We are planning a Croatia trip for two 79 yr old women in April. We know that it can still be rainy but we are from Seattle so rain not an issue. We will likely have about 11-13 days in Croatia. We are not beach goers and more interested in history, people and how they live, food, ancient buildings and an interesting shops. A bit of wine never hurts, either.
Our original plan was to fly into Dubrovnik. And work our way up to Split via Mostar and an island or two. We hoped to get up as far a NP Krka from Split. And Sibernik and Trogir using bus or drivers. But after researching more and learning about other areas north of Split, we are re-thinking the itinerary. It is so hard to choose from so many wonderful places. We do not want to be hopping from place to place so would like to have 2- 3 bases and do exploring from those.
Is there any relatively simple way to get to Split or to Dubrovnik from Istria area. Pula has flights but nothing direct and range from 4-8 hrs. We had not planned on renting a car but is that the only way to do it, if we wanted to see Plitvice, Rovinj and Istria area in general?
It seems we either stay to the north and maybe get as far down as Split. Or we start in Dubrovnik and end in Split via Mostar. This is likely our only trip to Croatia. We will still travel but Croatia sounds a bit more challenging at our age and we can save the "easy" places for our 80"s.
As far as driving, I drove in Sardinia and in Puglia about 2 year ago, and did fine there. Anyone know how Croatia would compare in terms of difficulty with traffic in areas other than the larger cities? I do not want to try that or deal with parking. Overall, I would prefer not having a car but open to the idea.
I know that many of you will have great insight into what will give us the best feel for the country and the people. I expect to hear that we need to limit our locations. But which locations would be the best to maximize our experience? And thank you for any suggestions.