Must eliminate a location or 2. Help me decide please

I would probably spend one night less in Dubrovnik. I really enjoyed Mostar but did it as a day trip tour out of Dubrovnik. Love Krka and Plitvice. I really enjoy Ljubliana in Slovenia and I don't see where you have that. Are you planning on that? It definitely has a different feeling than Croatia. Not sure that helps or not. Good luck in the planning.

I agree that you don't really need a lot of time in Dubrovnik, but it is your arrival city - maybe you want some time to get settled and get over your jet lag. If you have day trip plans there that occupy enough time, maybe you shouldn't cut anything.

One option: day trip to Kotor (to me, the drive along the Bay of Kotor is the highlight, not really Kotor itself) and drive back to Mostar the same night. I guess that might be a little intimidating to do all that driving (three countries) the first day you get in the car. But it's a fairly easy drive, especially if you are used to driving in foreign countries. But I would probably try to avoid driving back to Dubrovnik that last night. Another option is to overnight in Trebinje, which is not as interesting as Mostar but far less touristy - and a good 1-2 hours closer to Kotor.

I suspect when you get to Montenegro you'll wish you had more time there - it's really unusual. But you might do a slow drive along the bay (stop for pictures here and there, including in Perast, lovely town), spend a few hours in Kotor climbing the "walls" above the town (navigating the cruise ship crowds) for the spectacular view of the bay below, and then heading up to Mostar. (Then you can plan your return trip just to spend more time in Montenegro, perhaps - at least you had a taste!) Mostar is not very big - you really could see it in a few hours, and it's better at night anyway when the tour groups have left. See the famous bridge, spend a few hours wandering around town, and head out.

(Tip: consider a detour stop at Kravice Falls in Bosnia on the way up to Split - if you have time. You can probably just drive right up to it in May without leaving the car in the parking area - I did.) Of course, you're starting to compress time a lot here and you might not want so much rushing around. Up to you.

Hvar is one of the very few places I haven't been to on your itinerary, so I can't really speak to whether you should cut it or not.

Would be curious to see your Slovenia itinerary.

Generally speaking, I think one night at Plitvice is enough. You just need to be there the night before so you can enter the park when it opens and get a major jump on the hordes of day-trippers. The longest marked route through the park won't take all day. I imagine you could spend more time by including extra areas that are not part of marked-out routes; perhaps you'll want to do that.

I don't know what to tell you about making cuts; there's lots of interesting stuff to see. Maybe you don't need both Hvar and Istria?

2 nights max in Dubrovnik, skip Kotor, maybe a day trip to Perast at most.

Andrew, I am considering your suggestion of driving Dubrovnik to Kotor to Mostar, but it is over 5 hrs. of driving plus sightseeing along the bay of Kotor. As we are getting older, I'm wondering if that's too much to ask my husband to do and actually enjoy. But a good suggestion that I will look into. I think if we chose to do that, we would spend 2 nights in Mostar. After our trip to Spain 5 years ago, one thing I know, we don't like packing up and moving all the time. I prefer 3 night stays, where it makes sense. In Spain we moved every 2 nights and it began to seem like more trouble that it was worth. I'm afraid our accumulation of birthdays is starting to show. Thanks again!

Yeah, Ellen, that's certainly a personal preference about the length of the drive and how often you change lodgings - totally get it. Just throwing out the ideas. No way is perfect! I'm sure you'll enjoy the trip either way.

Mostar itself isn't really worthy of two nights in my opinion. It's not a bad place to spend two nights, just not very big. I guess if you arrive late the first day and leave early the morning after the second night, that's not really much time there.

You could consider a side trip from Mostar to the Dervish monastery at nearby Blagaj, if you are looking for something else to see near Mostar while staying there.

Andrew, As far as Slovenia goes, we will be there the 2nd week of May, so I'm thinking the mountains are going to be full of snow, but we could do the lower level walks. I sure hope the Trsic Pass is open. We drove the Grossglockner road in Austria 2 years ago and it was gorgeous. And these 2 roads are close to one another. I'm trying to decide how to divide up our time in Slovenia. We have been to the Alps in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, so Slovenia is the only place left we haven't explored yet. I'm considering staying in Kobarid, Bohinj area and Lorgarska Dolina. I've got 7 nights to work with so I'm not sure how to divide those up. I'd prefer to stay 3 nights in one place and 4 nights in another to avoid so much moving around, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not. We will be arriving in Slovenia from Rovinj, stopping en route at Skocjan Caves, so that first night will be check in, eat, sleep. From there we will head to Zagreb to spend the night before flying home. Any suggestions? Thanks.

I have been to Slovenia in May, but I drove the Vrsic Pass in September. It will probably be open by May, but I think it varies year to year with the weather that year, of course.

Given that Ljubljana is probably my favorite city in Europe, I would advocate for spending at least some time there (it's big on charm, not much to see and it is small). But if you are more interested in the outdoorsy stuff, I can see putting the emphasis on that stuff vs. cities. I have been to Kobarid and Bojinj but not to Logarska Dolina, which seems to require at least one night to get the most out of it, though I suppose it could be done as a long day trip too. If you don't mind the extra driving, Ljubljana would make a decent base - a great place to come back to at night, though it's really not convenient to some of the places on your itinerary.

Kobarid is a tiny town - a good stopping place but not really a great base unless you plan to spend a few days there just exploring the areas nearby. There is a nice waterfall nearby (Slap Kozjak - all the locals can tell you how to get there). The big highlight there is the World War I stuff, the war museum etc. Otherwise, it's not much of a town.

We spent 2 nights in Dubrovnik, 2 in Kotor. both are at their most charming early and late when few cruise ship guests are there, and in Kotor we loved climbing up the mountain - the views are spectacular - we did it three times! We also took more than half of our full day for a boat trip to Perast where we had a lovely lunch on the water after visiting Our Lady of the Rocks. It was a memorable day. Mostar was 1 night, but for me, it could have been a day trip (or, dare I say skip it? - if you prefer rural hiking, perhaps... I found it crowded in May). One night at Plitvice was sufficient - we entered at about 4pm and stayed until closing and went back again the next morning to finish up. You won't want to be there mid-day with the bus tour crowds. Since we were seeing Plitvice, we decided to skip Krka. We loved Rovinj and the hill towns. I would not skip them. In Slovenia, we loved both Ljublijana and our two nights in Kobarid. We did short hikes from Kobarid, as well as some white water kayaking and visiting the WW1 museum.

We try to mostly stay 2 nights everywhere so that we have one full day. Our only two deviations were Plitvice and Mostar.

So, I haven't been to Hvar, so I can't comment on whether that would be the place to omit.