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Hungary/Slovenia/Croatia trip Oct 22-Nov11

Posted by (Calgary) on

My wife and I are in our mid 60's and planning a trip and would like to hear comments about our itinerary. I basically took Rick's recommended itinerary and added a Hungarian portion on it.
Any suggestions? Considering the time of year, will things on the Croatian coast be open?

22-Oct-23 Fly into Budapest
23-Oct-23 Budapest
24-Oct-23 Budapest
25-Oct-23 Budapest
26-Oct-23 Eger
27-Oct-23 Budapest
28-Oct-23 Train to Ljubjiana, Taxi to Lake Bled (sleep in Lake Bled)
29-Oct-23 Relax at Lake Bled (sleep in Lake Bled)
30-Oct-23 Pick up car, drive through Julian Alps, end in Ljubljana (sleep in Ljubljana)
31-Oct-23 Ljubljana (sleep in Ljubljana)
01-Nov-23 Bus to Rovinj* (sleep in Rovinj)
02-Nov-23 Tour Istria (sleep in Rovinj)
03-Nov-23 Drive to Plitvice Lakes via Istria's hill towns (sleep in Plitvice)
04-Nov-23 Hike the lakes, then drive to Split and drop car (sleep in Split)
05-Nov-23 Split (sleep in Split)
06-Nov-23 To Hvar or Korčula (sleep in Hvar/Korčula)
07-Nov-23 Relax on Hvar or Korčula (sleep in Hvar/Korčula)
08-Nov-23 To Dubrovnik (sleep in Dubrovnik)
09-Nov-23 Dubrovnik (sleep in Dubrovnik)
10-Nov-23 Rent a car or hire a driver to day-trip to Mostar or to Montenegro's Bay of Kotor (sleep in Dubrovnik)
11-Nov-23 Depart Dubrovnik to home

Posted by
3822 posts

Lovely itinerary, but in Croatia I would drop Istria. Most of the town will be closed down. We were in Poreč mid October in 2021 and it was very, very quiet. Which hill town are you thinking of? If it is Motovun you can easily skip it. When we were there during the same trip it was a ghost town.
I would go from Ljubljana to Zagreb for 2 nights then Plitvice Lakes.
Korčula is very quiet in November also. You can certainly relax there. We haven’t been to Hvar so I can’t comment.

Posted by
27063 posts

Lake Bled is truly tiny. You can walk around it in about 2 hours. I wonder whether you have one more night there than you need, given how close Bled is to Ljubljana. However, I didn't have a rental car in Slovenia, and you might end up doing some rural exploration on Oct 29 as well as on Oct 30.

You may hit some significantly wet weather at that time of year, as fall (the wettest time of the year) takes hold. I'm not sure what the islands would be like in the rain.

I'd favor splurging on a driver or even taking a bus tour to Kotor rather than driving, because the driver is going to have to have eyes on the road and won't have much opportunity to enjoy the view, which is stupendous. If you end up hiring a driver, I recommend a stop in Herceg-Novi, which has a picturesque historic core.

Mostar is also a very worthwhile side trip, but I haven't been there recently.

Posted by
17868 posts

I would run it in reverse if you stick with the itinerary. That way you have a chance of some better weather at the coast and you will be in Budapest for the Christmas Markets.

But the truth is that I wouldn’t do the itinerary after Slovenia at that time of year. You will miss so much.

I do travel a lot in the Fall and Winter; but that’s the time of year for city trips for me. I think you have the right idea with Central and Eastern Europe. But I would pick four cities, rent an Airbnb in each and spend a week in each with a day trip or overnight trip from each location.

Istanbul
Bucharest
Sarajevo
Sofia
Vienna
Prague
Warsaw

With good planning you can connect some of the dots with trains, but dont be afraid of a low cost airline which can run $35 to $150 depending on how you pack.

For your Eger trip, its an overnight, don’t try and do it in a day. Others to look at are Pecs and Gyor/Pannonhalma

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