~3 or 4 days...Hvar or Korcula? + Slovenia/Croatia itinerary critique
 

Hi,

I'm trying to iron out the creases in the last leg of my itinerary, and would really appreciate advice on the cheapest and fastest way to visit the destinations I have in mind.

**Interests: Bled, plitvice lakes, Split (~4hrs for lunch, old town, diocletian'spalace), ferry to Hvar/korcula?, day in dubrovnik, visit friend in Sarajevo, night train to zagreb, flight to Lon.

**Time Frame: Sept 16-27 (originally was the 28th, but I have to be on the budget airline's schedule, or take a dreaded multi-leg train back to London for school).

Here's where my budget and time constraints turn what I thought would be a simple plan into a complex headache. Hopefully your experiences/wisdom can help.

good : ) part of itinerary:
-September 16/17th: i'll be in Bled, hike over to Vintgar gorge.
- Sept 18: depart Bled to Ljb.

My initial plan:
-sept 18: go from LBJ on bus to Zagreb (4-5hrs) and spend night
-Spet 19: go to Plitvice lakes, and then either return to Zagreb, OR try to catch a bus passing the lakes to Split. Stay in split the night, if it's too late to catch ferry to Hvar. At this point, I was fully prepared to stay in Hvar until 22rd, but then I felt Korcula needed a day trip. Then onto dubrovnik for a day, and 8 hr! bus ride to Sarajevo. This is what messed up my plans. I did not anticipate the trip to be so long, and as you can see, I'm pretty much all out of days.

***Alternative Itinerary:

1)Since I need to fly out of Zagreb, skip Zagreb/Plitvice Lakes initially and take quickest route from Bled to Split. Any suggestions??

Sept 18th: travel Bled to Split (probably via bus from Ljb or ferry from rijeka to Stari Grad?). I intend to leave Bled early, before 9am. If via bus, I'll arrive in Split, loitter a bit; catch ferry to Hvar. Check in. and stay until night of 20th. Day trip to korcula during stay in Hvar? This is my dilemma. I thought I had time for both, but I don't want my vacation to be blur of ferry schedules and rushed island hopping.

-Sept 21: go to Dubrovnik and find sobe.

-Sept 22: Dubrovnik, leave 630 to take 8 hr bustoday to Sarajevo. There's a later one, but I think it's rude to arrive at 20:55, especially if my friend has to meet me at the bus station. I've never been to her home, and don't know how far she lives from it.

-Sept 23-24: Sarajevo

When I leave Sarajevo, I'll take the 9hr night train dep 20:32 ar 5:35. I'm not sure if i'll leave the night of the 24th or 25th.

****if I leave early:

-Sept 25: Zagreb bus to Plitvice
-26: not so interested in exploring Zagreb, unless anyone can persuade me otherwise. So i guess this is my "free" day to either day trip to korcula, or spend more time in Sarajevo.

27th: Flu to London; depart at 1750.

London: 4 days then to Essex...but that's another story.

Thanks again for your comments.

It's not to easy to day trip to Korcula from Hvar. The only way we found to do it was a day trip with Atlas that went to Korcula and Mljet and cost over $100 each. Hvar and the islands that you can day trip to from here are so wonderful, I would just enjoy this area. A day rental car on Hvar is a good idea also, the island is great.

i've decided to skip Zagreb/Plitvice initially and return to them a 3 days before flight. However, I still only have 4 nights, 3 days to explore wither korcula or Hvar. To help with my decision, i was wondering if people could tell me, in their opinion, what are the respective "must sees" of Korcula and Hvar? Is there a particular town/place i should stay? Also, are affordable sobes easy to come by in late September? I'm a student on a budget.

I've heard nothing but good things about Hvar and you really shouldn't miss Dubrovnik. Bled is nice but you won't need more than a day to see the castle and island and take some pictures. I wished I would have more time for Split and I've heard both good and bad about Zagreb and Ljb...


While planning my croatia leg of my journey I used this site extensively:

http://www.croatiatraveller.com/

You can check out my Croatia pictures here:

http://www.tylernofziger.com/message...topic.php?t=74

And my Bled pictures here:

http://www.tylernofziger.com/message...topic.php?t=95

Also :)

I'm jealous that you get to go to Sarajevo... it's one of those off the beaten path places that will probably prove rewarding and overcome your expectations.

thanks tyler.

A very affordable and nice sobe in Dubrovnik is the Benussi sobe. Click on my name and you will find out all the details, and pictures!

Iamges2 and anyone else with advice to offer,

Is a car rental necessary to truly see, experience and appreciate Hvar? I don't really want to drive on this trip. Is public transportation available to places worth seeing, or will I largely be stranded in the area around where I'm staying, without a car?


Also, sobes...are they easy to find upon arrival...even in late Spetember? I'm concerned, and am debating whether to plan ahead and make reservations, or just wing this part of my trip. I'd prefer the latter because if I enjoy some city in the previous legs of my trip, I can stay there longer as opposed to HAVING to leave in order to be in Hvar.

Thanks so much for the help.

