Hello fellow travelers,
I hope all of you are well. I'm planning a 1 month road trip with my girlfriend this August and would love some advice. We are doing a loop from Southern Burgundy to Montenegro over the course of 30 - 35 days, with a focus on Croatia.
I've had the pleasure of reading numerous posts these past few days that have been extremely useful. I've been drawing out a program but am a bit lost and overwhelmed by which routes to take home and if the overall construction of the trip makes sense. I understand that this trip requires an immense amount of driving, any small towns you've loved to cut it up would be much appreciated. All critiques and unsolicited advice is welcome!
Here are some key points of the trip :
- We are departing from Southern Burgundy on August 6
- We need to be back in Southern Burgundy between September 5th and 10th.
- We are two women in our mid twenties. We have lots of energy and are fairly adventurous but would like to feel safe.
- We will be camping a majority of the time to keep accomodation costs down, preferring to allocate our budget towards a handful of nice restaurants (often the agriturismo type), activities, and some classical concerts. Recommendations for any of the latter at any leg in the trip would be much appreciated.
My draft of the trip is as follows :
1. Departure from Southern Burgundy, France
2. Lake Maggiore, Italy, 4 nights.
Focus on Cannobio, Borromean Islands, Lake Orta, Madonna della Sasso.
Has anyone stayed at the Monastery on Lake Orta?
3. Koper & Piran, Slovenia, 2 nights.
4. Istria, Croatia, 4 nights.
Focus on Groznjan, Motovun, and Rovinj.
5. 1 night along the road. Possibly Trogir?
6. Dubrovnik, Croatia, 2 nights.
Seeing as we won't be staying in Dubrovnik itself, how long does it make sense to stay there?
7. Perast, 4 nights.
8. 4 - 5 nights roadtripping up to Austria. Would you recommend going back up the Croatian coastline? Should we pass through Bosnia and Herzegovina? What about making a stop in Zagreb or the Zagorje region?
9. Salzburg, Austria with stop/evening near Halstatt. 4 nights.
10. Drive back to Southern Burgundy either through Bavaria or Switzerland, 4 - 5 nights. Any suggestions welcome.
This puts us at 31 nights, with an additional 4 nights leeway if necessary. Are we spending too much or too little time at any of these destinations? What would you cut out or add?
Another option would be spending more time in Montenegro/Croatia and driving back through Italy (possibly stopping at Lake Garda). I looked at spending a few days on Vis or Mljet.
What are your critiques and suggestions, whether they be overall or for a particular leg of the trip? Are there any cultural sites along this route that particularly blew you away?
I thank you all in advance for your advice and look so forward to exchanging with you.
Best regards,
Gabrielle