Croatia & Slovenia 14-day itinerary

Are you planning to drive?

The problem I see is that day-trip to Plitvice from Zagreb. That will be a real problem in June. I speak from experience, having done exactly that in 2015. The park gets absolutely blitzed during day-tripping hours; the walkways are unbelievably crowded, and it seriously affects ones enjoyment of the park.

Believe me, it's worth having a one-night hotel stay to assure an enjoyable visit to Plitvice. So I'd recommend that you travel from Split to Plitvice on Day 9 (or even late on Day 8 if you're OK possibly driving rural roads after dark). Spend the night in or near the park so you can start your park visit very early the next day. It won't take you all day to see the park, so you can drive on to Ljubljana that day.

I think acraven's advice is spot on.

I also think you have too much time in Split. The drive from Dubrovnik to Split is about 4 hours. So you could easily do that drive, see Split that same day, and then do your day trip to either the next day.

My recommendation is this:

Day 6: Drive to Split, settle in, do a city tour. Sleep in Split
Day 7: Day trip to Hvar. Sleep in Split.
Day 8: Drive to Trogir. Morning and early afternoon in Trogir. Then drive on to Plitvice. Sleep near or in the park.
Day 9: Visit the park early, then drive to Ljubljana

Of course, all this is assuming you will be driving. Transfer from place to place is going to be much slower if you're relying on public transportation. And for five of you, I think splitting the cost of a car rental will be very reasonable.

Your day 2 is a lot of travelling if you are suffering from jet lag.

Check online that day 5 is a quiet day cruise ship wise, otherwise you may want to swap round your first few days order.

Day 3. Korcula is a bit too far for a day trip from Dubrovnik. The catamaran sails in the afternoon and returns in the morning, so you would have to take the bus, which takes over 3 hours each way.

I would move the Plitvice night to lie after Split and get there early.

Hi guys,
Thank you everyone, your insights have been so helpful We will revisit our itinerary.

Sorry, another question please, i found on rome2rio that it takes 1h45 minutes to get to Korcula island from Split, while in our current itinerary, we go to Korcula from Dubrovnik, which takes 3hours 10mins. I guess it would be better to visit Korcula when we arrive at Split??

Not sure where a time of 1:45 comes from (driving? doubt it) - but the fast catamaran from Split to Korcula Town takes at least 2:25, sometimes 3:00, depending on when:

https://www.korculainfo.com/ferries/ferry-catamaran-korcula-hvar-split/

If you are talking about the car ferry, that goes from Split to Vela Luka, on the other side of Korcula island from Korcula Town, about a 45 min drive as I understand it.

Hi, I guess departure from Dubrovnik is the better option -1hour45 mins

http://www.jadrolinija.hr/en/schedule/info/2017/04/26/from-june-9-the-catamaran-line-dubrovnik-kor%C4%8Dula-hvar-bol-split

Jadrolinija will operate this connection from June 9 - Sept 18
From Durbrovnik to Korcula once a day departs at 7:15am from Dubrovnik and departs from Korcula at 7:15

Once you start planning a detailed itinerary, I find it’s best to use other services. Rome2rio is good to get a rough overview of your itinerary but is otherwise often inaccurate, especially when it comes to the duration of travel.

Tks! will make sure to countercheck the travel times.