Itinerary Croatia/slovenia Help

When is your trip? Where do you plan to pick up the first car?

During the usual travel season Plitvice Lakes is swamped by day-trippers to the point that it seriously affects a visitor's enjoyment. Split is way too far away to spend the night before your Plitvice visit. With a car you don't have to stay in or immediately outside the park, but you need to be quite close so you can be at the park really early.

After the time in Dubrovnik, your itinerary feels rather rushed to me. Have you checked driving times on viamichelin.com (they need to be padded), consulted ferry schedules and considered possible border-crossing delays? I think you are going to be spending a huge percentage of your time in moving vehicles.

Day 7, 8 and 9 are messy. You want to get to the lakes early. Driving from the lakes to Istria takes a long time. You cannot see Istria in an afternoon. How will you get from Pula to Rovinj? Lake Bled is near the Julian Alps. Why come back to Ljubljana? You have to cut some things.

Sept 30 - Oct 13 is our trip. We plan to rent a car in Split to drive to Plitvice Lake and stay overnight in that area.
Drive to Rovinj the next day spend night in Rovinj.

You could drop the car off in Rovinj (yes, there are car companies there - look on more sites like EconomyCarRentals, Kemwel, Auto Europe) and take a bus from Rovinj to Koper or Ljubljana. Or drive an hour to Rijeka and take a direct train to Ljubljana. Two direct trains a day:

http://www.slo-zeleznice.si/en/passenger-transport/travelling-abroad/croatia/rijeka

I did it the opposite way in 2015: took the train from Ljubljana to Rijeka, walked to the harbor area where Oryx rental car was located, and drove to Rovinj. It's about a 15 minute walk from the train station down there - also local buses I think, but even with a small bag I had no trouble walking it. There's actually an Oryx right in Rovinj anyway, but I wanted to take the train instead of the long bus ride. I booked with EconomyCarRentals.

I agree with the previous posters' concerns and would add that I'm not sure it's worth doing just the one night on Hvar. It will give you a succession of one night stays, first in Hvar, then in Split and then in Plitvice, which can be quite tiring.

Furthermore, I'm not sure you'll be able to make the ferry departures work. October is already off-season as far as ferries are concerned and I only see one catamaran running from Dubrovnik to Hvar (and Split) and it departs Dubrovnik at 4pm, getting to Hvar by 7pm, forcing you to do the sightseeing the following day, when you would have been in Split. The more convenient morning ferries stop running mid-September. I suggest you skip the single night in Hvar, take a morning bus to Split on day 5 and do a day trip to Hvar instead.

Did this trip almost in reverse. Picked up car at AP in Lj and dropped it off in Split. Spent a great cheap night at lakes. It was worth it. Did not need car between Split and Dub. after we arrived there. You can check out our pics at our personal blog.

http://www.gadtravel.com/2008/10/slovenia-and-croatia.html

Mark,
If you dropped off your car in Split, did you have an extra charge for drop off in different country?
When you visited Predjama Castle, Škocjan Caves, and Lipica Farms, was this a day trip? What city did you start from and end?
I would love for you to share your route/itinerary while in Slovenia.

Thanks in Advance.

When comparing car prices (rent in Slovenia, drop in Croatia vs. renting two cars), compare not just the drop fee but the individual per-day rates. The "drop fee" may not appear at all as an extra cost but may be buried in a higher daily rental rate. Depends on the car company.

I'm not really answering your questions but rather just a few general comments. I was in Croatia/Slovenia in July 2016. Although it was a busy time, I never felt there were crowds like other high profile countries. It was absolutely the best. We stayed in Zagreb three days, Rovinj 4 and Piran 5. I loved them all. We visited Pula by bus for the day as well. We only rented a car from Piran to drive to Slovenia and left the card in Ljubliana and bused back to Zagreb. You must stop and see Postojna Caves and Predjama Castle. I was NOT impressed with Lake Bled.

Enjoy your trip!