Hello everyone,
My husband and I were married in December and are currently planning our honeymoon. We are going to Croatia for two weeks in September. The general idea would be to spend the first half of the trip more on the go (soaking up the ambiance of Split and Dubrovnik and seeing the major sights), then the second half of the trip lounging at the beach, with an option to take some interesting day trips if we want. We will have a car throughout the entire trip.
Our preference is to skip most of the churches and museums, and instead focus our time in the cities seeing the truly unique sights (like walking the walls in Dubrovnik, exploring Diocletian's palace, etc.), people watching, and enjoying good food and drink. We (or rather I) love ambiance and neither of us are into the drink-till-two, party scene. On the second half of the trip, we would like to be somewhere where we can get a beautiful room in a nice hotel, and be within walking distance to restaurants, cafes and shops... and especially the beach (either pebbles or sand and hopefully not nude). We would love to be right on a beach, if possible. We love watersports (paddle boarding, jet skiing, wind surfing, etc.) and would love to have the option to go hiking and take day trips. I also love wine, so I'm hoping to explore Istria and potentially also the Peljesac Peninsula.
Right now, we are trying to choose between two itineraries.
Itinerary 1: Fly into Pula, spend three nights in Rovinj, then one night at Plitvice Lakes, three nights in Split, three nights on Korcula, and four nights in Cavtat (with potential to travel to the Bay of Kotor or Mostar). We would depart from Dubrovnik airport back to the US.
Itinerary 2: Fly into Dubrovnik, spend three nights in Cavtat, three nights in Split, one night at Plitvice Lakes, three nights on Krk Island, and four nights in Rovinj (with potential to travel to Venice or Ljubljana). We would depart from Pula back to the US.
Does anyone have any suggestions which itinerary we should go with? We can't seem to decide which island would be best for us... what are the big up- and down-sides to Krk and Korcula? Finally, is staying in Cavtat instead of Dubrovnik a good idea if we want to be able to see everything in Dubrovnik, while also having the option to sit on the beach all day long if we want. I heard Cavtat is nice but I was wondering if anyone had been there who could share their experience.
Thanks!