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I know, this is way to long, but there's so much we couldn't find out before we left. I hate to leave any of the details out.... I promise to finish this up soon!

July 2

Plitvice Lakes National Park - Rovinj


Rain and cool tempertures greeted us this morning. Maybe not the best circumstances to tour the park. Skipping the 9:00 breakfast at the sobe, we arrived at entrance 1 at Plitvice. Perhaps, not surprisenly, we were the only people entering the park. A day ticket is 100 kuna in July. We needed jackets and umbrellas, but the weather wasn’t to bad yet.


We were going to hike uphill, from the lower lakes to the upper lakes. It’s a very gradual path, so wasn’t steep at all. I was very happy we had decided on this route because we were walking towards the waterfalls, so the view of them was much better than if we had walked the other direction. Following the G2 trail we walked down a path with several switchbacks to the water level. Boardwalks wind through the park, and for the most part you stay on them. There are places you’ll want to take the dirt paths though. It was getting muddy, with all the rain, so it can be hard on your shoes.


The water is crystal clear. There are so many fish, so easily seen. No fishing allowed here! It took us maybe 1 ½ hours to see this portion. It is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been! We passed no other people in this time. Such peace.


We arrived at Lake Kozjak where you’ll take a boat ride which connects the Lower and Upper lakes. Again, we were the only ones here, but they still ran the boat just for us. This is a large rest area, with a restaurant, picnic tables, outdoor food booths (if they are open) bathrooms etc. It would be a good place for lunch if the weather was nice and it was later in the day! I think other people started their visit later than this early morning hour, and started at entrance 2 and walked downhill.


Again, we followed the C and G2 trails up to Gradinsko Lake. We did start meeting other people along the way, coming from the other direction. This was even more beautiful, if that’s possible. We continued up to the top of the Upper Lakes and finished at shuttle bus stop ST4. We took the shuttle from this spot, back down. We spent 4 hours here in total.


The beauty here is unimaginable. Hundred of waterfalls, all sizes and shapes made me feel as if I was in the Garden of Eden. I think it’s the most beautiful area Croatia has to offer.


We needed to drive to Rovinj where we were to spend the night. This is a long drive. I had consulted viamichelin.com about the best route to take. I had two possibilities. I also had the Rough Guide map of Croatia. I didn’t really understand where the toll road was open and where it wasn’t completed yet. We wanted to see some of the countryside so we exited the park to the right, and drove down Highway 1 to 52, took it south and connected to 50. This was very scenic and we passed by several women selling honey, lace, cheese and more in small booths along the way. We stopped at one booth and bought some smoked cheese for lunch. She was a great saleswoman and we ended up buying honey also! We also saw a fair amount of war damage along the way, in the villages. My heart really went out to these people.


Although there is great beauty here, this route was taking a very long time to travel. I knew we’d better pick up the pace. We came to the toll road, and one sign said it went to Rijeka. Great, we needed to go through Rijeka, so we got on the toll road. What we didn’t realize was that this road actually went North towards Zagreb. We drove on this toll road, north, for quite awhile before realizing what we were doing! In the end it probably worked out ok, since we were going so quickly, and eventually it did veer towards Rijeka, but only after going north for many miles. We saw more of Croatia than we planned on!


Opatija was one town I wanted to see on the way. We drove through, couldn’t find any parking. It is a large, resort town and has beautiful architecture, but was so large and croweded. We were happy we had not decided to stay here.


Continuing on into Istria where the scenery is very different than in Dalmatia and inland Croatia we continued. Some here love it, but we were disappointed in our approach to Rovinj. The signs were so hard to follow. There are signs everywhere, littering the views. You can’t really spot the place you are looking for. We passed the turn off to Rovinj the first time we drove by. Turning around we followed a road into town, wondering if we had chosen the best place to spend our last few days.


Parking is very difficult in Rovinj. Luckily we found a spot by some large pink building right on the harbor. It was the only available parking space, but we needed only one! There is an information/ travel office close to this lot, so we walked in and asked where our hotel was. We were staying at the Adriatic Hotel right in the town square.


Contact: [email protected] Phone: 385 52815088 Fax 0038552813573
€44 per person, per night. Includes breakfast buffet, local tax is additional €1 per person/ night
Must arrive by 6 p.m. or call +385 52 815088 before 6 p.m..


The rooms here were sadly decorated. They looked so old and dreary. The location is fabulous, the beds so comfortable and the a/c excellent. There is no elevator, and many stairs. We had to carry our own luggage up these stairs. Oh well, you can’t have it all!


