How it came together
Cindy and I had discussed a possible trip to Croatia in fall 2023 as our next big trip. As we watched travel videos of people navigating steep hills and many stairs in Dubrovnik and Split, it became clear that Cindy’s knee was not yet ready for a physically demanding trip like that. She did, however, encourage me to go on my own. When I was working, Cindy had taken a few trips on her own and really enjoyed several group photography tours as a solo traveler, especially a memorable trip to Morrocco.
I decided that if I could find flights that were good value using my frequent flyer miles and a group travel opportunity that worked with the flights, I was game for a trip by myself. I started researching flights in June. The nice thing about booking frequent flyer tickets is that there is no risk—if I book a flight, I can cancel anytime and get my miles restored and fees refunded. I first found an outbound flight to Split, Croatia using American Airlines miles on Finnair. The only downside to that flight was a seven-hour layover at Helsinki. I initially did not find a reasonable return flight from Croatia. I kept checking regularly, and one day I found a flight from Dubrovnik to DFW that connected in Madrid.
In my research, I found one group tour that would work out beautifully with my flight cities and dates that I had booked—this tour started in Split and ended in Dubrovnik, the same as my flights. Unfortunately, that trip was sold out on the dates that would work out. There were a few other group tours that I considered that started and/or ended in different cities in Croatia or elsewhere in the Balkans. I could make one of those trips work by adding on a short flight or a bus ride. Considering that extra travel hassle and the fact that those group tours were not as interesting to me as the sold-out tour, I had come close to deciding not to go on this trip. I would just cancel my frequent flyer flights and try again another time.
I had made a habit every morning of checking the website of Road Scholar, the travel group that had my “perfect” trip that matched up with my flights. One morning, about seven weeks before my departure flight, the website that typically said, “sold out”, surprisingly had one opening available for a solo traveler. I grabbed it! The trip was close enough to the departure date by the time I signed up that the entire cost was nonrefundable (well, I could have purchased travel insurance for 15% of the trip cost that would allow me to cancel under certain circumstances and get a credit for a future trip, but the cost seemed really high, so I did not sign up), but what the heck! I am headed to Croatia!
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