flights for ETBD Adriatic tour

After checking a seemingly endless number of possibilities, we booked round trip tickets to Zagreb. Upon arrival in Zagreb, we took the train (easy connection) to Ljubljana. After completing the tour, we flew from Dubrovnik to Zagreb on Croatia Airlines which was very affordable and booked directly via the Internet. Zagreb is a great city to visit with few tourists. A super tour....hope you enjoy it.

Andy, I was considering the Adriatic tour this year, and also had a lot of difficulty figuring out good (easy) connections, especially from Dubrovnik at the end of the tour. After trying numerous flight, train, ferry and bus combinations, I finally decided it was easier just to take another tour this year. I'll try working on the Adriatic tour on another occasion. I also spoke with some of the Guides that lead the Adriatic tour at the "Test Drive A Tour Guide" sessions in January, but they weren't able to provide much information. I'll be interested to see what suggestions you get. Good luck!

Andy, In 2010 my husband took the Delta flight, Salt Lake to CDG, then into Ljubljana without any trouble. He then flew Easyjet out of Dubrovnik to Venice (VCE)to meet up with me, then a week later out of Rome, missed his flight out of CDG to SLC so was hours late getting into Lewiston. If I had it to do all over again, I'd have him take the SEA-AMS, making sure he had at least 1-1/2 hours in AMS to transfer. I had him arrive a full day before the tour so that he'd be there on time and to help him get over jet lag.

I went in 2008. I do recall it was a bit of a challenge to work out my flights. I arrived in Europe a week early and spent some time in Italy before the tour. I traveled by train from Venice to Ljubljana. I took a train from Venice to Villach and then Villach to Ljubljana; I think the Venice to Villach leg is now served by bus so that may not be a good option. You might look at arriving early into another city and making your way by train to Ljubljana. Zagreb, Vienna, and Salzburg are good options for connecting by train to Ljubljana. From Dubrovnik, you may find different flight options depending on the day of the week. I stayed two extra days and flew Dubrovnik - Vienna - Washington Dulles. That flight was not available every day of the week. I stayed an extra day so that I could get a flight with one stop rather than a flight with two stops.

Andy, One more point to mention..... I found that some of the budget airlines seem to discontinue service from Dubrovnik at the end of August. For example, EasyJet seems to have no flights to Rome or Milan after September 1st (that was also the case when I checked earlier this year). They offer flights to other locations (ie: LGW) slightly later in September, but I wanted to head for Italy after the tour. As I usually like to travel in mid-to-late September, that doesn't work for me. Cheers!

We used United frequent flyer miles to fly: Seattle > Frankfurt (nonstop) on Lufthansa. Connected to Adria Frankfurt > Ljubljana. Return was Dubrovnik > Frankfurt on Croatia Airlines, connecting to Lufthansa Frankfurt > Seattle. Total out of pocket cost was about $100 per person round-trip (airport/security fees and taxes), plus some miles. Flights were convenient and worked out great (well, except for the screaming babies, but there's no fix for that). I'm pretty sure you can get similar flights (for you, LAX or SFO to FRA, rather than SEA, but otherwise the same connections), paid or using miles (if using miles, book well in advance, of course). This was in May/June 2012. We were not on a ETBD tour, but followed a similar itinerary (and crossed paths with Rick tour groups several times). Awesome trip, one of our best ever. You'll love the region.