The town is well preserved and delightful. The stone streets are very steep and very, very slick. We saw more than one person take a tumble. It’s also great for photos. We hiked up to St. Euphemia’s church at the very top of the town.


Up here, just down from the church is the excellent and beautiful Monte restaurant. This is the finest restaurant in town, but we weren’t aware of this at the time. The menu is large, has many fish plates, of course, but also meat plus they have a wonderful wine list. After the long day we just had, we decided to have dinner here. What a fantastic choice this was. It’s open to the outside, has a large grapevine growing up from the floor, through the roof, and flowers snaking up the walls. It’s very artfully decorated, the food just excellent. The white house wine is supurb! We ended up returning here for a second dinner.

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July 3 Pula, Motovun, Grozjan, and Piran, Slovenia



The Adriatic Hotel includes a very large, excellent breakfast buffet. We enjoyed breakfast outside, overlooking the harbor. All types of boats are docked here. There are several small grocery stores, and bakeries in town. There are also several different travel companies, if you want to book day trips. No rental car agencies are located here, but there is a bus station with many destinations. They just don’t run to any one place to often.

Leaving Rovinj for the day, we drove to Pula. The traffic into Pula is on a one lane road. It backs up terribly. We were so fortunate to arrive early. There still was a traffic back up, but it was so much worse when we left town. GO EARLY, otherwise you’ll wait for more than an hour to get into the center.

We easily found a parking spot on the street, right across from the amphitheater. You’ll need coins for the parking meter. Buy a card in the machine, and put it inside your windshield. This amphitheater is very large, and quite intact. It’s wonderful to wander around, and there is an excellent, small museum in the underground area.

Pula has more to offer. We visited the Archaeological museum, and the sculpture garden around it. We also saw the Triumphal Arch of Sergius and the Roman theater and walls.

We probably spent 2 or 2 ½ hours in Pula.

Driving onto the hilltown of Motovun in the interior of the Istrian Peninsula, we passed a few sunflower fields. There are several artist shops here, but many were closed. A man was carving wood into nice plaques. We passed by a very small store front, which was actually a factory full of women sewing. How dreary. The views from the top of town were vast. There is a hotel and pretty square at the top where we enjoyed lunch under the plane trees.

Grozjan was our next destination. This is another hilltop town. We drove up the gravel road, but should have bypassed it, to the paved road further up the road. This is even a tinier town, with artist shops, most closed. We walked around a bit, enjoyed the pretty square, overlooking the valley and snacked on geleto!

This area was nice enough, but disappointing to us after the incredible beauty we had enjoyed in the rest of Croatia. Istria just seemed, sleepy, and boring, after the other experiences we had in this country. If we had bypassed it, we would not have cared.

Piran, Slovenia was our last stop for the day. It seemed so bright and modern compared to Istria. We loved it. Unless you are spending the night here, don’t take a ticket and drive into the town. There is nowhere to park. You will regret it. Stop at the large parking lot just before the barred entrance and leave your car here. You can take the small bus to town or walk. We walked. The harbor is so pretty, sailboats, and more sailboats are docked here.

Stopping at the TI we picked up a bit of information and told them how much we liked this area. The woman here was almost apologetic, saying they try their best, but they are just a small town.
We were able to use Euros here even though they have their own currency.

The joy here is just walking through the village, notice the Venitian house here, then walking the promenade around the sea. The waters on the western side of the point were calm. Many people were climbing into the sea here, down chrome ladders. Others just had their towels laid out on the cement walkway and were enjoying the bright sunshine. There are café’s strung all along the coastline.


As we walked around the point it became incredibly windy. The waves were high and they were crashing over the rocks. You couldn’t swim here. Italy was visable across the sea. We cut back through the center of town, where the wind wasn’t a factor. We did a bit of shopping on the return back to our car.

Crossing the border into and out of Slovenia is effertless. A quick check of your passport is all it takes. We were hoping to visit the Skocjan caves or the Lipica stud farm nearby, but we had no more time.


Dinner this evening was at Stella de Mar, right on the sea in Rovinj. The food was fine, but not great. They had a great attitude here though and the view was marvelous.

Along this lane there are several nice places you can have drinks, all along the sea. Often the seating is on little couches, or pillows. Walk up to the light house in Rovinj and you’ll see the local children swimming off the rocks. It’s a nice area.

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July 4 Independence day in the U.S. Returning our rental car, not so easy, and the islands off Rovinj

We had to get up so early this morning. Our challenge was in returning the car to Alamo/National, in Porec. I had the address of the location and had tried to Goggle it before we left. All I could find was an apartment on the same street. The Split rental office had no map or guidance to where the office in Porec was. They did give me the phone number and mobil number of the office. I asked them about a pick up service of our car in Rovinj. (There is no rental car office of any agency in Rovinj.) They said it would be 35€ to do this. We decided to return it ourselves.



