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Road trip Southern Coast without Dubrovnik

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Hello everyone, my friends and I are planning a road trip Lithuania-Poland-Slovakia-Hungary-Croatia and back to Lithuania. We are going to spend a week in Croatia. It's our first road trip, we are only 19-20 years old and we don't have any experience so it's hard to plan everything. We have already booked 4 nights at hotel in Croatia and we thinking about spending other 3 nights at campsites. Does anyone know if it is hard to find a campsite in mid August in Croatia? And what are the prices?

For now we have planned:
Day 1: Leaving Lithuania and driving through Poland. Night near Slovakia border.
Day 2: Going to Budapest. Spending some time there. Going to Croatia. Sleeping near Croatia border.
Day 3: Arriving to Zagreb early in the morning. Visiting city. The night near Plitvica lakes.
Day 4: Going to Plitvica lakes early in the morning. Driving to Zadar. Night.
Day 5: Zadar. Driving to Šibenik. Night.
Day 6: Spend some time in Šibenik. Driving to Split. Stopping in Trogir. Night in Split.
Day 7: Day in Split. Drive to Omiš. Night (campsite)
Day 8: Go hiking in Biokovo nature park. After that relax at the beach in Makarska. Night (campsite).
Day 9-10: going home

First of all, is it possible to spend some time in Zadar after visiting Plitvica lakes or should we simply do it the other day? And after Plitvica lakes relax at the beach? Secondly, what do you think about our plan? Don't you think we are rushing everything?

What should we see in the cities I've mentioned? Budapest, Zagreb, Zadar, Šibenik, Trogir, Split, Omiš, Makarska. And maybe there are other cities we should definitely visit.
As you can see the last to night will be spend in campsites so our plans can easily change.

I know it's not enough time to see Croatia but thats how it is. We will definitely visit this country again. Dubrovnik, Korčula, Hvar and so on. Many things we won't see this summer.

Posted by
7049 posts

First, look to see if you can rent a car at all given that you're under 21. Then see if the rental allows you to cross borders. I think this is an incredibly rushed trip where you'll be in the car most of the time and spending a lot of money on the car rental and on gas. Driving through Lithuania, Poland and Hungary is not really "seeing" them except from the road (that's 4 out of your 9 days). Not even one full day in Budapest? You'll have to cross Slovakia too, by the way. If you want to spend a majority of your time in Croatia, why not start and end there and skip all the other countries that you're not spending any time in? You didn't say why you're starting and ending in Lithuania, which is quite far from Croatia - is there a reason?

Posted by
2 posts

Probably I should have mentioned that we are from Lithuania and we don't want to rent a car. So we will go with our car. First two days we won't stop a lot. Our main purpose is to get to Croatia in two days. We have been in Budapest so we will stop there only for a couple or hours. We will continue our trip to Balanton lake. Spend some time there and thats it. And yes, we will cross Slovakia but won't stop there. So the first two days are planned already and we only asking about Croatia.:)

Posted by
27093 posts

OK. In Zagreb you want to see the area around and especially north of Jelacic Square. That's the old town. I believe Ul. Tkalcica is the liveliest street, full of cafes. Many young people. The upper town to the west is both old and pretty, and not nearly as crowded as the streets below. In that area there's a small museum of naïve art that is inexpensive and doesn't take long to visit. Worth a stop if there are art lovers among your group. The Museum of Broken Relationships is fun, but it would work only if all visitors are comfortable reading Croatian or English, because the displays are meaningless if you can't read the posted descriptions.

You can see a lot of Plitvice in 3 to 4 hours. It will be much nicer when not overrun, which it often is. So your plan to get an early start on Day 4 is very smart. You don't have to buy a trail map, but it's handy to have if you want to veer from the marked routes. It's available from the gift shop, not from the kiosk that sells entry tickets. I think the cost was somewhere between 3 and 5 euros.

Zadar's old town is on a peninsula. It's a pedestrian zone, so you'll have to find a spot to ditch your car. It will take several hours to wander through the historic district; a full day wouldn't be too long. There are some interesting shops to browse in. On the edge of the peninsula (Google for map) are two modern sights: the Sea Organ (visiting any time is fine) and the Greeting to the Sun (visit between sunset and sunrise).

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