Hello,
I am planning on flying from SFO (CA) to not sure where either Split or Dubrovnik...or ? in September. After Croatia planning on Prague (can I fly from Zagreb?) and then ultimately Poland from where I will fly home. I'm trying to figure out where to start in Croatia. Should I start in Dub then catamaran to Korcula then Split and rent a car? Would like to go to Plitvice, Rovinj and Istria based on the tiny amount of info I've picked up so far. Any ideas on navigation and some of the things I've left out of which there are probably many?
Thank you for any and all information.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
To find out where you can fly nonstop from an airport, look at that airport's Wikipedia page. Remember that not all destinations are served daily, and that when flights are indicated as "seasonal," the season can be long or short.
To find flights within Europe, use Skyscanner: http://www.skyscanner.com/
To get from SFO to Croatia be prepared for multiple connections (you may be able to do it with one connection in Munich).
Posted by
Washington DC
27104 posts
Expect to use a lot of buses for traveling within Croatia during the parts of your trip when you don't have a car. Istria is very nice, but most of the scheduled bus services are along the coast. I liked Rovinj (where I stayed) and Porec (architecturally very different), plus the little town of Vrsar. I didn't make it to Pula. I found a once-a-week (Wednesday in 2015) one-day bus tour to Inland Istria that I really enjoyed. It allowed me to see Motovun, Groznjan and a few other places in a single day, which would otherwise have been impossible without renting a car. There was also a stop at a winery.
Plitvice Lakes National Park is wonderful, but it is very popular. The walkways were unbelievably overcrowded the day I was there in 2015; it made my visit substantially less enjoyable than my two earlier trips to the park (which were pre-tourism boom). To assure yourself of a decent visit, you really must spend the might beforehand in or near the park. That will allow you to get a very early start before the day-trippers arrive. There are options listed on booking.com.
If you get to the park area by mid-afternoon you might consider a 2-day pass. I haven't been in the park in the late afternoon, but another poster reported that it cleared out later in the day, creating an opportunity to enjoy at least part of the park on arrival day.
There are public buses to the park from both Zagreb and Split. If you are traveling to or from Istria, you'll probably need to cobble something together. The BusCroatia website may be helpful for that trip and other parts of your itinerary. I never had a planned Croatian bus not show up, but I made it a point to check the onward schedule as soon as I arrived in a new town. The tourist office often can give you a little slip of paper with a schedule on it, but I'm more comfortable getting such critical information from the bus station itself.
I flew back to the US from Zagreb in 2015 with just one stop (in either Amsterdam or Frankfurt). It might prove to be a good place to start your trip. Zagreb has a very nice bi-level historic district with a sort of central European flavor--active café culture, youthful vibe. Lots of museums, too. I thought it was worth two days, easily, but I know that many other people are dazzled by Dubrovnik. In any case, as noted above, starting from Zagreb allows an easy approach (by public bus) to Plitvice. Going on to Istria would probably be more complex.