Croatia - itinerary advice please!

[ronconcoke]

I'm planning a holiday to Slovenia and Croatia this summer for me, DH and 2 DC. Because we're driving from Slovenia we're mostly going to do northern Croatia, but there's a lot I want to see and we can't cram it all in. Here's my rough itinerary (have only booked accommodation in Rovinj and near Plitvice lakes so far):

Rovinj 4 nights
Rab island (2 nights?)
Zadar (2 nights?)
Kuterevo for bears/Velebit/Plitvice lakes 3 nights
Zagreb 2 nights

We'd like a mixture of towns/beaches/nature. Will we struggle to fit it all in? Should we spend longer on Rab island and forget Zadar? DC1 isn't so into beaches but loves history (hence Zadar), DC2 prefers beaches/swimming. I like both (but in the heat, water wins) DH too. I'm aware it will be very hot, so sightseeing etc will probably be limited. Zadar does sound lovely though. Any thoughts/advice welcome! Tia!

There are also a lot of historical sites around Rovinj too, you've got the amphitheatre in Pula, the UNESCO listed basilica in Porec, and of course the old centre of Rovinj itself. I haven't been to Zadar or Rab, both on my list. Given Rab has that illusive Croatian sandy beach, and a bigger proportion of your family are into chilling by the water, I would probably be inclined to ditch Zadar and spend more time on Rab. I absolutely loved Plitvice Lakes, it's one of my favourite places ever, but we went October half-term and it was quiet, beautifully autumnal and quite chilly, but lots of people have said it's rammed in summer. Maybe you can get there for opening?

Thanks! Yes we're planning to do a day trip to Pula from Rovinj. Haven't thought about Porec as I didn't think we'd have time to fit it in. Maybe we could get up early for Plitvice - it's about 30 mins by car from our accommodation by the looks of it.

Yes it's the elusive Croatian sandy beaches on Rab that tempting me!

that looks exhausting with all the moving around. why not pick one or two locations and stay for 3 or 4 days in each. there is plenty to do and see in each place.

the Nicoli Tesla museum in Zagreb has great demos of big old machines for making electricity. all in croatian on the day we went but lot of BIG bolts of lightning flying across the room.