How long to drive: Opatija to Plitvice?

[bubba]

I'm planning a trip to Croatia in May 2012, and am trying to get a reasonable estimate for driving times.  We will have a rental car.

We're planning to spend two days driving around Istria (after a day in Rovinj). The first day, we will drive from Rovinj to Pula, spend a few hours in the morning visiting the amphitheater and other Roman ruins, then I plan to head north into the hill towns for the afternoon - maybe Buje and/or Groznjan, then spending the night, probably in either Groznjan or Motovun.  The next day, we would continue to explore a couple other small Istrian hill towns (maybe Zavrsje?) in the early part of the day, then after lunch continuing on east to Opatija for a short stop (maybe just hanging out for an hour or two before an early dinner), then driving to Plitvice.  We plan to spend the night at Plitvice. 

My question is: how much time should we allow for the drive from Opatija to Plitvice?  And what is the best, most logical (shortest) route when driving this route?

Thanks!

[sale]

hi bubba,

You will definitly enyou driving around Istria. Here are some worth visitin towns in Istria: Grožnjan (for me the best small town on the hill in Istria, artist town), Motovun (most fameous and visited, great panorama from the walls), Hum (the smallest town in the world), Dvigrad (ruin town close to Rovinj - in direction to Kanfanar). If you will have time you can also visit Baredine Cave.

Now, From Opatija to get to Plitvice with a car you will take aprox 2 - 2,5 hours. The shortest way is first to go to Senj (coast line) and that up toward plitvice.  My recomandatio is to take highway Rijeka - Zagreb (from Opatija just follow the green sign Zagreb, in Karlovac turn right and follow the sign for Plitvička jezera - plitvice lakes).

i hope it helps

[hasan29]

Plitivce to Rab take back the same highway to Senj exit, drive down the winding mountain road to Senj, from there the coastal highway to Jablanac - total about 2hrs.