Croatia in May 2015

So ladies and gentlemen in May I shall be taking a well deserved break, and this time I decided to visit the marvelous republic of Croatia. I know this is a big country, and in theory I would need at least a month to be able to touch a bit of its history. Unfortunately I'm not blessed with an European long type of vacation from work, so I have to run with what I have.

I"ll be arriving at the end of May and the plan is to spend 12 days in the country, arriving and departing from Zagreb. There are so many wonderful places I want to visit but this is where I need to manage my time, and perhaps it would be nice to hear some comments from you guys.

This is more or less my itinerary so far:

• Zagreb: 2 days
• Plitvice Lakes National Park: 1/2 day
• Zadar: 1 day
• Split: 2 days
• Hvar: 3 or 4 days
• Korcula: 2 or 1 days
• Dubrovnik: 2 days

I'm torned between renting a car in Zagreb and dropping it off in Split, or just taken the bus between Zagreb, Plitvice, Zadar and Split.  Obviously with a car I would have the freedom to decided when and were I should stop, specially since I've been told there are some interesting cities between Zadar and Split.

The Split-Hvar-Korcula leg will be by boat, and although it will be mid-season when I'm there, the boat schedules are okay for my traveling needs.  Korcula to Dubrovnik I wanted to do it by boat as well but it looks like bus will be the transportation method - I don't believe the catamaran are working yet during the dates I'll be there.

In Dubrovnik I'll be catching a morning flight back to Zagreb so I can continue my mini vacation in Istanbul. I'll spend around 4 days there, and I know I could use those days in Croatia, but Istanbul got added to the mix.

What do you think of the itinerary?  I'm turned about spending 3 or 4 days in Hvar, which would mean one more or less day in Korcula, or maybe should I just ditch Korcula all together and stay in Hvar?  I could do some minor trip from there I guess.

Let me know if you have any suggestions, and yes, you should expect a review about Croatia and Istanbul.  Every time I write one I say it won't be as long as the last one, but it never happen.