Sidetrips in Croatia
 

We are having difficulty finding a van that will take us R/T from Trogir to Plitvice Lakes; we worry that the price of a one day car rental and the price of gasoline, would make a car rental foolish.
We want to go from Hvar to Bisevo, and can't locate a R/T boat trip.
Is it worth going from Hvar Town to Jelsa and boat to Bol? Just a sandy beach which happens to be beautiful from an airplane?
Is it worth renting a motor boat to the Pakleni Islands, or are the beaches on the Southern coast of Hvar even prettier?
We would appreciate any recommendations.

There are buses that go from Split to Plitvice, and Split is an easy bus ride from Trogir.

I don't know about your other questions. But Croatia is a more laid back place. It doesn't yet have a lot of web sites, etc. You can't preplan every step of the way. But, when you get there, you can ask around the port, any port, and find somebody to ferry your group to an island and pick you up later.

There are buses from Split, but I'd think that bus connections from Trogir-Split/Split-Plitvice and back in a single day would make for a very long day, not something I would do. Renting a car for the day would make it a little more practical, but I think it's still almost a 3 hour drive each direction. With buses I'd guess Trogir-Split/Split-Plitvice would make for about 8-9 hours riding on, waiting for, arriving early for buses, to give you just a few hours at the park.

I'd go overnight, stay at the park one night, see the park early in the morning, when it's best. (If you stay at a park hotel like Hotel Plitvice you can see the park multiple days on a single entry ticket.) I'll bet a car wouldn't be that expensive. I rented a car (solo) and drive from Zagreb to Plitvice and on to Dubrovnik for a few days and didn't find the cost of the car prohibitively expensive, though it wasn't like renting a car back in the states...

Thank you for you advise. We are either going to use a van service (88,000 Euro) from Trogir to Plitvice (4 hrs. ea. way), or we'll rent a car from Trogir. We don't think that it's necessary for us to use Split as a base for this trip.

Wow, €88,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You could buy a bloody bus for that much money!

I wonder if Carosh is using a comma where some of us would use a period.

Carosh, do you mean €88 even? The way I would read it this 88 thousand euros, which is a bit pricey for most of us. :-)

Uh, yes, I'm quite sure Carosh didn't mean 88,000 Euros. Obviously.

When quoting Euros in Europe it is the norm to use a "," instead of a "." as a decimal point.

but is it also norm to add a zero?

Every town has a tourist office offering excursions--you will see advertisements for excursions like the boar trip to Bisevo, or you can email the Hvar tourist office.
Bol is not sandy, it is pebble, but it is nice for swimming. I'd explore the southern coast of Hvar instead--I only made it as far as Milna--you'll need a car or a boat to do so.
The Pakleni island I visited was very nice, and there are organized boat trips over there.

Thank you all for your suggestions. Yes, I did write the numbers wrong re: the car rental; it should be 88 Euros, which we have paid. We did find a person who skippers a boat from Hvar to Bisevo (depending on the weather), and will charge us about 200 Euros + $120.00 for fuel. If we can't get to Bisevo, we'll use the day to find a nice beach on the Southern Coast (by motor scooter?) of Hvar and also see the Pakleni Islands (by motor boat). Also, we will stay overnight in Plitvice. Bus from Dubrovnik to Korcula (where do you get tickets to see the sword dance or hear the Klappa?)...is the route over a bridge in Orebic?

Instead of a motor scooter, you may want to look into boats that take you along the southern coast (like the boats to Pakleni) or rent your own. It's a little hairy riding a scooter in some parts--there is a tunnel you would not want to ride through on a scooter. The Hvar homepage describes the southern villages/coves. http://www.hvar.hr/Default.aspx?tabid=320
I loved the beaches on Palmizana (Pakleni island).
The bus from Korcula to Dbv takes a ferry.

Look at the web site www.korculainfo.com. If you can't find the answer to your questions about the Moreska and the Klappa, you can ask questions at the web site. (For a little island Korcula is very connected web-wise.)