Where to travel to after Croatia????
 

My husband and I and another couple in our 40-50"s will be visiting Croatia in early September. We wanted to go to another country after. Someone recommended Istanbul to us but it seems pretty far??? Where would you recommend we go if we like to sightsee, go to nice restaruants, shop and stay in nice hotels. Our friend is into boating so that could be an option of some kind but we are not looking for a cruise. Probably a private boat but I think that might be unaffordable. Thoughts???

So you're seeing the entire country of Croatia? It's not a big country but not exactly tiny. What are you planning to see now? There are plenty of interesting places to visit in Croatia alone to occupy a week or two. Beyond that, you can side trip up to Bosnia and Herzegovina; the city of Mostar is an easy trip from Dubrovnik. But there are no boats there.

Slovenia is another obvious choice. It's one of my favorite countries. The coastal town of Piran is really nice but there other great places to see in Slovenia such as Lake Bled and the beautiful city of Ljubljana.

You can easily expand your horizons beyond the immediate area of Croatia and use easyJet etc. to plane all over Europe. Or boat across to Italy. The possibilities are endless.

Slovenia is a lovely country, but I don't think it is a shopping haven.

I would suggest, you ferry into Venice from Croatia.Or if your friend loves boating, maybe fly into Athens, and go to one of the islands from there.

One word: Slovenia!

((H))

Not knowing where in Croatia you plan to go, I can say it's a big country and has a lot to offer, not just in southern Dalmatia.

You could take a side-trip to Montenegro, which is lovely and has an Aman resort (expensive, but excellent). You can easily take a ferry back over to Italy (most go to Bari or Venice). I also agree that Slovenia is a great destination, and then you can hop over to Venice from there.

If you like nice hotels, I think you will find that a private yacht charter is pretty comparable in price to a good upscale hotel in Europe, and on that you could reach any of the myriad islands. If your friend can sail himself, that will cut your costs in half or more; bareboat charters are reasonably priced, and the sailing in Croatia is excellent. There's a marina in almost every coastal destination.

I checked out Slovenia and it looks more like a hiking vacation and not sure that's what we want. We will be staying in Dubrovnik but we want to also go to Montenagro and Split and any other places you could recommend. We have already traveled to Greece with this couple so that is out and last time we went to Croatia we went to the Amalfi Coast after so that's out. Venice looks interesting but else do you go after Venice?

I suggest you check out Slovenia again. I did almost no hiking there in nearly a week in the country, although I guess many people do. Far more people go to the big tourist spots like Lake Bled and Piran. They might "hike" around Lake Bled but these aren't serious hikers, as it's not a big lake. The serious hikers would go to Lake Bohinj (much larger) nearby or the Triglav National Park - where you can drive through the Julian Alps, a very pretty loop drive (no hiking required).

I can't imagine many people who go to Piran on the coast are hikers. It's kind of a quaint (but beautiful) beach town people go to get away.

How long do you have? Venice alone can take several days. I would highly recommend a day trip to the mosaics in Ravenna. If you have more time consider the Dolomites or the Italian Lakes.

From Dubrovnik (where I would only stay a couple of nights) I would consider Sarajevo after Mostar or more time in Montenegro.

From Venice, you could easily visit the Italian lakes. The train Venice-Milan is about four hours. From there, you can either take a local train to Stresa on Lago Maggiore (sp?), or rent a car and drive to Bellagio on Lago Como.

Venice is only 2 hours by train from Florence, which is two hours by train from Rome. But closer and more often overlooked is Bologna, which is a great university town and epicurean capital of Italy. There's also Milan or Como (the latter perhaps a half-day drive from Venice).

I also don't ever think of Slovenia as a hiking destination. Ljubljana itself is worth 2 or 3 days, and there are caves to explore and Lippazaner stallions to see, etc.

But you could also easily spend a week in Istria, which has great villa rentals and Roman ruins (the best preserved colosseo outside of Rome is in Pula). There are also hundreds of islands, some with famous luxury hotels.

I also like thursdaysd's recommendation of Bosnia as a destination.

SLOVENIA. My husband and I rented the electric bikes to go around the lake, not strenuous. We are a few past 50. The vintgar gorge was a nice 1/12 hour stroll on boardwalks. Ljubljana was a beautiful city. We loved Slovenia.