Heath_Wallace

Hi all, just been reading a number of blogs and thought I'd add one myself as there seems to be a lot of you who have done the trip I am currently planning with my partner.
We are looking to do 3weeks in August split between Slovenia and Croatia. We currently have no set plans and looking for great ideas, we also thinking of slipping Italy into our trip. We are in our mid 20s so backpacking and hostels are going to be it. Any ideas and advice would be great.
Look forward to hearing what's out there.
Heath and rachel

Andrew

This is kind of an open-ended question. What might be best for you is, after reading blogs plus the the past Slovenia and Croatia posts and trip reports here (easy to View by Country near the top of the page here), put together a rough itinerary of places you'd like to see in Slovenia and Croatia. What interests you may not interest me, so I can give you my ideas but you should probably filter them first. Check out the Trip Advisor forums on both Slovenia and Croatia as well if you haven't found them already.

I'd also recommend picking up the Rick Steves Croatia and Slovenia book.

Then, come back and ask specific questions.

The "highlights" are easy: (Slovenia) Ljubljana, Lake Bled, Triglav National Park, Piran, the Karst, Skocjan Caves. (Croatia) Dubrovnik, Korcula and/or Hvar, Split, Istria/Rovinj, Plitvice Lakes National Park. For me, Ljubljana and Plitvice Lakes were my favorite places (I have not been to Istria or Hvar yet). You can also add little towns here and there - but Slovenia and Croatia were delightful for me, a nice contrast to overly-crowded Italy next door.

You could easily fill three weeks without setting foot in Italy, though because of airfare prices it can make sense to fly into/out of Italy for cheaper and start/end there. I've done that a couple of times.

kja

Andrew gives you good advice - if you can come back with some more specific questions, you'll be more likely to get responses that suit your interests. And as Andrew notes, you can easily spend 3 weeks without including Italy - I spent 4 weeks skimming just the highlights of Croatia and Slovenia.

Heath_Wallace

Thank you for that Andrew, I shall sit and look into more specific topics at the top , and come back with more specific questions relevant to our trip.
As of now what's the best way to travel around, we are looking into hiring a car? Thoughts on that?
The highlights you have mentioned are def the list we have looked into.
As of time in the two countries, where would you advise spending more time in?

Andrew

Hiring a car is certainly the most practical way to get around Croatia and Slovenia. The train network in both countries is not that extensive, though there is a decent bus system. Picking up the car in one country and dropping in another may be expensive, though, so it would be best if you could work it out to pick up/drop off in the same country, even in a different city. For example, you could hire it in Zagreb and drop it in Dubrovnik or something after driving back into Slovenia and then back over into Croatia.


Still, plenty of people manage by bus and train (or ferry in parts of Croatia). Not having a car does limit your options in some cases and of course is more time consuming. In other cases (island hopping along Dalmatian Coast) it's easier not having a car.

My guess is that most people spend more of their time in Croatia than in Slovenia, for the reason that there seem to be more places to see (islands, much longer coastline). Some people include side trips to Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina (to Mostar) as well.

In Italy, you probably would NOT want a car in most places (in my opinion) except in areas like Tuscany. Italy has an extensive, efficient, inexpensive train system.