Please help with Dalmatian Coast itinerary
 

Hello,
We aren't able to get away for as long as I would like, so I was wondering if anyone who has been to the Dalmatian Coast can review our itinerary and let me know if there are any places that we should skip or consider spending an extra night in. Also, we plan to spend 2 nights in Venice on our way back home; should we just do one night in Venice and add an extra night somewhere else?? Please help - thanks!


Here's the itinerary so far:

*(3 nights) Dubrovnik
*ferry Dubrovnik/Korcula/Starigrad (Hvar)
*(1 night) Hvar
*catamaran from Hvar to Split
*(2 nights) Split
*overnight ferry from Split to Rijeka (to get to Opatija)
*(1 night) Opatija
*car from Opatija to Venice
*(2 nights) Venice

From Opatija to Venezia, you can take a bus to Trieste, then there are hourly trains to Venezia. The journey includes two border crossings: Croatia to Slovenia, then Slovenia to Italy.
Note that Jadrolinija's Split-Rijeka ship does not run every night (they were four times a week last summer) so that may affect your itinerary.

Based on my experiences, having visited some but not all of the places on your itinerary, I think all of your choices are fine.

My main suggestion is that you consider eliminating at least one or, even better, two of your stops. When you take travel time into account, you are basically just doing drive-by visits to Hvar and Opatija and will have not much more than one full day each in Split and Venice.

If you spend your time in Venice and Dubrovnik, plus one other location in between, dictated most likely by your transportation requirements, you'll have time to actually enjoy these beautiful areas.

Instead of two nights in Split, I would recommend an extra night in Hvar and one night in Trogir, which is a small town just north of Split. It has a lot more charm than industrial Split. You can see the Diocletian Palace in Split in half a day.

I just want to second Lina's recommendation. Most people who spend time in Split wish they had shortened the time there.

Depending on the time of year, you might be able to travel from Istria to Venice via catamaran. It's an interesting way to arrive there.

Some may disagree, but I found the 8 hour ferry from Hvar to Dubrovnik absolutely miserable. I understand there is a very comfortable bus that does the same trip. You might want to consider it. Taking the bus, you end up in Split and then can take the one hour ferry directly to Hvar, rather than the long ferry to Starigrad, then having to take the bus to Hvar town.

I would consider Split a day trip and would stay all three nights in Hvar, leave on the 7am ferry to Split, check the bags at the bus station (which is across the street from where the ferry lands) and toodle around in Split all day before catching your overnighter.

I travel at a pretty ambitious pace, but this schedule wore me out just reading it!

You will love Croatia. Enjoy your trip.

My two cents is that you spend 4 nights in Dubrovnik and then two nights in Trogir and skip Hvar and Split. Maybe people here would disagree but I just don't think Hvar is worth all the trouble it takes to get to it. There's much more to see in the Dubrovnik area -- day trips to Montenegro, wine tasting, local islands. Not too much going on in Trogir but its charming and you could maybe make a day trip to Plitvice Lakes (I think!).

I agree with some points the previous posters made:

I would not stay in Split. Split can be a few hour stop over from the ferry OR from the bus and then continue on. Both modes of transport start or end right in front of Diocletians Palace.

Trogir is a wonderful little, and I stress little, island but it is well worth at least a night. We stayed two last year.

I somewhat agree that you may want to skip Hvar due to your quick visit to this country. If you had more time it would be well worth 2 nights. You could rent a car and drive over to lovely Zavala beach and visit Zlatan Plavac winery.

I disagree with the suggestion that you could take a day trip to Plitvice National Park from Trogir! It is WAY too far away although well worth a stop if you are driving from Zagreb to Rab Island or something like that.

Croatia is a great country, one of my favs. To bad you don't have more time!

Enjoy!