Best of Adriatic May 2025

Have you looked for routes getting back CA. Dubrovnik was difficult for us to get to Seattle. We had to get up at like 3:00 AM to fly to Zagreb and on to Amsterdam. However Amsterdam is a good choice. We spent a week there and did day trips with guides. Good transportation and easy to get around. And it is not on any other RS Tour we might take later. Plus a direct flights to Seattle.

Rome is an easy flight (1.5HR) from Dubrovnik and RS does a 7 day best of Rome (cheap and no moving Hotels) and you are already time adjusted. We love back to back tours best bargain out there.

Whatever you decide enjoy.
PS The adriatic is one of our 2 most favorite.
PS RS Rome 7 days is open for 2025
PS You cant go the Paris too manty times there is to much to do

I went on the RS Adriatic tour last year - very nice! I flew from Dubrovnik afterwards to Amsterdam with the Easy Jet direct flight which was very easy. I stayed a night at nearby Leiden and liked exploring it before flying home the next day. You could easily spend a week in that area and/or include Belgium.

Another option, looking at which countries you haven’t visited, yet. Austria is very pretty. There’s river cruises that go to Vienna, or you could travel by train, seeing Vienna and charming Salzburg. We also stayed at Melk and St. Wolfgang during our last trip to Austria.

We are starting this tour on Tuesday. We did round trip to Amsterdam and traveling by train, with stops, to get to Slovenia. We will spend an extra day in Dubrovnik and then fly to Amsterdam and stay two nights before flying home.

We did this tour in 2023.

We flew into Venice and took a Go Opti driving transfer directly to our hotel in Ljubljana. It worked very well and seemed far more efficient and less costly than many of our tour mates' routes.

I suggest after the tour flying to Zagreb. It's worth a day or more. That's what we did. Flights are plentiful and inexpensive. From Zagreb you could continue in a myriad of directions.

My husband and I are going to be on your tour next May/June! We plan to arrive a couple days early, as well, but we'll probably go to Lake Bled to spend a couple of days hiking and sightseeing before returning to Ljubljana for the start of the tour. Even though the tour stops in Bled, we thought it would be a good place to adjust to the time difference, and we enjoy hiking. We've been to Ljubljana, and it's a lovely city. Try the dumplings at My Slovenian Dumpling! (I can't remember it's name translated to Slovenian.)

Have you thought about spending time in Vienna after the tour? I spent a week there with my daughter in June, and we had a great time. We visited museums and Hapsburg palaces, then took a day trip to Melk to visit the Abbey and another day trip to Bratislava. I should think Vienna wouldn't be a difficult train ride or flight from Dubrovnik. If you wanted to split your time, you could take a train (or drive) from Vienna to either Prague or Budapest. In 2022, my husband and I were on the RS Eastern Europe trip and loved Prague. So much to see, and we found the Jewish Quarter particularly interesting.

So I am actively considering this trip but am concerned about the amount of bus time on the itinerary. 7 of the 14 days say they involve 4 or more hours of bus time and it's putting me off. Let's be honest, it is really more like 7 of the 12 touring days because RS always counts the arrival and getaway days too. Can any of you who have been on this tour comment about that?

For context, I have been on 4 RS tours (Rome, Heart of France, Southern Italy, Loire South of France) and am familiar with their typical bus program which they generally do very well, IMO.

Thanks,

ES
Seattle, WA

Hello, All! I finally got a moment to read all you comments. Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions! I'm not all that familiar with this region of Europe so it will be helpful for me to pull up a map now to consider your suggestions!

DonP, Yes, I think finding perfect flights are going to be tricky! But Amsterdam may be the answer! Thanks for the info about guided day trips and easy to get around. Although I'd like to visit Rome again, I think we'll include that in a future trip to southern Italy!

MNannie, we'd love to hear what you thought of the tour! I like your suggestion of flying round trip in/out of Amsterdam so I will research that. We're flying from Sacramento, CA. I'm going to research whether we can fly to the east coast, spend a night and do our round trip from there to break up the flight time.

Diane M, Looking forward to meeting you and your husband! There's 8 of us traveling together! Thanks for the restaurant recommendation. I've always wanted to visit Vienna and will definitely look into it.

Escollard, I've only been on one RS tour to Portugal. We did have some lengthy bus rides, but seeing the countryside we've never been to before was well worth the time in the coach. But I'd also be interested to hear what travelers who have done this particular trip thought about the travel times in the coaches.

Andrea, I hadn't considered flying into Venice! I'l take a look. Never heard of Go Opti driving transfers. Thanks for that suggestion!

Jean, glad to hear you enjoyed this tour last year. Thanks for the info about Easy Jet! I have been to Salzburg many years ago and loved it, but never to Vienna so Austria might be on our list!

Again, thanks to you all! HAPPY TRAVELS!

We went to Zagreb for a few days. What a great surprise a very interesting city with many great restaurants and museums. Don’t miss the Museum of Broken Relationships. We then flew to Paris for a few days before coming home.

We flew to Munich from SFO and took the train to Salzburg for a couple days then the train to Ljubljana—a gorgeous train ride. After we were planning on taking a ferry to Bari and then Rome but we went in September and the ferries were minimal and inconvenient. Instead we went to Sarajevo then flew home. We figured we would definitely go back to Italy but Sarajevo was lower on our list.

Getting back to Northern California from Croatia is not simple. I like the idea of Amsterdam (or Paris or London) for the trans Atlantic part and then flying to Slovenia and back from Croatia on a smaller airline.
The Adriatic tour was a favorite. Plitvitza was spectacular but we loved Split.

I’m also doing this tour next May, but at the beginning of the month. I’ve decided to spend more time in the Balkans after the tour. I made arrangements for myself and a few friends through Funky Tours. We go to Kotor for an overnight and then to Sarajevo for a few days. Funky Tours was great to communicate with. Check out their website for some travel inspiration. After our time in the Balkans, we fly back to Seattle via a couple days in Istanbul.

We did this tour in summer of 2019 and it was phenomenal. We flew into Venice - took a bus from the airport to Padua for a couple of days and then back to Venice for a couple of days. We also used the Go Opti transfer from Venice to Ljubljana which worked great.

We were in Ljubljana a couple of days before the tour and can recommend a little boat tour on the canal. We also did a half day tour to Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle. The cave was really unique as you take a 10-15 minute train ride underground and then the views open up to an even larger area. We really liked it - but then I'm a big fan of both caves and trains.

I did not feel the bus rides were excessively tiring. There were always well-placed stops along the way with interesting sights and things to learn. For example, we stopped at the Planica Nordic Center which is an amazing training center for ski jumping. Super cool - literally and figuratively.

Finally, we stayed a couple of extra days at the end of the tour. We used the time to walk the walls of Dubrovnik and although we thought about heading to Montenegro for a day, we ended up enjoying some swimming and relaxing in the breathtakingly beautiful Adriatic.