venice and use GoOpti as a reliable shuttle service to get to Ljubljana as well. Good luck!

Cheryl, I did start one of my Slovenian trips in Munich, or at least I flew into that airport. But I did not spend any time there, more than a few hours, anyway. I instead trained immediately to Salzburg for a few nights.

But instead of going directly to Ljubljana, I detoured east a little by train to the Slovenian city of Maribor for a few nights (including day trips to the old town of Ptuj), and I stopped for a night in Graz, Austria, prior to that. Then I trained to Ljubljana. I wanted to see some places off the tourist grid, and other than Salzburg, these places generally aren't that touristy.

So there are some conventional options like visiting Munich but plenty of other off-the-beaten-path options too.

We did this tour in 2019. We flew into Vienna and spent three days there. On the day the tour began, we took the train to Ljubliana. On the way home, we stopped in Frankfurt and spent the night at the Sheraton at the airport. (We took the train into city and explored a bit). The next day, we few home. This avoided any of the dreaded 6 am flights and long layovers.

Consider flying into Venice and taking a GoOpti driving transfer to Ljubljana. We did just that in June and it worked perfectly. The van was waiting for us right outside the airport. We made two stops for other passengers and one stop for an official break and were dropped off right in front of our hotel in under three hours. It sure seemed easier and less expensive than what our tour mates arranged.

For the return journey we flew to Zagreb and stayed one night before flying from Zagreb to Toronto non stop.

We took this tour in 2023. Flew into Munich, train to Salzburg then train to Ljubljana. Very scenic ride and fun times in Munich and Salzburg. Return flew Dubrovnik to Frankfurt, overnight in airport hotel then home from Frankfurt. Much easier and cheaper to fly to and from major hubs like Munich and Frankfurt rather than Ljubljana and Dubrovnik. Have fun!

Our tour last summer ended in Bled, and the closest airport was Ljubljana. Found the same as you with bad connections so we flew home from Venice. Used the Go Opti shared shuttle as described above and it was very easy. I believe we also considered Munich or Zagreb, but Venice had the best connection and price (for our situation anyway). .

For travelers who have connected in Munich or Frankfurt, those flights come up for me from Boston, but the connection time is very tight, either 55 min or 1h 15m. Did you make that? A connection that tight makes me nervous. I’m inclined to go via Swiss with the long layover and visit Old Town in Zurich to kill the time.

I went to Venice first and then a Flix bus to Ljubljana. This was my first tour, I have now done five and this and Eastern France are still my favourites

We flew to Vienna to stay for a few days and then hired a driver and car to take us to Ljubljana day early. We found the hired driver was cheaper than plane or rail when you consider it is door to door.
Ljubljana is very nice and would recommend going at least one day early.
After tour we went to Zagreb for a few days. Lots of interesting museums and restaurants. I wouldn’t miss the Museum of Broken Relationships, like nothing we had experienced before. Took the train to Zagreb and stayed at Best Western near train station but still walkable to down town. Great signage in Zagreb. Best hotel breakfast I’ve ever had.