Portland to Slovakia with a stop in Iceland

One way tickets will cost more than using the multi-city option.

Go to Google Flights and use the multi-city option for all of your flights. You might be able to find flights on airline's within the same alliance. If that is the case, you can buy all of the tickets on one airline's site.

Be aware that if you buy one way tickets, and you miss a connection because the first flight is late, you aren't protected and will have to buy a new ticket.

While searching, be aware that Bratislava also has an airport.

The trip from Vienna to Bratislava is less than an hour by train or by bus. (I did it three weeks ago.) Many people do it as a day tripl

Where in Slovakia are you headed? Bratislava, Poprad, Kosice? Vienna airport is optimal for Bratislava but Budapest works well too. If you’re headed to Kosice then Budapest is the closest major airport with direct trains to Kosice. ( there is a small airport in Kosice.) If it’s Poprad you’re headed to then Krakow would be my choice connecting via train or bus to Zakopane and bus to Poprad.

Come to Rick Steves Portland travel group this or any third Saturday at Panera Bread on Nyberg Rd. In Tigard @ 10:00 am and we will set you straight. I’ve got some Slovakian train travel tips to share. 😉

Thanks for the reminder to try Google Flights also; there were more options there. I do know it's better to book multicity, but I just wasn't able to do that with the selection of flights shown on Kayak. I wasn't too worried about the issue of missing a flight if the previous one was late though, since the intervening times were days to weeks. (Of course, there could always be a volcanic eruption in Iceland!)

We haven't yet decided where we want to start our travels in Slovakia. Our first time there, we flew into the Kosice airport, and it's a nice little airport. The second time we flew into Vienna, took a DayTrip car to Bratislava (there was a LOT of rain), and then the train up to Poprad and Stary Smokovec. But I will note that there are not a lot of convenient ways to land at Bratislava or Kosice. And Poprad airport seems to be only open for British skiers in the winter (hence the Krakow suggestion above). I will look at Budapest if we decide to start in Kosice--good suggestion.

I wish I could come to the Portland travel group meeting, but I'm three hours away :-(

Don't limit yourself to Icelandair for Iceland. A few US airlines fly there as well.

As an example, you could fly United from PDX to KEF (with a change at ORD) and then Austrian Airlines from KEF to VIE. Both are in the Star Alliance so you could buy those tickets on the same website using the multi-city option.

If you wanted to fly with OneWorld so you get the nonstop back from London, then AA to KEF, BA to VIE with a change in London, then BA all the way from VIE to

Hi Michele. Alaska Airlines is starting a Seattle to Reykjavik service on May 28, extending through September. About time we had a good option other than Icelandair. They are also flying to and from Rome right now.

We often find it useful to go to Seattle to catch an over water flight and often at a lower price than flying out of PDX.

Here are my thoughts, but unlike many here I am just an amateur.

One ticket from an alliance group:

• Easier to buy: Yes, I agree. But you may find out you have to go to one or more of the other airlines to buy seats or other additional services. Then luggage size and allowance might be fluid as well.
• Cheaper: Maybe on some routes but it’s a case by case thing. You gotta check and do the math.
• Safer: Well, if you miss a flight on an alliance ticket or choose not to take a flight, they might just cancel the whole ticket on you. Be careful. Same day different tickets? I wouldn’t do that, but when you have days between flights, I don’t think it matters.

Multi-City Searching:

• Google Flights will show multi city trips on separate tickets and aliance. Actually, be aware of that and different airports with changes.

How I would approach it.

I use Google Flights. I like it, understand it, trust it and have for 25 years and literally hundreds of trips. But the others may be as good. Don’t know.

I would start by checking one way cost to my first long-haul destination. Then go to the matrix that shows which days is the cheapest. I check why they are cheaper because sometimes that cheap day/flight isn’t as good for other reasons. Then I do the same with the long-haul flight back. Now I have my departure and return dates about 90% sure.

Next look for a multi-city with the whole trip and see what I get.

Next look for a multi-city with just the long-haul flights and price the intermediate flights separately. Again, doing it this way you can use the cost matrix function and find maybe a cheaper day a day earlier or later and modify the trip a bit if you want to save. Maybe Wizzair does it cheaper than the alliance airline?

Then I go back to the multi-city option and put in the best dates I came up with and see what that spits out.

Finally put together the most workable solution from all of the research sometimes (most often) a mix of multi-city and individual tickets. Buy from the airline.

The last thing that I research is what those upgrades are really saving me. I booked a AA flight recently where I noticed that the upgrade from Main Cabin to Main Cabin Extra was only a few hundred. Main Cabin said I would have to pay for seats, Main Cabin Extra said free, so expecting seats on the transatlantic flight to be expensive I chose “Extra” when we got to seat selection the free seats were center seats. Most of the rest were about $100 each way. I went back and restarted booking without the Extra to find out with the basic economy the seats cost $15 more. I try and check what I am buying before I buy.

Please do post a trip report on Slovakia. I love central and eastern Slovakia. Sometimes I get up there for fishing but its been a few years now. Getting around it difficult is the biggest issue.

Budapest is a good way out, if you havent been here its worth the effort.

My list of favorites in Slovakia:
Banská Bystrica
Banská Štiavnica
Štrbské Pleso (and the Kempinski Hotel)
Poprad is pretty okay
Lomnický štít cable car
Chateau GrandCastle
Spis and Orava castles (and there are a dozen others, equally as good)
Kosice

Then on the way to Budapest, if you choose that.

Lillafüred in Hungary: https://youtu.be/pj4EyxKu6vc?si=5ZBt-8YOX-a5C25N for the palace hotel, the lake, the caves, the forest train. And Eger in Hungary: https://youtu.be/OUuA501Wpts?si=550j9L-mejI6zHD1 Of course, Budapest too: https://youtu.be/1nd5AtZIrTk?feature=shared AND https://youtu.be/0nd9DuDGCz0?si=aa0c19KaJHEtabkX

If you plan in July this train has run in July the last few years: You could do it going in or coming out. Theyare always fun trips and you get to be very local (not marketed to tourists) https://www.mavrailtours.hu/hu/programs/show/391

More good ideas--thanks everyone. Frank II, yes, I saw that United-Austrian option and liked it for the stop in Chicago rather than Newark and the nonstop from KEF to VIE. A lot of the other KEF to VIE (or alternative destination) routes involve long connection times and we will already be spending a lot of our trip in transit. We'll see what's available in a few months, but that one looks like a possibility. And Mister E, I am a detail person so I love your detailed approach. Interesting how those seat selection prices worked.

Slovakia is a beautiful country. This trip we will spend most of our time in the north again in the Poprad area, and plan to take it slow and spend time with the cousins we have found. But there might be a few sights we still have to see. I think I would take the Lomnický štít cable car if the opportunity presents itself. Last trip we took the car to the saddle below, because the peak was clouded in, and even that was amazing!

You are going to one of Europe's most under rated treasures.

One way tickets will cost more than using the multi-city option.

As Mr E said, one way tickets may be the same price or cheaper than multicity.

Everyone like to stop in Iceland going eastward, but the flight times are far better for stopping over westbound.

Well Toby, there is that and other options like the multi-city being the long haul in and the long haul out and everything in the middle being one way.

Just ending his journey the OP has the options of:

Bratislava
Kosice
Katowice
Krakow
Rzeszów
Vienna
Budapest

If his journey ends near Kosice then Kosice or the train to Budapest is fast and easy.

If his journey ends near Bratislava, then that and Vienna are easy.

If his journey ends in the north then any of the Polish airports are possible, but getting to them isnt as straight forward.

Its a bunch of research.