You can take a day trip to Montenegro with either Atlas or Elite tours, depending on the day of the week. OK, so you'd get to see Kotor (which is lovely) and then maybe Cetinje or Sveti Stefan, followed by Budva. But you'll spend about 7-8 hours on a coach for just a couple of hours walking around in one or two Montenegrin towns.

Stay in Dubrovnik, drive up to Mt Srd, then to a little restaurant in the mountains above Kovavle and eat lamb cooked 'under the bell'. Take a boat trip to the Elafiti Islands, or just spend a day in Cavtat or on Lokrum (or half a day in each!)

People say Dubrovnik can be done in a day - and I suppose it can if you are on a cruise ship or in a rush, but there is so much more than just the main sights. Just taking time to savour this ancient city, appreciate what it endured in the conflict of 20 years ago, how it has been rebuilt and regenerated, and see and feel it in greater depth than the day visitors can, well that's up to you.

Frankly, if I was to choose another destination, I would not choose Montenegro, but I would drive up to Mostar because that is a truly astonishing place. I drove to Mostar from Split in a few hours, stayed overnight, then drove down to Dunrovnik. I would recommend this over going to Montenegro, every time.

Link to my Mostar trip report, if might help you decide...

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/mostar---a-city-of-beauty-and-bullet-holes.cfm

Have you mapped out your driving routes? It's an awful lot of time in a car. By all means skip Montenegro. How are you getting from Dbv to Istria?
I have not yet been to Istria, but I think you would want more than 2 days there.
I know you acknowledge that it is a lot, but I just hate to see people run themselves ragged and not stop and smell the flowers, especially somewhere as relaxed as Croatia.

Going to Dubrovnik gives you lots of driving, but if your heart is set on it, go for it. Don't forget the Buza Bar. However, my idea would be to save Dubrovnik for another trip.

Here would be itinerary if I had the same amount of time as you.

Thurs night , Friday, Saturday - Lake Bled - day trips to Vintgar Gorge and Lake Bohinj
Sunday one hour drive to Ljubljana - enjoy the town...lovely!
Monday - Day trip to one of the caves about an hour from Ljubljana - stay Ljubljana
Tuesday - Early drive to Plitvice - tour the park
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - Rovinj (Istria) Croatia - day trips to hill towns, boat trips out of Rovinj harbor
Saturday - drive back to Venice

My 2008 trip report is below with photos (start with Dubrovnik on Day 13). We went to Dubrovnik (Buza Bar, Buza Bar), Trogir (liked it much more than Split), Plitvice (amazing), Ljubljana (underrated), Lake Bled (wish we had one more day) and Rovinj (beautiful). Have fun!

http://travelswithmaitaitom.typepad.com/travels/

I've been known to rush around to fit places into a quick trip but you really will be spending a lot of time in the car if you work DBV into this trip. It is worth doing but the drive from DBV to Split took us about 5 hours and getting to Istria will add several more. Also, in Istria, the hill towns are great but you might also like to see Rovinj, which is a sweet, pretty city on the sea. Bottom line is that you will likely fall in love with Croatia and want to go back for more ASAP (as many on this forum have done) so you may have a more enjoyable trip if you stick with Slovenia, Plitvice and Istria for this trip and then take a second trip to DBV and the Islands later on (but not much later. You won't want to wait!).

