Going from Dubrovnik to Venice - need help with the Croatian itinerary
 

Hello. My wife and I are heading to Croatia at the end of June and while I have done a fair amount of research online about locations, I am still at a loss about planning the details of our trip so I am hoping folks here can provide some guidance.

We are arriving in Dubrovnik just after 12 noon on June 25th. 13 days later, on July 8th we are flying home from Venice, so I am eventually going to have to get over to Italy to fly home. I have been to Venice before but my wife has not, so I think we will spend three days there.

From what I understand, there are three sea crossings from Croatia to Italy: Dubrovnic to Bari, Split to Ancona and Rovinj to Venice. I am assuming we will do one of those, but I'm not sure we will have time to make our way all the way up to Rovinj.

My wife and I are different travelers. I am more fast paced who likes to see the sights and move on to the next place. My wife likes a little slower pace. She will definitely want to spend some time on the beach on this trip (something that I am not into very much), so we'll have to make some compromises on this trip. We both enjoy good food and a bit of nightlife as well.

I know we are hitting Dubrovnic at peak time and there will be cruise ships hittng the city every day we are there. If I have to spend a couple extra days in Dubrovnic and see the sites in the morning and evenings, outside of the time the ships are docked, I am fine with that. Perhaps a day trip or two out of Dubrovnik would be good.

A friend of my wife's told her that Hvar is "a must" so our itinerary is going to have to involve visiting there, but I have no idea where we should stay or how long we should stay there.

I usually don't rent cars when I am overseas so I would prefer to plan a trip that involves buses, trains and ferries. If renting a car will simply save a massive amount of time and not add too much hassle, I would consider doing it.

If anyone has any sample itineraries or other suggestions for me, I will take any and all advice.

Thanks!

First, I hope you have at least one good guide book. The one that I found most helpful of the half dozen I used to plan my trip to Croatia was The Rough Guide.

With your limited time, you will have to be extremely selective about what you see / experience in Croatia.

"She will definitely want to spend some time on the beach on this trip" -- perhaps I am mistaken, but I don't believe that Croatia is really known for its beaches.

Dubrovnik itself can generally be seen in just a day or at most two -- and I say that as someone who spends much more time at almost any destination than most Fodorites!

Hvar Town is a lovely, very (VERY) upscale resort town that is on many itineraries. Check the ferry schedules carefully to make sure that you can there and back to the mainland in ways that fit your plans.

For many parts of Croatia, a car would be nothing but an incumbrance. There are a few places where it can be a decided advantage.

Please get a good guidebook. And you might find it helpful to look at some trip reports on this board, or better yet, some of the planning threads, where you can learn what people considered and why they did / did not do certain things.

It's a beautiful part of the world!

Croatia is mostly visited for it's beaches
http://www.croatia-beaches.com/

I suggest to travel through the Islands (charming medieval Venetian style towns and beaches with cristal clear water), may be like this:
Dubrovnik - catamaran (from July 1st) - Korcula - catamaran - Hvar - ferry - Split - bus - Trogir (medieval city) - Sibenik (Krka Falls National Park) - Zadar - ferry - Mali Losinj.
Mali Losinj - Venice: either direct Saturday catamaran or ferry to Pula plus direct Pula - Venice bus
Timetables:
http://www.gv-line.hr/raspored.php?linija=3
http://www.jadrolinija.hr/docs/defau...e.pdf?sfvrsn=2
http://www.jadrolinija.hr/docs/defau...n.pdf?sfvrsn=2
http://www.croatiaferries.com/ferry-timetables.htm
http://www.venezialines.it/schedules
http://www.brioni.hr/en-us/prijevozp...ulapadova.aspx

Guinness:

All the beaches along the Dalmatian coast (Croatia) are narrow and rocky - no fun. The only decent beaches are on several of the islands, but as noted above, you will have to budget your time well and I don't think you will get to too many islands.

Hvar is definitely a delight. From Hvar, and for that matter, from many places on the coast there are day excursions to islands with lovely beaches.

There's a lot to see, and most of the country is long and narrow. We have been to Croatia 3 times and each time concentrated on a different area.

Here's a link to our web page about our last visit there:
http://www.travel.stv77.com/croatia/slovenia.htm
(inside is a link to the first trip)

Perhaps it will help you in your planning.

Croatia has of course no coconut palm fringed coral sand beaches. Most of them are pebbly, a bit like 5Terre or Amalfi Coast, but of course much better.
Most popular sandy beaches: Lopar, Lopud, Lumbarda, Palmizana....

To create your 9 day itinerary, I would first determine how you will get to Venice. I agree getting to Istria for the Venice ferry would be too fast paced. If you want to focus on the south, you may want to look into just flying to Venice. Alternatively, explore the ferry options from the south and train connections to Venice. I think that is probably too time consuming as well.
Once you have those logistics sorted, you can make the difficult decisions about what to include.
Late June should not be too bad--certainly not like July/August.
In addition to a guide book, the Croatian tourist board website is good: http://croatia.hr/en-GB/Homepage
I have visited three times without a car and it is absolutely fine to do so.