I wouldn't recommend flying into Zagreb at 10am, renting a car(?), driving two hours to Plitvice, hiking for a few hours, then driving two more hours back to Zagreb. That sounds way too tiring to me, plus you probably wouldn't get out onto the hiking trails at Plitvice til about 14:00 in my estimation, given customs, delays, renting a car, finding your way from Zagreb, etc. Plus, wouldn't you be exhausted?

Thank you Andrew. Much appreciated .

Why do you prefer Piran over Trieste. I honestly don't know much about either.

I can't give you a fair evaluation of Trieste, because I was only there about a half hour. I was driven from Piran in the morning to catch a train, so I got a look at the city driving through it. It did not strike me as a particularly inviting town in the core whereas I loved Piran, which is beautiful and a lot smaller, more of a seaside village. (And photogenic - I'm a photographer.) Trieste seems more of a "regular town" whereas Piran is a vacation destination. That's probably not a fair comparison - I should leave it to people who have spent time in both.

Some people seem to love Trieste, others could take it or leave it. It's hard to figure how closely other people's opinions will measure up to your personal tastes. The question is, WHY Trieste? What are your interests in a place - museums? Scenery? What is it you want to see there? If you don't know, research it more. Same for Piran.

I will say that if you go to Rovinj (I didn't get there), you could perhaps skip Piran, which is similar but Rovinj is supposedly nicer.

If you want to see more natural scenery than towns, you could skip Piran and Trieste and spend the time driving through the Julian Alps over the Vrsic Pass from Bled, spend time in Triglav National Park, see Lake Bohinj, etc. before heading down to Rovinj and Pula.

A Rick Steves Croatia/Slovenia book may be helpful!

With so few days, you keep adding destinations, not subtracting them. You need to decide what you really want to see: castles, islands, natural scenery.

Is it possible for you to fly into or out of Split or Bubrovnik? Split has quite a big airport. And it has the remains of Diocletian's retirement palace. The town extends in and out of the palace, a truly unique sight.

Mimar I think I'm going to do something very similar to Andrew's Itinerary. This looks doable. I may take out Trieste and spend a little more time in Slovenia or Istria. Am I still doing too much?

I think Andrew has given you some great ideas. The last itinerary he proposed seems to me to cover some wonderful places at a reasonable pace. Certainly not too rushed.

I agree about skipping Trieste this trip. And I'd skip Pula, not my favorite place, and do a day trip around some of the Istrian hilltowns. I especially liked Groznjan. And then maybe detour briefly to Krk on your way to Plitvice.

The problem with rushing around driving here and there, you miss so much of the charm of Croatia. It's a place to slow down, enjoy people-watching in a sidewalk cafe, dining at the edge of the water, exploring islands. Go back in time, live life a little slower.

So maybe plan another trip someday to the Dalmatian coast; you're missing a lot there.

Hello there...You can get some info here at http://bit.ly/sjAKpP . If you go in this season,it will be very busy, and moving from place will be slow and tiring. Apartments for short stays are not hard to find and comes in budget. Parking in Dubrovnik a nightmare though.
11 days in Dubrovnik.
Less time in Split region, I prefer Trogir.
See the lakes on the way north or from Rijeka region. You can see Istria from there too.
Rijeka to Ljubljana has a fast train link.
Automatic transmission is available bue more expensive.
Bled is beautiful but not a lot to do in the region.

Cheers!!
Ankush

Originally I was going to see Dalmatia but didn't think I could do it with Slovenia within about 8 days or so, so I picked Istria instead. Ankush your link looks like a great trip. If I could do everything I wanted I'd Probably do

Ljubljana
Bled
Rovinj
Plitvice
Hvar
Dubrovnik

I'd probably need about two weeks though for that itinerary.

I was in Slovenia last year. Originally we had planned to see Zagreb and Plitvice as well, but Slovenia was so enjoyable that we ended up dropping the Croatia part of the trip (we will do it next year, I hope). We were able to change our plans daily because we rented a car and did not have any pre-booked rail or train tickets or hotels. So if you are thinking "Am I still doing too much?" then perhaps you should look at a car rental as a solution that will give flexibility to your itinerary.

In Istria should I use Rovinj or Krk as my home base. I've heard Krk is a good central location. I want to do a day trip to the hill towns and if I stay in Krk will probably stay 2 days in Rovinj. .

Uh, Krk is not in Istria. It's an island in the northern Adriatic. Krk town is well down the island away from the bridge to the mainland.

So I guess it better be Rovinj, which is indeed a nice place to stay.

Would Rovinj in May be warm enough to go to the beach and swim?

You seem pretty locked into the 9-10 days but if you haven't considered it -see if you can't get more time. It's quite easy to do major western Europe destinations in that time but as you have found, getting all the way to Croatia is much harder/time consuming/expensive. If you are going to bother going that far you might want to see if there isn't any way you can stretch your time. With two whole weeks you probably could do your original wish list. Also don't get too tied to flying in/out Zagreb. Easyjet flies to Dubrovnik, Split and Ljubljana. There are lots of cheap(ish) flights from the US to London and that's an easy jet hub. You could that way fly into Dubrovnik or Ljubljana and out the other and not have to back track. When you consider time and money in back tracking it often is just as cheap to add a day in London and be able to do it that way.

Mimar
I've only just found my way back to this thread after stumbling upon an old email (I'm accustomed to TripAdvisor which sends an email when a reply is posted)- and I think you're right about starting my own thread!
I'm about to try and find out how to do this.
Nolinenowait I think our trips are now too different - enjoy yours!