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A change of pace for us, this was an escorted tour, by Grand Circle Travel, to Croatia and Slovenia. It included a day trip into Montenegro to see the Kotor Bay region and, on our own, we traveled into Bosnia-Herzegovina to visit Medugorje. Our 4 nights in Slovenia were at Lake Bled. In Croatia we lodged in Zagreb (3 nights), Opatija (4 nights), Split (1 night) and Dubrovnik (7 nights). Opatija, Split and Dubrovnik are on the Adriatic and progressively farther south. This proved to be smart planning for a late season tour such as this.
The tour operator provided land transport by motor coach, usually with all 40 of us passengers aboard:
This group worked well together --- a punctual, congenial and well-traveled bunch of folks.
Our guide for 16 of the 20 days, a young man of about 30, was excellent: helpful, likable, informative. Born in Zagreb, he has seen firsthand the breakup of Tito’s Yugoslavia, the brutal war of 1990-91 and the emergence of democracy. His insights and experiences were invaluable in helping us understand this area’s turbulent past. Moreover, the driver of our coach was exceptional, garnering applause several times for his successful maneuvering in very tight quarters.
With pre- and post-trip extensions, our tour started in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, and extended four additional nights in Dubrovnik. The tour was well-paced, we thought, although declining a few optional tours helped us catch our breath.
Certainly the tour covered a lot of ground, and yet there was much we missed as great natural beauty can be found in both Slovenia and Croatia. On an ideal tour, with perfect weather and no time constraints, what more would we have visited? For one, we would have personally experienced more of Slovenia’s mountainous north, the “sunny side of the Alps,” as it is called. We would have toured Slovenia underground as it possesses magnificent world-class caverns. In Croatia, our ideal tour would have ventured into several of the National Parks, especially Plitvice Lakes, the country’s biggest single natural attraction. Croatia’s Adriatic coast is island studded, a real boater’s paradise. So, blessed with warm weather and blue skies, our imaginary tour would have sailed among these, stopping occasionally to walk their beaches.
. . . . Good thing we didn’t design this tour or we’d still be there.