RS Adriatic Tour - Advice for free time during and before/after it.

Hi Stewart,

My husband and I did this tour in June. IMHO three days at Lake Bled pretour is way too much. You will be going there on the tour anyway and will see the castle and have time to either take a boat out to the island or take a walk around the lake (not both) and have a quick lunch. We took the boat out to the island and I would have liked to have walked around the lake as well but as I said not enough time to do both. And lunch was very hurried as we had to get back to the bus and move on to the next location. Otherwise there is not much else to do there other than chill. If that is your intention, then by all means spend three days but personally I would get bored. Perhaps an extra few hours there would be nice though. We had two extra days in Ljubljana and loved it there. It didn't hurt that there was a festival going on throughout the city. We loved Ljubljana. Check your guidebook for things to do there. Some of our group went to the caves on their free time in Ljubljana with the tour. I believe the guide helped them with that. You might want to check with RS tour department about this.

We loved Dubrovnik and spent two extra days there. Take the cable car to the top of Mt. Srd, walk the city wall early in the morning before the cruise ships and their passengers hit the city (very crowded), stroll the Stradun and eat gelato in the evening. You can go kayaking in the bay and/or take a day trip to Montenegro.

I hope this helps. Have a great time on the trip.

Mary

Took this tour in May of this year. Only spent two full extra days in Ljubljana and wished I'd planned for more. Took a food tour (fabulous!), did some of the suggested pre-tour activities and a couple other activities not included on the "formal" Ljubljana portion of the tour. While Lake Bled was beautiful and there were several things to do, I would opt for extra days in Ljubljana. But that's just my opinion. I only spent one extra day in Dubrovnik (the whole day-the tour ending after breakfast), went on a tour to Montenegro and frankly, wish I'd spent the time in Dubrovnik instead. While Montenegro was lovely, I had already seen a lot of "lovely" the previous 13 days and wished I had spent that day exploring more in Dubrovnik. All that said, I truly fell in love with Slovenia; specifically Ljubljana and loved it there. It's a wonderful tour and I am sure you will enjoy it.

Andi and Mary,

Andi and Mary, thanks for the your advice. Any specifics sights that you enjoy in Ljubljana that was not covered by the tour or which you had more time to spend?.

What are thoughts about the drive on tour from Lake Bled to Kobarid? Do you think any place warrants additional time? I was thinking of doing at least part of the Self-Guided Driving Tour described in RS' Croatia and Slovenia book.

Thanks
Stewart

We spent quite a bit of time at the Castle the first extra day. Walked the walls and explored the small museums there. We used the RS guidebook and pretty much saw all that was to see from the top. The 360 degree views from the walls are really beautiful. We ate lunch at the recommended restaurant at the Castle and truly, it was one of the best meals of the entire trip. We also mostly just looked in the shops, sampled local honey, salt and chocolate; sat in the cafes and people watched and looked through the markets. As I mentioned, we took a food tour I had booked from home the next day and it was truly fabulous. The only mistake we made was taking the food tour the day our tour began (meet and greet that evening) and were almost too full to enjoy the tour provided dinner! I wish we had planned for at least one additional day before the tour started so we could have taken a tour to the caves. I understand that's very doable from Ljubljana. One more day..........and a great reason to go back someday.

We didn't do any driving so I can't address your other questions. You might contact one of the tour "divas" at RS and see if they can suggest a tour company for the caves? Or post on the Slovenia/Croatia forum? Or take a look at Trip Advisor for suggestions, too.

Thanks Andi for your suggestions.

Stewart, We are signed up for the RS Adriatic tour starting Sept 14. Which tour are you on?

We added a week in Montenegro. We rented a flat outside of Kotor right on the bay through VRBO. We drove from Dubrovnik, no problems. When you first get into Montenegro it is a throwback to the communist days, not pleasant. But, once near Kotor, all good. We explored the mountains, the walled city, drove around the Bay, took a boat trip with Britsh ex-pats to an old island fortress, ate terrific seafood. We had a blast. I know some folks do day trips here, but we felt the week was well spent and, in some ways, eclipsed some of what we did on the tour.

I also would not add time at Lake Bled. You could go a little further and see Lake Bohinj, instead, which is even more tranquil. For Dubrovnik itself, I'm sure you're aware of pre-tour advice at https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/eastern-europe/adriatic and in materials sent to you. If you're open to driving, I would not dissuade you; I found driving in rural Slovenia to be simple. You can also get to Lake Bohinj by bus (connect in Bled) or to the caves by bus from Ljubljana; see bus summaries on pages 622 and 652 or your guidebook.