Itinerary Help Slovenia & Croatia

Picking up a car in Slovenia and dropping it off in Croatia will incur a large dropoff
charge. If you know that, no worries.

It's easy to take a bus from Ljubljana to Bled. Not sure how accessible your hiking plans
are, but if you were thinking of doing Vintgar, for instance, there are buses to take you
there.

There are trains and buses from Ljubjiana into Croatia. If nothing else, it reduces the
amount of driving you have to do. I know you can get rental cars in Rijeka, so maybe
take a bus or train there, pick your car, and then dropping it off in Split is nowhere
near as much of a drop fee.

Day 8 seems more like a 5-6 hour drive to me. If so, not sure how much hiking you'll
be able to do. If you are staying at the park hotel and want to do the first half of
Plitvice in the late afternoon, that seems quite doable.

Looks pretty manageable otherwise, to me anyways.

Where are you traveling from? If you fly into Zagreb to pick up the rental, the Dubrovnik drop-off fee should be minimal. We only spent one hour at Lake Bled but there are great hikes less than an hour from there. We stayed in Radovljica--it's closer to hiking areas and we took the train into Llublijana for a day trip. You don't need to hike Plitvice twice. Spend day 8 driving there, making stops along the way. Stay at the park or near Rastaoke. Get tickets for early Day 9, you'll be finished by 1 pm and can then drive to Split.

Where are you flying from? Driving on arrival seems risky. If you were just going to drive straight to Lake Bled, maybe, but the diversion to the mountains gives me pause.
Is the cross-border car drop off fee sorted?

Ljubljana airport is actually about halfway between Bled and Ljubljana. There are pretty regular busses between Bled and Ljubljana and I believe they all stop at the airport. You’ll have to figure out the details, but heading to Bled when you land would clean up those first few days.

We have a similar itenerary for Sept this year. I'm flying into Zagreb and renting a car there (~375USD) and driving immediately to Ljub. We will then drop the car in Split and continue our journey with a guide Dream Tours by Petar.