Slovenia/Croatia trip
 

Hi - i know there are already a lot of posting regarding this topic, however, i still have a few questions. My husband and I would like to visit Ljublijana in late Sept. 2007. I read that you dont have to spend much time there to take it all in. We would also like to go to Rijeka and visit some of croatia. I have been to dubrovnik and would love to go there with him, however, i am not sure how realistic that is given that we will be only be there for eight days. I was thinking of flying into Ljublijana - touring for a day. Then renting a car and driving for a bit. Any suggestions as to where we should go given our time in the region? He has never been - so i would like to create a schedule that is both interesting and relaxing. And, how far south do you think we can make it? And lastly, should we rent a car? or rely on ferries and/or trains. Thank so much

You can do a lot in 8 days. I did part of Slovenia and Croatia the end of September this year. Here are some thoughts similar to what I did in that time frame.

Spend a night or two in Ljublijana. I liked it a lot, so I wouldn't cut it short. Then pick up a car and drive to the coast via one of the caves and/or do Lake Bled and that area. I didn't go to Bled, but stopped in Skofja Loka and the Skocjan Caves on the way to Piran--both enjoyable and worth seeing.

You could then tour Istria, perhaps staying in Rovinj and dropping the car in Pula. There's one inexpensive non-stop flight a week to Dubrovnik to Pula. It takes some planning to work around it, but it gets you to Dubrovnik quickly without driving. You could then do an open jaw returning from there.

You won't see everythng, but it's a great introduction to the countries in a week or so.

thanks so much jeff!

as a follow up - i found a ticket from washington dulles to ljubljana for 818 including all taxes. Is that a good price for a ticket from the east coast? in the past tickets have been over 1000, however, it could have just been high season..

I'm not sure of the price since I'm on the west coast. But you might also consider flying to Zagreb if it's a lot cheaper. I picked up a car there and drove to Ljublijana--an easy drive. This allowed me to drop the car in Pula without a large fee for not dropping it in the same country.

Go down to Piran, stay a few days there, then maybe down to the Istria Penninsula somewhere, say Rovinj. An alternative is to stay in Piran and take day trips down to see Pula and Rovinj in Croatia and National Park in Croatia with the many lakes. That is what we did. You might be able to sneek a day trip over to Venice as well. It was relaxing to stay in one place. As you might be able to tell from my previous posts, I think Piran is magical.