Croatia is a very large and destination-rich country. Some places (like Split) are cities that don't depend on tourism and will have the infrastructure to support travelers at any time of year. Other places will likely have little (or at least much less) to offer at that time of year. Likewise, some ferries run year round (weather permitting), and others only run during high season.

I would urge you to do some more research to decide what you would want to do in Croatia with the time you have, whether 3 days is sufficient for your interests in Venice, and whether Slovenia might suit your interests better than Croatia, given both the time you have and the time of year in which you plan to travel. I found the Rough Guides most useful, but any decent guidebooks should prove useful.

Hope that helps!

November is the low season all over Europe, in Venice and in Croatia as well. Travelling in the low season has its pros and cons, just like the high season.

The pros of November: lack of crowds, lower prices for accommodation, no hot weather The cons: cooler/colder and wetter weather, shorter daylight hours, shorter opening times of attractions, less frequent transport to some places

While November is not the best time to travel in Croatia and Venice(If you had a choice I'd do this trip in October), its greatest advantage is the lack of crowds in hopelessly overcrowded places like Venice and Dubrovnik. Taking advantage of this could be a reason alone not to cancel a trip in November.

I can't help with hiring a private driver, but if you're up for travelling by train/bus(most American travellers find that they actually love public transport once they see a functional public transit system in Europe/Asia etc,).

Take a train from Venice to Trieste and from Trieste you can take buses to a number of cities in Croatia: Rovinj, Pula, Opatija, Rijeka

Here is the website of Trieste bus terminal with the schedules(note the use of Italian place names instead of Croatian(eg Pola/Pula, Rovigno/Rovinj):

https://www.autostazionetrieste.it/e...internazionali


Trieste itself is a very interesting city if you make your homework and read up on it. Worth a stop for 1-2 nights.

It's true that the ferries don't run as frequently as in summer, but they still run. You can see the schedules on the Jadrolinija ferry website:

https://www.jadrolinija.hr/


It's also true that lots of restuarants(perhaps indeed most of them) close for winter, but the good news is that logically those which stay open cater for the locals and are good quality and all the tourist traps are closed. In fact I think this actually makes it easier to make a good choice.

I think the easiest way to travel from Venice to Croatia is via ferry. This is an easy trip to places like Rovinj. Check venezialines website. Alternatively if you want to head for Split, you could check ferries from Ancona to Zadar (not sure about services at that time of year) then bus south to Split.

If you're okay to skip the Dalmatian coast, then a few days in Venice, ferry to Rovinj, explore Istria, head towards Ljubljana and see something of Slovenia, then train or bus to Zagreb and fly home from there would work well. Of course, there are many possible variants on this, including train to Trieste or Gorizia.

Oops, just re-read your post and realised that you only have 10 days - you'd need to cut something from the above to make it realistic.

The Venice - Rovinj boat sails between April and October only.

If the OP wants to see Croatia it would be pretty pointless to travel down to Ancona and take a ferry to Split or Zadar, skipping everything north of Zadar in Croatia.

If he wanted to see Ravenna, San Marino, Urbino and continue to Dalmatia, than it would make sense.

Actually, the OP said they'd like to visit Split and Dubrovnik.

To get from Venice to Rovinj (or Ljubljana) you can use a private or shared shuttle using goopti.com. Things will be pretty quiet in Rovinj in November. It may be better to stick to the bigger cities and towns. I agree that you don't have enough time to visit Venice and Istria as well as Split and Dubrovnik. Pick one area or the other.

You brought up a lot of good points! I just thought of hiring a private driver just for convenience & timesaving factor but I will look up Trieste.