boyreporter

Hi

I'm looking for advice on where to go from Zagreb. My wife and I are active sightseers; we spend our trips walking the hell out of cities, looking at buildings and town squares, and then moving on. Bigger cities occupy us for two or three days, and then it's on to the next city. We do natural beauty too, but cities are our, uh, jam.

We prefer trains and planes; we'll rent a car if it's inconvenient not to, but then we won't want to drive more than a couple of hours. Driving is for the rest of the year.

The obvious choices are Ljublana and Plitvice. My first choice probably would be to hit Rovinj/Pula/Rijeka/a couple of other cities, roughly one day each, but it looks like the cities on the coast of Istria would be a three-hour drive back to Zagreb; it's two hours from Rijeka, so if there were another city around there, we could do that on the way in and Rijeka on the way back and keep all drives under 2 hours.

Or if there are cities en route to/around Plitvice, or Ljublana, or if there were some other city in some different direction around which we could build a trip ... I'm open to all of it. Might even be that a flight to Dubrovnik is the best call.

So if you have any advice for either 1) nice villages or cities in that part of Croatia, or 2) faster ways to get to Istria or somewhere else that seems far to me, I want 'em.

Thanks very much for your time and expertise.

troy

yorkshire

It's three hours from Zagreb to Rovinj by car--can't change that!
If you are looking for cities, then Zagreb and Split are pretty much it for Croatia. You could add Ljubljana or go south and add Sarajevo.
I am a little confused on how to advise, as I am worried you may find the very small places of Croatia disappointing. It's why I go--tiny population, lots of nature, but if you want city life you are barking up the wrong tree unless this is a brief trip.
I think the best advice is to peruse a guidebook to see what sounds appealing to you. How many days do you have in total?

boyreporter

Roughly a week, yorkshire, likely 7 or 8 days.

I think we'd enjoy smaller cities, like those in Istria. We'd just need to have a decent supply of them -- sounds like five or so. And we'd want one of them to be at least as close to Zagreb as Rijeka.

We enjoy sites like the Plitvice Lakes, too; we just wouldn't plan a trip around a week of nothing but natural beauty.

Thanks for the feedback.

kja

Have you looked at Split? It’s my favorite city in Croatia, and if you visit the Plitvice Lakes National Park, it would make sense.

And / or you could include Zadar in that loop.

Varazdin is another option, frequently overlooked.

I would not recommend Rijeka, but others might see it differently.

If you don’t already have, I would strongly recommend that you get a copy of the Rough Guide, which IME provides very good coverage of these cities.

Hope that helps!

kja

Oops! I forgot to confirm that I think Ljubljana absolutely charming.

boyreporter

Thanks very much for all that, kja

katrinagurtz

Definitely northwestern part of Slovenia, it is absoultely stunning! Triglav National Park has some amazing hikes for all levels of fitness, lakes, rivers, waterfalls - it's a paradise... and river Soca, don't even want to start ... I do recommend to explore Istria as well, cuisine is amazing. We did a trip to Slovenia/Croatia last year, rented a campervan with Nest Campers and it was so nice. We've never traveled like that before and now we are hooked. Already looking where to rent a campervan this year ... but it just might be the case that we'll come back and do a similar Croatia, Slovenia trip with a bit of Italy this year.

northie

We went by train from Zagreb to Sarejevo - a great adventure for us. We loved our 3 days there . Then went by train to Mostar - all along the beautiful pea green river valley . . BosniaHerzegovna certainly is worth seeing - poor but beautiful . Then we got private transport to Dubrovnik .

kja

Good point, northie! I agree that Sarajevo and Mostar are each well worth seeing. And there's no need to use private transport to get to Dubrovnik or Split or Zagreb....

boyreporter

Thanks, all, much appreciated. Turns out the missus prefers the southern part of the country. We figure to do Dubrovnik and Split, Mostar, Trogir ... I would love to do Kotor, but I don't see much between there and Dubrovnik, and it might be a little too far to be worth the trip. I think we'll save Plitvice for a Zagreb trip in the future. If anyone has other favorites in the south, or travel advice, it's very welcome.

kja

I'm sure you realize that Trogir is tiny and only about 1/2 hour or so from Split. It is an architectural gem, and well worth seeing IMO, but if you are fond of cities, you might consider staying and Split and visiting Trogir as a day trip.

Mostar is particularly evocative after day-trippers leave, so consider spending a night, and perhaps having a drink or dinner with a view of Stari Most as the sun sets. Glorious!

Kotor is an easy day trip from Dubrovnik, often with a brief stop in minuscule Perast.

Each of the places you mention (with the possible exception of Kotor) can be easily visited by public transportation, which I strongly recommend as it will allow both you and your wife to see the spectacular scenery.

boyreporter

Thanks for the tip on Perast, kja, it looks very nice. And thanks for the tip on transport; I was striking out on Google Maps, but will research it more fully and find these alternatives, thanks to you.

kja

Perast is nice, but truly minuscule!

For your transportation options, consult rome2rio.com or the Rough Guide