Rome to Croatia
Aug 31st, 2008, 06:55 PM
#1
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Rome to Croatia
We are 2 agile senior well traveled couples arr in Rome Apl 20-09.on a cruiseship. We will then have 3 weeks,we will revisit Rome and then travel to Croatia,& on to the Hungarian border to visit family.Need advice on transport to ports for a ferry to Croatia,were we plan to rent a car, Places to visit , would like to go to Plitvic lakes & Lake Bled. We are open as to where we will fly back to US from.
Sep 1st, 2008, 01:32 AM
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There are overnight ships from Ancona to Split and Zadar.
www.blueline-ferries.com
www.jadrolinija.hr
Schedules for next April won't be available yet, but should be similar to those for October.
There are trains from Roma to Ancona, and it's a short bus or taxi ride to the port.
www.blueline-ferries.com
www.jadrolinija.hr
Schedules for next April won't be available yet, but should be similar to those for October.
There are trains from Roma to Ancona, and it's a short bus or taxi ride to the port.
Sep 1st, 2008, 06:13 AM
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Good for you--sounds like fun !
Good idea to get the car in Croatia even though you will drive into Slovenia. I suspect that Zagreb will be your best flight options--check it out at www.kayak.com
Good idea to get the car in Croatia even though you will drive into Slovenia. I suspect that Zagreb will be your best flight options--check it out at www.kayak.com
Sep 1st, 2008, 05:13 PM
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A friend and I did the trip you are planning: Ancona to Split; Split to Dubrovnik; Dubrovnik to Plitvice Lakes (with side trip to a quaint little bay on Hvar Island); and then Plitvice to Zagreb.
We took the fast ferry from Ancona (run by Snav), which is about a 4.5 hour trip. The ferry leaves at 11:00 am.
After spending a couple nights in Split, we took a public bus to Dubrovnik, where we stayed for three nights. Public buses leave regularly for Dubrovnik and the trip takes about 4 hours.
We picked up a rental car the morning we left Dubrovnik, spent 1 night in Mostar, then spent two nights on Hvar Island. Finally, we drove to Plitvice Lakes area where we stayed in a sobe, visiting the lakes the next morning. Around noon we left for Zagreb and got there in time to drop the car off before the downtown rental office closed.
This is kind of a bare bones summary but if I had to do this over, I would do it pretty much the same way.
Driving the coastal highway all of the way from Split to Dubrovnik would be a test of nerves, if you ask me. Actually, riding in the bus was a bit of a test from time to time. However, the drive from Dubrovnik to the Plitvice Lakes follows the coastal highway for a while but eventually you turn inland and end up on a beautiful, new 4 lane road for a substantial part of the time.
The traffic in and around Zagreb is challenging and without a GPS, I don't think I would have been as successful as I was.
I used a Garmin Nuvi 370 with the most recent European map set, though I've discovered a Croatia set that I wish I had loaded on the Nuvi.
If you have specific questions, let me know. I will say that I love Croatia and can't wait to get back.
We took the fast ferry from Ancona (run by Snav), which is about a 4.5 hour trip. The ferry leaves at 11:00 am.
After spending a couple nights in Split, we took a public bus to Dubrovnik, where we stayed for three nights. Public buses leave regularly for Dubrovnik and the trip takes about 4 hours.
We picked up a rental car the morning we left Dubrovnik, spent 1 night in Mostar, then spent two nights on Hvar Island. Finally, we drove to Plitvice Lakes area where we stayed in a sobe, visiting the lakes the next morning. Around noon we left for Zagreb and got there in time to drop the car off before the downtown rental office closed.
This is kind of a bare bones summary but if I had to do this over, I would do it pretty much the same way.
Driving the coastal highway all of the way from Split to Dubrovnik would be a test of nerves, if you ask me. Actually, riding in the bus was a bit of a test from time to time. However, the drive from Dubrovnik to the Plitvice Lakes follows the coastal highway for a while but eventually you turn inland and end up on a beautiful, new 4 lane road for a substantial part of the time.
The traffic in and around Zagreb is challenging and without a GPS, I don't think I would have been as successful as I was.
I used a Garmin Nuvi 370 with the most recent European map set, though I've discovered a Croatia set that I wish I had loaded on the Nuvi.
If you have specific questions, let me know. I will say that I love Croatia and can't wait to get back.
Sep 3rd, 2008, 06:01 AM
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Forgot to mention: we were looking into driving in Slovenia and then Croatia; according to Kemwell you can't take a rental car over the Slovenia-Croatia border. So then we started investigating trains from Ljubljana to towns on the Istrian peninsula where there were car rental offices.
