marlac

Greetings and thank you for any advice or suggestions you offer me. I feel confused and a bit worried about the times of our travel over Easter weekend. After spending a week at a time share in Supetar, Brac, we check out Saturday morning, April 15. We have a rental car. After we leav Brac we have 9 days before we fly home from Zagreb. We wanted to make sure we could visit Dubrovnik, Zadar, Opatija, Pula, some caves, Ljubljana, Slovenia leaving from Zagreb.

On Saturday morning,15th, what do your think of driving to Mljet, starting in the morning around 9-9:30 and stay one night? I thought it would be a great break from the long drive to Dubrovnik, which is where we want to visit. I'd love to go to an Easter service at the Benedictine monastery. I wonder if they allow that??

Then leisurely leave Mljet after possible church service to drive to Dubrovnik. I was concerned about ferry service, the times, holiday hours? We thought we could stay in Dubrovnik Sunday night and leave sometime Monday. Our next destination is Plitvice National Park but...stopping in Zadar for some down time, food, maybe even stay the night? I may be feeling some apprehension about all the driving.

I would love help, advice! We love nature, old stuff, walking, biking, of course, good food.

yorkshire

With 9 days it is going to be tight, and you will need to prioritize. One issue is that you are backtracking by going south and then north. If Mljet and Dubrovnik are a must, then I would save Slovenia and possibly even Istria for a future trip.
You can find ferry schedules here: http://www.jadrolinija.hr/
But I don't quite understand how going Mljet island breaks up the drive to Dubrovnik (which is only about 4 hours from Split, and you could leave Brac at another ferry port further south), when going to Mljet is more of a detour.
The viamichelin website is often recommended for mapping driving routes, and I would use it for your plans to drive north.

marlac

Wow, excellent stuff to think about! Thank you. It's probably personal preference but...I lean towards skipping going south to Dubrovnik and heading north instead. With all that I have read about how wonderful Dubrovnik is I feel like I must have rocks in my head. Would we be missing "awesome-ness"? I have resisted the backtracking too. We must end up in Zagreb anyway so...
Thoughts??

Andrew

We all have different interests and travel preferences. You may love one place that I don't and vice versa. I can only offer you my personal opinion...

Dubrovnik is one of the most unique towns I've ever visited: a walled town that positively lights up at night when the lights hit the polished stone pavement. Almost magical! You can feel how formidable it must have been in the old days. But the town is extremely touristy - and not that big - and gets mobs of tour groups in the daytime. The tourists turn off many people. But it is much more pleasant by late afternoon and lovely at night.

I know you aren't exactly interchanging Opatija or Pula with Dubrovnik, which requires an investment of time to get that far south whereas you'll be exploring Istria anyway on the way to somewhere else. But, Opatija to me was a nice place to spend a few hours, at most. I explored it in an hour - another hour would have been nice but I wouldn't have needed much more. It's an old Austrian with big villas that were once occupied by royalty and the wealthy. I guess it's kind of a "spa town" which holds zero appeal to me - but I liked the town better than expected. It felt a little like Beverly Hills, with fancy cars and wealth on display. There's a nice waterfront area, and you can walk the Lungomare a long seaside promenade several kilometers toward Lovran or Rijeka. It's a pleasant stroll.

Pula is a big industrial port city with some interesting Roman ruins. It's a "real" city not just a tourist spot, and some people like that, but in April you may not notice a big difference in the number of tourists compared to say Rovinj or Porec to the north. I loved Rovinj, which is tiny and touristy but again, not quite as much in April. I day tripped from Rovinj to Pula. I wasn't exactly wow'ed - I guess I've seen enough Roman ruins in Italy to satisfy me. Pula isn't a bad place, but it's not a place I would have really regretted missing or at least not a place where I wished I'd spent more time. Dubrovnik on the other hand: I would have regretted missing very much.

Ljubljana is a lovely, charming little city especially in the center, which has quaint bridges over a narrow river, beautiful architecture, and a lot of pedestrian zones. A great walking town. It's one of my favorite towns in Europe. It is not un-touristy anymore, but it's still not huge with American tourists (compared to say Italy, which is overrun with them), so I still feel like I'm not in a touristy place when I visit Ljubljana.

Dubrovnik combines well with other places in the south - islands, Montenegro, stops in Bosnia like Mostar. The whole area is worthy of a separate trip, with lots to see, if you wanted to save it for another visit and focus on northern Croatia and Slovenia on this trip.

kja

This trip sounds very rushed to me. I recommend that you get some good guidebooks (or spend some time with a few in your local library), identify the things you most want to see in each location, check their opening/closing times on the internet, and mark them on a calendar. Pencil in your transportation, add some time on either side (for getting to/from your lodging, checking in/out, packing/unpacking, getting oriented, etc.). Then see how things fit together.

