Croatia

We did a trip to Croatia in September. We had 2 weeks there of which 1 was on a Katarina cruise (I have made a separate post about that). Croatia has 7 UNESCO world heritage sites and whilst we didn’t go there with any intention of seeing them, we got to 5 of them.

We flew to Debrovnik and had an apartment inside the old town. There were 4 of us including 2 adult children so finding accommodation with 4 beds isn’t always easy. We had pre-booked the apartment. The apartment goes by the name of Apartments Kovac and the owner Ana Kovac lives out of town but came in to meet us. She was very helpful and friendly. The apartment is just inside the Buza gate. It had 2 bedrooms, aircon, kitchen etc and was on the top floor with a lovely view across rooftops. It was a 15 min walk to a lovely pebbly beach just south of the old town. We had 2 nights there and did the usual things including swimming, a walk of the city walls (compulsory) and a walk around the bays of Lapad. The 2nd morning I hiked up the mountain above the old town. It was a little hard to find the start of the track but once found, it isn’t long to the top and picture postcard views.

We were due to join the cruise which left from Split. We could have taken a bus up there but decided to pick up a rental car and have a night along the way. So we drove down to Cavtat which isn’t far from Dubrovnik – a lovely small town in a bay with the usual sprinkling of cafes and restaurants along the waterfront. There were a couple of large luxury boats moored in the middle of town so it looks like the rich and famous have found the place now. We then drove up the coast road. There is a new freeway that will link Zagreb and Dubrovnik which makes for fast travel but we took the old coastal road. It makes for slow driving and while the distance between Dubrovnik and Split is not far, you would want to allow for plenty of travel time. We spent the night in an apartment in Makarska and swam at the main beach. Since the peak travel period had passed it seemed easy enough to arrive in a town and either inquire where there were vacancy signs or go to the local tourist office and ask. Generally both options worked fine.

The next morning we drove to Split (this took about 3.5 hours which shows how slow the travel could be). We joined our cruise there which took 7 days and I have added a separate forum entry about this. When the cruise deposited us back in Split we stayed at the Slavija Hotel just inside the western wall of Diocletian’s Palace. I had read posts talking about noise but the windows are double-glazed and we didn’t have any concerns about noise. The travel writings tend to focus on Diocletian’s palace as the must-see but the area of the city along the waterfront to the west of the palace has been rejuvenated and is worth some time. There is a great herbal tea shop at 6 Kralja Tomislava. We took the bus out to Trogir (another Unesco world heritage site) and a good break from the bustle of Split.

From Split we picked up another rental car and drove to Zadar via Krka National Park. As New Zealander’s we are already spoilt for scenery and we were a little underwhelmed by Krka. We had gone to Zadar to drop our daughter at the airport but it was a surprisingly lovely old town as well. The Sea Organ and the Sun Salutation (both on the waterfront) were highlights of the whole trip.

We stayed 1 night in Zadar then drove up to Plitivice Lakes. We travelled on the A1 this time and arrived in time to walk the lower lakes that afternoon. We stayed at the Bellvue Hotel in the National Park – it was pretty worn and tired but was OK for 1 night. There is plenty of private accommodation in the surrounding area but whereas the rest of Croatia has a real café and restaurant culture, food was pretty hard to find at Plitvice. The next morning we walked the upper lakes. This is a lovely area – the hills and forest are replicated all over Europe but the cascading series of lakes are very special and were worth the trip up there (our son 24 disagrees!).

We then rejoined the A1 and drove back to the coast. We crossed to the northern end of Pag Island at Prizna. The ferry seemed to run continuously. This is an unusual little island – incredibly barren with a smattering of villages and nice beaches. We stayed in Pag itself at the Hotel Biser - about 1.5km from town. The hotel seems to focus on German tourists as, unlike most people in Croatia, English wasn’t spoken. There was a small pebbly beach below the hotel and although we swam here, the water was much colder than the islands involved in the cruise. The owner is a big-game hunter and has a ‘den’ filled with deer, buffalo, antelope heads and even a Croatian wolf. If you can’t cope with stuffed wildlife this is not the place for you.

From Pag we drove back to Split via to Sibenik and the Cathedral of St. James – another UNESCO site. We left the car at the airport and flew to London. Croatia is spoilt for marbled medieval walled towns and the country justifies all of the hyperbole that it generates. Croatia is right up there as a ‘must-see’ place in my view. In summer it would be crowded as the Europeans go there in large numbers, but outside that time it offers fantastic swimming (don’t expect sandy beaches though), great Mediterranean-style food and good facilities. It isn’t necessarily a cheap place to travel but is considerably cheaper than the UK, Italy etc.

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Great report!