Croatia itinerary

I haven't been to Trogir or Korcula but all the others are lovely.

Where will you be arriving from, and where are you heading next? Are you flying in and out? It will probably be cost prohibitive to pick up a rental car in one country and drop it off in another.

I believe you've got an awful lot of places there for two weeks, but I have visited that area only by public transportation and realize that a car will make you more mobile. Still, 9 destinations in 14 days is a bit much. You said "around two weeks", so I hope you have some flexibility and can increase that. What you have there looks more like a 3-week itinerary to me.

Recommendation #1 is to spend the night in or very near Plitvice so your visit overlaps as little as possible with the time the day-trippers are there. The park is now hugely popular, and when I was there in 2015 the walkways looked like photos I've seen of line-ups outside places like the Louvre. That is not an exaggeration. The park is really lovely; see it at its best late in the afternoon and/or early in the morning. Bonus points for scheduling yourself there during the week rather than over a weekend. Pack snacks and drinks so that once you're inside you don't have to stop walking to look for refreshments. There's not much cover at all, so don't go on a day with really bad weather.

Recommendation #2 is to allow a day, or at least most of a day, to see a bit of inland Istria. It's beautiful, and the historic towns of Motovun and Groznjan are very interesting. So many people go to Croatia and don't see anything beyond the coast. You have time to do a bit more, and you should. Porec is as touristy as Rovinj but has a very different architectural look (more colorful) and is worth a few hours of wandering. I haven't been to Pula, but it has some important Roman ruins. Porec and Pula, though, are both coastal towns.

Others have warned that many/most lodgings on the Croatian islands have 3-night minimums, but I don't know whether that is true in September. Best to check on that before planning to overnight on two different islands. You may find fewer choices of ferries that can take cars, and in any case you should verify that your car rental allows taking the car onto a ferry.

Also verify that your rental car can be taken into Bosnia-Hercegovina and Montenegro. You must cross B-H to get to Dubrovnik even if in the end you find you do not have time for Mostar and Sarajevo.

All drivers should have international driving permits, available from the AAA or CAA at modest cost.

Thank you for your excellent suggestions. I think we can extend our trip to three weeks.

Also, we are flexible on where we will fly to and from.

That's fabulous. It will make it a lot easier to develop a workable itinerary.