Based on a lot of advice from online strangers and from friends and acquaintances, I've concluded that any itinerary will be great. Borrowing a day from one place in order to spend more time at another might be a good or a bad idea, but there's no way to know for sure until I'm there. For everyone who said 2 days is enough in Rovinj, there was someone else who said 3 days is not enough. So I discussed it also with my agent at JayWay Travel, and finally settled on this itinerary:
| 3 nights | Ljubljana | Slamič B&B |
| 2 nights | Kobarid | Apartment Bor (Apartments Lia) |
| 3 nights | Rovinj | Porta Antica |
| 1 night | Plitvice | House Lončar, Rakovica |
| 3 nights | Sarajevo | Sarajevo Apartment |
| 1 night | Mostar | Muslibegovic House |
| 1 night | Trogir | House Ivancic |
| 2 nights | Hvar | Villa Plenkovic |
| 2 nights | Korcula | Villa Depolo |
| 3 nights | Dubrovnik | House Renata |
Cutting out Zagreb really opened up more time to spend in Slovenia, and I'm especially looking forward to having time to explore the Julian Alps, based in Kobarid. It will be great not to have to do that drive and get back to Ljubljana, so there'll be lots more time for hiking.
My sister will be traveling with me for the first half of the trip; I'll meet her at the airport in Zagreb, and we'll pick up a rental car there and drive to Ljubljana (about 90 minutes). She'll fly home after the first night in Sarajevo, and I'll continue from there on my own, dropping the car off in Split before boarding a ferry to Hvar. And one of my days in Dubrovnik will be spent on a day trip to Kotor, in Montenegro.
I'll plan on posting a preview of each destination in the months ahead leading up to the actual trip.