Originally Posted by
ND76
With the other carriers going to DBV, why didn't Delta do something different, such as flying to SPU? Split is one of the neatest places I've ever been to. The world's oldest Catholic cathedral is there (which is built over the masoleum of the Roman dictator Diocletian, who engaged in severe persecutions of Christians in the early 4th century); much of downtown Split was once part of Diocletian's palace. Split has a connection with Notre Dame, as the late great sculptor Ivan Mestrovic owned a villa there which is maintained as a museum displaying his work (Mestrovic spent the last seven years of his life as sculptor in residence at ND).
For those going to Croatia, get a bottle of Pelinkovac and slowly sip it while the world goes by. Good stuff!!!
I think that Split's runway is not long enough for wide body planes, but it is a lot more centrally located than Dubrovnik. Mestrovic was born in the town of Drnis which is about 50 km inland from Split.
Originally Posted by
eastindywalrus
I enjoyed Split much more than Dubrovnik, but thinking about all the places visited last time in Croatia - Zagreb, Plitvička jezera, Split, Dubrovnik - flying into or out of Split would have involved some backtracking to visit all of those places. I'm not sure how many tourists do more than Split/Dubrovnik, but for me, driving north to south worked pretty well, and the opposite would have worked well too. Flying into Zagreb or Dubrovnik just seems to make more sense if you're visiting more of the country. (Again, no idea how common that is among summer tourists.)
Split is more centrally located along the coast so you can make it your base. if you are starting in one place and making a road trip out of it, then Zagreb, Pula, or Dubrovnik make more sense.
Originally Posted by
wetrat0
Agreed totally. Seems like the market for this new service is mostly people who are uninformed about Croatia's geography, as DL's announcement says
This is of course PR-speak because DBV is disconnected from those things-- hiking the national parks from DBV requires driving through Bosnia and clearing two international borders, or taking an internal filght. But "one stop away via JFK plus two border crossings" doesn't sound as appealing I guess. No idea what the current situation is with COVID but even pre-COVID it wasn't exactly a breeze.
Flying to DBV is convenient for visiting the walled city of Dubrovnik and the Peljesac peninsula, but there's a lot more that's accessible from SPU. Last time I went to Croatia I skipped Dubrovnik entirely and went in to ZAG and out of SPU, with easy connections in AMS both ways. Definitely wouldn't have traded that for a non-stop to DBV.
I agree with this.