Hvar is a narrow and long island. The town called Hvar lies on the far end of the island. Stari Grad is the point where the ferry docks and is about 20 KM east of Hvar town. The road between Stari Grad and Hvar town is excellent. But the road that crosses Hvar island from Stari Grad to the eastern tip of the island is scariest and one of the most dangerous roads I have ever expeienced.It is beautiful, but we couldn't enjoy it. It was real torture to drive those 80 KM! No one warned us about it and we were really shocked by that experience. It is an extremely narrow road, only one car can be on the road. On one side of the road is the mountain or a high cliff, on the other side - deep abyss and no rail or anything that could stop the car from falling off tens of meters down. No shoulders! Luckily we have encoutered very few cars. The one time we did, we had to drive on reverse quite a distance until the other car could barely pass us. What a scare!!! What a terrible experience. My husband drove, and I screamed most of the way. We didn't see any busses other then on the route between Stari Grad and Hvar.
My conclusions from that experience were that although Hvar is really lovely, driving across it is absolutely not recommended. Anyone could do without it!
Saying all that I would take a car to the island just because I will need it before and after leaving the island. I would strongly recommend also using only the ferry from Split to Stari Grad and not use the other ferry and shorter ferry to/from the eastern tip of the island. I also feel that 2 days for Hvar are more than enough. I found even 1 day satisfactory.
As far as Sobes in Hvar (and Korcula)are concerned, there is no problem finding a sobe in September.
Hvar town is tiny and quiet. If you enjoy a livlier place with lots of restaurants, a small town a lovely drive. I think you'll enjoy Korcula much more. The drive through the Peljesac Peninsula is fun. Don't miss the tiny delicious seafood restaurant in Ston (difficult to find!). There are oisters farms on the way, lots of wineries which will be in full operation in September and a very short ferry ride to Korcula at the tip of the peninsula. Lots of driving opportunities in Korcula. You will love it.

Thank you very much eri. I am already a nervous driver, so given that description, I will not drive on that island. I will be coming from Split by Ferry, and I suppose stay in Stari Grad, about which I've heard so many good things. Perhaps 3 nights/2 days here, then off to Dubrovnik. I think I'll skip Korcula, since I can't visit both islands at a reasonably leisurely pace. Though I still wonder, is this the right decision? Stari Grad over Korcula? Thanks again. I cannot wait to go.

Calispirit,

We only rented a car for one day on Hvar, so we could see the island. We never went on the old road across to the other end of the island. We spent all day doing the drive spoken about in this post and had no scarry roads!

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34696554

It was excellent, but you can enjoy Hvar without doing the drive. I liked Hvar Town much more than Stari Grad, but the two towns are connected by bus. The bus schedules show not many trips, so you have to plan around their schedules. We were on a private bus tour which took us from Hvar Town to Jelsa, to get a boat to Brac. On our return there were a number of people in Jelsa who were begging our bus driver to take them back to Hvar Town. The public buses just weren't going often enough and they were stuck.

The joy of Hvar Town is how close it is to many of the small islands across from it. Small boats at the harbor taxi people all day to these islands. The taxi boats won't be so easy to use from Stari Grad. We spent 5 nights here and would be happy to return!

I think it'll be easy to get a sobe. Just ask at the TI office and they can help you. Have a wonderful trip!

I still think that Peljesac and Korcula with a rented car is more fun than Hvar!
In any case, if you prefer Hvar, stay in Hvar town not in Stari Grad.

Hi eri:

Your description of the drive accross Hvar gives me the willies. We have planned on the same drive. I have read posts like yours, and also others that say you need to be careful, but it is not a huge deal.

Can I ask - what kind of drivers are you and hubby normally? Do you like to drive, or only do it if you need to?

My husband and I enjoy touring in a car and he is a pretty confident driver. I am still on the fence with this issue. We are coming from Dubrovnik and would have to drive all the way up the coast to Split just to take the ferry over from that point.

Happy,
We are both excellent and very experienced drivers. We drive without problem all over the world. On that particular trip we drove for 2 weeks around Slovenia and Croatia. We never use public transportation! So you can believe me. That road is dangerous. It is not impossible, but absolutely unnecessary. When we spoke to our sobe owner in Hvar about it, he laughed and said that he drives this road but all the visitors are shocked when they arrive at his place and share their ordeal with him. We were actually also on our way from Hvar to Dubrovnik. We were 4. All 4 of us agreed to take the ferry back from Hvar to Split and go on that road again. This "cost" about 3-4 hours more on the way.
I believe that there are more posts dealing with this road. Read them.

Thanks eri.

I think I have read most of the posts I can find regarding that road. I have been planning this trip since October 2005, when I got my frequent flyer tix. I read your post to hubby and it stopped him for a minute, but he still wants to take that road rather than go up to Split.

We decided that if for any reason the weather is not perfect that day, we will head up to Split to ferry over. I guess we will just drive slowly. Is the entire 80k awful or are there parts that are worse than others?

By the way, some people have meantioned the road from Split to Dubrovnik can be a little bit hairy too - I will bet you thought it was a piece of cake compared to Hvar!

Happy,
The road in Hvar was the only road that we found difficult. We were not prepared for it. So maybe, therefore, our surprise was great. It is beatiful. No question about it. True it is only 80 km (less than 60 miles), but it took us more than 2 hours! As far as I remember, the whole road was narrow and with no rails. Concerning all other roads in Slovenia and Croatia, we had no problem at all. The road from Split to Dubrovnik ia not a wide road but it is good. You will love Croatia.