Best of Adriatic Flights

No direct flights from USA to or from Croatia Slovenia
you will have to buy separate flights to find schedule and price to your liking.
try searching Wow SAS or Norwegian air best prices

you might not like it, but Istanbul with Turkish air was very easy to do the best of adriatic tour last fall.

You have much research to locate the best solution. What worked for us was a round trip to Zagreb with a train to from there to Ljubljana and a short plane ride from Dubrovnik to Zagreb on the return home. See Skyscanner.com for flights within Europe.

We did a week in Italy first and had GoOpti pick us up from our hotel in Verona and drive us To Ljubljana. On return we flew from Dubrovnik to Rome for a few days and then straight home. It's true you can't really fly direct to these locations where you start and end the tour. Check skyscanner.net for Intra-Europe flights.

The tour is worth it. It was our favorite to date.

I'm always looking for one stop flights and the least time's duration
Your best flight option from DFW would be on United Airways at 3:50 pm to Frankfurt where you transfer for a flight to LJU.

Your problem is getting back from DBV in less than 29 hours after long layovers. It's also an airport with relatively few scheduled flights that are not "seasonal."
Your best option would be to take Croatia/Lufthansa out of DBV at 7:25 am--arriving in Frankfurt at 9:30 am. Then catch a nonstop American Airlines flight from FRA to DFW at 11:10 am.
The search engine I used wouldn't bring this combination of flights up, so you might have to go through a travel agent to get a booking on this itinerary.

I have been shopping the return trip from Dubrovnik for this tour for the past 5-6 months. There are few choices from Dubrovnik that don't include a stop over in Zagreb. Luftansa has a connection in Frankfurt from Dubrovnik. the flight from Dubrovnik is on Croatian Airlines, who, I believe, is a Lufthansa partner. SAS has a stop in Zagreb, to Amsterdam. Of the two airports, I much prefer Schipol, in Amsterdam, to Frankfurt, which can prove difficult to get around. We are excited about the tour. Good luck, Hank,Novato,CA

We fly out of Boston so this may not work as easily for you but we flew Lufthansa at 11:00pm into Frankfurt and then took a van transfer from LJU supplied by the hotel we were staying at for the RS Tour. There was a 5 hour layover at FRA though to then continue on the flight to LJU. On the return we flew from Dubrovnik in the late afternoon to FRA and stayed overnight at the Hilton Garden in the airport and continued to Boston the next morning around 10:00. The stay over in the airport was convenient and much more relaxing starting again the next morning. The hotel cost around $140 and it was actually cheaper to break the trip into three parts than to go from Dubrovnik to Boston on one ticket. Out guide arranged our transport from our Dubrovnik hotel to the airport and the trip was seamless.

I have been doing lots of internet research recently trying to find some of those elusive convenient flights into and out of Dubrovnik. One thing I discovered is that on wikipedia, if you search for the page for a specific airport (ie: "Dubrovnik airport"), the webpage will include a list of ALL of the airlines that fly into a given airport. After using that list, and researching the individual airlines' webpages, I am now traveling from the US to Rome on Delta, and then taking a Vueling flight out of Rome to Dubrovnik. Days later, I will be flying Volotea on one of their twice-weekly flights from Dubrovnik to Venice. You might take a look at both of those airlines, along with Croatia Airlines, for possible departures from Dubrovnik. Good luck!

I had been looking at the Adriatic tour for a number of years but was discouraged by the awkward flight arrangements.
Finally this year I had the extra time available and wrapped time in Italy around the tour itself.
I had a few days in Venice and then took a bus (Flixbus, but there are others) to Ljubljana. After the tour I took the overnight ferry from Dubrovnik to Bari for some time in southern Italy. Some others flew to Rome for a few days before returning to the states.
Good luck in your searching -- it's a great tour and well worth the hassle in flights.

Thanks for the information. We would probably go to Frankfurt and break the trip into two days. That would help me get some AA miles. It would be Fri/Sat going over and Sat/Sun coming home. I am still working but I could go to work the next day and act interested. Just looking for less overall flight time (on a plane) and think sitting at the airport and not flying the extra airline time (Finland) would be OK. Just trying to minimize the use of vacation days, but as I get closer to retirement, I just don't care. I am looking for total time traveled and easy/better connections. I would love a stop in Rome but probably not this time. Is there something to do in DBV to justify a late afternoon flight to FRA?

Please keep the conversation going.

Does Finnair fly out of DWF via some kind of code share arrangement? I know they have a stopover program in Helsinki but not sure what flights it applies to (if only originating from Asia, then please feel free to ignore this). That would be a big plus for me (to make up for it being out of the way). I've flown Finnair before (when going to Poland) and really enjoyed it. I am only bringing it up since you mentioned going through Finland.
https://www.finnair.com/int/gb/stopover

There really is not good/cheap/short cut way to get out of Dubrovnik. I found that out when I went to Croatia some years ago.

We did this trip in 2014.... we flew to Venice on BA thru LHR...spent 4 nights in Venice and had GoOpti pick us up in Venice for 2/12 hr drive to Slovenia.....we had 2 extra nights there and were able to enjoy the Friday Food Market.

