Cheap Flights to Croatia: Split, Dubrovnik & Zadar from the UK

Split from £57 one-way on easyJet from Gatwick is where most people should start. easyJet also fly to Split from Bristol and Manchester, typically £61-£85 depending on the date, and Jet2 cover it from Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Leeds Bradford with returns from around £119. It's one of the most-served Croatian airports from the UK, which keeps prices competitive.

Dubrovnik from £79 one-way on easyJet from Gatwick is the premium option, and the premium is deliberate. Dubrovnik is the most searched Croatian destination from the UK and the airlines know it. British Airways also fly from Gatwick from around £95 one-way, and easyJet serve it from Bristol and Manchester too, though fares there tend to sit £10-£20 higher than Gatwick equivalents.

Zadar from £49 one-way on Ryanair from Stansted is the one most people sleep on. Ryanair also connect Zadar from Edinburgh around £55-£71 one-way, which makes it genuinely accessible from Scotland without going via London. The fares are lower because the destination is less famous, which is your gain.

Worth flagging: if you're flying from regional airports and can't find a direct route, TAP Air Portugal via Lisbon or Turkish Airlines via Istanbul can get you into Split or Dubrovnik for £110-£160 return. The stopover adds two to three hours each way, so only bother if the direct routes are sold out or if you're travelling outside the main season.

Split is a proper city that happens to be beautiful, rather than a tourist attraction that forgot to have a city attached. You can get a cold beer in a bar where locals actually drink, walk to the ferry terminal in ten minutes, and use it as a base for the whole Dalmatian coast. easyJet from Gatwick from £57 one-way makes it one of the better-value city breaks in the Med right now.

Dubrovnik in July and August is genuinely overcrowded. The Old Town gets so packed that the cruise ships alone disgorge thousands of visitors before 10am, and every restaurant near the walls charges accordingly. The £79 one-way fare from easyJet at Gatwick reflects pure demand, not any added magic. Go in May or October and it's a different place entirely, fares included.

The other Dubrovnik problem is geography. It's at the southern tip of Croatia, which makes it a slightly awkward base unless you're staying put. Split sits in the middle of the Dalmatian coast, ferries to the islands run constantly, and the old town alone, built inside a Roman emperor's retirement palace, is easily as impressive as anything in Dubrovnik. For most UK travellers flying on a normal budget, Split is the smarter choice.

Zadar barely gets mentioned in UK travel writing and that's baffling. Ryanair from Stansted from £49 one-way means you can get there cheaper than a train to Edinburgh, and the city itself has Roman ruins, a famous sea organ on the waterfront, and a food market that actually sells food rather than souvenirs. Hitchcock reportedly said Zadar had the most beautiful sunset in the world, which might be overselling it, but the sunsets are genuinely good.

Ryanair also fly to Zadar from Edinburgh from around £55 one-way, which is a proper option for anyone north of the border who's tired of routing through Gatwick for everything. The bag fees apply as always with Ryanair, so if you're packing more than a cabin bag, add £25-£34 each way and factor that into your comparison.

Zadar also sits close enough to the Kornati Islands for day trips, and the national park at Krka with its waterfalls is about an hour by bus. You can do more from Zadar than most people realise, and you'll pay noticeably less for accommodation than in Split or Dubrovnik.

One of the best holiday formats from the UK right now: fly into Split on easyJet from Gatwick from £57 one-way, spend a couple of days in the city, then take the ferry to Hvar, across to Brač or Vis, work your way slowly down the coast by boat, and fly home from Dubrovnik. easyJet from Dubrovnik back to Gatwick runs £69-£110 one-way depending on timing. The whole thing works as a ten to fourteen day trip without retracing a single step.

Hvar gets a lot of attention for its nightlife, which is real but overstated. Brač has better beaches, specifically Zlatni Rat near Bol, which shifts shape depending on the current and looks absurd in a good way. Vis is the quietest of the three and arguably the most worth your time. Ferries between them run regularly in summer and tickets cost a few pounds, not hundreds.

Shoulder season makes this whole format significantly cheaper to fly. May and September one-way fares into Split drop to around £39-£52 on easyJet from Gatwick, and the return from Dubrovnik can sit closer to £59. The Adriatic in September is 24-25 degrees, warm enough to swim comfortably every day. July and August are hotter but you're sharing the sea with considerably more people and paying more for every part of the trip.

The open-jaw booking, flying into one city and out of another, works on most flight search engines. Search Split in and Dubrovnik out as separate one-way tickets rather than a return, and you'll almost always get a better total price. It takes an extra two minutes and regularly saves £30-£60.