first time croatia itinerary

It is very obvious you are trying to squeeze too many stops into your trip, but you state this is how you want to travel. Just don’t forget to factor in the time from train/bus station to your hotel and back again. And time to check in and out at each hotel. So no comment there.
You can check train/bus info on Rome2rio.com. I can’t recommend any websites cause you won’t have time to see anything. Sorry.

Barbara, why did you even bother to respond?

Gave you info where to look for train bus info.

you're right Barbara, sorry and thank you, i'll use that site

Just to confirm: use Rome2rio to drill down and find the bus or train company, but don’t buy through Rome2rio. Buy direct.

You itinerary is aggressive but doable. (At least as far as I checked schedules.) For Zagreb, Plitvice, Zadar, and Mostar, you have 1/2 a day at most. I could wish an additional night for Mostar for you. Maybe on Day 11 you could take a late bus Mostar to Dubrovnik and give yourself another 1/2 day. Perhaps on Day 7 as well, since Day 8 is a full day in Split.

I think you are probably young and can manage this intense schedule, but you WILL be seeing a lot of the countries out the window of the bus. Fortunately it is, by and large, pretty scenery.

From Split, you can take the day trip to Hvar by ferry (Krilo may be fastest).

thanks for the reply texastravelmom. The itinerary is aggressive but i don't think it's as bad as you make it, especially since I can wake up early.
For instance, according to rome to rio, there is a bus from zagreb to lake plitvice that leaves at 6:45 AM and arrives at 9:02 AM. How does that give me only half a day in plitvice?
Or similarly, according to rome to rio, there is a bus from ljubjana to zagreb that leaves at 6 AM and arrives at 8 AM. So again, how is that half a day in zagreb? To me both seem like almost full days. I'll be sure to book hostels that let me leave my bag before check in time.

For mostar, there are organized day trips from both split and dubrovnik. Would you advise that instead of what wrote in my original post?

Dear Ariel, we respond because we are trying to save you from yourself.
I don't know where you live but maybe this is analogy that will make sense to you: Would you pay the 100 dollars to get into Disneyland if you could only spend 15 minutes there? It is your free will to run around spending more time on a bus/train than seeing Plitvice Lake (fill in the blank here) or Split. For most of us and surly for me, I want some bang for my buck. I try to stay no less that 3 nights in one place so I have two full days to visit. And never ever do I do one-night stands. So... you were asking about public transportation, I would look at ferry schedules too.

PS when on day 10 were you actually going to see Mostar? Absolutely loved it wish I had stayed 3 nights rather than 2. Where else can a person dance with the youth hostel kids to the Monkeys "Then I saw her face" if not on the river in Mostar!

Best of luck to you, Joanne

OP. You wanted to know people’s thoughts as stated in your inquiry. Other than that you had no specific questions. So try and refrain from castigating people when they do give you their thoughts.
From your replies you are obviously set on your itinerary. So do it.

treemoss2, the thing i dont understand about people like you is your need to post a reply when you have nothing of value to say. You are allowed to skip certain threads. Why are you hijacking mine? I actually did ask a specific question on how to best fit in Mostar and the comment I responded to brought up ridiculous points such that i'm spending more time on a bus than at a particular location (objectively not close to being true) or that $25 2.5 hour bus rides to have about 10 hours of sunlight in a location is analogous to $100 for 15 minutes of... disneyland. Such comments deserve castigation so i apologize but i will not try to refrain. Compare that response to texastravelmom's response who also, in a much more concise way, said the itinerary was too aggressive but then actually provided helpful information. Instead of letting me continue the conversation with her and anyone else who may have had something constructive to say, you and Joanna have basically hijacked and ended my thread.

Dear Ariel, we respond because we are trying to save you from
yourself.

Its one thing to express what you would do, its another thing to belittle someone who doesn't enjoy life the way you do. I've known people who did fast-paced trips and loved every moment. It's not an exploration, it's an adventure.

My only comment is if you loved Dubrovnik, you'll wonder why you went to Kotor. But Perast and the towns on the way might be different. And Plitvice? You can have it. Not the best use of my day. Oh, and Rome2 Rio? Naaa, gogle maps will tell you as much and it might be more current. But the real answer is the websites of the local carriers. I guess Rome2 Rio is good for getting that info.

Of course, OP, you shouldn't respond in-kind. Soak up what's useful to you and quietly ignore the rest.

Just think how helpful the forum could have been if everyone who actually traveled part of the route had chipped in with ideas on how to make her pace work a little more smoothly.

