You don't need a car, except perhaps for Plitvice. The buses in Croatia are fine. I have traveled in the Balkans on my own in my later sixties, if you are in good health you should be fine.

Hotels usually include breakfast, so that's nothing to worry about. If you travel light you don't need transfers in most of those places, and if you do there are taxis.

You don't need a tour for Dubrovnik or Ljubljana, nor do you need one for Split if you have a good guidebook. I think you may be doing too much in 14 days (how many nights?). Can you lay this out in this format?

Day 1 - leave US, night on plane
Day 2 - arrive X, night in X
Day 3 - sightseeing X, night in X

BTW, I was NOT recommending the site I linked, I just thought it might be the one you were using. However, if you really want a tour you might look at this: https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/eas...urope/adriatic or https://www.adventures-abroad.com/tour/the-adriatic/ad1 or https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-...adriatic-coast

You can also book tours in each town if you like, if you don't want to rely on a guidebook.

Buses are fine between most places (also trains between Zagreb and Ljubljana), but I've found driving very easy in Croatia and Slovenia myself. Still, I well understand that some people just don't want to drive, period.

There is a service that will take you between Split and Zagreb (either direction) in a day and stop for a few hours at Plitvice. I haven't used them myself (google for them), but it would be one way to see Plitvice and simplify the connection by bus there. Mid-day in Plitvice can be very crowded but probably not in April. Plitvice is very easy to tour yourself, too - it's a very developed park (maybe too much).

Hmm, I just checked the Zicasso site.

Looks like no published prices so every tour is customized. That is probably a good way to make it expensive, if you're the only person in the tour or it's a very small group.

And they're probably trying to gauge how much you're willing to pay, how much you need your hand held, etc. and then seeing if you bite on some of their prices.

If you don't want to plan and not comfortable doing it on your own, you can join some scheduled tour but of course these will always be more expensive than doing it on your own. But they will just guide you everywhere and you just need to show up each day.

You might get some useful information from my trip report from an 8 day trip that included Dubrovnik, Korcula, Split, Trogrir. We did everything by public transportation (mostly boat) but we also did two organized day tours to Mostar and Kotor (which seemed simpler than renting a car). It was very easy and relatively inexpensive. This trip I did with my husband but I travel solo quite a bit and would have been very comfortable in Croatia on my own. The only part of your itinerary that sounds like it would be at all hard by public transportation would be the Plitvice lakes but as others have mentioned, it is possible - or you could just skip that one destination. In the trip report I list prices of accommodations, tours, etc.

Here is the trip report (scroll down to post #56 to get to the Croatia part) https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...-854867/page4/

The photos are now here: Zenfolio | Isabel's_View | Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro

Again, the choice is entirely yours, but as I noted on some of your other threads, traveling in Croatia as a solo female is very easy, and you can see that several of us have done so and are happy to help.

Personally, I don’t feel the need for a 4* hotel and even often prefer something a bit simpler; your call, but you might want to check booking.com to get a sense of your options and costs.

As others have noted, you do NOT need a tour of Dubrovnik, Rovinj, or Ljubljana – they are all very small and easily explored on one’s own. Split and Zagreb are larger, but both are also extremely easy to visit – you just need to have a decent guidebook. And if you did want a tour for either of those cities (or any other!) you should be able to arrange them through the local tourist information office or your hotel (even if you aren’t staying anywhere fancy).

Buses and ferries are comfortable and convenient, and you can easily get good information about how and where to catch them on line or in a decent guidebook. As already noted, the ONLY part of your trip for which a car would provide any real advantage is your visit to the Plitvice Lakes National Park – and for that, you can arrange a day tour from Split or from Zagreb, and I suspect you can even make arrangements to visit that part en route from Split to Zagreb.

The only risk I see to trying to plan this trip on yourself is that traveling solo can be addictive. :) Seriously, you can do it! And if you run out of energy, then you run out of energy – you find a place to stop and recover. Doing so is really not difficult. That’s got to cost less than this tour!!!

I can’t tell you what you define as aggravation or how much you are willing to pay to avoid it. I can only say that I think you are considering paying a LOT for very little, and in the process, you will miss some of the great experiences of travel – the freedom to spend a bit more time here or there, etc.

And no, you don’t owe Zicasso anything, other than a polite "thanks, but no thanks" (if that’s how you choose to go).

