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Travel itinerary around Hungary, Balkans, and possibly Italy -- attempt #2, in need of critiques!

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My apologies for posting this again...my previous post seems to have disappeared...most likely I deleted it by accident:

Hello everyone! I'm in need of a lot of critiques regarding my travel plans for this summer. My girlfriend and I hope to spend around three weeks -- from roughly June 17 - July 8 (there's wiggle room for this) -- traveling around Europe by bus/train/possibly ferry. We both have a large interest in learning about new cultures, history, walking aimlessly around cities, great museums...but really no interest in nightlife.

Unfortunately it will be impossible to travel open jaw, so my trip will start and end in Budapest. But maybe that's a good thing? :)

  • Budapest - 1 day (return later in trip)
  • Ljubljana - 1 or 2 days
  • Lake Bled - 2 days
  • (Julian Alps; Kobarid, Soca Valley, Bohinj) - 2 or 3 days (We like to go hiking and such and have an interest in this area but I'm not sure about the ease of travel here due to the lack of a car...I could cut this and come back in the future when I can rent a car if it would be significantly better)
  • Plitvice Lakes - .5 day (Try to arrive early in the day and try to travel to Split in the afternoon to stay the night there)
  • Split - 2 days
  • Hvar or Korcula - 1 day (I'm leaning towards Korcula as I have read on here it is more "sleepy" compared to Hvar, which appeals to us)
  • Dubrovnik - 2 or 3 days
  • (Kotor)- 1 day (can be cut if necessary...is it worth spending a night here or is it a day trip? More time in Croatia?)
  • Mostar - 1 day
  • Sarajevo - 3 days
  • (Zagreb or Novi Sad, or somewhere else...) - 1 or 2 days (I could cut this if I need more time elsewhere)
  • Budapest - 2 days

Alternatively, I have been thinking about taking a ferry from Dubrovnik to Bari, Italy, and then going around Italy for a short while...perhaps to Naples + Pompeii, Rome + Florence, or some other combination (or perhaps just a length of time in Rome). This would negate going to anywhere in Montenegro, Bosnia, Serbia, and perhaps the Julian Alps as well. Maybe this would be rushed and not worth it?

I would appreciate any and all comments...besides going too fast/slow, maybe there are places we are missing out on? Thanks!

Posted by
2696 posts

I know nothing about the other places, but I do know you'll be sorry if you don't spend at least 4 days in Budapest.

Posted by
7054 posts

Have you figured in transit time from one place to another? Consider that the 1 or 2 days stints you have here will be even shorter when travel time is factored in (and you're really at the mercy of the train/bus schedules as well). This is an aggressive trip with many, many lodging changes and not much slack in the itinerary...it's likely that it will be an exhausting trip unless you are used to traveling on a fast pace. I would plot this out on a calendar for a reality check.

Posted by
20675 posts

Go north to Slovenia or south towards Dubrovnik, but don't try both. Too much travel time. Discount airline connections to and from Budapest are better with the lower Balkans. To Ljubljana count on small day train.

Posted by
28369 posts

I agree with the others: Way too many destinations in too short a time. Transportation tends to be slow in that area, except that Bled is quite close to Ljubljana.

Ljubljana is a charming city and is worth at least one full day.

What you are lroposing for Plitvice will not yoeld a good visit. It gets blitzed by day-trippers to the point that the walkways are packed like NYC sidewalks. It's essential to spend the night before your park visit very nearby so you are in the park when it opens and have a lot of time to enjoy it crowd-free. If you manage to arrive in the area by mid-afternoon, you can consider a two-day pass and doing part of the park late on that first day after the day-trippers are gone. The park is accessible by bus from Zagreb (handsome, lively city worth at least one full day, more if you're interested in its many good museums) or Split. Getting there from rural Slovenia will be an adventure; I forsee a return to Ljubljana and a visit to Zagreb.

Novi Sad is interesting but probably accessible only via Beograd. Again: We're talking slow transportation.

As others have noted, you appear to be ignoring travel time. When I say a city is worth a day, I mean two nights, because in most cases a lot of both your arrival day and your departure day will be spent on the train or the bus, then there's time spent finding and checking into your hotel and getting oriented. Your original plan has more than a dozen hotel changes, which means that you'd lose large portions of more than twelve days to relocation activities--not the formula for a good vacation.

Montenegro is a very interesting country (with some national parks I'm sure you'd enjoy), but you don't have time for it on this trip. I'd say the same for Serbia. If you manage to get to Sarajevo, I think you need to try to fly back to Budapest. It might be better to hold off on Bosnia-Hercegovina to allow sufficient time for Budapest, Slovenia and Croatia.

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