Thank you Mark. You are a so much help! Two weeks is not going to be enough.

Mark, I also recieved my booklets from the croatia travel board this week. it's so amazing as to be almost unreal!<BR>Nancy, maybe I'm confused (not unlikely)! but John at panadriatic made it sound as though I couldn't even reserve seats at a lower price through the agency, and will just have to wait until I get to zagreb. (or maybe I'll try to get to an internet cafe and get to the croatia air site 3 days prior to my arrival in zag &amp; pay when I get to airport for the lowest fare.) I guess there's some time to work this out, and it's good to hear from Grasshopper's coworker that it'll be easy enough to &quot;wing it&quot; in May. it puts me a bit more at ease!

In case anyone else is trying to do the same, I thought I'd let you know that my husband has spent many hours today trying to sort car hire from Venice into Croatia.He's failed completely and we are ending up having to travel to Trieste airport from Venice by train and bus and then picking up a car from Sixt. Can't quite work out why its O.K. to rent from Trieste and take it into Croatia but not fom Venice- oh well.

Frances;<BR>We are traveling from Venice to Croatia and then back to Verona this summer by<BR>car.<BR>We have rented a car from Auto Europe<BR>(they are using Europacar) for pick up<BR>at the Piazzale Roma in Venice.<BR>We had to pay a bit additional to drive into Croatia.<BR>Not sure if you have tried them at<BR>autoeurope.com<BR>We have been to Italy many times, but never to Croatia. Would love to hear about your trip plans.

TCC- my husband said that Holiday Autos told him they used Eurocar and they would not allow a pick up in Venice to drive into Croatia!<BR>I get the impression that this is a bit of a grey area because I have anote that when we booked the flights about 6 weeks ago the agent quoted me for car hire (from Hertz ) and I've written down the exact detail which applied to taking it into Croatia. Yet when my husband went back to them yesterday they said they didn't do it!<BR>Can I suggest you get this in writing? Some years ago we booked a car from Halifax N.S. with the specfic provision that we wanted to take it into the U.S.When we arrived and checked this they said it couldn't be done. It was sorted eventually but only after some days.<BR>As to itinerary well we're no further forward than I've posted above except that we're hoping to sail from Rijeka on day 2( the day we collect our car) to Dubrovnik.<BR>Our 2 daughters are coming with us and one returns from university this weekend so expect the planning to move on then!

Frances;<BR>Thanks for the tip, we have a voucher from Autoeurope that notes travel to<BR>Slovenia and Croatia. I know we had to pay a bit of a premium for this.<BR>We are spending 4 nights in Venice<BR>then picking up our rental car and driving to Samobor near Zagreb.<BR>We hope to find my wife's grandmother's birthplace (just a speck of a town) and<BR>take a full day to visit Zagreb and another one or two for the area near the slovenian border. We are then making our way down the coast and finally ending up in Dubrovnik. We are planning 3-4 days in Dubrovnik.<BR>From Dubrovnik we head to Trogir where will make a base for some day trips to some of the islands. We then wind our way back to Italy for our last 3 nights in Verona. we have Opera tickets for the Arena di Verona for 2 of the nights there. We went to the opera there 2 years ago, it was magical.<BR>We finally find our way back to the Venice airport to return the car and return us home. An aggresive and busy itenarary, but we have lot's of times and options if we need to slow down.<BR>Hope you and family have a trip that touches your mind, heart, and soul.<BR>Peace and good luck.

elr, I think you are looking to pay now for your ticket, I'm taking the risk of paying for mine when I get there. The prices have not changed for several months and even if they do, I'll live with it. The agency just reserved seats for me.

Anyone with restaurant recommendations for Dubrovnik, Hvar, Split or Zagreb?

Dubrovnik:

Buffet &quot;Skola&quot;
Antuninska 1, just off Stadun
Try a Prsut sendvici - 19 kn. A few thin slices of smoked Dalmation ham and cheese on freshly baked bread. Perfectly balanced - no one ingredient over powers the others. A great afternoon snack

Konoba Penatur
Lucarica 2, Located next to St. Blaise's Church, just off Stradun
Wonderful place to eat while a concert is in progress on the front steps of the church

Proto
Siroka ulica 1, just off Stradun
Has a terrace on the first floor which is open on 3 sides which mades for a very pleasent lunch.

Rustica Taverna,
Excelsior Hotel
Picture perfect view of the Old Town and excellent food - a bit pricey but I can still remember the octopus salad and the freshly grilled fish.

Atlas Club Nautica
just outside the Old Town. Nothing exceptional and expensive. (Should have tried the steak tartare)

A few times I went to a butcher and got freshly sliced dalmatian ham - got figs at the market, picked up some very salty feta like cheese and a bottle wine and had dinner on my terrace at the Excelsior.

The restaurants serve pretty much the same food - don't expect international cuisine

Here's a website done by some visitors to Hvar - great tips and photos

http://www.holidayinhvar.co.uk/index.htm

Thanks, Mark!

We're renting an apartment with a terrace, so I like the idea of having a picnic there. These all sound good.

Was Rustica Taverna casual attire, or jacket? (I know my husband is not planning on taking a jacket...)

Thank you also for the Hvar site, I appreciate your help! We are in the two week stretch before leaving...

Nancy, How are you getting to Croatia? And how long will you spend there?

I wore a pair of drawstring pants, a dressy casual shirt and sandals to the Rustica Taverna (you my want to make reservations when you get to Dubrovnik - go early so you can watch sunset)

I brought a suit last year - mainly cause I wanted to dress smart a couple evenings. This year I'm taking one carry on piece - leaving the suit at home - bringing a couple dress casual shirts and pants for dinner and going out - but overall going pretty casual.

Have a great trip - I am so jonesing to get back to the Adriatic....

Good to hear about the attire for dining. We both wear suits most of the time at work, so we like to leave those at home when we are on vacation! Your trip is coming up-September?

Grasshopper, we are flying from the US to Frankfurt 2 weeks from today and connecting with Croatian airlines for a flight to Dubrovnik. We'll stay in Croatia 7 nights, then head to Slovenia for 7 nights, and back to Zagreb, Croatia for the last 2 nights (flying out of Zagreb to Frankfurt).

Did you extend your trip?

MSNBC Travel section just posted part 2 about Croatia.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/918999.asp?0cv=RA01

(and there's an article about the czech country side also)