I've found out that it's dead cheap travelling from the UK to Croatia, via Trieste airport in Italy (2 people in June = £112.50!!). But does anyone know how easy it is to travel from Trieste over the border to Croatia? Any advice appreciated as is what you loved /hated about the country. Thanks!

Thanks very much for your advice -really useful! Looking forward to it!
Kate

CROATIA and the region down the Dalmatian Coasts is beautiful, and the walk around the Old City of Dubrovnik on the city walls is absolutely not to be missed!

Getting There:
For cheap flights to Italy see these sites:

• SkyScanner Budget Flight search engine
  
• Ryanair
  
• Virgin Express
  
• Easyjet
  
• BMI
  
• BMI Baby
  

From Italy there are many options ....

• there is a daily bus from Trieste to the 3000 year old city of Pula with it's excellent Roman and pre-Roman ruins...
  
• you can take a ferry accros the Adriatic from Venice or maybe from Ancona to the Dalmation Coast...see the ferries links below.
  

Or you can fly direct...with BA or maybe Croatian Air

Croatia Sites:

• Dalmatian region
  
• Istra Region of Croatia
  
• Dalmatian Tours, Ferries etc
  
• Dubrovnik City & region
  
• excellant interactive Map site
  
• Ivan's Croatia links
  
• Croatian Buses...internal/external
  
• ferries
  
• Croatia Tourist Board
  
• More Ferries
  
• Assoc of Croatian Travel Agencies
  

Once in Croatia, don't miss the following:

• Islands on the coast like Hvar are stunning!
  
• The ferry journey from the UNESCO World Heritage city Split down the coast through the islands to the UNESCO World Heritage city of DUBROVNIK (UNESCO Site !) is one of the classic journeys of Eastern Europe....
  
• Old Medieval Walled city of DUBROVNIK
  
• Waterfalls & Lakes of Plitvice National Park
  
• Diocletians Palace in Split
  
• The Austro-Hungarian Capital, Zagreb is well worth a few days...in fact it has one of the best ice-cream/cake bars in Europe!!!
  

If you get time, the bus journey from Dubrovnik to Sarajevo via Mostar is not to be missed...!
Bosnia (Sarajevo) Sites:
Sarajevo City info
Bosnia Tourism

LP Thorntree: ask your questions (in English) here....excellent info here:
LP Thorntree on Eastern Europe

ROUGH GUIDES:
Rough Guide Croatia etc

Happy Surfing and Travels on the net... !

Philip

'Just land the damn thing'

Buzz Aldrin to Neil Armstrong, July 1969

[This message was edited by deadstone on March 25, 2004 at 06:33 AM.]

In Trieste, the bus station is next door to the railway station. There are several buses a day to Rijeka, taking under three hours. There is no railway along the Croatian coast, but buses run from Rijeka roughly every hour along the coastal road to Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik. A much pleasanter alternative is Jadrolinija's coastal ship which leaves Rijeka up to six evenings a week and goes overnight to Split and on to Hvar, Korcula and Dubrovnik. There are good train services alomg the Italian coast to get to Ancona (for ferries to Split) and Bari (for Dubrovnik).

Last summer, soem friedns and I got a train to rijeka, via a couple of days in slovenia, and from there took the ferry to dubrovnik. Croatia is fantastic, and the trip took in some fantastic scenery, but i wouldn't recommend this option. The trip from "trieste airport" to trieste takes about 2 hours, and trieste itself is a very soulless place, not somewhere you want to spend any time in whatsoever. If i was going again, i'd pay the extra few quid and fly straight to dubrovnik or zagreb. The night boat is, quite frankly a night mare and goes on for ever.

Not to take anything away from Croatia itself, we had an unbelievably brilliant time there, but the whole trieste/bus/train/boat thing is just hassle and hanging around.

I agree about Trieste, it should just be a place you get off one train or bus or plane and directly onto another on your way to your final destination!

But the boat trips down the coast visiting the islands is a fantastic way to spend a week to 10 days, or even a month if one has that kind of lifestyle! Again tho, try to avoid spending more han 7 hours or so on the ferry...much better to travel south hopping from island to Island starting in Rijeka or Split and finishing in Dubrovnik ....

Happy Trails

Philip

'Just land the damn thing'

Buzz Aldrin to Neil Armstrong, July 1969

an easier way to get to Croatia now is with BA, they have a service 3 times a week direct from Gatwick!

'Just land the damn thing'

Buzz Aldrin to Neil Armstrong, July 1969

There's also quite a lot of information about travelling from Italy (if making use of budget airlines' flights) to Croatia at the Visit Croatia website.