First Family trip to Croatia-9 people

You are planning a lot of destination changes for just two weeks, especially since children are involved. What not choose either Greece or Croatia and focus on that one country. Minimum 3 night stays would be my goal.

I don’t understand why you feel the need to add another country for a trip that is only two weeks long. Choose Greece or Croatia for your two week trip.

Thank you so much for the advice. I think you are all right. It will be way too much with the 5 kids we have. The last time I went to Europe with my child he was 5 years old a d we did Italy and Greece in 2 weeks but we were only 3 people with 1 child. I will reassess the itinerary

I agree that adding a second country will add to the complications. Finding lodging for 9 people will be challenging. Multiply that by each change of location. Then factor in additional flights. And transportation while wrangling kids and luggage. I’ve done it, with a group 7, including an 8 month old. Getting everyone out the door at the same time is a challenge in itself!

If your 2 weeks (13 nights?) includes arrival and departure days, you really have only 12 days to sightsee. Subtract a day to move between Croatia and Greece. That leaves 11 days. With kids, I would spend a minimum of 3 nights in each location. So 3 places, maybe 4. But are you really going to Greece and not planning to spend time in Athens? I prefer the countryside to cities also, but I wouldn’t skip Athens if going to Greece.

Croatia Airlines has a nonstop flight between Athens and Dubrovnik and that’s all I see that are nonstop. If traveling between Greece and Croatia you’ll have to connect in Athens to get to or from Mykonos and Santorini.
Trogir is the jumping off point for the Blue Lagoon and is not convenient to get to and from if flying in or out of Dubrovnik. I’ve been to Dubrovnik and loved it. After two nights there you could rent a car and drive to Kotor, Montenegro (2h 30m) and explore the Bay of Kotor. You can return your car in Dubrovnik and fly from there.

A popular route for visiting Croatia is starting at Split on the northern Dalmatian coast and taking ferries or the Krilo catamaran to Hvar in one hour, then Korcula in 90 minutes, then Dubrovnik in two hours. From Split, you can visit Plitvice National Park. From Dubrovnik, Lokrum National Park is an island 15 minutes by local ferry and has hiking trails everywhere. These locations all are on the Adriatic with Hvar and Korcula being islands. That should please everyone as there are opportunities for hiking and water sports all along the coast. Offshore from Hvar are the Pakleni Islands which you can reach by boats available to rent and also on group tours.

@Kenko thank you so much for your reply. I really appreciate your suggestion and will look into it and even use it as our itinerary. Thank you.