My husband and I are in our late 20s & planning a trip to Europe in September. We are pretty outdoorsy & enjoy hiking, good food, wine & beer. We fly from London to Pula on Sept 14th and plan to be in Northern Croatia (Istria area) and Slovenia for about 10 days. We are also thinking about going to Venice for a day or two(I've been & loved it, but my husband hasn't been there). We plan to head to Prague on a night train from Zagreb on the 23rd and will be in Prague for two days & then on to Germany for a week & to visit family. While we like seeing some of the main tourist sights we enjoy experiencing more of the local lifestyle. We are planning on renting a car for at least part of the time. We are trying to nail down a bit more of our itinerary and would love pros/cons, feedback & suggestions, or things to add/eliminate. We'd like to go to an island near Istria (Krk possibly), but there isn't much info in RS books about the northern islands. We don't want to spend the time traveling south to Dubrovnik/Split as we'd rather spend more time in the non-touristy areas. These are our tentative plans/thoughts for things we may like to do(obviously can't do it all!): Lake Bled Julian Alps/possible hikes? Caves/Castle/Lipica Stud Farm in Slovenia Local wine tasting/vineyards Venice Rovinj Istria Interior (Motovan) Island Plitvice Lakes National Parks Prague: Castle/Jewish sector or maybe spend one day at a nearby town. My husband has been to Prague, but I haven't & we'll also meet up with 4 other friends there. Thanks in advance for any tips/suggestions!
Megan, Seattle, WA
Posted by
jasper, il, usa
64 posts
Megan:
Not sure of your exact itinerary or route but if you have a chance to spend a day/night in Piran, Slovenia I would highly recommend it. Wonderful little town on a peninsula with swimming and walking - not to mention eating and drinking. We were there last September, the weather was great, the crowds were gone and it was a magical experience.
Posted by
london, uk
1 posts
hey I wrote few blogs on wwww.istrawiz.com on interesting things to do around Istria..like the locals do rather then touristy stuff. Hope this helps.
It's a good idea to travel only to one region as you can experience it properly rather than travelling south Croatia too..it would be to much to take in.
Posted by
Sioux Falls, SD, USA
3046 posts
I think that Slovenia/Croatia is more than a trip. I would simply not do Venice. PL is a key stop. Ljubljana is a really fun town. Stay in Hostel Celica - converted prison, and they have a nice garden where locals stop by to talk. It's worth 2-3 days. Are you driving in S/C? If so, things are easy. Split is not worth the 1 day of round trip travel. I have not been to Dubrovnik. I would spend time in Istria Bled Julian alps myself.
Posted by
OP
Kirkland, WA, USA
21 posts
Thank you all for the tips so far. We have not made any hotel/hostel reservations yet, so where we go & for how long is flexible. We know we can't fit everything in, which is why I was looking for tips or pros/cons from places people had been. Then we could make any adjustments to what our original tentative plans were. We don't plan to go South to Split or Dubrovnik as we don't want to spend a full day traveling. We were considering Venice as it's about a 2-3 hour ferry ride and with the ferry schedule we could go for about 2 days, but it might be too much. We also considered Trieste, but if we go to 1-2 other coastal towns would it be that different since it's Italy vs Slovenia/Croatia or is it almost the same thing in 3 places? (ie Trieste vs Piran vs Rovinj). We know we only have 10 days, and can't do it all, so trying to decide what our 'must see' places should be. Since we fly into Pula we were thinking we'd get a car there & then drive to Slovenia towards Lake Bled/Julien Alps & then back down towards Istria area. Then we'd head to Plitvice for a day. For example, get there at night, sleep, hike the next day, spend the night & onto Zagreb early the next morning & just spend the day in Zagreb before going to Prague. Also, any feedback on best car rental options? I know RS has several tips, so we'll look into those as well. Thx!
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6788 posts
Agree that you will need to cut - waaaay too much there for 10 days (10 days - seriously?!). Don't just land in Pula and blow outta there - spend a few hours at the amphitheater (more impressive than the one in Rome, IMHO - it may be smaller, but it's big enough, in great shape, and best of all it's not filled with thousands of tourists). Rovinj is delightful and worth a day. We tried to do a couple days across Istria but got rained out (serious rain - even for us Seattle folks) and just huddled in the hotel atop Motovun. Be sure to have dinner at Konoba Mondo in Motovun - one of the best meals ever. Yes, you can "do" Plitvice in half a day and then move on. 3-4 hours should be OK.
If you're looking for an island in the north, consider Rab. A few hours drive (and a short ferry) from Plitvice. We loved Rab - it was one of the highlights of our trip (which is really saying something because the rest of it was pretty awesome). We were there in May and it was empty, gorgeous, and delightful. It was obvious that in a few weeks it would be thumping with crowds and not nearly so nice. I bet September would be great there, October maybe still OK if you catch good weather. Too much good stuff there. Have fun.