Traveling to Italy and Croatia in July...want to end the trip in Austria

This is in July...July of this year - you mean, like the July that's less than 2 weeks away? I hope you're referring to July 2013, because if not, you appear to be shockingly unprepared for a trip that could be 2 weeks from now (based on how elementary your questions are). Regardless, lets start with square one: You say you're planning a "10 day" trip. How many full days in Europe do you have, not counting your arrival or departure days? Next: Do you have your flights already? (If not, hope you have deep pockets.) Where do you fly in and out of?

David thanks so much for your response! Yes I bought my tickets about a month and a half ago. And have spent the last month looking at what I would like to do...and then realised that I needed some help planning this. Ok, I arrive in Venice on the 9th of July (this year :)) and plan to leave on the 19th of July, but I am flexible if needs be and can stay an extra 2 days if I had to (I would just pay a change of flight fee). I was planning to leave from Vienna, but can change that part of my ticket if going to Vienna is unrealistic.

Regarding rental cars: I have never rented a car and driven in Croatia, but I understand that some companies are averse to having people take their cars into eastern Europe. You would just have to check with the company. Driving in Italy can be.... challenging, and you need an International Driving Permit (available from your local AAA office). And if you rent in one country and drop off in another, you can expect large dropoff fees (could be hundreds of dollars) for doing so. You might be too late to find a good deal on a car, but it doesn't hurt to look.

GOOD TO KNOW! Thanks. I will look into that further. SO do you have any recommendations on how to plan the trip itinerary to accomodate what I would like to achieve in 10 days?

Sounds like a lot to achieve in eight days (hard to do-see much the days you arrive and depart.) You'll also lose almost a day getting from Croatia to Vienna (and some getting to Croatia.) Melk is also a full "day trip" from Vienna. That doesn't leave much time to enjoy Venice or Croatia.

OK, you arrive on 7/9 and depart on 7/19. Your trip is 9 days, not 10. This is a very short trip to Europe (by most people's standards). Should you extend it 2 days? Well, I would, but you'll have to decide for yourself. To me, a trip to Europe is expensive and doesn't happen very often, so I figure when I do one, I try hard to make it count. If you can afford to extend it, I would. Regardless, your list has a lot for a short trip. Croatia (I just got back from there) is great, but has a lot of things to see that are spread across a surprisingly wide area. They also get very busy from June-August, so you will need to deal with the fact that you're going at the peak of high season (high demand=prices go up, rooms are scarce, there will be some crowds, etc.). Can you be more specific than "Croatia"? You could include parts of Croatia (Istria) fairly easily with Venice and Vienna, but if you plan to try and go down the coast and island hop (great stuff, but popular and it will be hot), that takes you further away from Venice & Vienna. You're going to have to weigh your options and choose what you can manage in the time you have - it's all a trade-off. Regarding rental cars: Important! Most companies will be perfectly happy to let you take a car across the border into the next country or two (there are exceptions, but none on your list). But they'll ding you with a stunningly high "drop off fee" (like 500-600 Euros, on top of all other charges - that's just the international drop-off fee). That makes this problematic for most of us. (continues...)

(continued...) You could take a ferry from Venice to Pula (southern tip of Istria in Croatia), et a car there and drive it around Croatia (Istria, maybe some other parts if you have time). Then you could catch a train to Vienna (the train system in Croatia is not extensive - forget Dubrovnik) but parts of Istria (Pula, Rejika) are connected pretty well by rail - you could catch a train there to Ljubljana, Slovenia (a cool city), then (I think) continue on by train to Vienna. That would probably be plenty for the amount of time you have (if you extend it). You have lots of homework to do. First thing I'd do would be to get Rick's Croatia-Slovenia book, research how to get around and weigh your options. Extend your trip by a few days if you can. Remember you're going during high season so unless don't mind scrambling for scarce rooms as you go, you needs to jump on your accommodations reservations ASAP (among other things). I agree with others who caution that you've got a lot there to try and squeeze into a short time. Resist the temptation to try and hot too many places. Hope that helps - good luck!

Thanks! Well I will take a look at my itinerary again...and reconsider going without reservations. Listening to this I might just take Vienna out of the equation if I have to, since I was going more for croatia and some italy. David do you have some favorite places in croatia (some must sees). It sounds like you recommend taking the ferry in and then rentng the car and driving around. I wanted to stay in 'sobas' - any recommendations? And I really did want to keep dubrovnik in - do you think this is possible on the 9 day timeline?

For the short amount of time you have I would explore Venice and surrounding area for a few days, take the train from there to Vienna. Vienna has much to see and do. In addition to your day trip to Melk you can catch the boat that goes down the Danube to Durnstein and from there to Krems where you can train back to Vienna. I would totally skip Croatia, making it a destination for your next trip.

Thanks Alex. I had not thought about that. Let me take a look at Vienna, etc and do some more reading that's an interesting suggestion. It sounds like you really recommend Vienna and the Danube area...let me go online and look at it some more

Glad to help. If you need any info let me know. You might want to consider an overnight in Durnstein or one of the other villages along the Danube. We did and loved it. You can easily do Venice to Vienna and all your sightseeing by train and public transit. No need for a car rental.

