markpsf

We plan to travel to Budapest in late August or early September.
We want to spend close to a week in Budapest and then spend 10-12 days in Croatia.

We like to spend at least two days in each place.
We never feel compelled to "see everything" and prefer more unrushed time in places that
are wonderful to experience.

We tentatively plan to travel by train to Zagreb and then rent a car.

We like beautiful villages.

Given around a week in Budapest, we would not like to spend too much time in Croatia in large cities, but charming large cities are okay.

I'd love some itinerary suggestions for the Croatia leg, but would also welcome ideas of places not to miss in Budapest.

Thank you!

Mark

kja

10-12 days is VERY little for Croatia.

Although you express some interests (thank you!), you do not provide the kind of information we would need to make recommendations for your time in Croatia, which is a very large country with several distinctly different regions, each of which has small, charming towns with wonderful things to experience. With the exception of Zagreb (which I thought charming), and perhaps Split (my favorite of Croatia’s cities), it does not have “large” cities.

I would strongly urge you to get the Rough Guide to Croatia and do a bit more homework. Then come back to us with more informed questions.

Good luck!

Andrew

Quick Croatia itinerary: rent a car in Zagreb and drop it in Dubrovnik. Stop at any/most of these: Plitvice Lakes National Park, Zadar, Sibenik, Krka National Park, Trogir and/or Split, Hvar (island), Korcula (island), Mostar (Bosnia), and Dubrovnik.

If you wind up staying in Zagreb overnight, you could stay west of Zagreb in the charming town of Samobor, if you prefer smaller places.

Plitvice is a good overnight so you can get into the park first thing in the morning before the crowds arrive (it's a crowded but amazing park - popular with big tour groups). But there's not much to do at night, because there isn't really a town to speak of. So not really a great place to spend two nights unless you really want to take your time in the park. (You didn't mention national parks - but Plitvice is full of waterfalls etc. - a truly lovely and unique park.)

Trogir is smaller than Split and probably more charming but less to see and do than in Split.

Mostar is in Bosnia not Croatia, but is a nice contrast to the Croatian towns you will see - many people stop and see it on the way to/from Dubrovnik or as a day trip.

kja

With only 10-12 days in Croatia, I'm not sure I agree with Andrew. You might want to focus on just one part of the country. Your trip, your call -- you really need to do a bit of research. JMO.

Mathieu

I like Andrew's plan simply because I did it myself and I know it's possible, and I visited many of the places he suggests; they and others he hasn't mentioned are all wonderful - I loved Croatia.

In my case, I flew from Zagreb to Dubrovnik, spent 4 days there and the surrounds including a trip to Medjugorje in Bosnia, then took a bus to Split, sailed to Brac and Hvar for 4 days (absolutely wonderful) then returned to Split and Trogir, hired a car and drove back up to Zagreb stopping and overnighting wherever I felt like it.

That said, I'm also agreeing with Kja that your 10-12 days can be well spent seeing the above itinerary of Croatia and not much more - and there is a lot more to see and do. Pick and choose your route and towns to visit and take your time enjoying them. Don't try to pack in too much.

Having visited Budapest 4 times you can correctly guess that it is my favourite city in Central Europe. Same advice - pick and choose your itinerary in the city and the smaller villages around it carefully and make time to stop and smell the roses. It is a rather beautiful city with lots of high elevations providing lovely views and of course the magnificent Danube snaking its way through it. I've spent a week on each visit (on one trip I made a 5 day visit to Prague) and had no difficulty filling my time with interesting things to do.

Andrew

To be fair, I wasn't suggesting the OP see ALL of the places I listed in that amount of time. I simply listed the common places people stop. I've driven the coast down to Dubrovnik twice. On my first trip, I passed right by Zadar, Krka, Sibinek, and Trogir and didn't see them until my second trip.

I'd plot out an itinerary that includes all of them (or the ones that are of interest), then start crossing off places I wouldn't have time for in favor of places that are more interesting.

I wouldn't necessarily try to see both Mostar and one of the islands, though that's how I did it on my first trip: I drove to Dubrovnik with a detour/stop in Mostar for a night, then took a bus to Korcula and then a catamaran to Split and flew to Paris (then home) from there. I'd probably see either Korcula or Hvar, not both.

kja

When I suggest that people visit choose just PART of Croatia for a visit of 2 weeks or less, one of my considerations is about time in transit relative to time actually seeing and doing things. If you skip and skim for a first trip, you will spend a lot of time in transit for relatively little "pay off" in time to actually see or do anything. And then, on any subsequent trip, you will ALSO have to skip and skim -- again leading to an unfavorable transit to on-the-ground ratio.

Seeing just the highlights of Croatia generally takes about 3 to 4 weeks -- more, if you want to include other parts of the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia i Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia, etc.). As already mentioned, it's a vast area. So IMO, it makes sense to choose a region, so that you can maximize your time there. JMO.

We can all jump in and say, Oh I loved this, and Ah, I loved that -- but only YOU can decide.

Good luck!