13 nights in Croatia and Slovenia, May 2023

Plitvice Lakes is inland and out of the way for this itinerary. Consider going to Krka instead, which is close to Split, or else plan to spend a night at Plitvice, which allows you entrance to the park both the afternoon of your arrival and the morning of your departure, if you stay at one of the three national park hotels.

If your time is tight, Hvar is probably the easiest and fastest island to get to and from. It's a bit of a party island, but is not too bad in the first part of May. That's when we were there this year. It is a beautiful place, and it is easy to take a tour from there to the Blue Cave, if that is on your agenda.

I've never rented a car in Europe, but I've heard that it can be very costly to rent in one country and drop off in another, so you may want to look into that.

These are the many of the same destinations visited on the RS Best of the Adriatic tour, a 13 night tour, except that the tour doesn't visit Montenegro. If you're up for a whirlwind pace, a lot of time spent driving, you could replicate that itinerary (in reverse), copying the number of nights the tour stays in each of those cities. I once thought about doing that, but when I saw that the tour has 35 hours of bus time, I decided that amount of driving over 2 weeks would be grueling, better to just take the tour and let someone else do that!

Three years ago we did almost exactly copy the RS Best of Scandinavia itinerary for an independent trip taken with friends, as we only had 2 weeks and wanted to get to Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo and Bergen. The public transportation connections (trains between cities, ferry to Aero Island, overnight ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo) made it very do-able. Most people would say this kind of pace--one and two night stays--is fine for a tour, when someone else is in charge of getting you from place to place, with planned guided excursions that you just show up for, but it's too much to do on your own, driving from place to place, time spent locating and checking into hotels, figuring out what you want to do each day, etc. If you decide to do it, think of it as a "survey course," instead of an itinerary that will let you delve deeply into the places seen. Everyone has their own style of travel.

A lot of territory to cover in a short time. Think you have to lay out your route with travel times. I would skip Kotor, similar to Dubrovnik. If you are going to drive to Venice you would need to go through Slovenia so a stop in Ljubljana and lake bled makes sense. I would eliminate Istria, unless you are returning your car and taking the ferry to Venice. With regard to visiting an island, you would probably have to leave the car on the mainland and park it in a lot. We were just in Orebič taking the ferry to Korčula in June. The long term parking lot was being renovated so that was not an option. We parked in the 24 hour lot. If you download the parking app, ask at the TI across the street from the lot, you can automatically pay from the island. Of course, we didn’t do this and hubby had to take the morning ferry over, pay the parking fee, and ferry back. In all it took him 45 minutes. The ride is only 15. You can also take a catamaran from Split to Hvar for the day. It is closer then Korčula.
We love Dalmatia, my husband’s father was born in Dubrovnik, and visit often to see family. But, we also really loved Ljubljana and Lake Bled. We never do the coast for less then 10 days, too hectic. I really think you have to narrow down your choices to just a few or it will be one big blur.

We need some context--are you traveling solo, do you typically like a fast-paced trip? Are you going to spend any time in Venice or is that just your outbound flight?
Too much in too little time most likely.
You'll probably need to drop the car in Croatia, take ferry to Venice (from Rovinj) or cobble together land transport.

Based on our trip to Croatia, Montenegro, and Slovenia in September 2019, I think you are trying to do too much. This will be a whirlwind tour and you will be spending a lot of time in a car and/or ferry.

For comparison purposes, this was our itinerary in 2019:

Dubrovnik - 3 nights which included a daytrip around the Bay of Kotor.
Split - 4 nights which included a day trip to Hvar Town by ferry. We loved Hvar Town, this was one of our favorite days, and it was not party central in September. Also visited Trogir on one of our days in Split.
Plitvice Lakes National park - 1 night
Zagreb - 2 nights
Ljubljana - 3 nights including a day trip to lake Bled.

Our trip was 13 nights, like yours, but we did not go to Mostar, Rovinj or Venice, and we did not overnight on an island. Of course, you don't have to spend 4 nights in Split (we loved Split, BTW) but I think you should spend at least 2 nights in Split. So you could spend one night on Hvar and one night in Mostar (instead of 4 nights in Split like we did), but that really doesn't leave you any time for Rovinj or Venice. We didn't visit the Istrian Peninsula because we didn't have the time, but I know travelers typically recommend not going to Rovinj unless you can spend a good amount of time there because it is a long drive.

You also don't have Zagreb on your itinerary, so you could perhaps take those 2 nights (from our itinerary) and spend it in Venice. Not sure if that is enough time for Venice, though. I just don't think you have time for Rovinj unless you omit some other destination.

Thank you. I was not clear. We have 13 nights in The Balkans. Ate the END of those 13 nights, we will be driving to Venice to start the Italy portion of the trip.