We did our entire intinerary and had a great time. I have sort of a financial bent, so I am going to mention where I stayed and whether it was a good deal. We took off from Chicago 9/16 & arrived in Venice and picked up a car on 9/17/09. We drove to Lake Bled and arrived there on 9/17/09. We bought the monthly toll pass upon entering Croatia which I think was 30 euros. The toll roads in Slovenia and Croatia were outstanding. They were much better than in illinois. We stayed with the Berc Brothers and the accomodations were great and were 60 euros a night. They had a big breakfast spread and offered free bikes. We rowed out to the island with the church and visited the castle. My wife had opted for Lake Bled and she enjoyed it. We spent Thursday and Friday night in Lake Bled. We took off for Plitvic on Saturday morning and got there about 2:00. We went in entrance #1 and walked in. When you go down the trail I would head straight for the boat which is left at the bottom of the hill. We found that the waterfalls were really spectacular after you got off the boat. We foolishly had not located our room prior to entering the park and had great difficulty finding it in the dark. I had booked an room with a private bathroom on Hostelworld.com for 30 euros for the night. When we got there they took us up 2 flights of steps with me carrying 2 suitcases and found someone already occupying our room. They offered us another room for 20 Euros without private bathroom for 20 euros. The electric in the whole village went out for 5 minutes around 10:00PM. I got up in the middle of the night and my wife turned on the lamp next to our bed and this knocked off the electric in the village again. These people were very nice although they spoke no English. We negotiated the replacement room with the daughter on the phone. On Sunday morning we took off for Split. We had an apartment for one night in Split and it was great and very well located right on the harbor for 70 euros www.apartment-margarita.com. This was the nicest place we stayed and there was a restaurant right outside our window that was the best place we ate on our vacation. We enjoyed Split and the one afternoon and evening eas enough. The apartment was 3 minutes from Dionesius palace. We took off for Dubrovnik on Monday morning. The tollway does not go all the way from Split to Dubrovnik although they are working on it diligently. The driving gets a little hairy. I had 2 instances where someone was passing on a curve and I ended up face to face with them. We got to Dubrovnik and found that we had not brought the phone # or address of the place we were staying which was the Guesthouse S&L. We knew the general area and ended up knocking on doors until we found a lady that knew our landlord. We had a room the 1st night without private bathroom for 35 euros a night and a room with bathroom the 2nd night for 45 euros. Antenec our landlord is a big guy that was very helpful and gave us rides to old town 2x. He also drove us up this twity road to a memorial to the 91 war. This is the best spot to see Dubrovnil from and he explained the war and took us around to the exhibits. He evidently does this for all his guests at no charge. We really liked this place and there was a bus for 8 kunas ($1.60) that took you directly to old town that ran every 20 minutes and took about 15 minutes. We went to a beach on the far side of old town where we rented beach chairs for $12 apiece and felt like jet setters (which we are not). This beach was voted one of the 10 best in the world. We spent about 3 hours in the beautiful Adriatic which is so blue and calm. We then went on the wall walk and hit both of the Buza bars which is another memory I am going to save for a cold Chicago January day. We took off on Wednesday morning and drove 9 hours to Rovinj in Istria. We went to a travel agent and got a room for 250 ($50) Kunas a night for 3 nights with private bathroom. We really enjoyed this place. We had a balcony where you could see the harbor. We rented bikes in Rovinj and rode out by the hotels on the far side. On the way we saw an olympic pool that was huge and right on the Adriatic. We asked a lady swimming there if we could swim there and she said sure. I asked how much it was and it was free. The next day we drove to Motuvn and one other hill town and then to Pula to see the coliseum. We got back at 3:00 and took a swim in the pool. It had to be 50 yards wide and 100 yards long and there was no shallow end. It had salt water so it was easy to float. On Saturday we drove to Venice and stayed in a hotel in Mestre and took a bus into Venice and we spent 4 hours and saw the Doges palace. We were pretty pooped by this time. We drove to the airport on Sunday morning and dropped off the car and took off back to Chicago. We had a Citroen C1 and it was $424 for 10 days through EconomyCarRentals.com and they subbed it to Budget. It is great renting a car in Venice because you can the cars are a 2 minute walk out of the terminal. No remote lots. We took Alitalia, and the seats on the way there were very uncomfortable. They did not even have one of those air things over your head to turn on and off. On the other hand, the airplane food was actually good and the attendants were very freindly. We were in a better mood on the way back. The airfare was $550 apiece all in. The whole trip cost us a little under $3,600 all in. We had a great time and I could go there again, although we probably will not. We are thinking of Greece or Turkey. We met a young couple form Chicago in lake Bled and they were there 2 weeks and booked local airlines once they were over there an got to see quite a bit. Anyway, when I am working I have thought of sitting in the Buza bar looking at the beautiful Adriatic.

interesting 10 days, you got a lot in......

Hi,
I am planning to have a road trip from Venice to Albania and then maybe Greece. We are planning to rent a car in Venice and then return it to Venice before we leave. Were there any restrictions in driving abroad?

Please it would mean a lot to me if someone can give me some information on how car renting agencies deal with this case. I heard there are restrictions.

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