Balkan Plan

Days 4 to 8 means lots of time in a car and relatively little time exploring places and the hassle of moving on every night. If you are using Google Maps, add a third, as they usually underestimate timings.

You haven’t got long in Split or Zagreb - you can easily double the time spent here and take a day off Lake Bled. Trogir near Split is worth a half day trip.

Dubrovnik and Kotor are so similar, except that Dubrovnik is more beautiful, that I wouldnt waste time with both. I love Montenegro, but I would skip Kotor.

Having said that, the biggest tourist hot spots in the region are Dubrovnik, Plitvice, Kotor, Lake Bled, Split and Mostar; probably in that order.

In my world I would narrow it down to maybe 3 locations to sleep and do a lot of day trips.

Still, if this works for you, it will be a heck of a trip. Do it and enjoy.

You have 4 one-night stays in a row, which would not be relaxing to me. As Jennifer says, you will be spending a lot of time in the car. One possibility is to visit Bay of Kotor as a day trip from Dubrovnik, which is what we did. Personally, we like Dubrovnik a lot more than Kotor. But if one-night stays don't bother you, and you want the ambience of being in Kotor at night, then by all means do so. And I think it's a nice idea to stay overnight in Mostar.

You have very little time in Split, which is a beautiful port city with great restaurants. We had a guided tour of Diocletian's Palace, which was a highlight of our trip. We spent 4 nights in Split, and that included a day trip by catamaran to Hvar Town, which was another highlight of our trip. When is your trip, btw? I have heard Hvar Town is a party town during the summer, but we were there in September, and it was much quieter. If you are there in the summer months, you could take a day trip to Stari Grad on Hvar, which is supposed to be quieter. A day trip to Hvar gives you the opportunity to see one of the islands without a lot of work getting there. We also visited Trogir from Split. There are also other day trips from Split, such as to Sibenik and Krka National Park.

On Day 7, it seems to me that you might arrive at Plitvice park after it closes, which means you won't see the park that day. (It's a good 3-hour drive, IIRC, from Split to Plitvice, and that's without stops.) If you only have the morning of Day 8, that is not a lot of time, and you risk running into the huge tour groups if you stay there later. I would plan it so that you arrive at Plitvice around 2pm or 3pm, check into your hotel, and then enter the park for 3pm or 4pm. Then the next morning, get there early to see the rest of the park.

We visited Lake Bled as a day trip from Ljubljana. It is beautiful, but I've read that there isn't much to do at night. So I think you have too many nights in Lake Bled. I would take one of those nights and add it to Split.

I hope this helps.

I agree with kmkwoo about the Plitvice plan.

What do you plan to do at Bled? If it's just see the lake, you have way more time than you need. I walked all the way around that (lovely) lake, and I don't think it took much more than 2 hours. There's some inconsistent online information about the circumference of the lake, but the travel-Slovenia.si website says the path is 6 km. (3.6 miles), which I am prepared to believe. You can take a little boat out to the little church on the little island in the (little) lake, but how long could that take? On the other hand, if you want to drive to Lake Bohinj and/or go to Vintgar Gorge, that's a different story.

There's a lot more to do in Ljubljana than in Bled proper, and aside from the lake I found Ljubljana a lot more attractive.

I enjoyed Kotor a lot, but I didn't go to Dubrovnik on the same trip, so I think James E. may be onto something. The thing is that Mostar is a considerably longer drive from Kotor than from Dubrovnik--an extra 78 minutes according to ViaMichelin. I think you might just as well make the dip into Montenegro a day-trip (avoiding the hotel-change hassle) so you can see the fabulous Bay of Kotor scenery. But now we have to think about how little you, as the presumed driver, may be able to see. The road is extremely curvy; that's where you'll need to point your eyes. You might consider a public bus or a one-day bus tour so you can enjoy the incredible views.

I forgot to say that some car hire companies won’t let you take a car out of the EU ie Bosnia, whilst others may charge a premium to cover this plus there will be a one way drop fee.

If you decide to visit the Bay of Kotor as a day trip from Dubrovnik, you could also hire a private driver, which is what we did. This was one of the best days of our trip! Our driver also acted as tour guide while on the road. He could not come with us as a guide to the places we stopped at, but we really didn't need a guide there. We visited Budva, Kotor, and Perast, and Perast was our favorite stop. My husband was able to enjoy the beautiful scenery as a passenger, not as a driver.

I first contacted Julija Antunovic to drive us, but she was booked for that day. She recommended Stjepan, who was excellent! He was very friendly, personable, intelligent and well-informed. He is a young university student.

Herceg Novi is a good stop on the way from Dubrovnik to Kotor, should you have extra time that day.

Stjepan recommended Herceg Novi, too, but we didn't have time for 4 stops. He told us it has a nice old town center and an interesting castle.

Thank you all for the prompt and very detailed replies, they are extremely helpful. The trip is in June, by the way.
I think I will cut Kotor and a day from Bled, and possibly add a layover in Munich to see some old friends for a night. So for the Balkan part, perhaps this:

1. Munich
2. Arrive Dubrovnik late at night.
3. Dubrovnik
4. Dubrovnik
5. Get car and drive to Mostar (stay Mostar)
6. Drive to Split (stay Split)
7. Split.
8. Split. Drive to Plitvice, arriving late afternoon. Explore park a bit in evening. Stay Plitvice.
9. Plitvice in the morning. Drive to Zagreb (Zagreb)
10. Zagreb
11. early train to Lake Bled (Bled).
12. Hike Vintar Gorge and visit Radovljica. (Bled)
13. Train to Ljubljana (Ljubljana)
14. Ljubljana
15. Depart

I think this give me more time in Split and should allow for fewer crowds at Plitvice.
Thanks again!

I'd spend both nights in Slovenia in Ljubljana, not Bled, and just do day trips. Although I prefer trains, the bus is easier to Lake Bled from Ljubljana. The train from Zagreb continued past Ljubljana to Lesce Bled station; you need a taxi or bus from there on to Lake Bled proper. The bus from Ljubljana to Bled is the one that stops at the Lesce Bled train station anyway. Ljubljana is much more lively and interesting at night than the town of Bled, anyway.

You don't necessarily need a lot of time at Lake Bled. A few hours to walk around it (it's not very big). Or take a pletna boat out to the island and the church. Vingar Gorge is a nice hike, but personally, it was not a highlight of Slovenia for me (especially if you have just been to Plitvice, which is crowded but amazing). I'd hike Vintgar Gorge if you have time, though.

Without a car in Slovenia, a "long day" plan by public transportation might be: take the train in the morning to Radovljica, take the bus on to Bled, explore the lake, hike the Vintgar Gorge if you feel like it, and then take the bus back to Ljubljana in the evening (long days in June, anyway). It's possible to take the train back to Ljubljana too - there's a little train station called Bled Jezero above the lake opposite of town, which you can take (with connection at Jesenice). This is exactly how I did it (train, bus, train) a few years ago, though I didn't hike the Vintgar Gorge on that trip.

It might also be worth renting a car in Slovenia just for the day for the long day trips. In that case, I would try to take the scenic drive to Bled - stop at the town of Skofja Loka on the way, then take the beautiful mountain drive from Skofja Loka (via Jamnik and Kropa) into Radovljica and then Bled. It would be a long day to do all of that and include Vintgar Gorge, but it's doable. Depends how ambitious you feel.

If you find the train schedule from Zagreb to Bled not convenient, you might consider taking buses instead. The bus may take a bit longer between the two capitals, but I think there are more buses running each day than trains. The bus station in Zagreb is a hopping place. The train station, not so much.

Vintgar Gorge is a walk, not a hike.