lchin

I am reporting back on our road trip to Slovenia and Croatia in late May and was grateful to the suggestions made by fellow Fodorites. My detailed trip report can be found at [email protected]

In summary, we flew in to Vienna and spent 3 days there. Since it is not possible to take a rental car out of Austria, we took a train to Ljublijana and rented a car.
Tip 1 - Auto europe is merely a broker and the rental office is named Sixt. I would rent directly from Sixt as we had a lot of confusion about our rates and no agent that represented us.
Ljublijana is a lovely town and after spending a day there, we drove to Lake Bled - stayed at a wonderful B&B named Hotel Berc, and from there as a base, drove to Lake Bohinj and the alps. It is absolutely beautiful!

Leaving there, we headed down the Istrian Peninsula to Rovinj and the Pension Vega.
Crossing the Istrian Peninsula, we arrived at Plitvice. The National Park was one of the highlights of the trip.
Tip 2 - take the time to walk the park, especially early in the morning or late in the afternoon after the tour groups leave as it is serene and lovely then.

From there, we headed toward the Dalmatian coast and drove toward Split.
Tip 3 - take a few hours to explore the castle and town as it is delightful

Driving down the coast was not as difficult as I imagined it would be. The highways are easy to navigate and we arrived in Dubrovnik by evening. We returned our car to the airport which is actually past the city of Dubrovnik. Zoran from www.dubrovnik-accommodation-apartments.com picked us up. What a lovely place he has, high on the hill and overlooking the old town. Breathtaking!

We spent the next few days exploring Dubrovnik.
Tip 4 - walk the city wall, and stay in the city in the morning or evening after the tour groups and cruise groups leave. You will find it to be a totally different experience.

lchin

Note the website is www.talkingchin.blogspot.com

samuell

Thanks for sharing your Blog and enjoyed it, Vienna was wet for us too when we were there in May.......

we are planning our Croatia/Slovenia trip for next year, can you tell us more about your accommondation, costs etc.....

Thanks again.

muskoka

I, too, would like to hear more details about your trip as we are planning to tack on Croatia and Slovenia to our trip to Italy next year. Thanks for posting: I enjoyed your report.

muskoka

Sorry, I missed the link to your blog!

lchin

Sure, here are details of our trip:

We drove ourselves and stayed only in B&B's except one night on the Dalmatian coast. I would not recommend going without a reservation as it is not like the US where motels are by the side of the road. They are hard to find and prices are much higher at the last minute.
I thought it would give us more flexibility but turned out that night we spent wasting a lot of time looking for reasonable lodging.

Flew in to Vienna and stayed at the Hotel Pension Shermin for 120euro-nice location, good breakfasts and really reasonable for the size of the room

Rail to Ljubljana because no rental companies will allow cars to be taken out of austria into slovenia. Departs at 8am arrives at 2pm - great train ride with beautiful views. book online through oec

Hotel Emonec was within walking distance of the train station. 90 euro with breakfast. Room was spartan but clean and right near the central plaza. Opted to buy pastries and forego their rather slim pickings for breakfast.

Ljubljana is a very walkable city and is nice but there is not much to do there. We headed out the next day by car. Car rental was near the train station. We rented from Autoeurope but be forewarned they are only a broker and do not have agents locally. All cars are picked up and returned at Sixt. You may want to use Sixt instead as we had a lot of confusion about prices we had been promised.

Drove to Bled which is beautiful. Stayed at Hotel Berc. Hotel Berc and Hotel Garni are owned by the same family. Hotel Berc is a newer building but they are both nice. Breakfast was fabulous and the area is so lovely. 85 euro with breakfast

We drove out to the alps, crossed the border into Italy just for the heck of it and did a loop back. Also went to the neighboring town to see the Bee museum. Spent 3 nights in Bled

Drove toward the Istrian Peninsula to Rovinj. Stayed at Pansion Vega 80 euro with breakfast. Lovely place but a bit hard to find as it is in a residential neighborhood. Saw the Lippizzaners on the way down and learned that these horses are not the same as the ones in Vienna. This is a farm that separated off from the Royal Lippizaners. The place is interesting but the horses seem to be better trained in Vienna. After 2 nights, we headed to Plitvice National Park.

