nicolos1

My wife and I are planning a 3 week trip to Croatia. Would like thoughts on our itinerary. Any ideas on accommodations, restaurants and sites would be appreciated.
Sept. 10-11- Venice
Sept. 12- Rent car, drive to Trieste
Sept. 13-16- Base in Rovinj
Sept. 17-18- Island of Rab
Sept. 19-20- Zadar
Sept. 21-23- Split-trip to Hvar?
Sept. 24-28- Dubrovnik-Korcula, Mostar, Bay of Kotor.
Sept. 29- Fly out of Dubrovnik?
thanks. Nick

CarolA

Well I did almost this exact same trip last year (Skipping Venice and Triste)

Rovinj was magical last September. It was still warm and sunny, but there were practically no other "American" tourists which gave it a very special feeling...

We then went and spent a night on Rab which was also great.

We skipped Zadar and stayed in Trogir. Did a day trip to Split and after seeing the palace I was ready to leave.... Just a big communist city feeling LOL!

We did not do Hvar or Korcula.

We flew out of Dubrovnik. It's a small airport and pretty far out. There is a fairly affordable bus however. (I had returned the car when we got to Dubrovnik. There was not much parking and I had rented via Auto Europe and selected the Hilton as my return location. Worked great)

Lots of people will jump into say you should go to Plivice lakes. We had planned to do this instead of Rab, but.... instead we extended our stay in Rovinj. We did day trips from there to Pula and some hill towns. Rovinj may be one of my all time favorite locations....

Have a great trip!

yorkshire

Are you keeping the car the entire time? Have you checked into if you can pick up car in Italy and return in Croatia?

Check out your options for traveling between Rovinj-Rab and Rab-Zadar at
www.jadrolinija.hr.
Use the Search by Map function. Note some routes are seasonal.

Hvar is an easy day trip from Split with a car. Or you could even drive across the island to get to the mainland and continue on to Korcula or Mostar (again, see search by map function on jadrolinija).

Dee_Dee

Nicolos1 - I did part of your itinerary August/Sept 2006. Croatia is extraordinary. I simply can't wait to get back. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I second the sentiments re Split. A day there is sufficient. The palace is wonderful but after enjoying that, I was ready to carry on. I spent 3 nights in Hvar. I could have stayed longer but only if I had rented a car to see the rest of the island. I fell in love with Dubrovnik. I rented an apartment with terrace overlooking the city. It was magical at night! I spent 5 nights and could easily spent a week or longer as there is so much to do using the town as a base. Mostar is not to be missed - the effects of the war are still haunting. The Bay of Kotor is absolutely beautiful. I have some extraordinary photography from the entire trip. I can't comment on the northern part of the Croatian coast, but the southern part is drop dead beautiful.

nicolos1

thank you all for the information. I'm not sure about the car whether to pick up another car in Croatia because of the high drop off charges. We've used auto-europe in Italy and France. In france last year we had a drop off charge because we didn't drop off at an airport. Thanks again. Dee-Dee do you have a website for the apartment you rented. Also any suggestions for restaurants or other hotels? thanks again. My wife and I were in Yugoslavia in 1975.

Dee_Dee

Nicolos1 - I found my apartment on dubrovnik-area.com. There are lots of choices. I utilized a delightful, humorous trip report by tripgirl as a source for info, restaurants, etc. Do a search for her report, July 2006. Make sure you go to Buzza bar. I hope you like calimari. If so, make sure you go to Locanda Peskarija at the old port. The best calimari I've ever eaten!

nicolos1

dee-dee,
Thanks a lot. I'm printing tripgirl's message as I type. I love
calimari. Thanks again.
Nick