Thank you to Rick Steves and my fellow travelers for such an informative/robust forum! I would greatly appreciate any advice for our first ever trip to Croatia. My spouse/I are going late July from either Porto or Lisbon and plan on spending 8-10 nights in Croatia. Below is an itinerary I created. Please let me know if it's too pie in the sky, or doable.
This will be our 5th trip to Europe, so we know it will be hot, very crowded, and much more expensive. My spouse is a high school teacher, so it's the only time we can go.
Questions:
1) Has anyone flown from Portugal to Croatia? Was it non-stop to Zagreb or one of the coastal cities? Generally speaking, is it cheaper flying to Zagreb since it's the main airport, or are fares to the coast not much more?
2) It's been noted in the Rick Steves book that many (if not most) Croatian lodging operators require a minimum stay of 3-4 nights in summer, and shorter stays mean a hefty surcharge. Has that been your experience? Or are there several sobes/hotels that don't do that?
3) Seems many folks get stumped on which island(s) to visit, for how long, car vs. no car, and if it's a day trip- from which mainland city. I'd love to see Hvar, but wondering if summer crowds, not wanting to take a car, and costly overnight lodging means we are better off on a long day trip somewhere from Dubrovnik? We are open to any tips/advice on visiting an island or two.
ITINERARY (please let me know the best recommendations if it's better flying straight to Split or Dub instead of Zagreb).
Fly into Zagreb. If early in the day, catch a flight to Dubrovnik on Croatia Airlines (they look to be affordable).
Spend 4 nights in Dubrovnik. Two of the days would be in town- Stradun, Mt. Srd, city walls, beaches. The other two days so that we have a "home base" for a day trip to Mostar, and a day trip to one of the islands- Korcula perhaps?
Get rental car in Dubrovnik and either 1) drive up to Split for the night or 2) if leaving Dub very early just drive straight to Plitvice NP and spend the night at the park. If we stay in Split, see the town for the day and get an early start the next day for Plitvice.
From Plitvice, we wanted to head over to the Istria region and see Motovun, Rovinj, and try to hop over into Slovenia for the Skocjan caves. The "home base" would be Rovinj for 2-3 nights to see the city, and venture into the countryside and up to the caves.
After check out in Rovinj, either drive to Zagreb and drop off the rental car and fly out, or take a quick Croatia Airlines flight from Pula airport to Zagreb and return the car at Pula.
Whew! Any thoughts? Pretty unrealistic? Or doable?
Thank you :o)