3-4 Weeks Croatia and Greece Itinerary

I am planning a 3 (maybe 4) week trip (2 weeks in Croatia and 1 or maybe 2 weeks in Greece) with my boyfriend for next summer. We are planning to fly into Dubrovnik and out of Athens. We’re building a rough itinerary draft, so that we don’t waste time. We are trying to decide whether to rent a car or to travel via trains and buses. Does anyone know how reliable bus and train travel is in Croatia? How easy is it to navigate the roads of Croatia by car? What is the best and cheapest method of transport? We are thinking of flying from Croatia to Greece since we have limited travel time.

So far our rough itinerary includes - the first week we will be meeting family members in Podgora, Croatia and hope to travel around Dubrovnik, Split, Dalmatia counties and some of the islands (i.e.: Vis, Hvar, Mljet, Cres and Brac). For the second week in Croatia we would like to visit Istia, Zagreb, and Plitvice lakes national park. In Greece we will be visiting our Greek friend in Nafplion, and hope to visit Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini. I would love to hear any itinerary suggestions and highlights from Croatia and Greece. Any suggestion on low budget accommodations would be great help. Also if we decide to drive in Croatia has anyone tried camping in Croatia? Not sure whether it is worth it to carry around camp gear or to just find cheap accomadations?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Sounds like an awesome trip! We are going to Croatia and Hungary next week, so will have more info soon. From what I have found, camping in Croatia sounds like an awesome option. We are only going to be traveling for 2weeks, so decided to go with cheap guesthouses.

for Athens I recommend Soho Hotel. It's close to Monastiraki sq and I stayed there this March. was close to 20 euros/night/2 persons, bathroom wt tub , hot water, tv, free coffee and tea
breakfast is an additional 4 eur / person

as for Mykonos and Santorini...well those are very expensive islands but book in advance and you can get away with cheap prices. i've found excellent prices for Ios (going there next summer, too) but looked them up like a month ago (no, didn't book yet).

I suggest to visit Athens (allow 3 days in the city), you said you'd be in Nafplio. Add an island and take day trips to others.

Croatia is superb when you drive but sometimes it's best to let the bus drivers do the job . But that's my personal take on it

Flying from Croatia to Greece will be incredibly expensive.There are limited flights between the two countries. I would take the train from Zagreb to Budapest and fly Aegean into Athens. And to my knowledge there aren't direct flights between Croatia and Greece.