Planning two-weeks in Croatia. Need some help.
 

Wife and I are planning two-weeks in Croatia in late September/early October. We have a few questions:

1) How many days do we need in Dubrovnik?
2) What other cities/areas should we consider in Croatia or surrounding areas?
3) Best methods of transportation for outside Dubrovnik, rental car, train or bus?
4) Anything else we should know?

Thank for your help.

Klagenfurt/ Villach are verry interesting Place.

Late Sept / early Oct is the best time to visit Dubrovnik, wise decision :-) For just Dubrovnik, one day is quite enough, two is plenty - the old town is nice to see, but is in fact quite small.

What are your travel plans, i.e. where do you plan to fly to/from? Dubrovnik is kind of a dead-end because of the shape of the country, and using a bus out of there is a pain. How keen are you on renting a car? With a rental car, you can take a side trip to Montenegro (Kotor is quite similar to Dubrovnik, but a bit less touristy, and if you're up for a hike on the walls over the mountain above it, you'll be rewarded with beautiful views) for a day, and then head up north.

In Sept/Oct, I wouldn't miss the Plitvice lakes, which by then might have enough water to be truly spectacular.

In general, what are your interests? Would you prefer seeing cities or nature? Touristy spots or off-the-beaten track stuff? Would you rather spend the 2 weeks moving through as many places as you can, or focus on just 2-3 places, but spend enough time on all of them?

Planning two-weeks in Croatia. Need some help.
 

Focus on 2-3 additional places with 4 days in Dubrovnik. Travel by rental car. Using BA from LHR what is best city to fly into?

We are mostly interested in cities.

With BA, it's either DBV or ZAG. I would suggest to book an open jaw ticket, fly to ZAG, get a rental car, spend 2 days in ZAG, drive to Zadar, spend a few days there, then to Split and DBV, fly back to LHR from DBV.

If you want to chill out for a while, I would suggest Lopud, a gem of an island just off Dubrovnik, where time seems to stand still. It used to be a leisure destination for the nobles of Dubrovnik during the Dubrovnik Republic age, and they built their summer palaces there. One of them today hosts La Villa, an adorable little b&b run by a charming couple and catering mostly to Brits. I'm not affiliated with them at all, I just had the fortune to spend a few days there in late September a few years back, and it was magnificent. Their website is at http://www.lavilla.com.hr/.

"Cities" is not what Croatia is about :). Croatia is one of the most stunningly beautiful countries we have visited and the natural beauty in almost overwhelming. Even Dubrovnik, with all its charm is not a "city" per se, and Split, while a "city" offers wonderful resorts on the outskirts such as the Le Meridian in Podstrana.

Absolutely do not miss Plitvice.

We loved the island of Korcula (and Korchula Town) and got there by private transfer from Dubrovnik via a stop in Ston (largest man-made wall outside the Great Wall of China) and a delicious lunch in Mali-Ston, then a tour of the wine country culminating in a small boat to take us across to the island. We were met at the dock by the owner of the apartment we had rented. Wonderful, relaxing two night stay, then by Krilo Jet to Split.

We loved the Le Meridian resort in Podstrana. We rented a car in Split, then drove to the lakes, stayed in a guest house for two nights, then drove to Zagreb, returned the car and flew to London from there. I wish we had another 5 days, would love to have seen Istria and are planning on going back as soon as we can.

We LOVED everything about Croatia. I have a few trip reports in the Hilton and Starwood forums.