Korcula, from Dubrovnik or Split?

Korcula can be reached by either a car ferry or a pedestrian ferry, both of which depart from Orebic, a two-hour drive from Dubrovnik. While the pedestrian ferry goes to Korcula Town, the car ferry goes to the deeper port of Domince which is 2.5 miles away.
From Dubrovnik with a car you can take a ferry such as the state-operated Jadrolinja ferry. The pedestrian-only Krilo catamaran is faster. You can view boat schedules at www.CroatiaFerries.com
While Kotor is in a magnificent setting. it does have a cruise port and when ships are in port. well, you can imagine how overwhelmed a town of 900 residents can be when there are 5,000 cruise ship passengers (or more on some days) visiting. The website www.Cruisemapper.com tracks when cruise ships are in port on any upcoming date along with the ship’s passenger capacity.
Perast, an ancient town on the Bay of Kotor, is an alternative.

Be careful though because most car rentals do not let you take it on a ferry, check your contract. It is easier to get to Korcula from split because the ferry is right in town. It is quite a drive from Dubrovnik to Orebić. We’ve done Korčula from both cities.

Barbara’s point on car rentals allowed on ferries brought another thing to mind which is that you also need to verify whether the agency you rent from allows the car to be taken to Montenegro and what, if any, the extra charges will be. Mostar is in Bosnia-Herzegovina and could have different limitations.
Europcar and Sixt are two agencies that both allow ferry travel and travel to Montenegro with a modest fee.

On my first trip to Croatia, I had to figure out how to see those things too, and it was hard to do it without doubling back...so I just doubled back. I drove south past Split in my rental car and on to Mostar for a night. Then I dropped the car in Dubrovnik and spent a few days there. Then I took the bus to Korcula (bus uses the short car ferry over to Korcula Town from Orebić. Then I took a passenger ferry from Korcula Town to Split. (I flew out of Split at the end of my trip.)

Had I kept the car in Dubrovnik (which would have been expensive to park close to the old town where I was staying) I could have taken that same car ferry at Orebić, then taken a car ferry from the other side of the island,, at Vela Luka, on to Split.

We were just in Croatia in June. We had to pay $80 extra to take the car into Slovenia. We rented through Carwiz. We parked our car in Orebić and took the ferry over to korčula. We were only staying two nights and didn’t need it on the island. The long term lot was closed for renovations so we just parked in the regular 24 hour lot. You can download the app to pay for the next 24 hours. The TI is across the street from the lot, and ferry, and they can help you. The long term lot might be finished by now - don’t trust the website. When we went to the website there was no mention that it was closed.

I just reread your post. Last September we started in Dubrovnik, went to Medjugorje and Mostar for one night, keeping our Dubrovnik rental. We then ferried to Korcula, from the port of Gruz which is very close old city, then ferried to split then hired a driver to Zadar, then rented a car to Rijeka

Great input everyone much appreciated.

Yea so basically seems like there’s going to be some double backing or at least having a car sit for a while if we are going to have it the entire time. Feel like split may be more cost effective to leave a car as opposed to Dubrovnik if we are to want to just walk onto a ferry

Yes. When in Split we always stay at the Hotel Peristil. It is a very short walk to the ferry. The hotel is located just off the Riva in the Palace. Very nice owners and a lovely breakfast. They also have a restaurant.