3 weeks in Croatia - plus

I can only comment on the Croatia portion of your trip as I have yet to visit the other places you mention. I am absolutely in love with Croatia and would be happy to share info but it would be helpful to know further details from yourself.

You say you are interested in folk music and hiking and "all other great things". What else? History? Architecture? Scenery? Food? Culture?

Before we can recommend sobes where are you thinking of visiting in Croatia? My favourite spots are Istria (truffle "tartufo" country); Plitvice Lakes (gorgeous for walking), Trogir and Dubrovnik (walk the walls). I can certainly recommend great places to stay in those areas if you are interested.

By the way, white truffle season starts in October so unfortunately not in season in May. My husband and I have gone truffle hunting in Istria and it is a BLAST! There are truffle festivals in October as well. Great fun. We saw one gigantic platter heaped high with white truffles - worth over $20,000! There are actually truffle restaurants as well. You will still be able to try truffle dishes but in May they would obviously not be fresh but canned or preserved (almost certainly black truffles).

You could so easily spend your entire 3 weeks in Croatia but imagine you could fit in Bosnia. Perhaps plan for 2 weeks in Croatia and 1 week in Bosnia. I would say no to Macedonia this trip.

Excellent point, travel2live2 - I'll explain further. Our itinerary is very tentative, as I am having some struggles convincing my husband to go more slowly.

Anyway, our interests are music, culture (we want to visit villages - that we couldn't stop at so long ago when we didn't have wheels), wine and food, and we delight in frescoes and naive art. We want to hike as well as drive to places (we can get by fairly well in Croatian).

So, for now, our itinerary is to drive from Zagreb to Rovinj and Pula - am undecided about whether to try and go counter clockwise around Istria, and then possibly to Cres (via Opatija?)or another island up there. Then I feel we must go to Trogir, with a stop in Split (probably not even overnight). We will also go to Dubrovnik.

We would love to go to Mostar, Bay of Kotor, Lake Skutari, and over the mountains to Pec, but I'm concerned about enough time and whether we should do that all by car (and pay the premium on a car that's allowed to go those places) or maybe do that by public transportation.

I imagine that most of the hiking and village visiting would be in the North, and we could do that either toward the beginning of the trip, or on the way back from Dubrovnik.

I think we will skip Plitvicka Jezera this time, possibly substituting the other similar location whose name escapes me right now.

So, advice I seek is on 1) places to hear folk music in May 2) great hikes 3) great rooms with a view 4) interesting villages - esp. those that might have a festival of some sort going on.

Thank you!

If you are thinking of going to Cres, I very highly recommend going on south to Losinj and the town of Mali Losinj and the village of Veli Losinj. The drive is really splendid and the towns, built around harbors, are very picturesque. Also there are many hiking trails including a really lovely walk along the water between the two towns.

http://www.island-losinj.com/index.php?jezik=EN&id_0=1&id_1=19&id_2=145

travel2live2- I wanted to follow up and ask you what sobes you stayed in at Plitvice and Trogir. We found availability at TC Marko Center near Plitvice. We're not sure what to do for 2 nights before around Trogir. I'm tempted not to make advance reservations there and leave those 2 nights flexible. Maybe we would want to spend more time in Hvar (the 3 nights before)or just find something from tourist information after arriving in Trogir/Split. Do you think that mid May would be difficult without a prior reservation (it is a Saturday & Sunday)? Thanks. Karen

As for the general area, there should be no shortage of accommodation, but if you have your heart set on staying in Trogir, I would keep searching and book ahead for those weekend nights at least. The town is tiny and I've seen it quite packed--sometimes there are special events, so you may want to check that. I stayed in a decent place in Ciovo just over the bridge, but it was nothing special so I won't dig up the name.