September 2019 Slovenia and Croatia Itinerary Help, Please

Have you checked the drop-off fees for leaving the car in Istria or Rijeka as opposed to Dubrovnik? It may work out to be an acceptable cost. You could then just return the Slovenian vehicle and rent a Croatian one from the same office. If that doesn't turn out to be feasible, then yeah, I'd say you have a good itinerary, for the Slovenian part at least. Set off early on the Julian Alps drive so you can spend some time at Lake Bohinj when returning to Bled.

Thank you, Dejan. I'll see if that is an option for rental cars.

Hi. We just returned from a very similar trip. We took GoOpti from Venice to Ljubljana, rented a car there for 7 days and drove to Lake Bled, Julian Alps, Kobarid, Istria Peninsula, Piran back to Ljubljana to drop car & spend several days. Then took the train to Zagreb where we rented a car again drove to Plitvice (stayed in Rastoke) then to Split to drop the car. Ferry to Hvar then to Dubrovnik. Your Day 4 is very long to do all. Piran was nice but not worth the extra drive as there was more to see in Istria. We went to Kotor also which was great but I’d opt for two days in Dubrovnik instead (we stayed 7 days there). All in all it was fantastic!

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience, jkcotton. I like how you managed the rental cars. I'll see if something like that might work for us. Its like a Rubic's Cube to sort out the rental cars for this trip.

We just took the Rick Steves' tour that coverts most of your itinerary. One thing to keep in mind at the Plitvice Lakes is that they arbitrarily change where you can enter and even with a timed ticket purchased in advance they may change your entry time. Our tour group had both happen to us. We also saw couples have their entry times changed so that one had a 9 am entry and another was given a 2 pm entry. You need to allow 4 or more hours to see the Lakes, especially if you want to see the upper and lower lakes and ride any of the boats.

The Plitvice Lakes are stunning and well worth a visit. We were rushed through on our tour and not allowed any time to stop and enjoy what we were seeing - very disappointing for a Rick Steves' tour. We'd like to go again and spend an entire day to really enjoy the beauty.

Wow, very disappointing that could happen with reserved tickets and times, more so that your tour group had this experience. Do you think it was a particularly crowded time/day when you were there? I have been debating whether to book a late day entry, an early morning entry, or both using a two day ticket. I guess it will be a gamble no matter which way we do this.

Funny, we are doing a very similar trip, also in September! We're arriving in LJU on Sunday, 9/15 and departing from Dubrovnik on Thursday, 9/26. Our workaround was to leave our Slovenian rental car in Slovenia, take a GoOpti transfer to Zagreb, and then rent a car in Zagreb and immediately drive to the Plitvice Lakes area, where we'll stay the night before hitting Plitvice Lakes first thing in the morning and then driving onto Split where we'll drop off the car. Here's our itinerary (which is super packed, I recognize):

9/15: arrive at LJU late evening, get rental car, drive to Lake Bled, stay the night
9/16: Lake Bled and environs (Vintgar Gorge, Radovljica, etc.)
9/17: Julian Alps driving tour, lunch in Kobarid, afternoon doing wine tasting in Vipava Valley, stay in Vipava
9/18: Skocjan caves in AM, then Ljubljana the rest of the day
9/19: AM and early PM in Ljubljana; mid-afternoon GoOpti to Zagreb; rent car in Zagreb, drive to Plitvice area, late dinner
9/20: AM/early PM at Plitvice Lakes; drive to Split and drop off rental car
9/21: Split
9/22: Ferry to Korcula, rest of the day in Korcula
9/23: Ferry to Dubrovnik, rest of the day in Dubrovnik
9/24: Day trip to Kotor, rest of the day in Dubrovnik
9/25: Dubrovnik (kayak to Lokrum, maybe)
9/26: Flight home is around noon