London to Zagreb for Christmas 2024

After looking at the various options from Dublin to Zagreb - it's time to also consider London to Zagreb ...

Ryanair have some very competitive flights - especially on the evening of Sunday 22nd December

A cabin wheelie on this flight costs £15.50 and a hold bag costs £27

British Airways fares are considerably more expensive - with a hold bad costing £21 extra

Unfortunately (but unsurprisingly) there are no BA reward flights available in the week before Christmas

KLM have plenty of options from either Heathrow of London City airport - at reasonable prices

Flights to Vienna are available for around £144 on Sunday 22nd December with Wizz including a 20kg hold bag (which is only £4 more than a cabin wheelie)

And British Airways has reward seats available in Business Class on Monday 23rd for the equivalent of around £180 - which includes a hold bag

This flights would arrive in time to take the six hour train to Zagreb

Another option is to fly to Venice - get the bus into the train station, and the train to Trieste airport.  There are no direct flights from London to Trieste on 21st or 22nd December 2024.

London to Budapest ... by rail

For a different experience, I thought that I would look into going to Budapest by train ...

As always Seat61 is a fantastic resource for anything train related ... and they suggest a number of different routes to Budapest ...

With Eurostar starting direct trains to Lyon from 1st May, I thought that might open additional options, but in fact they aren't great either for timings or for pricing.

Whilst an overnight in Zurich and taking the scenic route sounds beautiful, I'm not sure that I have the patience for that long on a train !
So I'm thinking the London - Paris - Munich - Budapest, with the final leg on an overnight sleeper, looks like the best option.


Looking at prices for early (just to give an idea) - they are somewhat higher than those quoted on the Seat61 website:

London to Paris - I will hopefully be able to use my Eurostar Frequent Flyer points

Paris to Munich - there is just the direct train, but plenty of connecting services
79 euro (3rd May) to 99 euro (4th May) to 119 euro (2nd May)

Munich to Budapest overnight - the options for a sleeper (I'm ignoring the couchette and seat options):
3 person cabin - 89 euro per person
2 person cabin - 99 euro per person (an extra 10 euro for one less person sounds like good value)
1 person cabin - 149 euro per person

So 79 + 99 = 178 euro, assuming I can use my points to get to Paris

This compares to about 100 euro for a Wizzair flight (including train ticket to Luton).

a weekend in Sighisoara ...

am looking to go to Sighisoara in Romania from London for the 2nd May bank holiday weekend ...


one option is to fly to Bucharest and drive [the 300km] to Sighisoara ... the best flight option is an 08:00 departure on Sat 23rd from LUTon with WizzAir for 91 gbp, with a return departure to LHR at 17:05 on Mon 25th with BA for 132 gbp ...

a closer option is Cluj - just 150km from Sighisoara ... but there are no direct flights that weekend ... so the best option would be an LH departure from LHR at 06:05 via MUC, arriving in CLJ at midday for 164 gbp ... with a return departure at 18:00 again via MUC, arriving into LHR at 22:20 for 164 gbp ...

there is a direct departure on friday at 08:10 from LUTon with WizzAir for 136 gbp ...