Great report, sessa! I am enjoying reliving parts of my trip to the Balkans and saving your comments for a return trip (someday soon, I hope) to see some of the places I missed before.

I loved Montenegro, and on the contrary found it much better than I was expecting. Of course we visited in November and it was virtually empty with absolutely no congestion to speak of so perhaps that made a difference. The towns, particularly Budva, were so empty it was almost creepy. We loved Kotor and Perast, although probably could have skipped Sveti Stephan and Budva. We came through Montenegro from Bosnia and had magnificent views of the Bay of Kotor from high above and I was speechless by the beauty of it all.

sarge, we did look into various options but the flight times didn't really fit into our itinerary so in the end we decided to postpone Croatia til another time. My paternal greatgrandparents are from Zagreb and came to the US right before my grandfather was born. They had to leave a son behind, so I know I probably still have family there, but there are discrepencies in the spelling of the last names in all the documentation we have so I couldn't find any real information.

Sessa, can't wait to read more!!

Tracy

I am so glad that so many of you are enjoying this trip report. I have to say it's a little intimidating as it's my first one on the Europe board and so many of you are so well traveled. But it's so fun to relive the trip and help others in planning theirs.

Tracy - Your trip report was one of the reasons we tacked on Montenegro. I am still glad we did because the scenery was fabulous and very different from the other places we visited on the trip. We almost ended up in the bay several times because my chauffer (aka husband) couldn't keep his eyes on the road with all of the beautiful scenery

LOL sessa...I'm kind of glad that we had a driver because he was completely nonchalant about the beauty and we were all gawking at everything. However, congestion is one thing that I don't handle very well (hence my reasoning for traveling off-season most of the time) and if we experienced a lot of congestion it could have very well changed my opinion on Montenegro, as part of it's beauty for me was it's complete stillness.

You are doing a great job...anxiously awaiting more!

Tracy

<b>Korcula</b>

We set out for Korcula around 10:30 after grabbing some pastries from <font color="red">Niko</font>. I would return to this bakery many times because they had the most amazing chocolate croissants. You know how most places just put a little strip of chocolate in the middle and you can barely taste it? Well, Niko fills their croissants with rich, oozing chocolate that fills the entire croissant. Warning: only true chocolate lovers like me will enjoy this, but it is beyond amazing.

So we hit the coastal road with no problems and are off to Orebic on the Peljesac Peninsula where we plan to catch the car ferry over to Korcula. The drive was so pleasant and beautiful. Again, it was hard to keep my husband focused on the road when the Adriatic was right there to his left. As we approached the peninsula it looked like a storm was brewing, but it never did rain. What were those meteorologists smoking when they predicted rain for our entire trip?! It didn’t take very long to reach our turn off for Ston. We made a quick stop at Ston to snap some pictures of the “great wall” and then we made our way along the curvy roads through some picturesque wineries. Of course the vines were all bare so I could only imagine how pretty it is in summer. It took about 1 ½ hours to get to Orebic and we had just missed the 1pm ferry. The ferry runs every day almost hourly depending on the season. The next ferry was at 2:30 so we had some time to kill, and I needed to find a bathroom. Unfortunately, nothing in Orebic was open (that’ll teach me to drink a bottle of water in the car!) so we decided to grab a coffee at the little bar by the dock. Of course they had no bathroom (which had me questioning where the waitress goes), but we ordered drinks…a hot chocolate for me. This was my first hot chocolate in Croatia, and it was amazing…so rich and creamy. I am probably providing too many details here so I will try to speed it up…

It was about 60 kuna for the ferry and the ride took 15 minutes. Once we unloaded from the ferry we called Rezi at <font color="red">Villa Depolo</font> for directions. She was so sweet and said she would come meet us along the road. She told my husband what she was wearing, and that she is in her 60’s so not to expect a “young thing.” Sure enough we spotted her and her husband right away and followed them to their place where we were able to park right in front. Rezi was so welcoming and spoke excellent English. She showed us to our room which was very spacious and a total score for only 240 kuna/night (33 Euro). It was the only one with a balcony (be sure to ask for this one) that overlooks the water and the Old Town. Rezi told us that it had been gloomy for days but had yet to rain so we were keeping our fingers crossed for some great weather the following day.

