Planning trip Croatia/Slovenia

It is a rushed trip, and you are visiting at high season. Expect crowds especially on the coast and at Plitvice. Plitvice is better if you can get into the park at 7am when it opens - at least you will get an hour or two before the big tour groups descend and make the place Disneyland-unpleasant. There are hotels right in the park - overpriced for sure but convenient. They are easily accessible from the main road but you can walk right into the park.

Already booked the flights? If not, I'd open jaw ("multi-city" ticket) into Zagreb out of Dubrovnik or vice versa. Can be same price or even cheaper than a round trip.

If you must fly into/out of Dubrovnik (which is usually a less direct connection than Zagreb with the US), or if that really is cheaper/better in July, I'd consider flying immediately to Zagreb when you land - and do your trip in reverse. That avoids the need to split your nights in Dubrovnik.

You probably don't need the car between Split and Dubrovnik. Take passenger catamarans instead.

It is too rushed. I have similarly aged kids and we go to Croatia and Slovenia frequently. We are going to Rovinj for 10 days this Easter. That’s our pace.

You have two trips here - Split to Dubrovnik or Northern Croatia and Slovenia. Pick one. I’d suggest focusing on Slovenia and Istria as these areas have more for kids to do and will be less crowded. Stay on Cres for a few days, stay in a villa in the center of Istria with a pool, visit the Safari Bar on Kamenjak, see Dvigrad, visit the caves in Slovenia, hike around Lake Bohinj, go swimming in Piran. Now that’s a fun vacation!

I wouldn’t attempt this trip in less than 3 weeks, particularly in July when it’s going to be hot.

Having to return to Dubrovnik wastes a day. Can you fly open jaw?

Sorry. Something will have to give. Remember two nights = 1 day somewhere.

I suggest that you opt for Dubrovnik - Hvar (stay in Stari Grad or Jelsa, as the drinking/partying of Hvar town at that time of year isn’t the place for a 6 year old) - Split /Trogir - Plitvice and Krka National Parks

OR

Zagreb - Ljubljana - Lake Bled - Rovinj - Cres.

You don’t need a car in Dubrovnik, Split or Zagreb.

While at Split, recommend visiting nearby Trogir.

Thank's for the suggestions! Please keep them coming. I definitely will revise the plans to make it less rushed. We will drop Hvar and spend more time in Dubrovnik and Split, maybe a day trip to Hvar if we feel like it. I also like the suggestion of going directly to Zagreb, out flight lands in DBV at 9:30AM, what time I should book the flight from DBV to Zagareb- want to anticipate for immigration and changing terminal etc. ?

We are not very interested in seeing Zagreb, so we would like to just pick the rental and drive straight to Ljubijana, long day but can skip one extra night of packing and unpacking. Does this work?

4 nights- Ljubijana/Lake Bled (arrive in DBV at 9:30, take a flight to Zagareb, drive to Ljubijana)
4 nights- Rovinj
1 night- Piltvice
3 nights – split
3 nights- DBV

I forgot to add that the tickets are booked, we booked through miles, and couldn't find any open jaw award space, so will have to waste a day either coming back to Dbv or booking a separate flight from DBV to Zagreb

When booking a flight DBV - ZGB keep in mind that Dubrovnik Airport is super small so you don't need to spend a lot of time for customs. I think 4 nights are way too much for Ljubljana even with a day trip to Bled. Rather use those days for Zagreb or the coast.

Dubrovnik's airport is small (I have not actually been inside, but I had to pick up a rental car there once). Can't speak to the wait at immigration, but I assume otherwise it is easy to get around and connect. I assume you'll have to collect bags, then re-check them and go back through security etc. So, allow a few hours for that before flying on to Zagreb.

Adria Airlines used to have direct flights between Dubrovnik and Ljubljana - too bad they no longer do!

I would not recommend flying into Zagreb after flying into Dubrovnik from the US the same day and then renting a car and immediately driving to Ljubljana - you'll be wiped out from jet lag, won't you? I know I would be. Either spend the first night in Zagreb or don't rent the car until later. There is a well-regarded Slovenian transfer service called GoOpti that can pick you up at the airport in Zagreb and take you directly to Ljubljana. Even if you do it this way, it's going to be a long day.

You could also fly from Dubrovnik to Venice if that somehow works better or is a lot cheaper. Venice is slightly further from Ljubljana but not much - about a 3 hour GoOpti ride.

You don't want/need a car in Ljubljana proper, anyway. It's a lovely town with big pedestrian-only zones. However, you will want a car for a few days no doubt. You could rent one even for a day if you want to (long day trip to Lake Bled with scenic drives, etc.) You can rent cars from in town without going to an airport. Maybe rent the car as you leave Ljubljana after the first few nights. Last time I rented a car for a day from Avantcar in Ljubljana and dropped it after hours (left key at the hotel next door) and that worked out fine. If you want to stop for a night somewhere outside of Ljubljana instead, you could drop the car in say Koper (near Piran) on the coast and take a bus down to Rovinj or use GoOpti again - and rent another car there.

You could also return the car in Ljubljana and take the direct train to Rijeka (about 3 hrs) and rent the Croatian car there and drive right to Rovinj (I did this a few years ago). You can rent a car in Rovinj (if your best options turn out to be at Pula airport...keep looking, you can rent right in Rovinj), but there are more options for rentals in Rijeka. It's a little over an hour drive from Rijeka to Rovinj.

I'm not sure you need four nights in little Rovinj. It's a delightful seaside town, a great base to explore Istria, but the town itself is tiny. You can explore it in a few hours. But it's a nice town to come back to at night; it will be mobbed with tourists in July no doubt (I was there in May) during the day, maybe quieter at night. If you figure out what you want to see in Istria, then you can decide whether you need four nights there. You might get away with three.

Going south, there are other towns to stop at like Sibenik and Trogir (near Split). And there's another nice national park called Krka near Sibenik - unlike at Plitvice, you are allowed to swim there (below the falls). Maybe the kids would enjoy that.

Or add a night to Split and day trip to Hvar - a consolation for skipping it.

You don't necessarily need three nights in Dubrovnik at the end, either. Maybe if you arrive late the first day three nights would make sense because you leave the final day, but it's fairly small (bigger than Rovinj) and gets really mobbed with tourists during the daytime. I'd plan to get out of town at least one of the days you'll have there and come back at night to enjoy it when less crowded (try to stay in or near the old town - easier if you've dropped the car by then, because parking in Dubrovnik could be expensive in the summer if you stay near the old town).

If you keep the car past Split, you could detour to Bosnia and visit Mostar inland on the way south to Dubrovnik - something quite different than everything else on your itinerary.

I don't think 4 nights in Ljubljana is too long, especially when it's your first stop, so the arrival day will be both short and probably useless. It's a charming city with easy day-trips if you run out of things to do in town.

I am a Zagreb fan, but I guess I should stop trying to convert others and just enjoy it as a city that doesn't have a lot of tourists!

As for time in Rovinj, it depends on how many other places you want to see. In small places like Rovinj my policy is to cover the entire historic district, and that is more than a 1-hour effort; maybe half a day? Then you have Porec (much more colorful architecture--a very different look), the tiny hilltop village of Vrsar, Pula (Roman ruins, though very few people seem impressed by them) and the inland villages of Motovun and Groznjan. Somewhere there's a winery; my Inland Istria bus tour stopped there. Not being interested in wine I cannot tell you anything about the place. There's a small ethnographic museum in Pazin, which is sort of the administrative capital of Istria, I think. I believe there's a zipline in Pazin.