On return we took Croatia Air out of Dubrovnik to Frankfurt (2 hr) and spent night at Hilton Garden Inn at airport and took NS AA flight to DFW next day...... the Croatia Air flight unfortunately arrived ½ hr before AA flight departure.

You can also fly NS DBV to LHR and then to DFW on AA, BA or United.

We used our AA miles for the flights to Europe and back and paid for Croatia air flight separately.

Thanks.

Right now, a year ahead of time, I am thinking about round-trip to Frankfurt on AA, then taking a flight to LJU and then coming back DBV to Frankfurt. The return will require a night at a hotel at the Frankfurt airport but it might make us fresher for the flight back. Trying to minimize time in the air compared to a wait in the airport. If I wasn't still working, I might do things entirely different. I need to look up Turkish Airlines and a poster recommended. Please keep responding.

Tim,
We flew turkish air out of ORD which was a long flight, but extremely easy to get to Ljubana from Istanbul to start the best of the Adriatic. I see that from Dallas Turkish air doesn't have a direct to Istanbul.
The airlines was very nice and extremely clean. Food not so bad...
I dislike frankfurt as it is so big. Can you fly into Munich? We are flying to Sofia, Bulgaria from Philly in a month and transferring thru frankfurt, not my favorite. Our flights on this next trip are crazy. From Sofia we then fly to Bucharest, then Bucharest to Sarajevo (but thru Munich, because this Baltic countries can't seem to fly from one capital to another direct!) Then back to Munich for 3 nights of beer and good german food and then back to ORD.

I am a big promoter of letting a travel agent work out the air schedule. You don't pay that much and they know the insider info. ..

Happy Travels!

I vote in favor of Turkish Air. Great experience and prices. Have flown them more than three times...the only downside is that IST (Ataturk Airport) is a very busy one because it's at the crossroads of trips from Asia/Middle East going westward.

As you can see there really is no easy way to get back from Dubrovnik. Everyone I happened to speak to on my tour was either continuing their travel or spending a night at some larger European city. Some were in Paris and possibly Amsterdam. I elected to overnight in Frankfurt.

Thanks. Frankfurt is an easy choice as we can go non-stop on American out of DFW. We have done that before. Still working so trying to cut down on the extra days but the night stop overnight would be Saturday so that would work out. Would be able to go to work on Monday and act interested. Please keep responding as I an interested in your ideas.

"I am a big promoter of letting a travel agent work out the air schedule. You don't pay that much and they know the insider info. ..". Well, perhaps the travel agents you use are great. More challenging flight itineraries take much time and effort. Will a travel agent be willing to investigate a significant number of possible permutations to find the right one? Will they spend 30, 60 or more minutes or run a few obvious choices and call it good? How much of their time and effort is realistic given the profit margins? What information is solely available to a travel agent? I learned long ago the combination of resources via the Internet and my knowledge base produce better flight itineraries than utilizing a travel agent. The few travel agents near me appear to focus on cruises and packages to destinations like Disneyland.

Thanks Bruce, I always love helping others on this forum, but seems like many RS followers like to belittle comments... That is just so .... uhmmmm
Actually, many people still make their livelihood from being travel agents. They have years of experience and knowledge plus they have a group of people they can call upon if they don't know.
Yes, I have 2 very good people who would love to book my cruises ( now that is a whole other topic, of why cruises must be booked thru an agent).
Bruce, you appear to be very knowledgeable about all forms of travel and like to spend a LOT of time researching... I do too! but I like to research history, culture, food, etc of the area I'm going to visit. I do know how to google airfare (and always make my own domestic flights), I usually see what general rates are going to be and who flies in and out of my preferred airports, then I turn the whole lot over to an agent. Then guess what! I get seats assigned easier, I get a whole read out of my travels and I don't pay that much more. And if anything needs changing at the last minute (this happened 2 month before a RS tour to Turkey that was cancelled, they do it!) So Bruce, I am so glad you are an expert on booking multiple legs for an international flight, but not all of us like to do it or want to do it and my agents need to eat, too!

We have a travel agent in the Del Webb community that I live in who seems to do a lot of business, especially on the cruise/river boat side. I have been to her seminars and exhibits. I just might break down and let her have a go of it. I have health issues which might result in a need during a trip (I hope not). Please keep responding. All information from all sources is appreciated.

I, too, have been looking at flight possibilities for May 2018 from the Seattle area. The shortest round trips have me leaving Dubrovnik at 6:15 a.m. to return home. Many flight for getting there arrive around 9:30 pm. Trying to satisfy short amount of time traveling and decent hours with adequate transfer times (not too long and plenty of time to change) is hard . I use the site for matrix.itasoftware to visualize possibilities in a time bar layout.
I've booked the May 13-26 trip. I took the Eastern Europe tour in 2015 and am looking forward to seeing some of the places again, especially Plitvice since it was pouring when I was there.
Good luck in your search!!!

We are planning to book on the May 13-26 tour to the Adriatic. We will be flying from Portland, OR. We want to minimize flights and stress and are willing to stay an extra day here or there.....in fact, will probably go to Paris for a few days on the way over. Will check into our frequent flyer miles but don't think that will probably work out without lots of connections! Suggestions? Opinions?