It takes about 1 hour to drive from Rovinj to Porec because you have to drive around the fjord between the two towns. The public bus schedule between these towns is terrible. There is a 9 a.m. bus, maybe a 9:15 bus, then nothing until 3p.m., another around 6 p.m. The office was to be open from 8-5, but it is actually open from 8-12 and 6-9.


I stopped into an information office in Rovinj to ask for advise on finding the office. They had a combination Rovinj/Porec map for $6. We bought it and found the street. Without this map, we never would have found the street.

There is a large Konzum grocery store on the corner of the street you are to turn at. The major road seems to be nameless We saw that Pulska, the road the office is on, is a one way road. We couldn't find the way onto it in the right direction, so we drove up it the wrong way. The office is actually a rented garage of an apartment where people live. Those people have nothing to do with the rental office, but were nice enough to tell us that the woman working there doesn't usually show up at 8 a.m. and we would have to call her. It took two calls, (phone number on the door) but she arrived at 8:20. She was in horror looking at our car, and not happy at all with the broken fuel gage or the dents and bruises on the car. Only the major ones were recorded since the Split office said the minor ones didn't matter and didn't need to be marked on the paperwork. I knew this didn't sound good at the time. We convinced her that this was the way we received the car, and yes, it was full of gas. When she heard we picked it up in downtown Split, she understood. She has a low opinion of this office and said she would not be keeping this car on her lot! Her cars actually looked very good. It took her at least 30 minutes to check us in, and thankfully drove us to the bus station in Porec for the 9 a.m. bus back to Rovinj.

We arrived at 10 a.m. and Hotel Adriatic kindly cooked us some hot eggs, since the breakfast was over at 10 and most of the food was gone! Quite a morning...


We were happy to not have a car any longer, but we couldn't have seen the wonderful National Parks, and drive through Istria and up into Slovenia without it.


It was a good day to relax at the beach so we took the Sol Istra boat over to Crveni otok or Red Island. Maskin Island is connected to Red Island by causeway. This boat was packed. People jammed onto it. I know you’re to buy tickets, but noone ever came around collecting money.

This area was really much to crowded for us. The huge Sol Istra hotel is on Red Island, and there are people everywhere. We walked over the causeway to Maskin Island which is part FKK and part whatever. There is a restaurant here but it also looked uninviting. We found a quiet place alone and spent a few hours here. There was no shade, so it wasn’t the best place. Later we walked to the closer side of the island where there was a bit of shade, and spent an hour under the scrubby trees, but still along the water.


This wasn’t the best way to end our time in Croatia, so we had another excellent dinner this evening at Monte, the incredible restaurant up by the cathedral in Rovinj.

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Ok, You're lucky, this is the finale!!


July 5 Journey to Venice


We took the SAF (Italian Bus) from Rovinj to Venice this morning. It departed at 5:40 a.m. and arrived in Venice at 10:15. We bought the tickets for this bus 2 days earlier, but there were empty seats on it. The tickets cost $20 one way. We had considered the catamaran between Rovinj and Venice, but it didn’t make the trip on this day. Those tickets are about $50 one way, leaves later, and gets in just a bit later.

The bus jouney was very comfortable, on an a/c bus. Our luggage was stored under the bus for a small fee. We made plenty of stops on the way. Most of the women on the bus got off in Trieste.

The other way you can make this connection is to take a later bus to Trieste, then transfer to the train and take it to Venice. The bus station is right next to the train station in Trieste.


Arriving in Venice so early was fantastic. It gave us almost the entire day in Venice. It was our third trip here, and we spent several days here last year, but no matter, Venice is amazing.

We bought the one day travel card at the bus station for 12€. It is valid for 24 hours from the time of stamping. A big change here were the ticket checkers at almost every vaporetto stop. Last year they did random checks, this year everyone was checked as the boarded the vaporetto.

Our room at Pensione Guerrato wasn’t ready yet, but we left our luggage here and went for lunch at our very favorite bar, very close to our pensione. The seats are canal side, on the Grand Canal, but set around the corner from the Rialto Bridge area, and not many people seem to know it’s here. Naranzaria at San Polo 130 www.naranzaria.it is the bar/restaurant.


