Boat or Air from Venice to Dubrovnik or Split Croatia?

Due my question to you is, why are you not taking the train? It's a much more interesting way to travel. Venice airport is not my favourite as I find the people there difficult. Not a language barrier but the costs add up here.

Natalie, taking a train to Dubrovnik would be very difficult, because no train goes there (the furthest they go along the coast is Split). Looking at Bahn.de, a train from Venice to Split would take over 20 hours and require 2-3 changes. Sue has found what so many others have found. Italy and Croatia are "right next to each other," but do not have good transit links. You can fly, or take trains within Italy and then an overnight boat to Croatia (checking the boat schedule carefully). From Split to Dubrovnik, you can drive or take a bus; I don't know about boats, but others have posted links to the Croatian boat schedules.

Sue ... You have several options. First, there are ferries from Venice to some places in Istria (like Pula or Rovinj); from there, you could go to Rijeka by bus, and then take a ferry or bus to Split or Dubrovnik. The Venice>Croatia ferries end sometime in September, so you would have to check into that. Also, keep in mind that it's long ferry or bus ride from Rijeka to Dubrovnik. Or you could take a train from Venice to Ancona, Italy, and take an overnight ferry to Split. You could then take a bus (about 4 hours) to Dubrovnik, or possibly catch a ferry. If you wanted to see both Split and Dubrovnik, this would be a good option. Or you could take a train from Venice to Bari,Italy, and take an overnight ferry to Dubrovnik. If Dubrovnik is your ultimate goal, this would probably be the easiest. These overnight ferries from Bari and Ancona may not run every day, so you'd want to check schedules at Jadrolinija.hr. They may not have schedules for next September until later in the spring.

Good suggestion to check the ferry website, although what you find now will be the winter schedule. Good news is there will be more ferries during the summer rather than fewer.