FWIW, I was not enamored of Opatija: I was there for a couple of hours just before/during sunset on a Saturday evening in early June of 2009. The bars and restaurants near the shore were competing with one another to see which could play their disco / party music the loudest and with the heaviest base. Street side shops were filled with junk, overpriced kitsch, and overly zealous sales staff. Sidewalks were filled with people who were already so drunk that trying to walk by or through them was a decidedly unpleasant experience. I did enjoy the Villa Angiolina, though -- that was worth seeing, and I loved walking the Lungamare from Lovran. Glorious!

Having a car for some of these areas could be a disadvantage, rather than an asset. As you narrow down your options, you might evaluate your need for one.

Only YOU can decide which destinations to include. For many people, Dubrovnik is a must-see, and with good reason! It can be inundated during the day by cruise ships, but the city has set some limits on that and in the evening, it can be magical. Nonetheless, others prefer Slovenia. To each his / her own! I must admit that I think it would be overly ambitious to try to cover both Dubrovnik and Slovenia on this trip, unless you give up seeing anything else in Croatia.

Good luck!

marlac

Greetings! I just read these last two posts and am feeling overwhelmed with gratitude that you both would take the time to write what you did. Many many thank you's! Andrew, specifically, I read what you mentioned about Opatija feeling a bit like Beverly Hills and wow! I immediately remembered how much seeing all the wealth and big houses, stores, etc. did NOTHING for me. I live about 1 hour from Los Angeles. Nothing against it just does not get me excited. So, that was an excellent description to help us continue to map out this trip! And, KJA, what you wrote about the bars and restaurants competing with each other for the loudest music, heaviest base: yikes! I would so, so not like that! The first paragraph you wrote about planning for a trip is solid advice for me. Truthfully, we don't get to do this often so I relish learning from people who have planned trips before. Last night my husband said he was thinking taking the bus may be a better idea, cheaper for us too. After reading what you mentioned about having a car, well, a sign for us?? Yes. One more thing: my husband hates to be rushed! I am taking in all that has been mentioned.
Dubrovnik will not be missed. Ok! Back to the drawing board-energized and enthused by your help! Again, thank you! I'll be back!

Andrew

I think having a car makes sense unless you go to Slovenia. (One-way drop fees can be steep to drop the car off in another country from the one you rented in.) If you start in Dubrovnik, don't pick up the car until you leave if possible - having a car there can be a pain. It can also be a challenge for the islands. But driving in Croatia is pretty easy, and there should be no traffic in April on the coastal roads - and having a car affords you a lot of freedom and flexibility. Don't be afraid to rent a car for only part of your trip. You can do one-way rentals without a steep drop-off fee within the country, but there may be a small one-way fee for a shorter rental.

Croatia has a good bus system, but some of those bus rides can be long - e.g. Zadar to Istria. Croatia Airlines offers direct flights from Zadar to Pula, which might help a lot without a car.

Otherwise, check bus travel times with sites like https://getbybus.com/en/ and see if bus travel times and schedules are realistic, before you commit to an itinerary without renting a car. Rome2Rio is another great site for general "how to get from one place to another" info.

marlac

I love the internet!! This kind of help is so valuable to me! Ok. I have "homework". Yea!

kja

Having a car can offer a freedom not otherwise available and a chance to see places that are not readily visited via public transportation, and certainly, there are times when I choose to rent a car, too! But there are disadvantages to having a car, too. For example:

- Some of those “oh, doesn’t that look charming!” places aren’t actually that charming, and by the time you get back on the road, you can end up with less time than might be ideal for visiting the places that were your priorities.

- Driving can be stressful – and I say that as someone who loves driving! But some roads are challenging, unexpected detours or GPS failures can be a bit daunting, and driving into cities (and finding parking) can make the last part of a long trip less than pleasant.

- Driving – or at least responsible driving – can also pose constraints on the driver. For example, the driver may be unable to truly enjoy spectacular scenery, as s/he needs to pay attention to the road -- sometimes, very careful attention! Case in point: The road between Split and Dubrovnik has some of the most magnificent scenery in the world, IMO, and IME, requires every bit of the driver's attention. I was glad to be sitting comfortably, nose pressed to the window, savoring each and every magnificent glimpse!

- Too, depending on how much one eats and one’s size and and how long one relaxes over a meal, even a glass of wine with lunch may carry risks.

- Driving is generally not a particularly green choice – and for some of us, that is a worthy consideration.

- And one of the best things about taking public transportation: It can sometimes give you wonderful opportunities to interact with people from the area, or gain insights into local norms and traditions.

Although a car would, IMO, be an advantage if you go to Istria, and might be a benefit for visiting the Plitvice Lakes National Park, a car is not a necessity in most of the rest of Croatia, and as already noted, having a car can be a decided disadvantage.

In contrast, I found the buses comfortable, convenient, and inexpensive.

To each his/her own!

In any event, I think whether you would want a car or not (and if so, for how much of your trip) will depend on what, exactly, you want to see and do.