Driving Plitvice Lakes to Dubrovnick in one day
 

We have a week in Croatia planned starting in mid-June. The trip unavoidably starts just east of Venice and the plan is to drive in to Croatia, keeping the same car the whole time.

The basic idea is to drive to Plitvice Lakes on day one, spend the afternoon and morning there and then drive all the way to Dubrovnick the next day, arriving in the evening. Two nights in Dubrovnick and then a slower trip back up the coast, taking the bulk of the time on the trip on the way back to the Venice area.

The only real concern is getting to Dubrovnick from Plitvice Lakes after leaving the park around noon. Google Maps says the trip is 5 hours, 25 min so with a rest break thrown in I would hope it would be no more than 6 hours. Is this a reasonable expectation?

Thanks in advance,

John

Many say that viamichelin's website is more accurate with drive length estimates, so I would check there too.

It's 10 hrs by bus, with many intermediate stops.

Wow, what a difference between Google Maps (5 hr 25 min, 444km) and Michelin (9hr 15 min, 635 km). Can Google really be off by 4 hours and nearly 200km?

The route seem to be essentially the same until you get to Opuzen. Google then goes south along the coast passing along the tiny coastline of Bosnia & Herzegovnia. Michelin avoids this area by turning east and going in a big wide loop through Bosnia & Herzegovnia then approaching Dubrovnick from the south along the coast.

Is there a problem with Google's route? Is it not possible to keep driving south along the coast to get to Dubrovnick?

I drove from Plitvice to Makarska on a long afternoon in early October a few years ago. I left just after noon and got into Makarska (Baska Voda) just before sunset, and I didn't feel like I was pushing too hard - and that was about 60% of the drive time to Dubrovnik. Google says is another 2.5hr drive from Baska Voda to Dubrovnik. The sun will be out longer on your day than on mine in October, but you may also encounter more traffic in June. I had almost none in October. Much of your driving will be on the modern A1 freeway, though.

But remember that you have to cross into a small section of Bosnia and Herzegovina when you drive down the Croatian coast, and there are border checks both crossings (into BiH, then back into Croatia). My border crossings were super quick, but I'd guess if there's much traffic these might back up and cause delays.

I'd say you will have a long driving day but that it is doable. Biggest concern might be arrival in Dubrovnik, which could be tricky if you've never been there. I found it a tad stressful driving there, around in circles a few times (was trying to figure out where to drop off the rental car). It is important to have a good idea where you are going exactly and how to get there - and if you are staying somewhere plan on having a mobile phone you can call the hotel/landlord before arrival in case you get lost.

I have heard of discrepancies, hence my recommendation--but not that big of a discrepancy! Since there is no need to do that circuitous route (google also offers it as an alternative), try playing around with the viamichelin parameters to see if you can get an apples to apples comparison.

Thanks Andrew. There are somewhat conflicting reports on the web about passing through the Nuem corridor but most of them indicate that you just stay in the transit lane for just passing through and if stopped they just want to stamp your passport. I wonder why Michelin takes such an out of the way loop? Oh well...

So it sounds like maybe 6 or 7 hours is doable? Mid June we will have long days so if we leave at noon as long as we are there by 8 pm I think it should be fine.

Yorkshire - I did try some preliminary changes to the Michelin route parameters and they didn't seem to do much. I'll try it a bit more extensively tonight. Thanks.

When I drove it in 2009 I detoured over to Mostar before heading on to Dubrovnik and avoided Neum so I can't comment on what passing through there is like. Nine hours sounds like a big overestimate though.

if you are still getting very discrepant results, you might also check mappy:
http://en.mappy.com/#/0/M2/THome/N0,...8,51.50015/Z3/
I've found it to be a bit less reliable than viamichelin and much more reliable than googlemaps. Just my experience.

Mappy says 7 hours and shows the same route Google does. I'll just take it as between 6 and 7 hours. If we leave by noon we should be fine, although it will be a long day.

I'll be looking forward to the more relaxed route on the way back to Italy.

Thanks.