Visiting Croatia and Slovenia in early may

I can imagine that this would be an excellent time to travel. The Julian Alps might be undoable - I bet many roads are still closed into late May. The coast will probably be lightly traveled. I really envy you! Love these countries. Make sure to go to Plitvice lakes and to spend 2-3 days in Ljubljana.

We did about 3 weeks in Slovenia and Croatia in May of 2012. Overall, it was wonderful. There were some pros and cons to going at this time of year. The good: No crowds in most places. Split and Dubrovnik were still very, very mobbed with crowds and that made them less enjoyable than they could have been - I can't imagine how crowded they would be in the middle of the summer. Most other places were delightfully quiet and uncrowded. Some places we had almost entirely to ourselves (Rab, Korcula) and I could tell that a few weeks later they would probably be jammed with crowds. The weather cooperated MOST of the time, but... The bad: We did get some bad weather, especially our first 4 or 5 days, which were mostly in Slovenia. Had some torrential storms when we were in Bled - really intense rain (I'm from Seattle, I know rain) and at times we had to just retreat inside our room and wait it out. We planned to do the Julian Alps loop one day, but the night before there were intense storms, and everyone told us the passes would be blocked by snow. But we checked with the tourism agency and they said the roads were clear and they were right. Had several more days that were partial or mostly wash-outs with sustained torrential downpours (in Rovinj and Istria), we just made the best of it in between the storms. After that, heading south, the weather got consistently better - I even came home with a May sunburn. One other consideration: a lot of public transportation (ferry/bus) operates on reduced schedules or may not run at all outside the June-Aug "hi season" - check carefully (ferries especially). I think the last 2 weeks of May might be the best time to travel there.

We're never disappointed visiting Slovenia but then we're really biased! :) But yes, the weather is the major factor and is more likely to be rainy and cold than sunny. Having said that, We've seen Mays that have been quite warm and sunny so its just luck. But don't let that put you off. There's still loads to do and with the trees blossoming and flowers blooming in places like lake Bled and Bohinj, it is beautiful. Ljubljana is always amazing and the Adriatic coast is great due to the lack of crowds. Greg