Having spent 5 days there a couple of years ago, I am a huge fan of Trieste and so would definitely pick it over Pula (which is totally unfair as I have never been there). From my perspective, Trieste is well worth a day-trip---on our next jaunt, we plan to make it our base and spend a week to 10 days there. But others will be more helpful on your other destinations.

ttt

You have a nice itinerary planned - although I wouldn't recommend staying elsewhere other than Reijka. Opatija is very nice-back during the Autro-Hungarian emprie, this was the hot spot for wealthy Europeans and many of their opulent villas are still there, but have been turned into hotels, restaurants and the like.

Bled at that time of the year should be alive with fall color. The setting is magical to begin with (nestled at the base of the Julian Alps) and if you have the time, take the plenta out to the island (1-1/2hr return) and see St Mary's Church, or just walk around the island and enjoy the spectacular views.

Ljubljana, while a very small European capital city, offers a lot, from the castle, to the roman wall, to Tivoli Park, to the Central market. Can recommend Zlata Ribica (Golden Fish) or Sestica (Six) for excellent meals, along with Sokol, which we enjoyed but found more touristy. Zlata Ribica and Sokol offer both inside and outside dining, while Sestica (near Hotel Slon) is inside only.

We visited both Pula and Trieste on our most recent trip to Croatia in May, and while we enjoyed Pula (a lovely harbor and seeing the Amphitheater speaks for itself), like poster LJ, I would give the edge to Trieste. By all means, if you have extra time to spend visiting the city, go for it. An added bonus would be to visit Miramare Castle, which has a stunning setting directly overlooking the Adriatic. The castle grounds are simply amazing and it would be easy to spend an entire day just exploring the grounds alone! Trieste was special to me in that it was the port city my Grandfather sailed from when he left Europe for America many years ago.

oops, that should be NOT recommend staying in Reijka as there are much prettier places. In Opatija, there's a 7+ mile seaside promonade connecting the villages of Volosko and Lovran that offer plenty of places to stop, shop and eat along the way, and enjoy amazing views.

I had trouble posting this morning, as well as last night, with my first attempt.

thanks so much for the advice. do you think driving in any of these cities will be a challenge?

also, we were consideing taking a ferry to venice from porec...thought maybe trieste will win out. there are so many places we would liket to visit!

When in Trieste "proper", you can drop your car in one of the parking lots near the harbour and get around on foot. Visit Opicina by the litttle train.

But for Miramare and Muggia (both of whihc are worht the drive to the suburbs of Trieste), you will need the car. As before, I rely on others for the Slovenia/Croatia end of things.

Trieste is a wonderful city. When you are in the area you must go to an Osmizze. An osmizze is a kind of restaurant found in this region. Osmizze roughly means 8 in Slovene - this comes from the tradition that these places used to be only open 8 days in a year. The excess production of the farmyards and vineyards allowed the owners to sell their extra produce in an unlicensed restaurant to the public - if you were in the know. One of the ways that you find an Osmizze is through the guide book to seasonal osmizze - the other is to look out for frascas - the wreaths of flowers and leaves that are arranged to point the way from the road to the premises - this ends in a red-painted wooden arrow to the door of the place. You can normally get beer, wine, salami, eggs and assorted slices of cold meat. Wonderful food and wine and such great people - when we went we ended up singing songs in Triestino (never mind that I don't speak Italian let alone the local dialect).....and just had a marvelous time at a very reasonable cost. The gilato at Zampolli's was the best we had during our entire stay in Italy. Do go - you won't regret it.