Four of us (two brothers and our wives - mid 60's) will be flying into Milan in mid May. From Milan we plan to visit Lake Como for several days, Venice for several days, Plitvice Lakes National Park for several days and finishing our trip with a cruise from Split to Dubrovnik (May 28 - June 4). We are interested in suggestions while traveling from Milan to Venice, Venice to Plitvice and Plitvice to Split.
Appreciate any suggestions!
Ken
Milan / Lake Como to Venice is easy by train. Look up the "seat61" website for info about trains anywhere in the world, including Italy.
However, Plitviče lakes are hard to reach. Also, I don't think you need more than two nights there. Even one would be enough, and a day trip is feasible - if crowded.
With that in mind, I would perhaps take the ferry from Venice to Pula (or Rovinj), in Istria, maybe stay there 1-2 nights depending on the time you have, and rent a car there to drive to Plitviče lakes, then to Split.
Or, more comfortably, travel by train from Venice to Ancona and take the overnight ferry to Split. Base yourselves there, and take a day trip or an overnight trip to the lakes.
Last suggestion is to change the order of your trip. Could you land in Venice, if your flights aren't booked?
Then you can fly from Bergamo (easily reached from lake Como) to Zagreb, from where reaching Plitviče lakes won't be as hard.
All in all: it's complicated. Maybe someone has better ideas than me.
I know it’s not what you asked, but my first thought was also take the ferry from Ancona to Split. Done it and it was great!
Balso’s advice is thorough and good so follow her lead.
Thank you for the thoughtful suggestions - very much appreciated! If you or anyone else has more, please feel free to chime in!
Ken
I don’t think you need several days at Plitvice, the park can pretty easily be seen in one day. I would probably travel from Venice to Zagreb and stay a night or two before heading to Plitvice Lakes for a night and then heading on to Split. There is a FlixBus that takes about 6.5 hours from Venice to Zagreb or you can hire a goopti shuttle which should shave off a couple hours. I haven’t tried them myself, but many people in this group seem to have good reviews about them. They do shared shuttles as well as private shuttles for reasonable prices. From Zagreb, there are plenty of buses going to Plitvice and onward to Split. I used getbybus.com to book all my bus tickets in Croatia and it was very helpful, but you can buy tickets directly at the bus station too.
Following other ideas and only visiting Plitvice for a day-trip or one night, suggest using the days you had planned for there by taking the ferry to Hvar Island, staying in town of Hvar, from Split. It is a lovely little island - easy to explore. Also, I wonder about "several" days in Venice - it is a great city but 3 days would be lots of time there. If you could work in (as someone else suggested) a visit to Pula or Rovinj or any/all the small towns on the west coast of the Istra Peninsula you will not be sorry - all very interesting but different - lots of historical sites, beautiful vistas, etc.
For transportation, I suggest taking the train from Venice to Rijeka (major city on Istra Peninsula), then renting a car to explore Istra Peninsula and return the car upon arrival in Split. We traveled this route in the opposite direction in 2010 - got a car in Split & dropped it off in Rijeka after exploring Istra Peninsula. Between the 2 cities, there are lots of beautiful sights - taking the seaside highway - Island of Krk, town of Zadar (where there is a "sea organ" - very interesting to see and hear) to name a few spots. Plitvice Lakes are only a couple of hours from Rijeka. I am not recommending staying in Rijeka but it would be an easy spot to take the train from Venice to before getting a car to explore parts of northern Croatia.
Croatia is a beautiful country and the people are super friendly and helpful. Many younger people speak English (learned by watching American cartoons on TV and some in school). For food, enjoy all the great Italian food you can while in Italy. Croatia is not known for gourmet dining but does have good basic food.
Happy travels. Bev
