Northern Italy / Croatia itinerary help

Parts of Italy and parts of Croatia can make a great combo, but with this pairing, you do lose substantial time in transit. I’d look at the travel specifics (google is relatively straightforward even for public transit times these days, but just ask if you have trouble sussing out the connections). Once you see exactly what you are in for, you might consider pairing closer parts of Croatia.

Croatia is nice, especially Dubrovnik, Trogir and Split on the coast. You should know that the roads in Croatia are not as good as those in Italy or Germany.

Have you been to Venice, if not, DO NOT MISS it.

If you rent a car and rent it in Ital y and drop it in Croatia, there will likely be a huge drop charge.
Trains in Italy are really good and go to smaller cities, but not sure about Croatia, never used the train there.
With a party of 10, if you rent a car, you would need at least two cars. Not sure you could find a bus to rent for 10.

Welcome to the forum. Your question is absolutely a good one.

Honestly, I think it's a LOT of moving around with a big group in a relatively short period of time. I think you're wasting valuable vacation time and adding hassle. I have some random thoughts but this is my overarching thought.

I think the Como/Milan part makes sense but then you add two side trips in opposite directions. It's doable but it's just a lot.

In my experience it takes a long time to travel the length and breadth of Croatia so I wonder if the Croatia part of your plan might be a bit ambitious; especially with a bigger group. How are you planning on getting around? If it were me, and I had 10/8 people, I'd make sure all of my destinations were linked with good public transit. Driving in Croatia is easy but I don't even know if you'd be allowed to rent a single 10-person vehicle without a special license. So without transit, that leaves multiple vehicles or hiring a driver, which will get expensive quickly.

I randomly see that there's a direct flight from Bergamo to Dubrovnik on RyanAir, so maybe that's a way to connect the two. Summer is crowded so Plitvice will be a mob scene by 10am. If you absolutely must go there, I'd try to sleep nearby the night before. I've not been to Krka. Maybe that's a good substitute? I honestly don't know much about it.

I do know the challenge of planning a trip that satisfies so many different members of the group. It's really difficult and I don't envy you. I just think oftentimes less is more when planning a vacation; especially with a large group.

We all wish we had more time, but life is what life it. Its doable. I can't help you with Italy, but maybe a little bit with Croatia. For Croatia having 10 in your group provides an advantage in travel costs; hire a driver with a van. Figure a two week trip is 16 days with the second weekend so
1 depart
2 arrive and see a little
3,4,5,6,7,8 see Croatia
9,10,11,12,13,14,15 see Italy
16 return

Or start in Italy doesnt matter. Plan around the best flights.

Then with you trusty driver / van reserved:
1 depart home
2 arrive Dubrovnik
3 in Dubrovnik
4 Dubrovik to Split in the morning
5 Split
6 Split to Plitvice in the late afternoon. There are some stops like Rastovača to use up the day.
7 Get up early do the Plitvice ordeal then drive to Rijeka
8 Rijeka
9 drive into Italy ....

Now I would swap a few days in the islands before I would to Plitvice, but you said Plitvice, so ......

Hi
You can travel by train from Munich to Zagreb everyday at least once...check with Deutsche Bahn ( dbahn.com)
Milan to Munich is easy....a group train trip could be awesome🙌🏼 ...room to move around, sights to see...my favorite way to travel Europe...I rarely fly.
Dbahn has the best train schedules, and is easy to use.
" Maninseat61.com" is your absolute BEST resource for train travel "how to..." Anywhere online.
And quick way to check options & cost would be rome2rio.com...I like the van idea with driver, once you're there, but train to & from, or at least one way.
Dbahn would also help if you decided you wanted to stop somewhere overnight.
I think the Munich-Zagreb is direct, or one changeover max.
I did Paris to Budapest via Darmstadt,( short family visit) then overnight in Salzburg, to split the trip, and not arrive at 11p.m. ...checked out Salzburg for a few hours in the morning, and arrived Budapest daylight hours.
Budapest to Hamburg by train with overnight in Nuremberg ...same thing...arrival in late afternoon.
Also splitting your ticket at overnight spot can be cheaper than booking a stopover on a long distance journey.
Dbahn is very good to help you compare...I ALWAYS select a minimum transfer time of 20 minutes, as trains are sometimes late...and " normal" ( default) could be 6 minutes...which, with 25 years using trains in Western Europe,...is usually not enough😉
Highly recommend you check it out😁

