More cities in one trip: how to combine a low-cost flight and the bus (without losing your mind)

At a glance

• A low-cost return flight to one city, plus a few bus or train legs between nearby cities, lets you see two or three places with a single flight.
• The work is all in fitting the pieces together: a cheap flight, overland connections, nights split sensibly and getting back in time for the plane.
• Each tool covers one piece: some search flights, some plan routes, some sell tickets from several operators. None of them does everything, and that's fine.
• With separate tickets, if one leg runs late the next one won't wait for you: leave generous buffers, especially before your flight home.
• FlyDown can build these trips automatically from the flights it finds, but you buy the tickets yourself, one by one, on the operators' websites.

Why fly into one city and carry on by bus

When you think of a trip to several cities, the obvious idea is an open-jaw trip: you fly into one city and out of another. It works, but with low-cost airlines it means buying two one-way flights on different routes, and there's no guarantee both exist from your airport, or that both are cheap on the same dates.

The alternative is simpler: a return flight to the same city, which is the search where low fares are easiest to find, and an overland loop for the other stops. You land, spend a few nights, take a bus to the next city, then another, and finally return to where you started for your flight.

• Cost: in Europe many cities are just a few hours apart by bus or train, and short legs are often reasonably priced. Still, always compare the total with a trip to a single city.
• Nights: the flight decides how many nights you have. The job is to split them between cities without spending half your holiday on the road.
• Return: the last overland leg is the most delicate one, because a plane that won't wait comes right after it.

An example: with a flight to Vienna you can also stop in Bratislava and Budapest, then head back to Vienna for your return flight.

The DIY way, step by step

If you want to plan it by hand, this is the order that keeps things simplest:

1. Find a cheap return flight. Start with the flight, not the bus: it's the cost that changes most with dates. Pick a city with good overland links to other places.
2. Check the connections. For each pair of cities, look at journey time, how many departures there are per day and when they leave. A three-hour leg with a single departure at dawn is harder than a four-hour one with a bus every hour.
3. Split the nights. Add up the nights your flight gives you and share them out. Remember that travel days are half days: one night in a city often means seeing very little of it.
4. Check the way back. Start from your return flight time and work backwards: time to reach the airport, security, a possible bus delay. Only then buy your tickets.

Check prices again before paying: between planning and booking, both flights and buses can change fares.

Tools that help at each step

Each of these services does one part of the job well. Knowing their strengths and limits saves you from asking a tool to do something it wasn't built for.

A practical way to use them together: search the flight with a comparison site, check overland options with a route planner, then confirm final times and prices on the operator's website before you buy.

Separate tickets: risks and buffers

When you buy a Ryanair flight and a FlixBus ticket, you have two separate contracts with two different companies. If your outbound flight lands three hours late and you miss the bus, the airline normally doesn't have to pay for a new bus ticket, and the bus operator isn't responsible for a delayed flight. The same applies the other way round on the way home.

• Flights (EU Regulation 261/2004): for flights departing from the EU, or arriving in the EU on a European airline, arrival delays of 3 hours or more and cancellations can entitle you to compensation, unless there were extraordinary circumstances. But if you booked flights separately, reimbursement only covers the cancelled flight.
• Buses (EU Regulation 181/2011): the main rights apply to services of 250 km or more. For cancellations, overbooking or departure delays of over 2 hours, you can choose between a refund and continuing your journey at no extra cost. Many legs between nearby cities are shorter than 250 km, and there these protections don't fully apply.
• Buffer after landing: don't book a bus right after touchdown. If you can, spend your first night in the city you fly into.
• Buffer before the flight home: this matters most. Choose a bus that gets you to your departure city several hours early, or better still the day before. Include the time to reach the airport.
• Travel insurance: if you have it, check whether it covers missed connections on separate tickets. Not every policy does, and terms vary a lot.

Keep the times of later departures handy: if you miss a bus, knowing straight away when the next one leaves saves you time and stress.

How FlyDown does it

FlyDown is built to keep an eye on low-cost flights: you set departure airports, a destination (anywhere, specific cities or whole countries), a date range, minimum and maximum nights and a maximum price. It checks Ryanair, Wizz Air, easyJet, Vueling, Volotea and Transavia several times a day and sends you a notification when a flight fits your budget. The Basic plan is free and includes one active watch.

With More cities in one trip, FlyDown also builds trips from the flights it finds: you land in one city, carry on by FlixBus or FlixTrain to the ones nearby and come back for your flight.

• Nights already split between cities: the cheapest split first, then the others, with how much more they cost.
• Bus legs with times and prices from FlixBus, chosen to get you back at least 3 hours before your flight.
• Filters for maximum bus price, maximum hours per leg, maximum number of stops and minimum nights per city.
• Links to book each leg on the operator's website.

The limits should be stated clearly: FlyDown doesn't sell tickets. Flights and buses are booked separately on the airline's and FlixBus websites, so all the separate-ticket risks described above apply. Also, for overland legs it only uses FlixBus and FlixTrain: for other trains or bus companies you'll need the tools listed above.

Three itineraries to get you started

• Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest: three capitals on the Danube in 5 nights, flying into and out of Vienna.
• Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn: the Baltic capitals in 7 nights, with a flight to Vilnius and a bus loop through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
• Prague and Dresden: two art cities in 5 nights, with a flight to Prague and a stop in Germany.

If you prefer small towns and half-timbered houses, there's also Colmar and Strasbourg with a flight to Basel.

Checklist before you book

1. Does the return flight fit your budget?
2. Are there frequent departures between the cities, at convenient times, on the days you need?
3. Are the nights split so you actually get to see each city?
4. Does the last leg get you to your departure city hours early, or the day before?
5. Have you allowed time to get to the airport?
6. Have you compared the total cost, buses and accommodation included, with a trip to a single city?
7. Have you read the change and refund conditions of every ticket, and of your insurance?

Sources

• Google, Find plane tickets on Google Flights
• Skyscanner, How to search for multi-city and open jaw flights
• Kiwi.com, Kiwi.com Guarantee and Connection Protection
• Rome2Rio, How to use Rome2Rio
• Omio, official website and service fee and booking rate
• FlixBus, European bus and train services
• Interrail, official website
• Your Europe, air passenger rights and bus and coach passenger rights

Sources consulted in September 2026. FlyDown is not affiliated with the companies mentioned: trademarks belong to their respective owners.