We immediately set out to explore the Old Town, and we were surprised to find EVERYTHING closed except for one wine store. It was so much fun to explore the town with absolutely no one in it, but we started to worry if we had made a mistake by coming there in the off-season. To drown our sorrows, we stopped by the wine store (surprise, surprise) and picked up a bottle of Plavac. We commented to the owner that it was a ghost town, and her response was “Of course, it’s Sunday.” We were relieved at her explanation. We went back to the sobe and sat outside on our balcony drinking in the views…and the wine! A little while later we set out to see if anything was open for dinner. We ended up at <font color="red">Panjak Restaurant</font> outside the Old Town where I had a local spaghetti dish and my husband had some traditional veal dish that was served with some not-so-traditional french fries. Overall, it was pretty good and inexpensive.

Once again the weather gods were on our side because we woke up to the most beautiful morning. Each time we woke up in the morning we would be scared to look outside, but all we saw this morning was the water shimmering below our window and the sun shining on the Old Town. In the middle of the night a small cruise ship had docked into the harbor, and we could see the town was already much more alive than the previous day. We set out for some breakfast (orange juice and pastries…of course) and then after walking around the Old Town again decided that we should explore more of the island. So we picked up some picnic essentials at Konzum and started driving west because it looked like this route would take us along the water. It was another beautiful drive, and we ended up in the little town of <font color="red">Racisce</font> which looked like a great picnic spot. We parked our car in the tiny harbor and found a bench where we could relax and enjoy our goodies. It was so quiet and peaceful…the perfect picnic spot. On the way back we took a different route (on accident) and found ourselves looking down on the Old Town from above. What a great view we stumbled upon! We ended the day with dinner at <font color="red">Hotel Korcula</font> (again, one of the few places open this time of year). This is where I gave the black risotto a second chance and was again so disappointed that I didn’t like it.

We had to get to bed very early this evening because we were taking the 6:30am (yikes!) ferry from Vela Luka to Split. Rezi thought we were crazy for doing this, but it ended up working out great for us since there wasn’t enough to keep us occupied in Korcula for another day. The drive from Korcula Town to Vela Luka was very easy and took about 45 minutes. We allowed ourselves 1 ½ hours so arrived around 5:30am. It was starting to rain as we were waiting and that is when my husband realized he had left his jacket in Dubrovnik. Oops! At least we were returning there at the end of our trip so we knew it was not lost. We had bought some breakfast the night before and enjoyed that in the car while we waited. This ferry was much more expensive, but it is also a much longer journey. Luckily, they took credit cards for this one.

It was crazy to watch how they loaded the cars onto this ferry, as this one was much fuller than the one we had taken over from Orebic. There were some really large trucks on this one, and we were baffled as to why they loaded them on backwards. The cars were so packed in that we were sure we would be filing a police report in Split for damage to our rental car. We went upstairs to make ourselves comfortable for the journey up to Split.

All in all, we were very happy we went to Korcula. I can’t imagine what a zoo it must be in peak season. It was so nice to have the place to ourselves, but I would have liked to have been able to try some better restaurants.

Sessa, your experience with Korcula sounds very similar to our experience with Trogir. Because it was off-season the town was almost a ghost town and we ate at the only restaurant in town that was open...and were the only ones in there during the duration of our meal. I like traveling during off-season, but in some towns in Croatia off-season really is off-season as everything is closed. We never did make it to Hvar because we couldn't find a hotel that was open. Still, there is something kind of cool about traveling away from all the crowds...I couldn't imagine Dubrovnik or Trogir in the summer with all the crowds.

Tracy

I'm really enjoying your report, and am looking forward to your comments on Guest House Halvat, where I stayed during my tour of the Western Balkans in August 2006.

On that trip, I stayed at Sveti Stefan, which was very interesting, but the rooms and restaurant were a bit tired -- I understand the hotel has been purchased by one of the international five-star brands, and I'm sure they'll spend many millions on refurbishment.

Sessa...

I'm sad to hear your black risotto experiences weren't very good. I ordered it in a restaurant in Hvar (I can't remember the name right now) and it was one of my most memorable meals ever!

I mistakenly ordered it again at a place in Dubrovnik (can't remember the name of that place either) and it didn't hold a candle to the dish I had in Hvar. The friend I was traveling with told me not to order it in Dubrovnik and I should have listened to her!

Happily anticipating your next post!

LCI - I am hoping that I just ordered it at the wrong places because I had read how delicious it is, and it totally sounds like something I would enjoy. By the end of the trip, I was hesitant to give it another try. Maybe on our return trip...

Tracy - Like you, we love traveling in the off-season. We knew it would be quieter, but you're right that off-season in some of these places really does mean OFF-season. Dubrovnik actually had a lot more tourists than I expected, and we were pleased to see everything open. I don't think I would ever want to be there in the summer.

