Croatia Itinerary

Sticking to your itinerary I think the only change I would think about (really just think) is
Day 1 skip Herceg Novi and after Perast and Kotor continue to Budva for the night. Arrive in Budva maybe 5pm. You ae going to be in Dubrovnik so even 3 hours is enough in Kotor.
Day 2 Now you can see a bit of Budva and Stari Bar easily.

But, if it were me, the car and the route. I wouldn’t do it.

I presume you have the cost of renting a car and have confirmed that cost including the drop off fees, gas, and 25 to 50 euro a night to park it, and tolls, and the extra rental costs for crossing two borders. Add to that the flight from Zagreb to Dubrovnik and the value of day lost to travel. Now make some calls and compare that cost with other forms of transportation (mostly private transfers). If you need help with that, I know someone. Gives you more time for both to help with the 10-month-old as well.

For the route, I would do a straight line. Start (or End) in Zagreb and End (or Start) at the airport in Podgorica. No back tracking. Starting or ending in Zagreb means you don’t hae a day sacrificed like by fly to Dubrovnik and spending the night in Cavtat being DAY ZERO. It could easily be part of a day to enjoy Zagreb. I would do Mostar between Split and Dubrovnik. Well touristed routes, both of them, transportation will be easy. I would plan on several days in Budva to provide day trips to Stari Bar and Ostrog and maybe Ulcinj. I bet doing this you pick up at least a day of tourism, you can deal with the baby better, look out the window instead of stare at the road and it might not cost significantly more (if any). But it did cost more and that were a problem, I would take a day off the trip to save money before doing it your way.

Nothing wrong with you way. Its just “if it were me” we are all often very different in style and enjoyment.

Thank you for the advice, especially the tip to head straight to Budva! Unfortunately the cheap tickets to get to Croatia required a roundtrip itinerary in and out of Dubrovnik so we are stuck with the back-tracking.

It’s cheaper to add a flight back in to Dubrovnik? That’s a lot of rental car time and driving. I’d start one end, end in the other.

I spend a lot of time in Zagreb and I don't think this is where you will want to be. I suggest trying to find other ways of getting from the lakes (you know that this will be very scary with a baby, right? and that you'll need to carry the baby all day? The paths are exceptionally crowded and people push a lot.) back to Dubrovnik. I might just drive and spend some time in Sibenik, Zadar or other nice places between the lakes and Dubrovnik. The drive time from the lakes to Dubrovnik is a little less than 5 hours - surely faster than driving up to Zagreb and dealing with airports. Honestly, with a baby, I would just skip the lakes altogether and only go as far as Split. I say this as a mom who has taken a toddler to the lakes - it felt very irresponsible in hindsight.

I am sort of surprised that RT to DBV is cheaper than TGD? Usually the other way around and both work with your plans.

I agree with Elizabeth about Plitvice. When I visited about 2 years ago, it wasn’t terribly crowded by Plitvice standards, and it was still a bit of a mess …. I can’t imagine dealing with a baby on that, but we all deal with children differently.

If you remove Plitvice then there is no need to go to Zagreb and you just picked up a lot of days to use to slow things down a bit. You didn’t mention bringing other children on the trip, so I am guessing this is the first and if the first is 10 months in August then you are still on the learning curve. Maybe a bit slower is a good idea? But again, no judgment, just me (I had 3.5 children).

If you did what I suggest what about all those now free days? Its August, head UP to where its cooler. Slow down between the coast of Montenegro and Bosnia.

Yes, the 17th century Ostrog Monastery is worth the stop. On the way up, about 10 minutes’ drive from the monastery, stop at the Hotel Sokoline for lunch on the terrace overlooking the valley. I have been to few places as impressively beautiful. If extra days exist, spend the night there. And stop at the bridge over the Tara River canyon. Maybe the second most spectacular view of my travels. And again, a night there at another hotel (motel) with a terrace with a view. Again all of these will be cooler than the coast of Croatia or Montenegro. The baby will appreciate it too.
Ostrog Monastery https://youtu.be/ixrJu6qv46M?si=WML9Hs2hOQCsKZwE AND Hotel & Restaurant Sokoline https://youtu.be/miNV1FVK7qI?si=iZC_lViMUEk6JGI
Tara River Canyon https://youtu.be/9aGMZB8hB5Y?si=NFKsf6YtGAX2uVCa AND Motel Tara MB https://youtu.be/wGuRybkymEI?si=TGgevmpFSCGTghPq

Your circle is tighter, you have more time, you will experience more and it will cost less so you have more money to make it more enjoyable.

Finally, to be totally honest, I would hire the transfers, in part or in whole. Or at the very least I would hire help in the planning … https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/montenegro/montenegro-help I leave for Montenegro in a few days for the fourth trip. I was too proud to get a little help. Every time I do I learn more and the trips get better.