samuell

Please help - share your thoughts with the following itinerary of our upcoming trip, we are two couples in our 50’s, enjoy old town, architecture, seaside cafes, exploring cities, nature, food and wine..
This is our first trip to the region, our flight is booked, we have spent time here on the board to learn from many of your experiences, some research online and a few guide books, we plan to use both train/bus and self-driving, looking for suggestion and comment in general. We have done a few trips together but this is by far our fastest, is it too fast? Is there any city/area we should give it more time, what should we take out, or add?
We are also undecided if we should book accommodation ahead, we are flexible and willing to stay at private home/apartment, comments are welcome and appreciated..

Itinerary – June 6th arrive LJU 10.25am, Dep 30th MXP 1.40pm
Day 1 Ljubljana - Arrive at 10.25am. Sleep LJU
Day 2 Ljubljana - Sleep LJU
Day 3 Zagreb – early train from LJU Sleep Zagreb
Day 4-5 train to Belgrade, sleep Bel
Day 6-7 train to Sarajevo, sleep Sarajevos
Day 8 Train to Mostar, sleep Mostar
Day 9 morning bus to Bay of Kotor via Dubrovnik, sleep kotor??
Day 10 – 12 Dubrovnik
Day 13 Ferry to Korcula – sleep Korcula
Day 14-15 ferry to Split – sleep Split
Day 16 pick up a car, visit Trogir and Zadar - Plitvice lake national park
Day 17 -19 spend the day in Plitvice lake, drive to Istria – based in Rovinj, drop off car afternoon of 19th
Day 20 Venice – morning ferry from Rijeka, sleep Venice
Day 21 – 22 train to Milan and onto Lake Como, sleep Lake Como
Day 23 – 24 Milan - shopping for the ladies
Day 25 Fly home

Many Thanks

Sam.

Andrew

Seems a little fast for me, and I'm not one to dwell too long when I travel, either. But we all have different travel styles. If you have traveled before, you should know your own style.

I have been to most of these places. (Not to Belgrade or Sarajevo.) I have heard the trains to/from Belgrade that you are planning to take are not great rides, not very fast or comfortable. Have you thought about flying instead? What about renting a car in Zagreb and keeping it the whole time you are in Croatia, til you get to Rovinj? I know that adds a lot to the cost but would probably make your travel much easier, and with four people it might not really cost a whole lot more. I guess you could drop the car in Dubrovnik and pick up another one in Split to avoid having to take a car to Korcula, but you can still do daily car ferries between Korcula and the mainland (without taking the coastal car ferries that may not run every day).

xyz99

Way too fast for me, the most you have in one place is 2 nights, which translates into 1 day. What do you expect to see in each place? Make a list of what's important to you, if you want to see any museum make sure it's open on the day you are there, and try to consolidate the trip into fewer places from which to take day trips.

If not getting accommodations in advance, you will have even less than 1/2 day in each place. You'll need to look for a place to stay almost every day. When do you want to go? Hopefully not in high season...

Have you checked train, bus and ferry schedules? Do you know what's available on the days you travel? You might find out that the "early" train you want to take is at 9-10 am, gets you to your next destination by noon, by the time you find a room and get some lunch is 3-4 pm...day is almost over. Is Rijeka-Venice a daily ferry?

In the end, is your trip. But make sure everyone in your party knows the schedule and agrees with it before the trip. Otherwise this will turn out to be a very unhappy one.

thursdaysd

Looks crazy fast to me, and I've been to all those places. I don't see any point in going to Venice, for instance, for just one night, although I'd understand it for Mostar. i would drop Kotor, Korcula and Lake Como in favor of more time in places like Sarajevo and Split. Are you planning to visit Lake Bled from Ljubljana, because if so you need more time there. Plan to smell some roses...

Have you laid this out pn a calendar with actual travel times?

samuell

Thank you everyone - we are travelling June 6-30. I was under the impression that the train ride to Belgrade and Sarajevo is very scenic, and rather comfortable..not sure if we want to drive into Belgrade and Sarajevo – these are big cities, driving and parking could be problematic?
To slow it down – we can drop Korcula, Venice and Como, and fly back to Milan on the 28th from Split, first day of the season for Easy jet!
Is Belgrade and Sarajevo worth the detour?
Where do you suggest we add these four days?
We did not plan to see Bled as we have Como at the end of our trip.

samuell

xyz99
we have not checked all train/bus schedule, I agreed that maybe we should book accommodation ahead not to waste time at each city.

thursdaysd
I have laid this on a calendar a few times - learnt that from you and thanks

thursdaysd

Have you been to Venice? If not, I'd add time there, and to Sarajevo, maybe either Ljubljana or Split. If you're dropping Venice I might keep the lakes - I really liked Lake Maggiore.

