Hello!

Starting at the beginning of June/maybe tail end of May, my boyfriend and I will be traveling in Europe until the end of November. We of course will follow the schengen area rules etc, and the countries we want to visit are Croatia, Germany, Austria, Ireland, and the UK.

At first the itinerary was to start in Ireland/Uk and then fly to Croatia, then work our way up to Austria and then Germany. The problem with this is that we would hit Croatia at the hottest and busiest month in August, and I've heard so much about the crowding problems in Croatia. Then I started to think that we would start in Croatia, go to Austria and then Germany, and then fly to the UK/Ireland and fly back from there. However, now we would hit Germany at the busiest time of the year. I know a lot of spots in Germany are already super popular and highly visited, but I would think August would be the worst of it.

I don't want to have a bad or hindered experience in either country, because both Croatia and Germany are the countries I am looking forward to the most and have dreamed about the longest. I realize that I am a tourist myself and that I should expect some crowds and to deal with it, which I definitely will. But I would ideally like to minimize the amount of tourist hoards as much as possible. I also realize summer in general is very popular with these places.

Do you have any ideas, experience or advice on ways to arrange the countries for optimum experience? I very much appreciate any good natured help Thank you!!