That’s a lot of travel in two weeks. I first thought you could do it, until I started to lay out your trip (below). Then it got to be 16 nights which is 17 days plus the departure day from the US is 18. The far flung Dubrovnik departure could mean an overnight layover and gets you to 19 days. You’ll have to cut something to make it “doable.” Again, see below for something to play with, re-jigger, or perhaps lead to an entirely different concept, Italy OR Croatia. Maybe you don’t cross over to that 19th day if you start in Dubrovnik.

Many of us count nights rather than days. 2 nights is one full day in a location. Travel days are days where you lose 2 to 4 to 8 hours or more, depending on travel time, getting to and from the train (or bus) station and checking in and out of hotels and partial packing and unpacking.

Sometimes travel days have rewards, scenery and stops along the way. (Zadar to Split via rental car could be such a day.) Unless you travel on foot or by bike, travel is not the same as “being there.” Arrival in Europe day is not much of a day, as you’re exhausted from an overnight flight and you need to go through passport control, possibly take a second flight, get from the airport to hotel and check in. Do try to stay up and awake til after dinner. If you have time, go to outdoor sites to stay awake.

One more caution: Flying back from Dubrovnik could be a very long trip. We ended up with an overnight in Frankfurt.

Were you to start in Milan ,,,

Perhaps,

• 2 nights Milan
• 2 or 3 nights Italian lake. You mention Como, but there are others: Maggiore, Lugano, Garda. Garda might fit your group.
• 2 nights - some go to Dolomites; some to Bologna
• 1 or 2 nights Venice to regroup; 1 night is not enough.

That’s 8 nights, 7 days in Italy and ends in Venice. You could regroup in some other place, like Padova or Treviso or Trieste as your stepping stone to Croatia and skip Venice altogether.

FlixBus to Croatia may make a lot of sense. We took the FlixBus from Vienna to Zagreb. The bus is nice, fast, efficient and for us it was faster than the train from Vienna to Zagreb and not enough slower than our flying to matter, when one considers airport time and transfers. You should investigate the FlixBus. Looks like 6 or 7 hours between Venice and Zagreb.

• Zagreb 1 night
• Plitvice 1 night
• Zadar 1 night
• Split 3 nights. Zadar to Split by rental car gets you Krka and Trogir along the way. (I don’t know whether you can spend time in both Krka and Trogir by public transport in a single day; we drove from Zagreb to Split, with overnights in Plitvice and Zadar )
• (Day trip from Split to a nearby island like Brac or Hvar)
• 2 nights Dubrovnik

16 nights = 17 days plus international travel day/overnight. Travel from US is 18 and perhaps one more from Dubrovnik back to US is 19 days.

If you can tack on a Friday departure day plus a Monday arrival day … that is 18 days, so there is only one day to cut from the above draft itinerary.

Of course, you had suggested a “day trip” to Bologna, rather than a full day (2 nights) there. To me, Bologna seemed impossible as a food-oriented “day trip.”

Now if you were to choose Italy only, you could have time for some subset of Parma, Modena, Ravenna, Verona, Padova, the Veneto and Venice. There’s a lot to be said for smaller cities like Padova or Verona.

If you choose Croatia only, you have time to enjoy some of the islands along the Dalmatian coast and a longer visit in Dubrovnik; maybe a second night in Zagreb.

We’re all different. Some want to do it all. Others think less is more.