Mr E, thanks for the support. I deleted my response to her because i thought i was a little over the top also and i apologize for that. And she did bring up ferries which is something i didn't think of. I'm not sure where i can use a ferry though. Maybe if i go from split to dubrovnik directly. Obviously i would take a ferry to hvar. I think I might add a day to dubrovnik, maybe that will give me more time or make the mostar part easier to plan.

Ok, I will have another go, because I feel like you have invested some time into your research. But you have to be ok with the idea that my travel style and approach is most likely different than yours and it’s ok for you to discard any of my comments in your own planning. All I can do is give you my perspectives from my own experience. I respect your time and I assume you will respect mine.

First, apologies for not realizing HOW early you are willing to get up and out. I made the mistake of assuming closer to 8:00 estimate. I also hadn’t checked how early the first available public transit departs each place. So yes, you are correct that with a 6:00 or 6:30 departure, you have closer to a full day in the cities where you only have one night. I am not trying to be insulting when I say to remember that you will have to leave your lodging and be early for your bus - so should factor in leaving your lodging 30-45 minutes earlier than bus departure time (depending, of course, on where the bus departs from and how far it is from where you are staying). I have 4 adult kids - one wouldn’t mind doing this daily for 2 weeks and the other 3 not (enjoyably).

I think you can manage the Slovenia part just fine. Would it be lovely to have more time in Slovenia? Absolutely. But this will work for a first overview.

In Croatia: timewise, your whole plan works. But you have already made decisions to leave things out. It’s a necessary evil in traveling - we all have to, no matter how long we can stay. What that does for me is allow me to see what I want, leave some things out that don’t actually work logistically (even though I want to go), and feel really happy with where I CAN get. So if you end up not being able to include all your desired stops, let yourself be ok with that.

At some level, it’s hard to share thoughts on your plan because I have no idea of your primary interests (hiking? history? museums? nature? like me - outsidey but not outdoorsy? travel a lot or first international trip? beaches or mountains?, etc.)

For practical considerations:

Decide if you are staying in the old town city centers - and where that is relative to the bus station.

I absolutely think an overnight in Mostar is better than an organized day trip - if the logistics work. When I say I would wish extra time for you, it’s because Mostar (and my new love, Sarajevo) are fascinating. And an overnight is almost always better than day tripping along with the crowds. But it’s not always possible - recently I wanted to stay in Novi Sad, but had to cut some days and those nights were what had to go. Instead I did a day trip - am very happy I did, while knowing staying would have been better. 🤷🏻‍♀️ So either way is ok. But if you can find your way to Mostar and stay for the following morning, with a later bus departure, it might be worth it. There’s a fantastic “free” (for tips) tour once or twice a day (depending on when your trip is) that I would highly recommend.

Now, if getting to Mostar from Split doesn’t work, then consider spending the night in Hvar, getting there by ferry, on your way to Dubrovnik (by ferry). The night in Hvar would be in place of the third night in Split - but that really only makes sense if you are headed on to Dubrovnik instead of Mostar. Hvar is on the way from Split to Dubrovnik. The Krilo ferry is probably the best for both of those legs.

For Plitvice, do some research and see how much of it you want to hike and decide how the bus and lodging will work together. (It does - but I don’t know how since I had a car.) And whether you can do all you want on the day you arrive or whether you’ll want more time the next morning.

If you do decide to take a day trip to Montenegro, you might look at feasibility by bus on your own. I could also give you the name of someone who could arrange a driver so as to get the most out of your time - it might not cost much more than a small group tour. Just a thought.

You can check ferry times and lines on Croatiaferries.com.

I'm concerned about your visit to Plitvice. It gets absolutely, stunningly blasted by day-trippers before 10 AM. It's far, far better to arrive in mid- or late-afternoon as they are winding up their visits, see part of the lakes then, spend one night in or near the park, and finish up very early the next morning. You'll have luggage or a backpack with you and will have to find a place to check it. I don't know that a bus arriving at 9 AM is going to help much in getting started on the lakes before the mobs arrive.

I bet I've spent more time on buses in Croatia than most on this site. I can tell you that they are frequently late and off schedule. You do you, but with a plan so tight, you have little room for error.

Personally, I think that Lake Bled it overrated. I prefer other lakes and areas in Slovenia. I visit Zagreb monthly. With your limited timeframe, I don't think it is worth the effort. Not the prettiest place at all.

