Above picture from Horley, United Kingdom.
When I mentioned to friends that we would be visiting Croatia and Slovenia, usual response was why? These destinations are not high on people’s wish lists but I can tell these are indeed truly beautiful countries and we are thankful for having been able to experience them.
Our 10 night vacation in Croatia and Slovenia started on May 26 with a Norwegian flight from Austin, TX to London Gatwick and then a British Airways direct flight to Dubrovnik the next day morning. Since we were using mileage tickets for one way, we opted for Norwegian for the other way. Norwegian was a good experience actually and we would fly them again. We spent 1 night in the Horley area. We stayed at a lovely B&B in Horley run by an Italian family. The town is tiny but quaint and the weather was delightful in the high 60s.
Our Itinerary
- Gatwick/Horley 1 night (since the BA flight to Dubrovnik was next day morning)
- Dubrovnik 2 nights
- Korcula Island 1 night
- Split 1 night
- Plitvice 1 night
- Motovun 2 nights
- Ljubliana 1 night
- Lake Bled 1 night
- Munich 1 night (overnight layover for flight to US)
This trip had more 1 night stays than I like but it was the only way to cover territory in the days we had. If I could have found better flight options that did not require bookended stays in London and Munich, I would have added 1 more night in Korcula and maybe 1 more in Split.
The beginning of this vacation was stressful and we even wondered if we would have to cancel all of it. When we reached Austin from our home in Houston and handed the passports to the Norwegian agent, she looked at us and said these are only 3 and you are 4. For a moment we were in shock and I frantically searched my purse to no avail. The passports had been placed together with a rubber band at home on a counter and I had just taken them and put it in my purse without checking. My husband suddenly says “It’s at home in the printer” – it flashed back in his mind that he had made copies of our passports at the last moment and apparently forgot one in the printer. We looked at the 3 we had and it was his passport left behind. We were stumped as to what to do.
Then I remembered our 1 night layover in Gatwick area. So we decided the 3 of us would continue and he would catch a flight from Houston. So he rushed back to the car rental, drove back home to Houston. In the meanwhile we checked in and then used the laptop computer we had to check for flights to London for my husband. We found a United flight at 8.45 pm to Heathrow same day and went ahead and booked it while he was en route to Houston, praying that the passport was indeed at home. It was an expensive one way flight but we had no other choice. He reached home and sure enough the passport was in the printer, he got it and rushed to IAH and was able to make the evening flight to London. We reached London early morning while he reached Heathrow afternoon and then took a taxi to the Gatwick area and was reunited with us by 3.30 pm. The 1 night layover in the Gatwick area actually helped us out even though I only had it as our flight connection to Dubrovnik would not work out on the same day. I had planned on visiting Arundel castle that day which is a 1 hour train ride from Gatwick but with all this chaos we rested in Horley while waiting. The town of Horley is quiet and perfect for a restful break. Lesson learned for next time, check all passports and their validity before leaving home. We are thankful that despite our silly mistake, we were able to have a wonderful vacation.
Our return journey too had its challenges. When I saw a direct flight from Munich to Houston, I thought it was great and we used our award miles to book them. Research on the German rail site Deutsche Bahn showed that from Bled in Slovenia, we could take a zero transfer Euro City direct train to Munich. It had stops but apparently would be without any need for us to get down anywhere in between. We reached early at the station using a local taxi and waited. After some time an announcement was made in Slovenian and we had no idea what they said except our kind taxi driver was waiting and he said the train was late. The train arrived 45 minutes late and I was surprised as it was not the nice EC train I was expecting. This one seemed more local and then the conductor tells us this train will get over in Villach, Austria and you have to get down there. Apparently these cars would have been hooked up the big EC train in Villach had it been on time but since this one was late, the other train had gone. So now we had to catch another train from Villach to Salzburg, Austria and then another one from Salzburg to Munich. My relaxing zero transfer train ride was now ruled out. At Villach we had to go to counter to get our new tickets, we had no extra cost but it was a hassle unloading and loading luggage twice. And of course we reached Munich many hours later. We had spent all day traveling and it was a day that could have been spent actually seeing some place. The train ride itself was quite scenic for the most part especially between Bled to Salzburg. In Munich we stayed at the Arthotel Munich which was just a 5 minute walk from the Munich central train station. (Not Munich Ost/East which is the other train station in Munich).
Next day morning we took the train from Munich central station to the airport using the S8 subway line. We checked in and were waiting at the gate for boarding when finally we realized why everyone was standing in line talking to the agents. Our flight had been cancelled due to aircraft issues so everyone on that flight was being rebooked on other flights. In our case it was a process as we had award tickets and Lufthansa said they could not do it and that United needed to take care of it. Eventually it was sorted out and United booked us to DC and then we took another flight to Houston.
Obviously now I know that the better option would have been to stay in Ljubljana and do a day trip to Bled and then use GoOpti (the Slovenian Uber) to do a car transfer to Venice airport and we could have flown to Frankfurt and back to the USA. Our bad luck that both the direct flights and direct train options did not work out and that was the whole reason I had opted for that route. That’s life I guess, your best laid out plans sometimes don’t work out. We adjusted and everything worked out although with some stress.
But even with all the adventures going and coming, the vacation part of the trip was wonderful and the rest of the trip went off perfectly and both Croatia and Slovenia were lovely.
Trip Reports here:-