Stayed at House Tina Grabovac 60 euro with breakfast. Nice place and breakfast was pleasant. It is located in a somewhat rural area but close to the park. Be sure to see the park early or late in the day for a more serene experience.

From there, we drove down the Dalmatian coast, stopping in Split. Highly recommend seeing the town of split and the castle.

Following day continued toward Dubrovnik and returned the car at the airport. Our rental rate was high because of the dropoff charge. We were not permitted to go to Bosnia or Montenegro. Stayed at Pension Stankovich, high on the hill with a patio view of the old town. Highly recommend this place. Owner picked us up from the airport after we returned the car. We were greeted with freshly baked cake. 60 euro a night, breakfast is extra 8 euro. We opted to buy fresh pastries. Spent 4 nights there and decided not to take any tours - walked the city, and saw the old town on days when cruise ships and tour buses were not there- a completely different experience. Flew out of Dubrovnik airport.

I did all my research on this site with the help of other Fodorites and checked places out on Tripadvisor. All the b&b's were wonderful and we were quite pleased at the cleaniness, modern facilities and friendly people. Internet was available almost everywhere.

samuell

Ichin, thank you for your detail report, we can't decide if we should rent a car or go with train/bus, what are your thoughts.....

we are thinking of flying into Venice with a rental and go thru Slovenia and Croatia, back track to Venice and drop the car then train most of Italy except Tuscany, fly home from Milan....

lchin

I think you can see a lot more of Slovenia and Croatia by rental car, especially if you are planning to go through the alps and to Plitvice. Slovenia and Croatia are very easy to drive in, as the highways are wide and traffic is light. The cities are small and not stressful like driving in Italy. Parking is pretty easy to find.

lchin

Also, the train system in Croatia is not developed like in other parts of Europe. I did look into doing the Dalmatian coast by train and it is not convenient.

inbetweeny

Were you able to rent the car in Slovenia and drop off in Croatia without any extra drop off fees? Do you have to go thru Customs between Austria and Slovenia as they are both eurozone countries?

lchin

no, we paid a high drop off charge. In order to avoid a charge, we would have had to return in Slovenia but it wasn't worth the time and cost to travel back up the coast. We didn't go through customs between Austria and Slovenia but did go through a checkpoint when entering Croatia and then when exiting and entering again from Bosnia as the highway goes through a small section of Bosnia.

auleen

Ichin, I really like the looks of the Pension Stankovich in Dubrovnik. My husband and I like to walk but I have a troublesome right foot and he a left foot. After hours out and about that climb to the pension would be painful. Do you know if there are trolleys, taxis or something that would be reasonable enough to use going back up the hill? We plan to go end of April or into May-early. It seems from your report that the weather was nice that time of year--of course, you never can really count on it!

europe2011

Your trip sounds amazing. My husband and I are going to some of those places next May. I will probably be back on here and write a question or two.

lchin

Auleen - you could possibly go by car to the bottom of the last flight of stairs, but you would still need to walk up one flight. It is a small city and I don't believe there is a well developed public transportation system like in other parts of Europe. Matter of fact, Croatia's train system is not that convenient, as I found in my research. I suggest you email them and ask- he may have recommendations for you. End of April and early May may be rainy - we went in mid May and Zoran told us that it had rained for 2 weeks before we arrived!

suzyQ2

What a wonderful trip report! Thanks so much for sharing. I took notes as I read along and I know I will use my notes while planning our trip to Hungary, Austria and Croatia this October. Thanks again!

lchin

I have posted photos at www.lchin.smugmug.com

Vttraveler

Thanks for sharing the photos and for the trip report/blog. We spent 4 days on the southern Dalmation coast in early October. We would like to take a trip to Istria and the northern part of the coast and one of the islands in the next few years. Slovenia looks beautiful, too--so many trips, so little time.

Huggy

Be aware when driving a rental car into Slovenia from another country. You must purchase a permit to drive on it's roads. The cost is about 8 euro. The fine is 150 euros without the permit.

Permits must be purchased prior to crossing the order and are available at the kiosks at the fuel/food stops.

If the car is rented in Slovenia, there is no issue.

Andi_in_Brissy

Beautiful photos on smugmug- thank you for sharing them!
In fact, "stunning" is a better word!
Sounds like a lovely place!