Travel in Croatia...car?bus?train?

Depends - it's a surprisingly diverse country and it's impossible to generalize. There are some places that are served well by train (Zagreb), but not that many (at least not many of the major tourist spots). Some places (islands and coastal towns) are easily connected by ferry - but many ferries have very limited schedules (or no schedules at all) outside of the peak tourist season. The ferry schedules can be somewhat confusing, too. Rental cars will work well in many places, but any car can be a headache in some of the old cities (Split, Dubrovnik), as in any old city. Driving is generally a piece of cake through (just stay out of the old cities' narrow streets). Some islands are better accessed by foot ferry rather than cary ferry. And of course there are buses, but like ferries, schedules may be inconvenient out of high season and/or hard to decipher from far away...you get the idea. So - it depends on where you're going, when you're going, and your personal preferences. Can you be more specific? FWIW, I recently did 2 1/2 weeks in Slovenia and Croatia (with a day trip to Montenegro). 3 rental cars, 2 mini-bus connections, 5 ferries, and no trains. Interesting places!

I'm wondering the same thing! I'm planning 12-13 days in Sept., and so far I've decided to fly into Ljubljana, Slovenia; take an ICE train up to Bled; train back down to Zagreb, and then I'm lost. My next destination is Plitvice Lakes Nat'l Park, then down the coastline to Split, then Dubrovnik... I'm thinking either bus it or rent a car, but would prefer to skip the hassle of going through car rental... I think trains will go down to Split, then you'd probably have to bus or ferry down to Dubrovnik - but going over land may include customs stops at the borders, so I'm not sure which would be better overall. Hopefully I haven't just wasted your time, lol.

Not a great place for trains generally IMHO. Car rental hassles? I rented 3 and had no hassles.

We drove around Istria and down to Split without a problem. Actually, the roads in Croatia are scenic and in perfect condition. I probably wouldn't do too much driving in the middle of small towns but town to town, we thought was delightful. Amazing tunnels in Istria! No problem getting to Plitvice, either. We took a bus from Split to Dubrovnik because we wanted to concentrate on the scenery and were glad we did. Very beautiful.