1. Hurry with everything, you don't have much time and much to do. 2. Extend your trip if you can - my personal guideline is if you're going all the way to Europe, it's worth it to spend a minimum of 2 weeks there. 3. Get a guide book ASAP. It will help answer most of your questions. 4. Agree you probably need to pick either Croatia or Austria (plus Venice) - they're just not close enough together to efficiently do all 3. Your call as to which is a higher priority for you on this trip - they'll still be there next time you go. 5. Lots of great places in Croatia - look at Ricks book - hint: for a very rough idea of the top sights, look at where Rick's tours go (on this website) - that will highlight some places you may want to consider. Of course, you won't be able to do them as efficiently as on an organized tour so dial back your expectations a bit, but it's a start until you get the book. 6. Sobes are the way to go in Croatia, but you're probably to late to get the best ones (those listed in Rick's book usually get snatched up months in advance). Use the book, TripAdvisor.com and do the best you can at this late date. 7. Dubrovnik will be hard unless you bypass much of the rest of Croatia - it's quite a ways down the coast. Although the country is not huge, it does take some time to get from one place to another.
8. Make a list of your priorities, rank them, get out a map and figure the most efficient way to hit as many as you reasonably can - but be careful not to bite off too much (almost everyone does on their first trip or when they haven't planned well in advance).

If it were me, I would skip Croatia this time. Beautiful country and I enjoyed my (short) time there, but 3 countries in your time frame is pretty tough. Venice is great for a few days. Nearby are some great day trips (like Verona) or even an overnighter (like Ravenna, one of my favorite cities in Italy.) Vienna has (easily) a good 3-4 days in the city itself. Fabulous museums and a number of great palaces. A day/river trip to Melk would be a great enhancement. I can appreciate a desire to see Croatia (and would like to return myself) but your original plan would have you spending most of your time traveling. Sometimes, less is more.

I also agree that picking 2 will give you a memorable yet still busy trip. I would take Venice & Vienna this time. From Venice you can take a boat trip to Burano and if you skip Croatia there is no need for a rental car in either Vienna or Venice. Make it easy and take a train, then take a tour to Melk Abbey. Just be sure they leave you enough time to explore and just enjoy the ambience. Lots to do in Vienna as well. When and if you do Croatia that would be the time for a car to explore the countryside. Without a car I would definitely try to make some sort of reservations for this trip. Busy time of year and you are going to a big city. Winging it tends to work best when you have a car and are traveling to villages and seeing the countryside.

Wow, thanks for all the great suggestions! What I will do tonight and tomorrow is really take a look at my time, see if I can make the necessary changes and then choose between Vienna and Croatia. Although Croatia was at the top of my list it sounds like it is a trip in itself since it doesn't sound easy to get around. I will write in again in another day or 2 to let you all know what I decide. In the meantime if there any other good suggestions keep them coming, because I will be checking! Thanks!

This is what I have decided. Please let me know what you all think. I have decided to split the 10 day trip between Italy and Croatia. I am flying in to venice (will arrive around 5 in the evening) will spend at least 1 to 2 days there and from there will follow highway A4 and visit the cities along the way, then up to Como and end in Milan. From Milan I will fly into Dubrovnik. And follow the coast to visit split, Zadar, etc - and then stop at Plitvice, and then on to Zagreb to fly home. Here are my questions: 1- For the portion of the trip in Italy - do I need 4 days or 5 days? 2 - In Italy for what I would like to do should I rent a car, or is public transportation efficient? 3 - Does 5 to 6 days in Croatia sound sufficient to do what I plan? 4 - Should I rent a car in Croatia or can I use public transportation?
5 - How much time/days should I dedicate to plitvice national park? Thanks for all your help! Ady

I'm not sure if it was mentioned yet, but if you drive on the autobahn in Austria, you will need to purchase a vignette sticker at the border.

I'll leave the Italy piece to others. Regarding Croatia... You need no more than a day for Plitvice - we arrived there around 2 pm, hiked around the lakes for about 6 hours and that was plenty for us. We spent the night and drove off the next morning - that seemed about right. Accommodations at the park were not great but were not awful - felt very 1970s "eastern bloc". I'd seriously consider a car for this. You still are trying to cover a lot of places in a short amount of time - that depends on what you mean by "into Dubrovnik. And follow the coast to visit split, Zadar, etc - and then stop at Plitvice, and then on to Zagreb". With 5-6 days ( full days, not counting your flight days?) you're still going to be moving fast - going by bus will slow you down a lot once you get beyond the coastal cities (I don't think public transport will work efficiently for Plitvice). If I had 5 days, I'd do 1 full day in Dubrovnik (sleep there); next day drive to Split, spend 1/2 a day there, then spend the night in Split or maybe Trogir (we really liked Trogir).
Next day drive to Sibenik (stop for a couple hours) - we actually thought Sibenik was more interesting/had more to see than Zadar - then drive on to Plitvice (this would be a long day), arriving at Plitvice late, sleeping in one of the park hotels. Next day do the park, start early and finish by mid afternoon, then drive to Zageb, arriving late - drop the car on arrival if you can. That's a very aggressive schedule, but it hits the major spots on your list and I think it would work (depends on whether you have 5 full days or 6, and doesn't leave you much margin).

Thank you. You have been hugely helpful David with the Croatia advice!

I agree, that is a pretty "aggressive" schedule. Good luck pulling it off.

I think it's do-able. We recently did a trip that included some of that (although we had 2 days in Dubrovnik, and connected locations differently). We also had all our accommodations - all of which were centrally located in the old centers - lined up in advance so all we had to do was find the place on arrival or (usually) call ahead do the owner could meet us as the old city gate or the ferry dock. As described above, there's a bit of driving (mostly to Plitvice then to Zagreb). We connected Split to Dubrovnik via 2 islands and ferries so I did not drive that stretch but IIRC it should only be a few hours. Trogir is quite close to Split. Sibenik is right on the way (so is Zadar but I'd pick Sibenik over Zadar). Plitvice is the outlier, it's not near anything but is well signed and easy enough to find. Be prepared for crowds there (well, probably most of these places in high season). Note that we did not go to Zagreb so can't offer any advice on that.