Pensione Guerrato 95€ or 90€ if you pay in cash. Phone: 041.5285927 RIALTO BRIDGE AREA
In order to reach hotel from Venice Train Station: vaporetto #82 direction Rialto –San Marco, and get off at the Rialto stop. Cross over the Rialto bridge and continue walking straight through the market area where you will see on your right. At the “BANCA di ROMA” bank turn to your right and at the end of this street “calle” you will see the sign and the entrance of our Hotel.


We shopped for a swirled glass vase that I wanted, found one in lovely colors, then returned to our room.

Dinner at La Zucca, our favorite place to eat in Venice was wonderful. We reserved the canal side table, outdoors ahead of time, and it was waiting for us. There is a tiny canal bridge right next to this table and it’s enjoyable watching the gondolas glide by, under this bridge. Last year the water was higher and the gondolas had quite a time fitting under the bridge. This year the water was lower so it wasn’t a challenge.


France was having a World Cup Game tonight, but we had to turn in so couldn’t enjoy the game. We had a very early morning wake up call, because of our early flight from Venice to Rome in the morning and had no TV in our room. There was a/c though!



July 6 Home Venice to Rome to Newark to Cincinnati

Taking the “night” vaporetto, in the early morning. Vaporetto Line 1 from Rialto to Plazzale Roma, so we could catch the bus at Piazzale Roma to the airport. Yawn, it was so early.

I asked the bus driver who won the match last night. He had no idea, but another passenger did. France is moving on, to play Italy in the final!! (We now know this ended ugly for me).

We arrived at the airport and they were checking in for an even earlier flight between Venice and Rome.

We were flying on FF tickets but asked anyhow if we could take this earlier flight. No problem, no fee, they switched our tickets and we were off to Rome. This was so helpful, because it would have been very tight making our connection otherwise.

We were on a wonderful 777 I think, Alitalia flight from Rome to Newark. Each seat had it’s own individual screen with movies on demand. It’s the first time we had on demand programming. The control was complicated and it took a bit of figuring out, but what a luxury
in coach on an international flight.

Well, if anyone was patient enough to read this lengthy report, I hope you got a few nuggests of usefull information out of it! Happy travels to Croatia.

grch

Hello Images2 My husband and I are another couple that will be travelling Croatia in September. I have been enjoying both your's and Tripgirl's reports heaps. We will fly into Frankfurt and will make our way by train down through Lake Bled and Ljublijana. Then bus down to Plitvice with a further 3 weeks in other areas of Croatia. I was also interested in staying at the Knezevic guest house in Plitvice but as we are arriving by bus was a bit concerned about the distance from the bus stop, park entrance, food etc.,. They advise they are 150 mtrs from the bus stop but I can not seem to get a reply from them when I enquired about the distance from the park entrance, food market etc., Hope you can help as I would prefer to have a room booked before we arrive. Thanks in advance.

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Hi grch!

Glad to help if I can. Their home is very near the main road, so if the bus goes by regularly you are are fine. The town they live in is small, we drove around a bit, and it's only a neighborhood of homes. Very attractive. I think there was a post office also. We were looking for a restaurant here and there was none. There is a decent restaurant at entrance 1 at the park though.

The park is a 5 minute drive, down the same road. Very close. This would be to entrance 2. The grocery stores are like camp stores. They are at both entrances to the park. We didn't see any other grocery store. The main large town that is in this area is a good 15-20 minutes drive away. That's no help. The grocery store had a pretty good selection of food in it. We bought packaged ham and cheese for sandwiches, since the grill only had sausages left by the time we arrived in the evening. Other venders outdoors in this same area were selling really good pastries. They sold out also, but not before we bought 1.

If you have the time you could even walk to the park. The area is so very pretty. It's thick forest, but highway 1 the road, is a bit busy. I know alot of the "kids" at entrance 2 were looking for sobe's and I'm sure they didn't have cars.

I'm sorry I can't help you with the bus schedule, since we had a car we didn't pay any attention to that.

Mrs. Knezevic doesn't speak much english, so that may be the problem. I don't know who answered my e-mails to her.

She's very warm and friendly though. When we left her home at 7:30 in the morning, she stood outside and waved goodbye to us, just like we were leaving home!

I don't think there would be a closer place to stay in a sobe. The park hotels have transportation to the park starting at 9 a.m. They are much more expensive though, and really not as nice as this sobe!

Good luck. Any more questions, I'll be happy to try and answer them! You're fortunate to have so much time to spend in Croatia!

xyz99

Images2,
This is absolutely great trip report, so informative, I love it!

We’ll have about a day and a half at Plivice. So you suggest starting with G2 towards the Lake Kozjak nd then to the upper lakes, right? I need to write down these instructions
We’re staying at Bellevue, did you happen to see it?