I am thinking that it will be just as easy to arrive in Zadar as it would be to arrive in Ljubljana. If this were my trip, I'd fly into Split or Zadar and just see the lakes and everything south to Dubrovnik. Ljubljana is pretty but save it for another time as there is so much amazing stuff to see in Slovenia.

Lake Bled YES
Plitvice NO
Kotor NO

Now you have more time for the good stuff .... or your plan works too.

Thanks so much for the replies and sorry for the delayed response. This is not only a hard trip to plan because I simply don't have enough time to fit in everything but because what one person says is a must, another person says is meh. In general, I've spent the last couple of days watching a lot of youtube videos of these locations and it hasn't made things easier, not because everything seems beautiful but because a lot of the places don't seem amazing (though not ugly or anything, on video they don't stand out like Florence/Prague as cities or Norway/Switzerland for nature). Zagreb, Lake plitvice, hvar, kotor... It doesn't seem like their beauty and appeal translate to youtube videos.

Texastravelmom, thanks so much for your help. I like museums, history and hiking. I avoid beaches unless they are considered "world class" and unmissable. In the past, I have taken long trips before though only in "developing" areas (3 months south america, 2 months southeast asia). I am pretty used to discomfort, long bus rides, and delays. You mentioned your love of Sarajevo which made me look into it and I aim now to include it (ha, you are probably wondering how, I have the itinerary below). It also makes Mostar easier to include.

Barbara, thanks so much for the link to the ferries! Though right now i'm leaning towards not taking any due to the time problems.

acraven, thanks so much for the info on plitvice. If I go, and I think I will since I like hiking and that seems like the best option (vs krka for example), I will try to follow your advice on the timing to avoid the crowds. I'm going in late April by the way which i don't think is the main season.

Emily, thanks for the advice. The reason i want to include Slovenia and am generally including too much is because there is a good chance I won't be back to this area for a very long time since there are so many places in the world to see that I haven't been to.

Mr E, thanks so much for the advice. As I wrote in the intro, it's so hard to figure out what to go to since what one person says is a "must", someone else says is skippable.

ok, so how about this for an itinerary with bus times that I got from Flixbus. Does anyone know if there any route I should look into taking a train?

day 1 - arrive in ljubjana and go to lake bled

day 2 - lake bled in morning and then in afternoon (around 1 or 2 pm?) take train or bus to ljubjana. So give or take it'll be like half a day lake bled and half a day ljubjana though an hour will be lost with hostel check in. Does that sound reasonable?

day 3 - ljubjana for the day and then take night bus to sarajevo (there is a 12:30 AM to 9:30 AM one and a 7:15 PM to 4:45 AM one. I am leaning more towards the 7:15 PM.

day 4 - sarajevo (so arrive at either 9:30 AM or 4:45 AM and stay the day. I wish there was a night bus that split the difference and was like 11 PM to 8 AM or something similar)

day 5 - sarajevo to mostar 6:50 AM to 9:30 AM bus

day 6 mostar to dubrovnik 7 AM to 10:50 AM bus - this bus offered by flixbus is only offered every other day so i have to make sure it aligns.

day 7 dubrovnik

day 8 dubrovnik or day trip to kotor

day 9 dubrovnik to split (possible buses to choose from are 3:30 AM to 8 AM, 8 AM to 11:45 AM, or 9 PM to 1:15 AM night before)

day 10 hvar day trip (should i do korcula day trip from dubrovnike instead? (and adjust itinerary accordingly)

day 11 split

day 12 split to lake plitvice (bus 7 AM to 10:30 AM)

day 14 lake plitvice to zadar (bus 9:45 AM to 12:30 PM)

day 15 fly out from zadar or go to zagreb first (buses are (3:30 AM to 7 AM or 7 AM to 10:30 AM) to fly from there

I think its better.

Zagreb, Lake plitvice, hvar, kotor... It doesn't seem like their
beauty and appeal translate to youtube videos.

Zagreb, good place to rest, but not a "destination"
Lake Plitvice, I arrived mid morning and was ready to move on by early afternoon. Not impressed at all. Tourist trap.

Kotor, after Dubrovnik? Why? PERAST for a night .... YES.

.
.
.

But looks like a great trip.

thanks so much Mr E! Perast definitely looks a lot prettier than Kotor. I'll try to figure out how to go there instead. It seems like a short bus ride away from Kotor

Perast is between Dubrovnik and Kotor. Shorter trip. Look at Hotel Conte (pretty sure that was the name).