Irina11

We have started planning a trip to Croatia and here is our preliminary itinerary . Of course, we still have to check buses and ferries schedules

Dubrovnik - 3 -4 days with day trips to Mostar abd bat of Kotor
Korsula 1 night - Ferry to Korsula from Dubrovnik
Hvar - 1 or 2 nights - Ferry to Hvar from Korsula
Split - 3 days: 1 day for Split, 1 to take a trip to Plitvice Lakes National Park and 1 day visit Trogir
Rovinj - 2 nights
Rovinji - Ljuljana- Lake Bled I read there is a bus from Rovenj to Ljubljana at 8am , takes 5.5 hours
LakeBled - 3 nights - tour lake Bled and Julian Alps
Lake Bled - Ljubljana ( visit caves?) - 1 night
Fly back to New York

Please critique our itnerary

Questions
I saw night bus from Split to Rovinj. Did anybody take it? Any other transportations to get to Rovinj from Split or Zadar?
Are seat comfortable on a night bus? Can not find any info
We are still in doubt if we should spend more relaxing time in Croatia and not to rush to Slovenia. Is it worth it? What to do on lake Bled?
Is it better to take a ferry from Dubrovnik to Korsula and then Hvar and then Split or take a bus from Dubrovnik to Split and take ferries from Split to Korsula and Hvar?
Is it possible to rent a car with auto transmission?

Many thanks in advance for all your advices

LittleVicky

One day for Split/Trogir. then to Plitvice and onwards to Istria/Kvarner region. Skip Bled this time, it makes your trip too rushed.

LittleVicky

Are you flying home from Ljubljana? If so, you will need to drop your hire car in Croatia. Better to base yourselves near Rijeka and get the train to Ljubljana.

joode

We rented a car from Dubrovnik for 8 days and travelled to Trogir, Split, Plitvice, Rovinj, Lake Bled (see my Trip Report 'Central Europe in Company with Sun, Storm and Tempest') and yes, Slovenia is definitely worth it if you like great scenery - it's really beautiful. We had a manual transmission car but you can probably get an automatic and having a car makes it a lot easier. We dropped the car off in Zagreb (the capital city of Croatia) and that is a very nice city to visit also.

Irina11

Thans for your responses. We do not have tickets yet. Still trying to decide on Slovenia before buying air tickets.

LittleVicky

I would fly out of Venice, Ljubljana or Zagreb. as they are all easy to access. See which airport gives you the best deal. You could also do your trip in reverse.

scubalo

We just returned from a very similar trip. As you well noted, check the ferry schedules before making any plans. We found that we couldn't get to Korcula in late May from Hvar by ferry on the days we had available.

I would definely include Slovenia--Ljubljana is a lovely, fun, easy city and Lake Bled is gorgeous--not only the lake, but Vintjar Gorge nearby. We spent two nights in each and that was fine.

You might consider flying into Zagreb and out of Dubrovnik. That way, if you do rent a car you will not incur astronomical inernational drop-off charges. Also, a car is pretty much necessary in Istria, if you want to get into the interior, as there is no local bus service there. So this is a suggested itinerary, with a car. It's a variation on what we just did.

--Zagreb-one night
--Drive to Ljubliana (about 1 1/2 hours by car)--2 days
--Lake Bled (about an hour)--2 days is enough; add another if you want to do a day tour of the Julian Alps. (We just went to Lake Bohinj, which I'd skip.)
--Rovinj (about 3 hours) -- at least 2 full days--we loved it.
--Drive to Plitvice Lakes, and stay overnight. Get into the park first thing in the morning. (We did not do this, and regretted it. The park was mobbed with tour groups in the afternoon.) Late afternoon, drive to Split. (Or consider Zadar; we stopped on the way to Split and it's a lovely town.)
--Split--2 days; visit Trogir for 1/2 day. Split is great; far exceeded our expectations. Diocletian's Palace is amazing.
--Ferry to Hvar. There's both a car ferry and a passenger ferry. We kept our car for the duration, but you could easily drop it in Split and continue without it.) Two days in Hvar. Beautiful.
--Ferry to Korcula if you can get there. Otherwise, proceed to Dubrovnik. Three days is good. Dubrovnik's as fantastic as its billing. But crowded with cruise ship passengers. We also enjoyed Montenegro for the day.

Irina11

Scubalo, thanks for your advise. This is exactly what we are thinking about.
We are considering stopping in Zadar. How long is the drive from Zadar to Plitvice and from Plitvice to Rovinji?

scubalo

Hi--Check out Viamichelin.com to get an idea of distances. It's about 2 hours from Zadar to Plitvice (beautiful drive)and about 4 hours from Plitvice to Rovinj. Driving across Istria you could take a short detour and visit Groznjan and Motovun. Both nice small towns where you don't need a lot of time.

chewy1

Last year, we did Bovec (stayed at Starry Kovac B & B which was clean, new, great)and then drove down to Rovinj for a couple nights. Loved them both. Bovec is a bit more out of the way, but the Soca River valley is off the charts from a beauty standpoint. We came over the top from Kranska Gora and Austria, and took the white knuckle road through Triglav National Park, which is spectacular. Bovec is a little outdoorsmen's paradise with outfitters and several good little restaurants, but the river is the highlight. If you Google it, the color of the water is hard to describe. There's a white granite base to the riverbed, and it gives it the most incredible aqua blue you'll ever see. The Chronicles of Narnia second film was shot there. We rafted about 2 hrs and loved it (cold water!)not too strenuous, a couple class II or III rapids but fine for my 10 yr old. Took the road out of town down to Rovinj which follows the Soca, got to the coast in a couple hrs then over to Rovinj another hr. Loved Rovinj, stayed at Porto Antica on the advice of this forum and liked that as well. View from the church on the hilltop overlooking the Adriatic at sunset is fantastic. There's a little side alley restuarant behind the hotel that is knock your socks off good.

