We flew into Dubrovnik and spent several days in the area in the summer of ’06. September would probably be a bit warmer for swimming for you.
There are definitely buses and taxis and a good ferry system. We rented a nice apartment in Old Town, found it online. We rented a car for a day trip to Montenegro, which was well worth it in terms of coastal scenery, history etc.
You could also contact Atlas Travel (just outside Dubrovnik’s city walls) to do one of their little van tours.
If you like the water, you’ll love that coast. We spent a day on Lokrum. We ferried to Hvar and liked it so much we spent an extra day. Going to Hvar was a little tricky because the ferry dropped us off at Sucuraj at one end of the island, but Hvar Town, on the other end, was our destination. We eventually chased down a wild (but beautiful with lavender fields) taxi ride.
The husband had been to Korcula and enjoyed it quite a bit but we did not go there this time.
We ferried to Split and ultimately flew out of there.
The Croatians were very friendly but there were times when we got this “All your kuna are belong to us” feeling.
I know Oldlady and others have been in the area, hopefully someone else will jump in here.

The rail system in Croatia is pretty good, but it is limited. There are no trains going south of Split on the coast. Ferries and buses are a better option along the coast. We did find that the ferry lines changed to “winter schedule” in mid-September which seriously reduced service to Italy, although there appeared to still be a lot of island hopping options available.

Air Croatia is a good option, too (check for flights that honor the $100 flight pass at www.europebyair.com ). We flew from Zagreb to Split — which is a surprisingly long distance for a country that seems so small. I believe there’s a new “super highway” which significantly reduced the bus time on this route and the train ride is now 5 1/2 hours compared to over 7 when we were there in 2004.

I’d also think about renting a car. It will be more expensive than bus, but you should be able to navigate without much trouble (once you figure out that Hrvatska = Croatia) and you’ll have a wonderful time exploring.

BTW, I liked Zagreb although the coast is definitely the “reason” to go to Croatia.

thanks you very much for the feedback. it helps a lot having an idea how to get around so i can start to put together an itinerary. thanks for your input. off to do some more research…

oldlady, just out of interest. what did you like about Zagreb?

The old town is kind of separated from the newer stuff, which makes for “quaint.” There’s a park/garden (like the mall in DC) that runs from the train station to edge of the old town. It’s very picturesque and a pleasant place to sit, stroll, people watch.

Most fun was the cultural mixed metaphor of a street performance we saw: 3 people that I would guess to be Guatamalan, dressed in a combination of Navajo, Cheyenne and Hopi garb and jewelry with an Aleut/Canadian Pacific inscribed drum and wearing full Sioux war bonnets (including on the woman). They were playing Andean folk music on pan flutes accompanied by the DUM, dum, dum, dum beat of the drum.

Except trains that go to Ploce port from Bosnia. Ploce is a Croatian port south of Split, where the tracks start, and after some 10 miles or so they leave Croatia and dive into Bosnia. That part of Croatian rail system is reachable by train only via Bosnia. There is a direct exterritorial train from Zagreb to Ploce via Sarajevo, Bosnia. But I have no idea about prices etc.

Sitting in ljubljana just now, great city very nice and great scenery. Off to Zagreb in 1 hour then heading down the coast in a few days. will let you know how things have went.

nice… ya let me know how it goes.

thanks for the input papyr

I would defiantly look at expanding into Montenegro and Bosnia

maybe work down the coast (Split, Korcula, Hvar, Dubrovnik, into Montenegro)
bus to Mostar, train to Sarajevo (a Must) then to Zagreb
ive done the parts of this on different trips. all are great

September is a good month for Croatia- less crowds but still warm.

If I was to go to Montenegro where should I go? Any suggestions?

I would like to get some kiting in and Bol seems to be the spot for that. I saw some reviews about kiting in Hvar, but they all said the beach was too small and crowded. There is apparently good kiting in Korcula as well, but I have not found much on that yet.

It seems to be a bit of a hike from Sarajevo to Zagreb, what would be the recommended mode of transit for that leg?

