Thanks, dhammer53, revilo199, ad ghentleman, for your extremely helpful information. We will definitely make a go of this trip. We are debating which region(s) to visit now and still doing research. It seems to me that we have mostly heard wonderful things about Istria which we are told is the vineyard country of Croatia and of Dubrovnik which is supposed to be so unique. We did hear Dubrovnik is rather touristy but I suppose cannot be avoided.

I am sure once we do more research, I will be back to post more questions. Thanks again for the help! We are really looking forward to this trip.