Click on my name for my Balkan TRs. I loved Sarajevo, Belgrade not so much. Trains in that part of the world are in general less comfortable than those further west, although on some routes you may get an intercity. In any case, I just checked on seat61.com, and as I thought, the Belgrade-Sarajevo train was discontinued in 2012. bahn.de agrees: you have to go via Zagreb and spend the night there... You can do it by bus, but based on my friends' current trip, with several connections, although they did stop off on the way.

samuell

thursdaysd

This is very helpful - I hate backtracking and that's why I have gone around to Belgrade and down back to the coast.

My thought now is adding time to Slovenia including Bled, Croatia will be just Plitvice and Istria, back to Italy and spend time in the North and maybe Tuscany, back to the lake and fly home.

dulciusexasperis

That's 14 stops in 25 days. If you have read posts on itineraries as you indicate you have, you should already know what most people will say about that. Too much in too little time.

It is a 'checklist', 'If this is Tuesday, this must be Belgium' itnerary. Tweaking a day here or there isn't going to change that.

It's your time and your dime samuell but I wouldn't want to do such a trip under any circumstances. I prefer to relax when I travel and 'take time to smell the roses' as the saying goes. You won't even have time to notice there was a rose even there.

samuell

dulciusexasperis

We know this is crazily fast - so much to see and so little time, more is actually less...understand and thank everyone for putting me back on track.

I shall re-think the whole trip.

thursdaysd

"I shall re-think the whole trip."

Congratulations! Just remember that two nights equals one day, and to check the transport early in the process, trains keep getting canceled.

samuell

in the process of redoing -
what's the drive like from Zagreb - Sarajevo?
According to Google map, 5 hours by car, 9 hours by train.

I have driven in Austria and part of Germany, was enjoyable.
Many thanks..

thursdaysd

I don't drive in Europe, but julia_t drives in that area. Look for her TRs.

xyz99

Not familiar with that section, but we drove in Croatia and Slovenia without a problem. Roads were good and well marked. Google maps and viamichelin were pretty accurate. Via michelin also gives you details on tolls. Have fun redoing.

samuell

Thanks - thursdaysd and xyz99

Will check Julia's TR
I used Skyscanner and Kayak to check flights but never used them as they redirect you to sites that I don't trust, are they trustworthy?

We can fly out of Sarajevo but Skyscanner is $50.00 cheaper than Air Serbia who offers the flight.

thursdaysd

I rarely use them as I prefer to travel overland, but in my experience they redirect you to airline websites. I wasn't aware that skyscanner actually sold tickets itself.

samuell

Skyscanner direct you to Airticket and kayak to Cheap O Air

samuell

Much improved - still pretty fast...

Plan A
Day 1-3 Ljubljana - Arrive at 10.25am.
Day 4-6 by bus, Istria pick up rental car
Day 7 Drive to Plitvice
Day 8-10 Drive to Split, drop car
Day 11-13 Bus to Dubrovnik
Day 14 Bus to Mostar
Day 15-17 Train to Sarajevo
Day 18-19 Fly to Belgrade*
Day 20-22 Fly to MXP – Como*
Day 23-24 Milan
Day 25 Fly home
*WE could drop Belgrade but there is no direct flight from Sarajevo to Milan - We found a flight from SJJ – BEG by Air Serbia.
Easy Jet BEG – MXP

Plan B
Day 1-3 LJU
Day 4-6 Train to Beg*
Day 7-9 Fly to SJJ
Day 10 Train to Mostar
Day 11-13 Bus to DBV
Day 14-16 Bus to Split
Day 17, Pick up rental car to Plitvice
Day 18-20 Drive to Istria
Day 21 Ferry to Venice
Day 22-24 Train to Milan
Day 25 Fly home
*we could drop Belgrade - train from Ljubljana to Sarajevo is over 10 hours and train could be late!

Comments appreciated..

thursdaysd

Seems that an outfit called Adria Air flies direct Ljubljana to Sarajevo. Since you're willing to drive, I'd consider driving it.

Note, have you checked cruise ship arrivals for Dubrovnik? Might affect when you choose to be there. See: http://www.portdubrovnik.hr/girica1.php

samuell

Just checked - right on and they do fly direct
This is great help..