I suspect that the total time available won't be enough to do BH as well. Maybe another time.

Yup, I will be in that area anyway because it's where the Zeljava underground air base is.

I will drop a pin on that one, cheers!

Well, now I'm a bit annoyed that I didn't know about the underground airbase, because I would definitely have gone to see that!

It is close to Plitvica lakes.

And the airbase is really nice.

But be aware:
In the middle of the airbase, there is the border to Bosnia, crossing it may cause troubles.

And also really take care about the Signs with mines, they are definitely around off the asphalt !

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I visited Croatia in 2019, and wasn't sure about the legalities of visiting Zeljava. So I located the local police station and emailed them to ask if I could get a permit or something to visit. They politely replied that no, it was off limits and dangerous, so I went anyway. Awesome place and I note they have cleared the vegetation away from the old DC3 to make it better for tourist photos! The base is awesome but do take the mines signs seriously and stay on the tarmac, and of course take care in the tunnels - they go for many hundreds of metres and if you get lost in there you're properly lost.

Elsewhere in the country get up into the Velebit mountains and try to avoid the tourist hot spots - beautiful towns but absolutely rammed with emmets. Split and Dubrovnik completely ruined. We liked Zadar and given a bit more time would have wanted to explore further inland. The beaches aren't generally great (think Skegness, 1965) but inland is more unspoiled, very friendly, and reasonably cheap.

Italy I'm afraid I wasn't too impressed with. Everyone drives either like a granny or like a total idiot, and they put speed cameras everywhere. I also met the world's rudest, most ignorant petrol pump attendant. I didn't really have an itinerary so should have done more research on places to go, but I accidentally found Orvieto which was gorgeous.

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In practice, the airbase has an active visible presence by both the Croatian police and their border guard... but they absolutely could not give less of a damn about tourists - they're only there because it's right on the BiH border and they're worried about illegal crossings into the Schengen area. The DC-3 is not just cleared of vegetation, but there's now a summer cafe set up next to it.


I respected the speed camera warnings, but once you start paying a bit of attention, you'll realize they put speed camera boxes everywhere. Almost all of them are empty and just have stickers to look like lenses!

OK, now I'm super-annoyed!

Oh well, something to do for next time!

https://goo.gl/maps/4WkJr37UUQSyfJV56

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So, this is the plan so far.

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Split and Dubrovnik are interesting cities, but crawling with tourists. Also the road to and from these places was rammed. Avoid. We thought Zadar, Trogir and Novigrad were nice. Other than that inland is probably nicer than the coast. If you have time Ljubljana is a lovely city and quite easy to see most of in a day.