Dalmation Coast

Even from Bled, Bus may be the better option for travel. There are some trains, but buses tend to be more frequent and quicker for transport. 5 or 6 nights may even be tight, consider that you will spend nearly a day, if connections work out, getting from Bled to Split, you possibly need to spend a night somewhere along the way to get there. If you have most of a day in Split, one night is fine, then focus more on Dubrovnik. For Day trips, you may find it handy to use tour companies, they offer a good array from Dubrovnik. Both Ferry and Bus take about the same time from Split to Dubrovnik, but you will need to watch the schedules for the ferries, sometimes the once or twice a day run does not work well with itineraries. If the Rick Steves Book does not have good bus info, take a look at Lonely Planet, they tend to cover buses pretty well.

Mary Beth, to the best of my memory - there is not a good rail option in Croatia. For public transportation you really have to rely on busses. Having said that, we rented a car and drove from Bled, Slovenia to Plitvice Parks to Split and then ended in Dubrovnik. The good: The roads are new and very easy. The freeway was a breeze. By having a car, we were able to tour Plitvice Parks at our leisure and have our luggage in the car (not having to worry where to store it). The bad: Split was a challange with a car. It is a crowded downtown and we struggled. Our hotel was about as big as a postage stamp and we circled it 10 times without seeing it. It was hard to even find a place to park so we could get out and walk around to find our hotel. Marital Bliss was intrerrupted with fighting this day! :) So busses and ferry's might be your best option.

Another option would be taking a bus from Bled to Rijecka, Croatia, and from there, catching a ferry to Split or Dubrovnik. We did this the opposite way (Split to Rijecka) and it was an overnight ferry, which was nice. After 17 days on a bus, I'd think a long ferry would be a nice break. With only 5 or 6 nights total, you might consider going straight to Dubrovnik, as I suspect it will take you at least a day to get there. You can take day trips to Montenegro (highly recommended) and/or Mostar and to small islands near Dubrovnik. Not sure if they have day trips to Korcula, but it's a pretty island and would be fun to see. An alternative to staying right in Dubrovnik is the gorgeous little fishing village of Cavtat, about 10 minutes south of Dubrovnik. You can easily get to and from Dubrovnik by boat or bus, and can take all the daytrips, but then you get to come home in the evening to a lovely, lazy harbor and sip wine while you watch the sun set and the yachts dock. Cavtat is near the Dubrovnik airport, so it's convenient for your flight home (assuming you're flying home from Dubrovnik).

Thanks to all who have replied. You have been very helpful. We were hopeful for train connections, but that doesn't look possible. We will consider your suggestion to stay in Cavtat. Where did you stay? Thanks again.

In Cavtat, we've stayed in two places. The first was Hotel Castelletto, a small hotel; it was quite a walk down a steep hill and stairs to get to town. You'll find this in a lot of hotels and apartments throughout Croatia. For our next visit, we booked the Supetar Hotel, right on the harbor, but they overbooked so they put us in their sister hotel, Hotel Croatia, a very large 5 star hotel with beautiful rooms and a great pool area, but a little impersonal for us. We looked at the Supetar when we were there, and it was well located but kind of dreary. Our first choice on our second trip had been Villa Andro, but they were already booked. This is a B&B which gets great reviews on Trip Advisor. Villa Pattiera is another good option, although a little more pricey, and it was booked too when we checked. Both of these are very well located. I'd recommend you go to Trip Advisor and look at all of the options and see what appeals to you, and then book quickly. I would stay away from the Iberostars they're a ways outside of town. You want to be right in the heart of this pretty little place. And if stairs or climbing steep hills is not what you enjoy, you'll want to carefully read the description of their locations and look at the photos. If they have a beautiful view looking over rooftops toward the harbor, they're up a steep hill. Please let me know if you have other questions.