Then, same as you, we’ll have to drive to Rovinj – any tips on which road to take? Did you follow the viamichelin or Rough Guide directions?

We’re staying there a few days (hotel Adriatic). Did you have a sea-view room? Or on the other side? We were told that all rooms on the sea side have twin beds, and we wanted a queen/king size one, so we are staying on the other side. Any idea what kind of view they have? Someone on this board said that the hotel is very noisy, what was your experience?

Somebody on this board (I think it was aeiger) loved Istria, so I hope we’re going to see it differently than you did – we’re staying there 4 days. Also, we are there before going to Hvar and Dubrovnik (saving the best for last) and hopefully that might make a difference, too.

Thanks again for all the info, I’m sure I’ll have more questions later.

aprillilacs

Great report! It's so full of information, and you did so many interesting things. I appreciate your traveling style. This is definitely a report we'll use as we plan for our next trip to Croatia. Thanks!

HappyCheesehead

Images2 It was a completely wonderful report and not at all too long IMHO. I learned a lot and will bet it will be a very useful tool for many a Fodorite coming after!

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Thanks so much for your nice comments. I've learned so very much on the Fodor's boards for our trips. I really appreciate everyone that posts their reports.

I'm back to "planning" our next trip. Reading the old posts here. We'll be spending a week in the Netherlands, hopfully while the tuips are blooming, and we'll be there for Queen's Day. That may be more than we can handle though! Then we'll fly SkyEurope to Prague, spend 5 days there, then fly on SkyEurope to Barcelona, and spend a week in the Pyrenees, French and Spanish sides, flying home from Biarritz. It'll take several boards to research this trip, but I have lots of time! We have a grandaughter arriving in October (her birth!!!!) so we're staying home for awhile.

Thanks so much everyone for all your help on our Hungary and Croatia trip. It was fantastic. I'm envious of you September people going soon. I hope you have as wonderful time there as we did!

Syl

xyz99,
We're going to Plitvice after Pula (1/2 hr after Rovinj apparently).So the route backwards would be, according to Via Michelin:
Karlovac E71 Rte 1 to E65 Rte 3 to E65 Rte 8 (near Opatija) to E751 rte 21 (pass Lovran) to Pula to Rovinj.
I'm really looking forward to Istria as well.

rcormier

what a wonderful trip report - the details were exquisite and certainly what make each report so unique and special. i was so moved by your descriptions of your conversations with jadranka and will certainly make it a point on my trip in sept. to converse with as many locals as possible to get the full experience.

i will be doing your exact route from dubrovnik to split to hvar. am deciding whether to bus up (8am) to catch the 3pm catamaran or to rent a car instead. since you experienced both a rental and the bus, which would you suggest? also, do you by chance know if there are late afternoon/early evening catamarans from hvar back to split? we don't want to leave quite so early in the day. thanks so much for all your help.

tripgirl

rcormier,

Tripgirl here.



My first plan was to take the bus at 8am which would bring me into Split about 12pm ( or thereabouts depending on traffic and stops) and then we were going to take the catamaran over to Hvar Town from there.

But the more we thought about it, it was easier to just get aboard the ferry and go directly to Hvar, even though you come into Stari Grad. However with you staying at the Riva now, all you need to to do is walk off the ferry and walk right into your hotel.
So its up to you. We loved the ferry ride as the ship is big, we met people, we could take air outside, we ate lunch, etc, etc.

We got to Hvar at 4:40pm.

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Thanks rcormier,

Jadrolinija's catamaran made the trip from Hvar to Split at 1 p.m. Since you're going in a different season, I'm not sure if that time will be the same. They have a web site, so you could check their schedule there. I don't know if any other companies have mid afternoon or evening crossings. The travel agency we used, right by Hotel Riva, will have the schedules.

We were very happy with the bus between Dubrovnik and Split. You can get buses at many different times, you don't have to ride the early bus! Ours was a/c and very comfortable. We didn't want a car for the trip, because we were spending 5 days on Hvar and didn't need it there. If you want to stop and see towns on the way, you may want a car. We were very happy with our decision. We also didn't want to take the ferry. I thought the trip was to long, and it was so hot, I knew I'd be uncomfortable. Also, by arriving in Split at 12:30 it gave us a couple of hours to see Dio. Palace.

Yes, we really enjoyed our conversations with Jadranka. We learned alot from her. I don't want her to get the "blame" for the bitterness we heard from a shopkeeper. The shopkeeper was the one who really felt the loss in income, from what it was before the war. She was very touching though. She actually shed some tears, telling us about the situation now. It was very genuine.

So many decisions, I know. You just need to decide what's best for you!

Have fun.