Struggling with itinerary
 

We are planning to travel to Vienna, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia in September for about three weeks. Better said we'll spend two weeks traveling and one in a rental home in Istria.

Roughly this will be our itinerary:
Utrecht (The Netherlands) - Melk
Melk - Vienna, visit Melk Abbey and see a bit of the Danube Valley
Vienna
Vienna - Zagreb
Zagreb- Jajce
Jajce - Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo - Mostar, not sure if we should do an overnight stay in Mostar or travel a litte further
Mostar - Hvar Island
Hvar Island
Hvar - ....?
.....? - Zadar
Zadar - Plitvička Jezera
Plitvička Jezera - Draguc
Draguc
Draguc
Draguc
Draguc
Draguc
Draguc
Draguc - Nurnberg
Nurnberg - Utrecht

I have one day extra but can't decide what to do with it. There seem to be so many places were we could use more time.
The two nights in Vienna can't be changed and we have booked our house in Draguc.

We like to stay of the beaten track as much as possible but understand that Croatia is a popular destination and that some really good sites will be very crowded.
We love good food (who doesn't), nature and history and like talking to locals as much as we can.
Advice about what to see along the way would be very helpful.

Who can help us with our itinerary, finding those special restaurants and the best places to stay.
We'll be traveling on a budget but are willing to splurge every once in a while.

I cannot comment on much of your itinerary, but my first question is the most important one - will you be driving (I notice it's a round trip from Utrecht) or relying on public transport?

If driving I would suggest you definitely factor in a stop of half a day at Travnik, which is between Jayce and Sarajevo. The hill fortress there is fabulous, as is the famous Plava Voda (Blue Water). Also in Travnik are some interesting mosques, and the birthplace of Ivo Andric.

Personally I would stay in Mostar overnight, it is delightful once all the day visitors have left and you can really get a sense and feeling for this lovely old town.

I've posted a couple of trip reports here, with some more information therein...

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...t-explores.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...llet-holes.cfm

Also search for a recent trip report by vttraveler which has lots of information about Sarajevo and the roads down to the coast.

I am returning to Sarajevo next week and will post some sort of report when I get back, so look out for that. I am very much a budget traveller, so hopefully I can discover some special restaurants that offer good value for money!

I’m not quite sure what you’re asking, so here are my thoughts:

A day for Vienna doesn’t seem like much. I spent 4 or 5 days there, and did not see everything I would have liked to see.

Parts of 2 days for Zagreb is not much.

Mostar is quite lovely after day-trippers leave, so it is worth considering an overnight stay.

IMHO, Trogir and Split are both worthy destinations between Hvar and Zadar.

For some comments on restaurants in Zabreg, Sarajevo, Mostar, and Zadar, see:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rant-notes.cfm

Hope that helps!

This is the link to my trip report from last fall which julia_t referenced. Quite a lot of detail on Sarajevo where we visited a friend. Some about southern Dalmatia.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...tober-2010.cfm

As my trip report explains we ended up not visiting Mostar due to unexpected developments during the trip, but I would think you would ideally want to stay there overnight and also plan to see Blagaj

@ julia_t: we are traveling by car from home. Stopping at Travnik sounds like a good idea.
Thanks for the suggestion about staying overnight in Mostar, I hadn't thought about the fact that most people leave in the afternoon.
I've read your first trip report (it's the reason we've decided to ad Bosnia & Herzegovina to our trip) thanks for the other links I'll start reading later today.

@ kja: Thank you for your thoughts. We are planning on a day and half in Vienna. Not a lot but Vienna is an easy place for us to visit for a city trip so we'd like to get a feel for the city and come back with more time.
I have a hard time picturing Zagreb and what to do there. I'm leaning to spending the extra night we have there but spending an extra night along the coast seems fun to and would give us a chance to see both Trogir and Split.

@ Vttraveler: Blagaj seems lovely, thank you for your suggestion on that. I'm going to read your trip report later today.