We are a retired couple in our mid-60s. I did a lot of research and planning for this trip, and am always appreciative when others share experiences and wanted to return the favor. I think this was a pretty good itinerary, but for most people it would be too fast-paced and too many one-night stays. I opt for seeing more with a given amount of time, rather than taking a slower pace and staying longer in fewer places. It was pretty tiring, having to check into so many places and doing so much driving. But, it worked pretty well for us and while there are places I could have stayed longer there was nowhere that I felt like I really needed to. Adding a few days to this itinerary could make it more relaxed and give more down-time and opportunities to see more. We flew Turkish Airlines from Atlanta to Istanbul to Zagreb. It was a good airline and much cheaper than the U.S. carriers.
September 4-25, 2019
Day 1 - Arrived in Zagreb in the evening, stayed near the airport. Alamo rental car through Auto Europe.
Day 2 – Didn’t plan much because I knew we would be jet lagged. Drove to Ljubljana – long wait (over 2 hours) at the border.
Day 3 – Ljubljana sightseeing. Second night in Ljubljana.
Day 4 – Drove to Lake Bled and stayed in Radovljica.
Day 5 - Hike in Vintgar Gorge and drove through the Julian Alps to Kobarid.
Day 6 – Drove to Skocjan Caves and then on to Rovinj, stopping in Groznjan and Motovun.
Day 7 – Visited Pula and stayed a second night in Rovinj.
Day 8 – Drove to Labin and then on to Plitvice Lakes National Park (hiked Upper Lakes).
Day 9 – Hiked at Lower Lakes. Drove to Trogir, stopping in Sibenik.
Day 10 – Drove to Split, visited Diocletian’s Palace, and then visited Solana. Second night stay in Trogir.
Day 11 – Took the car ferry from Split to Vela Luka. Stayed close to Korcula old town for two nights.
Day 12 – Visited a winery in Lumbarda. Drove around Korcula island.
Day 13 – Took car ferry to Orebic and drove down the Peljesac peninsula. Then drove to Cavtat. Stayed in Cavtat for two nights.
Day 14 – Day trip to Kotor. Took the ferry back across from Lepetani and returned to Cavtat.
Day 15 – Drove to Dubrovnik first thing in the morning. Spent the day in Dubrovnik and stayed in the old city one night.
Day 16 – Drove to Mostar, stopping in Trebinje and Blagaj (Dervish Monastery). One night in Mostar.
Day 17 – Drove to Sarajevo and followed Rick Steve’s walking tours. One night there.
Day 18 – Drove to Jajce, stopping in Travnik. One night in Jajce.
Day 19 – Drove to Zagreb, dropped car off at airport and spent two nights in Zagreb.
Day 20 – sightseeing in Zagreb.
Day 21 – flight out of Zagreb first thing in morning.
We ended up purchasing Google Fi sims before we left home (we put our ATT sims back in our phones upon return). It took us a day or so to figure out how to get everything to work, but once we figured it out it worked well and gave us data in each country without switching out sim. We used under 4 GB total between two phones in three weeks ($40 plus cost of sims), using it a lot for Google mapping and texts about accommodations.
I will post this report in several sections since there is a maximum length for each post.