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Am looking at how to best use the last week or so of a trip currently being planned for May-ish next year. Will be ending up the first two weeks in Split, Croatia and most probably flying home from Venice, Italy.
The two main options under consideration are heading over to Italy by the ferry and then a couple of days in San Marino. Or moving north to Slovenia and spending the time in Bled and Ljubljana. Then, in either case, to Venice, maybe spending a day or two there as I've never been to that part of Italy.
From reading, I'm probably not interested in any of the coastal or beach features for various reasons, so stopping on an island or resort is not necessary. I wouldn't mind getting in a day of horseback riding, but general sightseeing is the main goal. Transportation will all be public and as I'll be in no rush all of those options seems suitable. Same with accommodations, I'll probably wing that, too.
So only the general itinerary has me in a quandary. What say the experts?
San Marino or Slovenia?
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I do not see much comparison---Slovenia deserves 4 or 5 days of your time while San Marino can be seen in 3 hours. We loved Slovenia--I would do that.
Rather than a couple of days in San Marino, add a couple of days to Venice.
I've never been to Slovenia, but did visit San Marino this fall. It's a beautiful, tiny country WAY up on a mountain top, but I would agree, it's worth about 3 hours. Other beautiful hill towns, particularly San Leo, are in the area, but if you're planning to travel by public transportation, I don't know that you could see much of the area very easily.
I would also suggest Slovenia or more time in Venice.
It's looking like Slovenia is winning the mind battle here. One factor not mentioned is that my wife and I have a Tuscany trip on the back burner and from there a day trip to San Marino may be easier. Whereas chances of being able to get to Slovenia on some future trip look slim.
[Lexma90, just a note that I consider taxis to be public transportation so it wouldn't be too hard to drive around. Plus, on that future Tuscany trip we will have a car.]
Yes, it sounds like San Marino may fit in with your Tuscany trip a little better. Here was our route when we visited San Marino; it wasn't a Tuscany trip, but it may give you ideas. From Florence, we took the train to Bologna, which is a city I love and use any excuse to visit. We spent one night there, then picked up a rental car and drove to Ravenna, which I also love. We spent much of the day in Ravenna, viewing (for our second time) the mosaics. From there, we drove to San Marino via the not-very-scenic "coastal" road. We arrived there in the early evening, spent the night there, and a few hours in the morning. From there, we drove to San Leo and explored that area, then drove to our base for the next 3 nights, Urbino. Very scenic but very few highways or major roads - mostly small backroads.
On the taxi, that might work, I've never taken rural taxis before, so I don't know if a 1/2 hour taxi ride from San Marino to San Leo would be expensive or cheap - but if you have a car, that would probably be the better way to go.
Enjoy both trips!
Avoid S Marino on weekends especially, even in May when tons of Italians and tourists spending beach holidays in nearby Rimini area descend on the town - mainly it seems to buy lower taxed cigarettes and booze - a tourist trap par excellence in the lower, main town but you can get above the fray to appreciate what is a great hilltown. But yeh for most a few hours here and on out
If you're going to Slovenia check this cool place, it's in Julian Alps,...
http://www.adrenaline-check.com
SLOVENIA! well, I do have to say I have never been to San Marino, so I might be rather biased
but we enjoyed Slovenia so much. We stayed in Ljubliana (is that how you write it? I always get the J's confused) for 3 nights (got a good deal through easyclicktravel), and then 2 more nights in a more rural area. This was a great vacation, an awsome country.
Slovenia is beautiful. We did the Soca River rafting and its the prettiest river we've ever been on. The water looks artificially blue/aqua. We stayed in Bovec, which is isolated but very pretty, very outdoors oriented. Think we stayed in a B and B called Starry Covac.