Family Travel - itinerary recommendations?

Hi All,

We are considering visiting Croatia next July with our two children who will be ages 6 and 9. They are fairly good travelers - we visited South Africa last year and managed to see quite a lot of the country and had an amazing time. I have a few questions:

-From a tourist perspecive, do you think Croatia is a good family-friendly country to visit with activities that would appeal to all?

-I would love any itinerary recommendations as I am just beginning the research. We%26#39;ll probably visit for 10 days and really like to see as much as we possibly can. I know a lot of people prefer to get to know a country by staying put (which I respect, BTW!), but that is not us. :)

-Related, is it worth trying to see any of the neighboring countries?

Any advice or suggestions are much appreciated!

Kind regards,

Stacy

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GAH! Sorry all for the multiple postings of the same message. I kept getting an error message saying that it failed to post so I would resubmit. Apologies!

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Croatia is very family friendly, even to Americans!

Which airport do you intend flying into?

It%26#39;s a big country and seeing all or even most of it will be difficult in 10 days.

There will be lots of TA types happy to give you input on where to go if you can give them/me a starting point.

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In 10 days you can visit Istria (Rovinj, Pazin, Rijeka...)and Dalmatian coast (Zadar, Sibenik, Split, Trogir and Dubrovnik). I also have a small child we have never had any kind of problem, especially not in Croatia. It%26#39;s friendly, safe and beautiful. Persons are very kind.

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Croatia is a very friendly country and a great idea for you and your family. With only ten days I would suggest flying into Split and out of Dubrovnik if at all possible. Ten days would be a great amount of time to explore Dalmatia- Look at staying in Trogir with maybe a day trip to Krka Falls, get out to the islands from Split- I think Bol on Brac would be a good place to go. Then work yourself down the coast to Dubrovnik with maybe a couple of nights along the Makarska Riviera.

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Hi Stacy,

There%26#39;s plenty to do with kids - from some fantastic ancient ruins in Istria and Split, wonderful Dubrovnik, parks, lakes, big and small ferry boats and water sports everywhere along the coast. The food is good and you%26#39;ll always find italian style pasta and pizza on the menus.

If you really want to see as much as possible then a couple of suggestions;

The normal %26#39;tourist%26#39; area of Croatia is basically long and thin so maybe think of flying into one city and leaving from another (e.g. arrive Zagreb (or Lubjana in Slovenia or Trieste in Italy) and leave Dubrovnik). May pose some problem with car hire but saves you backtracking.

If you start off up north, then a day trip to Venice is possible, which is always a wow, even in the summer.

a couple of warnings;

staying for less than three days in private accommodation/small hotels carries a surcharge of up to 30%

July will be busy (getting busier as the month progresses) which poses the age-old problem - do you plan and lock down your accommodation early or adopt a more relaxed approach. Only you can decide but you sound pretty adventurous. I%26#39;d suggest mixing it - have some certainty at the beginning and the end, and maybe come back to this forum as you do your research and choose some must-see places like Hvar or Dubrovnik to get advice on accommodation. If you plan to island hop, you may also be governed by the ferries but you so quickly get into island time, you%26#39;ll all be very relaxed!

Croatia is a beautiful country with great people. You%26#39;ll love it, and so will the kids!

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Wow - thank you so much to all for the truly helpful information. I now have so many great suggestions for starting my research and planning. And I have to confess (and this is embarrassing, but I am definitely horrible with geography despite making a real effort to travel the world) that I didn%26#39;t know Venice was close enough for a day trip. A day trip! The thought of getting to visit Venice again is amazing. We were there years ago, but didn%26#39;t have children and I know they would love it. So again - thank you. I really appreciate the time you spent to send such thoughtful responses.

Kind regards,

Stacy