<b>Split &amp; Trogir</b>

Unfortunately all of the booths and seating areas on the ferry were already full so we found a table in the bar, and I proceeded to pass out on my backpack while my husband read up on Split. Since I (happily) did all of the planning for the trip he pretty much had no idea where we were going until we were on our way there. That works well for us because I am a control freak when it comes to travel so I appreciate his laid back attitude and he appreciates me doing all of the leg work. Back to the ferry…it was so smoky in there. That was probably my biggest complaint about Croatia is that everyone smokes…much more so than I saw in Spain and Italy. Now I realize that smoking is a personal preference, but now that our city doesn’t allow smoking in most restaurants/ bars anymore I am really not used to it. I think I even had an allergic reaction to it because I couldn’t stop sneezing this entire trip. It was either the smoke or all of the cats (because cats are the only thing I am allergic to)…however, I was never in close proximity to a cat, thus, I conclude it was the smoke. Very scientific, I know.

Anyway, I digress…so I managed to sleep at the table for almost the entire trip, and when I woke up we were approaching the Split harbor around 9:30am. It was still raining, but we planned to check out <font color="red">Diocletian’s Palace</font> and the <font color="red">Riva</font> before heading out. Getting off the ferry was an adventure, and we soon realized why they back the large trucks on. It’s because they unload from the same side where they load (on the ferry from Orebic, you drive on one way and continue in the same direction getting off). So the trucks drive off and then all of the cars have to turn around on the ferry before they drive off. We found this to be hysterical as it is something you would never see in the US. Granted you could never do it here with all of the minivans and SUVs that people here drive around. It was amazing how efficient they were in directing all of the cars off in this manner.

We drive off the ferry, and my husband has studied the map and is sure he know how to get to Diocletian’s Palace since it’s right there near the harbor. Well, he goes the wrong way and we find ourselves lost….really lost for about an hour. Another reminder that we will not be making that audition tape for Amazing Race. We stop and ask a few people, and no one seems to know what Diocletian’s Palace is, let alone where, which we found very strange. We even asked ourselves if we somehow got off in the wrong city!

Long story short, we finally found the palace and parking, and by now the weather has cleared – woohoo! The palace was pretty cool and so interesting how it is now a little city filled with shops and such. After walking around the palace we took a little stroll down the Riva and stopped for a hot chocolate and coffee. Then it was back in the car to make a lunch stop in Trogir before setting out for Plitvice. Once again, we got slightly lost leaving Split, but the drive to Trogir was easy and took about 30 minutes.

I loved Trogir immediately. What a neat little place. We drove across the canal and found parking along the water. There was a sign that said parking was 10 kuna, but there was no indication where we were to pay this. So after some searching we decided that we were too hungry to figure it out and accepted the possibility that we might have another parking ticket in our future.

There were several people sitting outside on the harbor so we sat down at a place that said pizzeria and were quickly told they didn’t serve food. That’s odd, but we went right next door to <font color="red">Pizzeria Mirkec</font> where we had another delicious pizza. I never eat pizza at home so all of this pizza in Croatia was, I guess, making up for lost time. After lunch we walked around the little town before deciding that we better hit the road so we could get to Plitvice before dark. That was our one “policy” on this trip is that we never wanted to be driving long distances in the dark. Oh, and no parking ticket – whew!

I know opinions about Split are mixed on this board, and we definitely fall into the category of those who didn’t care for it. I was glad we just made a quick stop here since it was too big and industrial-ish for our tastes. I was amazed at the size and congestion in a city that only has around 200,000 residents. I am sure had we not gotten lost for an hour we may have warmed to the city more, but we much preferred the quaintness and charm of Trogir.

Oh, and I mentioned previously that we made a phone call to our sobe in Korcula so wanted to explain. After much research on Fodor’s, we bought an unlocked cell phone on e-bay for less than $30. We then purchased a prepaid international SIM card (since we were traveling to 3 countries, 5 if you count the airport stops) from <font color="red">United Mobile</font>. I think it was around $75 for the SIM card preloaded with $13 and we purchased an additional $30 of calling time. Phone calls were around 50 cents/minute to the US and within the countries we traveled to. We were able to activate the card and get our number before we left the US. This turned out to be an excellent investment and a much better deal than renting a phone as we were originally planning to do, and we can use the phone on future trips.

Hi sessa.

Love the report. We are going in June, and decided to make Trogir our base for two nights instead of Split (day trip there), so your comments were interesting.