What I always do is write the trip out day-by-day. So, this is "doable" but I am assuming by the "we" that you have more than one in your party. I could only understand this kind of pace for a fast-paced solo traveler. I would most definitely cut something. If I was starting in Dubrovnik, I would eliminate Slovenia. Or, if you can change your starting point, you can save southern Dalmatia for a future trip and explore northern Croatia and Slovenia.
Dubrovnik three nights-- one full day for Kotor trip, one full day for Dubrovnik
Mostar - one night
Split - one night *This needs more nights if you want to see anything else (offshore islands). Okay for seeing Diocletian's palace.
Plitvice - one night, okay for all but the most ardent hiker
Slovenia -- ~6 nights, one for Ljubljana, one for Lake Bled, 4 for Alps--unless you add nights elsewhere, which may be needed for transport reasons.
Rovinj - one night {This only works if the ferry schedule gets you to Venice--I don't believe it is daily in May} *Could also add more nights here for Istria--this bypasses all of the little hill towns and gives Rovinj the bare minimum.
Alternative would be to drop can in Croatia and work out land transport to Venice.

Thank you, Valadelphia. For the four nights in the Alps, can you tell me where you suggest staying and what are Must See's? Thanks.

I have not been to Slovenia, only to Croatia. I just put the minimum amount of time I would consider appropriate to make the drive worth my while. Be sure to work backward and sort out the getting to Venice part--that will b a big determining factor.
Good luck!

So much depends on what your priorities are - and mine may not be yours. With 13 nights (and a stab at your priorities) my trip might look more like this:

3 nights Dubrovnic (day trip if you must)
2 nights island (Hvar or Korćula) - traveling by ferry
1 night Split (if the ferry arrives early enough to have most of a day) - travel by ferry
1 night Plitvice, picking up the rental car as you leave Split
1 night Ljubljana
3 nights Lake Bled (or the Alps somewhere)
2 nights Rovinj, turning in the car there and planning on the ferry to Venice (which I know nothing about - except you probably don’t want to pay the rent in one country/drop off in another fee).

That leaves you with a night to be added somewhere. That might be in Split, if the ferry arrives late. Or it might be another night in Rovinj for more of Istria.

This is still a really fast-paced trip. It drops Mostar, but really you need to drop something.

Based in the extremely helpful advice, we've modified the trip considerably. Thanks to all who've weighed in. Thoughts on the revision?

Dubrovnik (arrive about 4 PM) - 4 nights. Day trip to Kotor and maybe day trip to Mostar if we are feeling it. Ferry to:
Hvar - 2 nights. Ferry to:
Split - 3 nights. Last morning in Split, leave early to rent a car at the airport. Drive to Plitvice Lakes, hike for about 4 hours. Then continue on to:
Ljubljana - 4 nights. Use as a base to day trip to Bled and the Juliane Alps.

Leave Ljubljana and drive to Venice. Drop off car and start the Italy leg of the trip.

Less driving. Less frequent checking in and checking out. Seems more sane. Whaddya think?

Did you check to see if there is a huge drop-off fee to pick up the car in Croatia and return it to Italy? There usually is.

Yes, it is about $350 for the one way fee. I don't see a way to avoid it without going back to Split before going to Venice, which doesn't make any sense.

Great updated itinerary. Reads like a lovely trip. Make sure your Ljubljana hotel has parking, there will be an extra fee but worth it. In Bled we parked in the lot Rick mentions (and directs you to) in his guidebook. Worked out well for us. We wanted to eat dinner at Villa Bled, Tito’s old home, now a hotel, but didn’t make advance reservations. So disappointed, but that was a rookie mistake. Also, if you want to eat dinner at the castle in Ljubljana, also make advance reservations.
Also, if you need a guide recommendation for Mostar, let me know. We know a wonderful guy who is actually from Mostar. We used him a few times, this last September was the latest.

Thanks, Barbara. So helpful. I'll DM you.

Definitely better, although I would suggest taking a night from Split and adding it to the island, especially if you want to do a Blue Cave tour (although you can also do this from Split). Two nights on the island is only one full day, and in May, the catamaran ferries from Dubrovnik to Korkula and Hvar don't leave until the afternoon, getting you to the island in the evening. (At least that was the case this year.)

Looks great. the 350 fee is not bad at all in the big scheme of things. We often hear about different country drop-off fees in the 1000 range, so it is always the best course to check with the rental office.
Check catamaran schedules on the Jadrolinija and Krilo websites. I tend to agree about staying at least three nights on an island, but of course it depends on what you wanted to see/do on Hvar and in Split. May is a really lovely time to be in Croatia!

Can I ask which car rental company you are using to allow drop off in Venice for $350?

Consider where you will be the night before heading to Venice. It might be a lot cheaper if you are in say Croatia or Slovenia to drop the car there the night before and take a bus or a shuttle service like GoOpti on to Venice.