Hi there,
Can anyone offer an opinion on how far in advance I should buy bus tickets and whether one booking agency is better than another? I'll be travelling by bus from Rovinj to Lovran, Lovran to Zadar, Zadar to Plitvice, Plitvice to Trogir. There seem to be a few booking agents like Croatia Bus, Bus Croatia, Balkan Viator, and then the bus companies themselves. I'm leaving in a couple of weeks and will be travelling in July.
Many thanks!

I have never bothered in the Balkans. At most, buying your onward ticket on arrival in a town should be fine.

Like thursdaysd, I either bought my tickets when I was ready to leave or upon arriving somewhere. That said, I was there just off season (May, 2009), and I suppose things could be different....

Thank you both for your thoughts. Some days there only seems to be one offering, such as Plitvice to Trogir, so I was a bit worried about missing that connection.
Do you happen to know of any drawbacks to buying ahead through a broker? I've tended to do so in Spain, the UK and France, although those were usually buying direct.
Cheers!

Keep in mind that Trogir is an easy 1/2 hour bus ride from Split, and those buses run quite frequently as I recall. I'm not sure, but that might give you a bit more flexibility in getting from the Plitvice Lakes.... Can't help with your question about brokers, sorry....

I would imagine the drawback is paying more than necessary.