Irina11

Many thanks for all responses and advices, Much appreciated!

We have booked our tickets already : flying to Dunrovnik via London and arriving on Sep.4th and back from Ljubljana on Sep. 20th. So we have decided to spend a few days in Slovenia at the end.

Currently our itinerary looks as following:

Dubrovnik - 4/5 days with 2 day trips to Mostar and Bay of Kotor.
Korsula - we are thinking of taking an early catamaran from Dubrovnik and spend 1 day/1 night in Korsula
Hvar - next day to Hvar on morning catamaran. 1 or 2 nights in HVAR
Split-Trogir - catamaran from Hvar to Split, sightseeing in Split and probably drive to Trogir later to stay there overnight and spend an evening.
Rovinji? Early morning drive from Trogir to Plitvice lakes park , spend time there and then drive to Rovinji. Is it doable? Or should we consider staying somewhere closer overnight
Rovinji - 2-3 days
Lake Bled - Drive from Rovinji to lake Bled, visiting Piran? Skocjan caves on the way. Vintgar Gorje sounds very attractive as well.
Ljubljana - 1 day
out flight back is early morning next day


How much time do we need in Split? From readings books, it looks like we can spent 2 nights in Hvar and take morning catamaran to Split the next day, do Split in the morning and still have time for Trogir in the late afternoon , evening.
Or we can spend 1 and a half day in Hvar and take an afternoon catamarn to Split so we have in Split 2 half days with 1 night


We first thought about going to Zadar from Trogir and staying there overnight since it is closer to the park but now we are leaning toward skipping Zadar and driving to Plitvice Lakes from Trogir. Though I was reading Zadar is a beautiful city as well...

Where we should plan time for sea kayaking - Dubrovnik or Hvar?

In Rovinji, we re thinking of visiting a few hill towns, Motovun? and amphitheater in Pula. Would 2 - 2&1/2 days will be enough for Istria?

How much time would we need for Lake Bled and Vintar Gorje ( we would love to do some hiking time permitting).

Dubrovnik - for some reasons I feel that we should spend 5 days in Dubrovnik with 2 days taken by day trips to Mostart and Bay of Kotor. It leaves us with 3 full days in Dubrovnik to enjoy the city, take a few trips to the islands for swimming, may be sea kayaking to Locrum... may be go to Mili Ston for oysters and mussels... We planned originally 4 days in Dubrovnik but now I am leaning toward 5 days though still in doubts....

Is renting car in Croatia and returning it in Slovenia much more expensive?

maitaitom

Here are some links to our trip to Croatia and Slovenia in June 2008 (with photos). It might give you some ideas. Have a great time.

http://web.me.com/tomfielding1/Tom_%...vnik_2008.html

http://web.me.com/tomfielding1/Tom_%...vice_2008.html

http://web.me.com/tomfielding1/Tom_%...enia_2008.html

kja

> Early morning drive from Trogir to Plitvice lakes park , spend time there and then drive to Rovinji. Is it doable? Or should we consider staying somewhere closer overnight

Doable, perhaps, but I think it would make for a long day and you wouldn't have as much time as you might like in Plitvice Lakes.

> How much time do we need in Split?

Depends on what you want to see and experience! I found one day insufficient for my interests, but many people only spend a few hours.

> Would 2 - 2&1/2 days will be enough for Istria?

That felt right to me, but I think many people stay a bit longer.


> How much time would we need for Lake Bled and Vintar Gorje

You can fit that into one very long day.

> Is renting car in Croatia and returning it in Slovenia much more expensive?

You'll have to check - and make sure the car has the "vignette" (I think that's what it's called) that will be required in Slovenia.

Enjoy!

LittleVicky

I think returning the car in Slovenia is a non starter. Use the train link from Rijeka to Ljubljana to save time.

Todorovic

I think you must visit Zagreb for 2 days,

http://www.tt-group.net/Croatia-vaca...agreb-info.php

Jojonana

Motovun is lovely.
Pula is underwhelming.
In Rovinj, if you want to splurge, do go to Monte, the restaurant nestled just below the church. The best meal I've ever had.
Ljubljana is absolutely charming (restaurant suggestion, Julija)
During our day trip to Bled, we went to the spa at the hotel Toplice after walking around the lake. I think it was 15 euros each and well worth it. 2 saunas, a cold mountain water pool, and a sublime view on the lake.

Jojonana

And forget about renting a car in Croatia and returning it in Slovenia. It's impossible.
I would therefore plan to return the car in Pula and take the Pula-Ljubljana train, or see if there is a bus from Rovinj to Ljubljana.
By the way, Piran is breathtaking...

LittleVicky

The reason I advised taking the train from Rijeka to Ljubljana,is because it is only a 2.5 hour journey.The suggested train from Pula to Ljubljana, takes about 5.5 hours. Also, a bus from Rovinj takes 4 hours.

matjazslovin

If you need more information about what to do in Bled, you can visit: http://www.bled.si/en/

I would suggest you visiting Triglav National Park- Bohinj lake (30 minutes drive from Bled), Pokljuka and Vintgar - realy beautiful alpine scenery.