Dublin to Zagreb for Christmas 2024

Travelling from Dublin to Zagreb isn't the easiest with neither Aer Lingus or Croatian Airlines flying the route.  And it's made more challenging as Ryanair reduce their service to just three days a week in November and December.

Ryanair have evening flights on 20th and 23rd December and a morning flight on 22nd - with a cabin wheely costing an extra 18 euro or a 20kg hold bag an extra 30.49 euro

Of course there are connecting options - with KLM having a decent choice as they code share with Aer Lingus on the DUB-AMS sector and with Croatia Airlines on the AMS-ZAG sector.

Some of the connections only allow 1 hour in Amsterdam Schiphol - so you'd need to consider a possible delay to your luggage arriving (at the very least).

A wheely is included in the KLM pricing, and a 23kg hold bag costs 40 euro or 38/41 euro if you choose the "Standard" bundled pricing!

Zagreb's location means that it's within driving distance of a number of different airports.

Trieste airport is about 2:45 drive from Zagreb - which would cost about 60 euro each way in a SUV

There's a civilised morning flight from Dublin on 21st December, and an uncivilised early departure on 23rd December

Budapest is about 4 hours drive from Zagreb with Ryanair offering morning flights on 20th, 21st & 24th December and afternoon/evening flights on 21st, 22nd & 23rd December.

Aer Lingus also fly DUB-BUD departing at 16:50 five days a week

Aer Lingus allow a 10kg wheelie to be checked in for free or charge 10 euro to carry it on board.  At this time of year a 20kg hold bag costs 40 euro on this route.  Upgrading to "Plus" pricing for 49 euro includes both a carryon and a 20kg hold bag - a whole 1 euro saving (plus free seat selection).

Zagreb's location means that it's within train distance of further airports!

Aer Lingus offer morning flights to Vienna

and Ryanair offer evening flights on 20th, 21st, 22nd & 23rd December and morning flights on 23rd and 24th December

and from Wien Hauptbahnhof (a short 15 minute train connection from the airport) there are various connections to get to Zagreb.  The quickest is the daily 15:58 departure (with a change in Graz) which arrives into Zagreb at 22:20

Prices start at an incredible 29 euro if booked far enough in advance.  And first class (on the Austrian train) costs just 10 euro extra.

Another Fly-Rail option is via Zurich Hauptbahnhof - an easy 10 minute connection from the airport.

Aer Lingus have morning flights on 20th, 21st, 23rd & 24th December and afternoon flights on 20th, 22nd & 23rd December (too late for the train connection).

Swiss have morning or lunchtime flights on 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd & 24th - as well as evening flights each day that are too late for the rail connection.

Swiss include an 8kg wheelie, and charge 30 euro for a checked bag (presumably 20kg).

The overnight sleeper departs Zurich at 20:40 each evening - arriving into Zagreb at 10:39 with sunrise at about 07:44 in this region around Christmas.

However there are expected to be engineering works on this route between Schwarzach-St.Veit and Villach from 18th November 2024 until 13th July 2025 - so maybe not the best time to take the sleeper (or not so sleeper) train!

On the Swiss Railway website a 3 person cabin purchased for single occupancy booked far in advance costs around 250 chf (267 euro) or 125 chf for twin occupancy or 100 chf for triple occupancy.  The SBB website appears a bit flaky with pricing on this route.

On the Austrian Railway website a 3 person cabin purchased for single occupancy costs 250 euro or 210 euro total for twin or triple occupancy.  The Deutsche Bahn website shows the full range of options with more sensible prices

And the NightJet website also shows the full range of Seating / Couchette / Sleeper options for EN40465

There is another daily sleeper train from Stuttgart via Munich Ost to Zagreb - but it also runs over the same track that is subject to engineering works, so isn't a reliable option until Summer 2025.

This EN40237 sleeper service doesn't seem to have couchettes - just seats or cabins

Conclusion

Whilst the sleeper train sounds lovely - Christmas 2024 is not the time to try it out - and you'd get to see more in Summer anyway!

But there are plenty of other options available - with Trieste on Saturday 21st December looking like the best value option.

Monfalcone to Florence

Having decided to fly to Trieste (price to Milan doubled within a couple of hours) ... the next decision is what train to get ...

The journey from Monfalcone (near Trieste airport) to Venice is on a regional train where there is no discount for advance booking ... with the flight arriving at 14:35 ... the 15:07 departure (arriving into Venice Mestre at 16:37 and S Lucia at 16:49) should be doable without flight delays, otherwise the 16:07 arrives into Venice Mestre at 17:37 and S Lucia at 17:49 - the price to go into S Lucia is 8.95 eur in economy or 13.50 eur first class

The decision is what to do on the Venice to Florence leg ... in case the flight is delayed it's probably too risky to make an advance booking on the 17:09 departure from Venice Mestre (which arrives into Florence S.M. Novella station at 19:35), in which case the walk-up fare is 43 eur in economy ...

But it would be safe to book the 18:27 departure from S Lucia (18:39 from Mestre) which would be 29 eur in economy or 39 eur first class, and arrives into Florence S.M. Novella station at 20:35 ... that would give either 1.5 hrs or half an hour (depending on whether the flight was on time) to get reacquainted with the Grand Canal ...

london to italy for the jubilee weekend

Looking to go to Florence from Sat 2nd June to Tuesday 5th June

Flights to the nearby airports (Florence / Pisa / Bologna) are either too late or too early ... so there seem to be two reasonable options:

STaNsted - Trieste
dep 11:35 and arrive 14:35 for 76 gbp, and then get the train from the nearby Monfalcone station (no need to go into Trieste itself) at 15:07 arriving into Florence (via Venice) at 19:00 for 38 eur (58 eur in first class) or the later 16:07 departure which arrives into Florence at 20:35 for 48 eur
LHR - Milan Linate
dep 9:25 and arrive 12:30 for 142 gbp, and the get the train from Milan at 14:20 (or an hour later) arriving into Florence at 16:05 for 49 eur

On the return journey, there are options from Rome to Luton (dep 19:35 arr 21:15 for 98 gbp), or Milan to Gatwick (dep 21:50 arr 22:40 for 109 gbp) ... but since it would be good to check out the leaning tower, the options from Pisa are:

Pisa to Luton departing at 16:25 and arriving at 17:45 for 131 gbp
Pisa to Leeds Bradford departing at 16:20 arriving at 17:45 for a ridiculous 33 gbp.  The 19:15 departure from Leeds arrives into Kings Cross at 21:28 and costs 60 gbp, or 89 gbp in first class