Awaiting your next installment with much interest, because we are also driving from Trogir to Plitvice and have wondered how long that would take. Thanks again for a great report.

I am thoroughly enjoying your report, and don't worry about too many details, I think most of us are very interested in those interesting little tidbits. I had planned on staying on Korcula last Oct. and had reservations at your place, but because of ferry schedule difficulties, decided to just do a day trip with Atlas and I am kinda glad I did because I don't think there was enough there to keep me occupied for more than a day. If I had had a car maybe it would have been better. Don't get me wrong, the town is charming and picturesque, but a couple of hours and you've pretty much seen it. It was a nice day trip. Looking forward to your next installment.

<b>Plitvice Lakes National Park</b>

This is where the real adventure started…

Leaving Trogir and getting to the A1 highway was easy as we just followed the signs. The A1 was great. We pretty much had the road to ourselves, and it was nice to finally be able to drive fast. It started raining on the drive, and as we started our ascent up into the mountains the rain quickly turned to snow. SNOW?! I know the forecasters had been totally wrong about the weather so far, but there was nothing in the forecast about snow. Now my husband was really kicking himself for leaving his jacket in Dubrovnik. Once we got off the A1, the closer and closer we got to Plitvice, the heavier the snow was. It was so pretty, though. It must have been snowing for a few days because the ground was entirely covered, as were the trees. Luckily, they were routinely clearing the smaller roads so driving was not a problem. I think the total time from Trogir was about 3 hours (and the toll for the A1 was about 60 kuna I think – they took credit card).

We found <font color="red">Knezevic Guest House</font> in the little town of Mukinje very easily. We had no idea where to park because everything was covered with like 2 feet of snow. We called Kristina (the daughter), and she came outside and directed us to park behind the house. It looked impossible to get back there, but with a little bit of shoveling and a little bit of pushing we managed to get the car parked. This is when we started asking ourselves – “Did we drive all this way for nothing?!” I mean this was going to be the highlight of the trip, especially for my husband. Kristina (who speaks English) informed us that the park was closed and that she didn’t think we were coming. Well, had we known it was snowing we probably wouldn’t have, but we are here so let’s hope for the best.

The guest house, by the way, is great. It looks brand new (Kristina said they have been operating for 4 years) and everything is spotless. It was 45 Euro per night and this included breakfast of bread, meats, and cheeses.

Kristina told us the only restaurant open was the one across from the house so we went over there for dinner and guess what they served? PIZZA of course! We were the only people in there. In fact, I think we were the only visitors in the whole town! We ordered the Plitvice pizza in honor of the park we were not going to see and a carafe of red wine. The pizza was ginormous – it literally took up the entire table. It was so good, though. By the time we were done (yes, we ate the whole thing), a few locals had come in to escape the cold and enjoy a few brews. My husband saw they were drinking a local beer (Karlovacko) he hadn’t tried yet so he ordered one while I polished off the 2nd carafe of wine.

We woke up around 7:30am the next morning because we wanted to get an early start if we were going to cut our visit short and get to Sarajevo. Well, wouldn’t you know it that the weather gods worked in our favor yet again. The sun was shining, and the snow on the roads had started to melt. Maybe we will get to see the park after all! We ate breakfast, layered up (Kristina felt certain the park would be open), grabbed the backpack and headed out. We had planned to start at the lower lakes and then do the upper, but as we drove past entrance #2 (upper) we noticed it was still closed. DARN! Well, maybe they only wanted to clear one entrance so we continued up the road to entrance #1. Hallelujah – it’s open!

Aside from a small group of asian tourists we were the only people in sight. We bought our tickets (70 kuna each in off-season), and the lady told us we should hike the lower lakes and then drive back to Hotel Jezero to park and do the upper lakes since the shuttle buses weren’t running. Normally, you could do the lower lakes and take a boat to the upper lakes and then a shuttle could bring you back to your car. No biggie, we are just ecstatic that we get to see it. Who cares if there is a foot of snow on the ground?!

So we start our hike, and right away the views of the big waterfall are magnificent. The path down was cleared pretty well (but by the end of the day our shoes and socks were soaked). It actually wasn’t that cold either since the sun was out (this is coming from two born and raised Floridians) so my husband was no longer kicking himself for forgetting his jacket.

I won’t go into too much detail about the hike because words literally cannot describe the beauty of it all. We felt so blessed to be there and to see this unique place…and to have it all to ourselves. This place must be teeming with visitors in the summer so to see it so peaceful and unspoiled was just mind-blowing. I think majestic is how I would describe it (I will post pictures so you can judge for yourself).

