30 day France, Italy, Malta, Croatia, Slovenia itinerary. Need help!
 

I'm in the final stages of planning my 30 day Europe trip, and I need some help with some loose odds and ends particularly at the end. I know it's odd that we are going to Paris and returning to Italy, but I am meeting up with friends there. Some background: two 23 year old women who have interest in eating, drinking, nightlife, big cities, and small towns/outdoors, hiking, etc. Very vast interests here. We want a good mix of cities but small bits of slower paced visits.

1 Night overnight in Milan.
4 Nights: Paris plus possible day trip
2 nights: Cinque Terre. From Paris I'm flying into Pisa at 8 a.m. and taking a train to Cinque Terre. Was originally going to stay for three nights, but because money is an object, I decided to limit it to two nights. We'll be based in Monterosso Al Mare. Still worried I'm limiting time here. I think in a worst case scenario well stay another day and go to Florence later as this is our second time there.
3 Nights Florence
1 night Tuscany wine region. Unless we do four nights in Florence plus a day trip to Tuscany. If we do this we will be renting a car.
1 night Rome. Been to Rome before with little interest in revisiting, so we're only traveling from Florence to Rome to catch a flight the next day. Do you think it's a good idea in this case to stay overnight? I wish i could spend two nights in Tuscany hill villages, but I'm worried an 11 a.m. flight will be almost impossible without an overnight near the airport.
5 nights Malta. Will have a homebase in St. Julians but plan to explore as much possible. Is this too much time? Perhaps we should limit it to four, but Malta looks like there is plenty to see and this is sort of an escape and more relaxing 5 nights than the rest of the itinerary.
1 day/night Travel day. If anyone has ANY ideas of the most efficient way to get from Malta to Dubrovnik, I would greatly appreciate it. I'm leaving a full 24 hours for this one.
1/2 nights: Dubrovnik. Have heard mixed things about length of time, but have read you don't need more than one/two full days to see Old Town. No day trips are in order.
3 nights Croatia coast. Thinking of using Hvar as a homebase and traveling to Split and Vis for a day.
1 day Day trip to Plitvilce or Krka. Any ideas here?
3 nights Ljubljana with day trips to Predjama, Bled, Soca river and a few other places. We want to rent a car here to have a lot of freedom exploring. This will be a very busy few days exploring. I'm not opposed to adding another day here.

The last couple of days are where the confusion begins. I have to make my way back to Italy. On the way back I thought of maybe spending one night in Venice and on in Verona, but I'm not set on Venice. How would I get from Slovenia back to Italy? I know bringing a car across borders is VERY costly. I plan on ending the trip with a day trip to Lake Garda or Lake Como with an overnight in Milan.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thank you!

For Malta to Dubrovnik, fly. Anything else will take longer than 24 hours. There are no direct flights, but search around and I'm sure you can find a good deal with a stop at a major European airport.

Regarding the Slovenia part - do add one more night if you can, the destinations you mentioned alone require at least 3.5 full days. Some thoughts: the Soca Valley will be a long daytrip from Ljubljana, not impossible, but it will be tiring. Regarding Predjama, I recommend combining it with a nearby cave, either Postojna or Skocjan.

Going back to Italy - consider leaving the car in Ljubljana and taking a shuttle or bus to Venice, or taking a train to Villa Opicina, a historic tram to Trieste and then one of the many trains to Venice - a bit confusing, but scenic. The instructions can be found here: http://www.seat61.com/venice-to-ljub...b-by-train.htm Another option is to drive to the coast, drop off the car in Koper or Portoroz and take a bus or taxi to nearby Trieste and again board one of the many trains for Venice.

As I told you in your previous thread when you asked about this trip, try a Slovenian company called GoOpti to get (shuttle) from Slovenia to Italy. To find your previous thread, click on your own name above to get to your profile.

For Malta to Dubrovnik, Air Malta flies that route non-stop seasonally.

I just returned from 1 week + in Malta. We stayed in Sliema which is right near St Julians, and liked the location. We walked along the promenade to St. Julians nearly every day. I think you will like the St. Julians area - let me know if you have any questions.

From St. Julians you can get to the capital Valletta by frequent bus in about 30min, or to Gozo by bus/ferry combo in about 2hrs each way.

Andrew,

Yes. Thank you again. I have that shuttle noted since it appears that a rental car really makes no sense.

So much time is eaten up in travel back and forth, you could greatly improve logistics at the beginning of this trip simply by landing in Paris rather than Milan.

Then, look carefully at rest of trip to see how things could be rearranged. Going to Italy three times has to be costly, time consuming and tiring, and does not make sense logistically.

Without checking times, routes, etc., I would not know, but there has to be be a better way of putting this all together. Which dates are absolutely set in stone that cannot be changed?

Look at multi-city or multi-destination tickets (not two one way).

Perhaps something like this:
Arrive Paris, with day trip 5 nts.
Fly to Dubrovnik, 2 nts
Travel to Slovenia via C. coast (car?), 6 nts.
Train to Italy. (Allow a full day and 1 nt at end)
Lakes and CT, then Tuscany (car in Tuscany?), 7 nts.
Fly to Malta, 5 nts..
Home from Rome, 1 nt.

This gives you the maximum times in each place and is using only 27 nights, giving you an extra day or two to play with.

Think about this. Even if it costs to change tickets from Milan to Paris, change it to a day later and save the cost of a hotel in Milan and the cost of train to/from airport in Milan and airfare to Paris. Cutting a day just cuts a lot of travel, not any real vacation or sightseeing time.