Zagreb, Pltvice lakes, Rovinj and Trogir
 

I'm trying to figure out the most efficient route between these places. We are traveling in early September.
Zagreb 2 nights
Rovinj 3 nights (Zagreb - Plitvice Lakes NP - Rovinj)
Trogir 2 nights (Roving -Opatija - Zadar -Trogir)
I know that the last stretch is ~ 5 hrs driving. Is it better to see Plitvice Lakes on the way from Rovinj? I am ok for a long drive as long as I could break it up.
Thank you for your suggestions!

Do you prefer to drive from Rijeka to Zadar/Sibenik/Trogir/Split along the coast or on the inland motorway?
If you opt for the (almost) all motorway solution, I would visit Plitvice on the way from Rovinj to Zadar.

Zagreb to Plitvice NP to Rovinj in one day is much too long! For me, It was so much better to spend a night by the park! I thought that was in your plan. 5 hours of driving AND seeing Plitvice NP wouldn’t be worth it to me. Not enough time to enjoy the time in the park. It’s doable, I suppose, but will you enjoy the time? There are 2 distinct sections to the park, and we really enjoyed seeing both - one section when we arrived in the afternoon and the next morning we saw the second section, which we enjoyed even more.

If you are now reducing your pre-cruise trip to 5 nights AND want to keep the above locations, I would either reduce Zagreb to 1 night, so as not to pick up a car right after a flight, or reduce the stay in Trogir to 1 night. We drove from Rovinj to Plitvice NP (@3 hours) where we stayed a night, and drove the next day to Zadar, which was roughly 1.5 hours. Trogir would be another half hour or so more.

Progol - I have 7 nights pre cruise. We arrive to Zagreb on Sept 3rd and the cruise starts on the the 10th. We are arriving to Zagreb at 1:05 pm and picking up a car at the airport. Is half a day sufficient to see the city? I do not plan to visit any museums. One night in Zagreb will certainly allow an overnight to stay at Plitvice Lakes.
Neckervd - I do prefer to drive along the cost instead of inland motorway.

I do prefer the scenic drive along the coast

It all depends. We were there 3 nights, but we did go to a few museums, and felt that 2 nights would’ve been sufficient. We did walk around a lot, though. For what I’m assuming are your interests, 1 night sounds sufficient, though I would pick up the car when leaving Zagreb as I don’t like driving just off an international flight. If you want 2 days in Zagreb, then one night in Trogir is adequate. It’s a small town and you’ll “see” it in a few hours.

So, if you prefer small towns and ambience over larger cities that have character, then stay in Trogir for 2 nights. If you want to see the city and get a feel for it, then stay in Zagreb for 2 nights.

May be you skip Istria as you will have there 2 days only and spend this time at Plitvice, Sibenik/Krka National Park and may be a Island of North Dalmatia.
I suppose that you will visit Split, Hvar, Korcula, Mljet, Dubrovnik, etc. on your cruise.

Progol - I am using Trogir as a base to see Zadar, Sibenic and Biograd. So I do prefer to to stay there 2 nights.
Neckervd - I will have 3 nights and 4 day in Ravinj. This will allow me time to visit Pula, may be Porec and definitely Motovun and Groznjan

I definitely prefer visiting Plitvice the way Progol recommends. That is what we did. We visited the Upper lakes in the late afternoon, after most of the large tour groups had left. Then the next morning we started at the Lower Lakes. We were there by 9AM. This way you beat most of the crowds both days. We stayed at Plitvice Miric Inn, which is a lovely place just outside the park. They offer a delicious breakfast buffet, one of the best we have had. At the time, in 2019, they were offering dinner for 20 euros per person. It was one of the best meals we had on our trip. They discontinued the dinners for awhile during Covid, but I understand they are now offering dinner again.

Karen Woo - Thank you! I updated my itinerary by reducing Zagreb to 1 night and adding a night in Plitvice Lakes on the way from Rovinj based on recommendations. Could you please let me know what time in the afternoon you started and how much time do I need to allow for Upper and Lower lakes (I realize it is subjective) if you remember. Thank you again!

If you wish, you can click on my screen name to read my trip report from September 2019.

Regarding Plitvice Lakes NP, according to my notes, I bought tickets for an entry time of 4:00PM on our first day. (We did the Upper Lakes first.) You can pick up your tickets 30 minutes prior. At the suggestion of the receptionist at Plitvice Miric Inn, we took the shuttle bus from ST-2 up to ST-3. And then we hiked down on the H trail. It was about a 20-minute ride up to ST-3. So we started our hike around 4:30PM. We reached the boat ramp at P-2 around 6;20pm. We walked slowly (several months before I had hip-replacement surgery) and we stopped to take lots of photos. Younger people could probably do the hike in a shorter time. We waited about 20 minutes for the boat that brought us to P-1.

The next morning we hiked the Lower Lakes. We took the bus from ST-2 to ST-1, and we were on the trail by 9:15AM. We hiked Trail B. At the end of our hike, we took the boat from P3 to P2 (about a 20-minute boat ride). Then a shorter boat ride from P2 to P1. We drove out of the parking lot by 12:30PM.

I’m posting my trip report from the Croatia portion of our 2021 trip; I don’t recall if you’ve seen it, but it has a lot of photos of several of the places you’re planning to visit, so I hope this might help give you an idea of what you’d prefer to focus on.
https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...1703021/page3/

The Plitvice NP portion starts at post #53 on my thread. I believe the tickets for the first afternoon were for 3pm on Day 1, where we started at the Upper Lakes and Entrance #1. We were there for about 2-2 1/2 hours. We went the next morning around 9:30am to Entrance #2 where we took a quick ferry across the lake and followed the paths for also for about 2-2 1/2 hours, ending at a spot where shuttle buses took us back to the parking lots. It really was stunning to see.