We spent about 2 hours doing the lower falls, hiking all over. The boat was running across the lake, but we decided to follow the lady’s advice so that we didn’t have to re-trace our steps. We took the car to Hotel Jezero where we had planned to have lunch before doing the rest of the falls. Instead, since the restaurant was pretty pricey for lunch, we just had some hot chocolate (yum!) and our snack bars and checked internet for the 1st time on the trip.

The lady at the information desk had told us that we could take the boat from Hotel Jezero over to the lower falls. Well, we were very disappointed to learn that this boat was not, in fact, running. We weren’t going to let this stop us so we walked the shuttle bus route completely around the lake to get to the upper falls. This must have been about 3 miles, but we had all day to kill so why not? We were so happy when we finally saw the path down to the upper falls. These paths were not cleared and there were no footsteps so we were passing into unchartered territory. I am no chicken, but I was a little worried about doing this. It turned out to be great…a little wild a few times when the snow got really deep, but I never felt unsafe. We even found two walking sticks that we used to judge how deep the snow was. We walked all thru the upper falls and ran into 2 people from Germany going the opposite direction. This was great because we could follow their footsteps out. So having done the upper falls it was time to hike the 3 miles back to the car. I think we hiked for about 5 hours in total so we were pretty exhausted but overjoyed at our amazing day. We hadn’t eaten lunch so we found the market in Mukinje and got some bread and meat to snack on while we watched some “classic” American TV back at Knezevic (Full House and Step by Step – possibly two of the cheesiest shows from the 90’s).

Dinner that night was at <font color="red">Hotel Jezero</font> where we had the mushroom risotto and trout Plitvice style which was excellent. Then it was back upstairs to enjoy another hot chocolate.

You cannot, I repeat CANNOT, go to Croatia without seeing Plitvice Lakes. This was definitely the highlight of our trip. Next, the adventure continues in Sarajevo….

Sessa, Plitvice sounds amazing. We had totally planned on visiting, on our way up to Zagreb (crazy but true...we thought a few hours would be better than nothing) but the one day of our entire trip that it rained was the day we had planned on visiting. It was cold and foggy and pouring outside. DH and I so wanted to visit, and your words makes me wish we would have sucked it up and did it anyhow. Oh well...I'll just have to return!

Loving your report and your details!!

Tracy

Tracy - You will def. have to return. We were expecting rain and fog but got sun and snow instead! I do think you could just spend a few hours there as the hiking is very easy and it doesn't take long to get to some great views, especially at the lower falls which were more scenic in our opinion.

Loved your Plitvice description - it truly is paradise. One of the most stunning places on this planet in my opinion.

We were there on our only rainy day on our last trip (had other arrangements we could not change) so we did it anyway. It poured and poured the entire time but fortunately you can get some shelter in the trees. Portions of the trails were very muddy and slick but it was still worth it. Absolutely stupendous. I agree that you cannot go to Croatia without seeing Plitvice Lakes.

Glad that you had a great stay at Knezevic - we had to contend with a very loud and boisterous stag party which made it impossible to sleep the entire night. If it had not been for the awful noise we would have likely enjoyed it.

Anticipating your next installation!

Darn it! I guess we should have stuck it out and visited. I guess we were more concerned about our safety, as we brought sneakers but with the heavy rain didn't think they would be good enough as we weren't sure exactly what the terrain was like.

We will go back to Croatia, as its our favorite country in Europe, and Plitvice will be at the top of the list on that visit.

Tracy

travel2live2 - As were were driving to Knezevic, I had remembered thinking that someone on Fodor's hadn't really enjoyed there stay there due to noise, and now I remember that was you. I guess if you go in the middle of a snowstorm chances are you will be the only people staying there - ha ha.

I stupidly had sneakers for the hike, too, since they were worn out and I figured I could come back with a lighter load. It was very slippery in parts so was wishing I had brought my hiking shoes.

We had been trying to decide if it was &quot;worth it&quot; to spend one night at Plitvice Lakes between Hvar and Rovinj. We decided to add it to our trip and now, after reading the comments here, I am so happy we did!

Thanks for all the detail in your report. It is really valuable for those of us planning a trip.

Thanks for posting your trip report! A few years ago I was attending a slideshow presentation on Eastern Europe and the pictures of Plitvice Lakes were so amazing that Croatia was instantly my next &quot;dream&quot; destination. I enjoyed reading your description of it. Now, we are going to Croatia on our honeymoon for two weeks in September and reading your report gets me even more excited about our trip!