Updated: 30 Day Central/Eastern Europe Itinerary. Feedback Requested.

Arrive Prague Late. 3 nights. (2 days sight seeing).

Sort of the minimum.

Train to Vienna. 3 nights (2.5 days sight seeing).

Again the minimum

Train to Budapest. 3 nights (2.5 days sight seeing).

1.5 days short of the minimum

Train to Zagreb. 1 night. (.5 day of sight seeing) Pick up rental car.

5.5 hours on a train that gets you there in time for bed. No sight seeing till the next morning.

Drive to Lake Bled. 2 nights (1 day sight seeing).

Some day I will have to go, but not too high on the bucket list.

Drive to Ljubljana via Julian Alps. 2 nights (1.5 days sight seeing).

Any plans or destinations? What time of year??

Drive to Rovinj. 3 nights (2 days of sight seeing).

A 3 hour drive, but worth it.

Drive to Plitvice NP. 1 Night (1 day of sight seeing).

Never been but after seeing this, never will https://packinglighttravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/179-Plitvice-Lakes.jpg and Im not a big fan of one night stands

Drive to Split/Zadar?. 2 Nights (1 day of sight seeing).

Okay

Ferry to Brac. 3 Nights (2 days of beach/sight seeing).

Okay

Ferry and Drive to Mostar. 1 Night. (.5 day of sight seeing).

Im not a big fan of one night stands. 4 hour drive so you wont see much

Drive to Kotor. 2 Nights. 1 Day of sight seeing.

Im not a big fan of one night stands. another 4 hour drive

Drive back to Dubrovnik. 3 Nights. 2 Days of seeing.

and yet another day of driving followed by 3 nights in a 2 night town.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Kotor is sort of a waste after Dubrovnik (or before Dubrovnik). Perast is closer and its nice and different.

You could also maybe be a bit more efficient if you were to fly from Budapest to Podgorica and then get a guide to Kotor and to Dubrovnik (all in one day or with one night in Perast). Then rent your car in Dubrovnik and drive north to Lake Bled and go home from Zagreb or Ljubljana. Wizzair flies BUD to TGD non-stop on Tuesday and Saturday for $50 to $100 depending on luggage and the time of year.

The photo James E linked to is not worse than what I saw at Plitvice during day-tripping hours in 2015. In fact, I think conditions were more crowded during my visit. This is why I am so adamant that visitors must spend the night there and see the park very late on their arrival day and/or very early the next morning. It is a really beautiful place, and I wouldn't want people to give up on the idea of seeing it. It just requires something other than a mid-day blitz visit to make it really worthwhile.

Time allocations for the first three cities are very short. Be sure you've built reasonably accurate sightseeing lists before you determine how many days you need in each one.

I believe there's only one train from Budapest to Zagreb that takes less than 7 hours, and it is a late one, arriving in Zagreb at 9:05 PM (for the random weekday I chose in May). Therefore, a night in Zagreb will probably produce no sightseeing time in that city at all. A bus would be faster.

Bled and Ljubljana are very close together; I'd combine those two destinations into one hotel stay unless I wanted to spend one night on the road somewhere farther from Ljubljana. Lake Bled is very, very small. You can walk all the way around it in 2 or 3 hours. The town itself isn't particularly special to my mind, so I'd stay in Ljubljana unless I had plans for a lot of outdoor activities to take place much closer to Bled than to the capital.

I think Kotor needs to be omitted so there's more time for the other stops. A trip with eight 1- or 2-night stops is, frankly, not one I'd want to take.

Here is the train
15:35 Budapest-Déli 21:05 5:30

http://elvira.mav-start.hu/elvira.dll/x/uf?iehack=%3F&ed=5E134716&mikor=-1&isz=0&language=2&k=&ref=&retur=&nyit=&_charset_=UTF-8&vparam=&i=BUDAPEST*&e=ZAGREB+%5BZagreb+Glavni+Kol.%5D&v=&d=20.05.06&u=1156&go=Timetable

Yep; that's the one. Great for maximizing time in Budapest as long as you want to write off Zagreb and just use it as a convenient place to pick up a Croatian rental car-- not necessarily a bad idea in this situation. But the traveler needs to understand that there will be no Zagreb time on this trip if that train is taken unless he wants to cut into Ljubljana time.

I agree with acraven and James that this a rushed trip. You are spending a lot of time traveling to your destinations and not enough time at your destinations. I have been to most of the places on your itinerary. I would add more time to Prague and Zagreb. I would stay in Perast rather than Kotor OR see the Bay of Kotor as a day trip from Dubrovnik to eliminate some packing and unpacking. I agree that unless you plan to do a lot of outdoor activities around Lake Bled, you should spend 3 or 4 nights in Ljubljana and take day trips from there. Ljubljana is a very pretty city with lots of great restaurants; it’s a wonderful place to return to at night after sightseeing.

I haven’t been to Vienna or Budapest but your time there does seem short.

Sorry, but it sounds like a rushed, hideous trip, spending more time in transit than actually seeing places. You are short changing almost everywhere by several days.

Thanks for input everyone. Lots to think about.

I don't understand going to Zagreb and then going back to Slovenia where you will have to again cross a pretty busy border. Do not underestimate the time you need to cross the border between Croatia and Slovenia. As the itinerary is too rushed, I think you need to makes some cuts. I suggest cutting Slovenia and Rovinj altogether or cutting Mostar, Kotor and Dubrovnik.

I assumed the route was designed to avoid an international drop charge for the rental car.

Acraven, it was. Plus, we fly out of Dubrovnik. Also, took your advice and got one of the Plitvice NP hotels. We will arrive in the afternoon and tour half and then tour the other half first thing in the morning.

Also, thanks to others for input. I should probably let people know we live in western USA and are used to and enjoy long road trips. We pack very light and don't need much time to depart from our accommodations. Two summers ago, we completed a similar trip through UK, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and France. This is how we roll but I appreciate the suggestions and will take them into consideration.