If you decide to forego Zicasso, please let us know what plans to which you have committed (e.g., what cities will you fly into and out of) so we can be as useful as we can.

And please, even if you go with Zicasso, DO get yourself a good guidebook. Of the MANY I used for Croatia, the Rough Guide was far and away the best.

Hope that helps! And good luck. :)

Re running out of energy . . . That possibility makes traveling I dependently even more desirable IMO. When you have a 'down' day, if you are on your own, you can just veg out for the day, or sit in a cafe and people watch. . . Which are not possible on a tour.

I think that should read: ... traveling independently even...

Thank you all for taking the time to give all this great information and support. I'm going to get back my moxie and plan the trip myself. I traveled by myself a lot before I met my husband. Sometimes I was lonely, other times I hooked up with great people. I will look at all the information offered here and look back on previous threads on the forum. If I save a lot of money can I shop more...(:

Good for you, TerryThor! :star: :star: :star:

I fly into Dubrovnik on April 14th in the morning from Rome (where I'm visiting with my niece) and leaving from Zagreb on the 28th to fly home. I have Rick Steve's book and Fodor's Croatia. I always like Fodor's hotel ideas. Been using them for years.

I used a half dozen guide books when I planned my time in Croatia, and over my travels (all independent and solo), I have used well over 100 different guidebooks. The ONLY guide book that I found a complete waste of money was the Rick Steves book on Croatia. I agree that there is incredibly valuable information in the Fodor's guidebook -- but it is not nearly as comprehensive as the Rough Guide.

>>
I think that should read: ... traveling independently even...<<

The perils of autocorrect :)

The Rick Steves Croatia/Slovenia book is terrific - I've used it on both of my trips to Croatia, and I found it essential, especially on the first trip. It doesn't cover every place you might visit in Croatia, but with only two weeks you won't have much more time than covering the highlights, anyway.

Your trip should be a blast! In April, you shouldn't have any crowds at all.

[QUOTE=Andrew;16689819]The Rick Steves Croatia/Slovenia book ... doesn't cover every place you might visit in Croatia, but with only two weeks you won't have much more time than covering the highlights, anyway./QUOTE]

All the more reason, IMO, to use a guide book that covers much more, so that you can decide what YOU want to see and do! :)

I understand R S doesn't cover many places but biggest failing is inaccuracies, meaning poor or no research.

Not true in my experience, and I've used his book for every country I've visited where he publishes a book.

biggest failing is inaccuracies, meaning poor or no research

That is not a truthful statement. How do you think he publishes guidebooks with "no research"?

Some people simply dislike Rick Steves for some reason, I've found. He seems to invite hyperbolic criticism.

I think there are two things people object to about Rick Steves. For one, he's a bit 'goofy' and can come across as a little condescending to his readers. And two, a big part of his business is his tours, so I think his books are kind of like 'tours in book form'. A tour doesn't go everywhere and his books don't cover everywhere - he concentrates on the things he thinks are most worth while, that he would take you on if he were leading you on a tour. So anyone who wants to do more in-depth research is going to need another guide book as well. But to say he is inaccurate or does no research is ridiculous. He (sometimes personally) researches places to the extreme. If he tells you there is a "WC around the corner from the cathedral across from the fountain" then 99% of the time there's going to be one there. And he describes what you are looking at, including researched interpretations of those things (like the front of a cathedral, a painting in a museum, or a fountain). The kinds of things tour guides tell you. As a rather obsessive planner I always read at least 3 or 4 guidebooks (plus hours of internet research) but Rick Steves is always one of them.

I like the fact that he is subjective - I don't always agree with his opinions, but at least I know where he is coming from! Many of these guide books make every place seem good and are usually quite objective, so sometimes it's hard to narrow down what you might find worth seeing in only a limited amount of time. And I like his practical advice.

I always look at more than one guidebook - well, with the internet, I do more web research now than I used to, but I always have to dig up info on one or two places not covered in Rick's book. I don't have a problem with that, though. Someone spending two weeks in Croatia should find Rick's book very adequate; but if you are spending two months there or one week in Zagreb, you'd probably need to seek out alternate sources to satisfy all of your queries for info. His books and travel style may not be for everyone, but that doesn't justify the obnoxious criticism he tends to receive on Fodor's.