Rough layout of itinerary so far:

• Split (2 days) (ferry to bol?)
• Bol (1 day) (maybe, depends on kite research in Korcula) (ferry to hvar?)
• Hvar (2 days) (ferry to korcula?)
• Korcula (2 days) (ferry to dubrovnik?)
• Dubrovnik (2 days)
• — transit to Sarajevo (1 day) (bus/train?) —
• Sarajevo (2 days)
• — transit to Zagreb (1 day) (train/fly?) —
• Zagreb (2 days)
• Ljubljana (depending on itinerary)

This takes me to about 2 weeks…

I am not sure if I am going to go for 2 or 3 weeks, but if I go for 3 weeks I will probably just spend more time in one or two of the places and hole up and do a little work and enjoy the culture of the city. Which cities should be on my list if I want to hole up for a few days? I would be trying to enjoy the food, wine/beer, and the sites (probably a lot of evening photography).

Research notes: It seems that Split and Zagreb are pretty good hubs for cheap flights.
I am still researching the ferry lines and the feasibility of the route I have mapped out…

If I was to get to Slovenia, what cities are recommended? The picking of Ljubljana was kind of arbitrary…

After some research I found this website that seems to be pretty good for finding the schedules/routes of the Croatian Ferries…

I’ll toss in just another to mess with you

I spent two days on Vis, another Adriatic island (the furthest one out), and LOVED it. It’s about 3% as touristed as Hvar and Brac, or at least feels that way, is big enough to explore the vineyards and views from the island center, but small enough to still be affordable. Just to sweeten the pot a bit…

As for the other cities, they all sound good. Never made it to Sarajevo, but that’s a regret. I was heading east, so I went south via Podgorica, Montenegro. I did spend some time in Zadar, but mostly just because it was a convenient stop along the coast. There’s a “sea organ” there (look it up, i couldn’t explain it haha) that’s worth a look, but other cities have more lasting appeal I think.

Now for Slovenia! You can’t go wrong with Ljubljana—I REALLY liked that city. Feels way smaller than a capital normally does, and that is by all means a good thing. Food and beer is cheap, weather is perfect (or was for me!), and there are constantly interesting festival-style things going on.

I also spent a few days in Bled, which I couldn’t recommend highly enough. I can’t offer up any pictures of it—I wouldn’t allow myself to take any, because I knew they’d never do it justice and I’d be upset by their woeful inadequacy later—but do a google search and you’ll get the idea. Oh, and swim to the island! Long haul, but worth it

How did you get out there? Im assuming thats not the swim you are talking about…

I am considering taking Bol out of the itinerary using that day somewhere else. I don’t need to get out kiting this trip, but if I happen upon it I can just wing it from there.

Has anyone taken this ferry route? Does anyone know if I can just buy a ticket from Split to Hvar and spend two days and then catch another ferry on the same route from Hvar to Korcula spend a couple days then then catch another ferry on that route to Dubrovnik? Does it work like that? Do I book in advance or can I just show up at the ferry place and book a ticket? I think I read somewhere that these ferries are daily.

Does anyone know if there is a bus from the port on Stari Grad (Hvar Island) to the city of Hvar?

Thanks again…

The ferry company should be Jadrolinija, www.jadrolinija.hr – try their site.

Well Just back home. Loved Croatia, you will have a great time there. Just a brief word.

Ljubljana was a nice little city although it is rather small and can be easily covered in a day and fairly quite at night with a typical Italian feel about the place.
Zagreb was not necessarily the favourite of the places i went to but that does not mean it was bad just could not beat the others. Its kind of divided in to two half’s with all the important buildings and historic sites in the upper old town. With a fairly bland grid patterned system interrupted by lots of green parks with various fountains.
Although for me Croatia relay came into its own when you got to the coast. For me dalmatia has a more relaxed and friendly feel about it. With some nice little compact old town’s with a fairly vibrant night-life. Zadar was a great stop and less crowded than the other big city’s can easily be done in a day. Split was possibly my favourite stop which was surprising as i never relay expected much of it. But the mixture of the walls of the old palace mixed with newer building styles made for a very interesting old town, plenty of bars and clubs open to the late hours along the beech to have a great time at. If you can bare the hordes of tourist groups Dubrovnik is well worth it and you can’t visit Croatia with out seeing it. More expensive than the rest of mainland Croatia but not to much that makes it avoidable.

Croatia is a easy country to get around, Bus network is very competitive and regular and local transport is usually well organised and regular. off to sort out my pics and upload a few hopefully.

Interesting… I’ve been wanting to visit Croatia for a few years now, sounds like it’s becoming more and more popular Hopefully it’s not prohibitively expensive by the time I get there (maaaaybe next year?)