Now that we can go to Slovenia and Croatia this May/June, can you help?

My significant other and I (mid 50s) did essentially this trip in May a few years ago.

My comments:

1. We stayed in an agroturismo in the hills above Kobarid and enjoyed it. I thought the WWI museum in Kobarid was quite interesting. As was a (fairly brief) stop at the memorial to the Italian war dead. All that sacrifice, and in the end, for what?

2. We went in late May, planned to drive the Vrsic pass, but could not do it as we were told it was still snowed in. Wound up taking a brief detour through Italy and around into Kobarid. You would be going the other way.

3. I might try to stay overnight at Lake Bled. It's worth walking around the lake, visiting the castle, and visiting the island in the middle of the lake. Those three things took us a whole day. Plus, I know there are a couple of worthwhile sites a little out of town, although we did not have time to visit them.

4. I enjoyed Ljubljana. Its easily worth two days. If I were ever to move to Europe, it would likely be there. So spend two days there and stop at the caves on the way to Plitvice? (We went to one of the two famous caves, and thought it was worth the stop).

5. Be at Plitvice right when it opens. You will avoid the crowds, and find it much more enjoyable. And starting early makes it more feasible to drive to Split the same day.

6. We dropped the car in Split. No need to take it any further. Try to find a place to stay inside the palace.

7. We stayed the same amounts of time you are staying in Hvar/Korcula About right for the islands.

8. If you can squeeze an extra day into your itinerary, stay an extra day in Dubrovnik and take the day trip to the Bay of Kotor. My biggest regret of our trip is that we were unable to do that.

9. We finished our trip by traveling into Bosnia, staying in Mostar and Sarajevo. Very interesting. You see some real Turkish influences in those two towns.

I have used London as a staging city before - a few years ago, I flew into London and out to Prague about two hours later. (Yes, I was taking a chance; I didn't actually purchase the easyJet ticket until I was at the gate in Detroit about to board the flight to London!) I flew from Budapest back to London and spent two nights in London before flying home. It worked out great, but I was able to fly into/out of LGW. With London, you may need to change airports when making a connection like that. If so, I'd probably avoid it - or add extra time so you can spend a few nights in London to start you trip or something.

You can fly into Venice too not just Ljubljana. You can get from Venice to Ljubljana or Rovinj fairly easily now (e.g. GoOpti). I guess if Pula is an affordable flight from LHR at a convenient time, that would work for getting to Rovinj fairly easily.

You might also look for an open jaw into London out of Venice (or vice versa) - doesn't hurt to check options like this, in case Venice would be a better arrival or departure city or something without raising the fare much.

Sorry, but I think you are trying to cover too many places and are spending too long in transit. Personally, I would keep Slovenia for another trip. You have 23 days with transatlantic travel, but you haven’t got any “chill” time or down days in there to just wander round and soak up the atmosphere.

You can easily spend 5 days in Istria exploring the hill towns and the coast. Staying at Plitvice the night before is worthwhile. If you had a car, you could also visit Krka National Park, which is different in character from Plitvice.

I would add more time in Hvar and Korcula- you will widen your choice of accommodation if you stay 3 nights on each.

Local schools start their long summer holidays mid June, so I would aim to start in late May.

We are going to Crotatia in late May from Atlanta. One trick I found out for getting cheaper flights was to book as a bundle through Expedia (flight +hotel). You can set it up so that you only have a hotel for a few days and not the entire trip to get the huge discount on the flight. So in your example, you could look into flying into Pula, where it where it will give you hotel options for Rovinj since they are so close geographically. Although, through my research, flying into Pula was the most expensive option from Atlanta (compared to Zagreb, Dubrovnik, and Split). Anyways, we saved a ton of money doing this. It may also work from Boston. Good luck!