Croatia

We flew from Zurich to Dubrovnik with Swiss Air in the afternoon (3pm departure) and a 2.5 hour flight. Flying within Europe is like flying within Australia – you don’t need to be there 3 hours before your flight, probably only 1.5 hours and could get away with an hour depending on the airport size and time of the day for travel.

First stop when we arrived in Dubrovnik was picking up our car from Enterprise. I was so hesitant with booking cars in Europe because I had read so many horror stories online. For 7 days, the car hire cost only $282! This wasn’t with any additional insurance though, as we made sure we had car insurance covered in our travel insurance. Despite my reluctance with the car hire, the guy who served us was so friendly and reassuring, it really put us at ease immediately. When he greeted us, he said that I looked like someone who has done this before and of course he wouldn’t make me sign the paperwork without seeing the car first. The lady who showed us around the car then checked for any additional, unmarked damage and took photos, also adding the scratches that I had pointed out (like the rims). We took additional photos too just in case. The hold on the account though was something ridiculous (€1000), so make sure you have enough money in your account for that!

After picking up our car, we were on our way to our first destination in Dubrovnik (outside the city walls). The drive into Dubrovnik was incredible – the view of the city (with the orange rooftops) and the city walls as you’re driving down was priceless. Unfortunately there wasn’t anywhere safe to stop to take in the views. We are so glad we had accommodation away from the city walls as we found out there’s really strict travel zones which incur ridiculous fines if you enter them. We checked into our accommodation then ventured to the walls on a 20mins walk and grabbed dinner at Soul Kitchen. We found Dubrovnik restaurants to be comparable to Australia in pricing and definitely cheaper than Switzerland! The first night we got some vegetarian tacos and a vegetarian burger for about $60. We stopped by the supermarket on the way home, to find a residential cat sleeping on one of the cars (and absolutely no room between the cars to even walk through let alone open your car door [avoid parking here if you can]), and bought a few groceries. These ended up being insanelyyyy cheap!!! Chocolate, fruit, yoghurt, granola, cheese, and bread – all of which would have cost about $40 back home, only cost about $15 here.

The next morning we were excited to get a coffee again after only drinking instant coffee for a week. So after doing my research, we ventured into the walls (climbing up and down some very steep stairs in the process) and grabbed a coffee at Cogito coffee. Important to note: their Americanos are only served with one shot. So if you want two shots, you have to pay for an extra shot (at an outrageous price of €1.5-€2 per shot!!!). Or just ask for a double espresso. We then explored inside the beautiful city walls. The main street, The Stradun, is stunning – the flooring was these immaculate, polished limestone tiles that felt so smooth to walk on. While walking around, we managed to stumble across a really cool market where we bought local salt for everyone back home. One of the things we looked at doing, but decided against, was walking the city walls because of the cost – €40 ($67) each. If you get the Dubrovnik pass, it does give you access to museums as well as the walls, but we were very clear in our intentions for Europe that we didn’t overly care for the history of places. Our priorities were mainly walking around, shopping for souvenirs or gifts for people back home, beaches, coffee, and any other traditional hands-on experiences. So that is what we did in the afternoon – we grabbed an insane focaccia from Panini Bar Franco Romano and then walked 35mins to Plaza Belvedere. Before residing on the beach, we stopped at ‘the cattery’ which, you guessed it, was a place filled with cats!! We then found two other people who were trying to find the same beach we were, but with a car, so they offered us a lift to the beach. Unfortunately for them though, they had already driven through a restricted travel zone and undoubtedly copped a fine.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at this beach, getting some colour, before heading back to the walls where I grabbed another coffee from Life of Kawa. The shop itself was really cute, selling unique gifts, but not overly cheap. I think my coffee cost €5 ($8) for a black coffee. On our way back to the accommodation, we stopped by the super scenic basketball court within the walls to watch the sunset. Highly recommend visiting this if you’re in Dubrovnik. We made dinner (you guessed it, pasta!) in our apartment before heading out for gelati at Peppino’s Gelato Garden.  

We only had two nights in Dubrovnik so before checking out on the Wednesday, we grabbed a coffee from Cogito again and then got a few snacks for our 3 hour drive to Split. I still, to this day, do not understand the speed signs in Croatia. They say not to rely on Google Maps or the car’s GPS, but there’s also no signs that clearly indicate the speed. I mean, we got overtaken by a bus!!! But I was going by the last road sign which was 50km/h. Update: I finally realised that once you leave a town and there’s the town’s name with a cross through it, it means the speed limit is 80-90km/h. As soon as you enter a town, the speed limit is automatically 50km/h. They also have speeds for corners, but I think that is just the turning speed and not the actual speed limit. Hope that helps someone else who plans to drive in Croatia!

About 90minutes into our drive, we came across a lot of roadside stalls by the Neretva River Delta which were selling fresh juices and other citrus-based goods as this area is extremely fertile for farmers. We finally pulled over to grab a bottle of orange juice, only to be charged €10 for a 1L bottle! I would love to say it was the best orange juice we’ve ever had but it was not…it was extremely tart and well, probably not worth the $16! After another hour of driving, we got hungry again so decided to stop in a city called Makaska. But it was a ghost town. Jas was desperate for a toilet and the only one we could find required a euro coin to enter (and we didn’t have any cash on us). The cafes we went to were closed or didn’t serve food, so we ended up going to a supermarket with the unfriendliest staff, buying a roll and some sliced cheese and eating that. A disappointing detour to say the least.

We arrived at our Airbnb in the afternoon, checked in, and went out to explore Split’s old town which was about a 20mins walk from our accommodation. Split’s old town is a lot more open than Dubrovnik’s encased old town in which apparently only 1500 Croatians reside (due to overtourism numbers). The waterfront of Split’s old town, Riva Split, is lined with restaurants overlooking the beach. Be warned though, it isn’t the best place to relax due to the intense sulfuric smell! The other main street, Marmontova Ulica (Marmont Street), is made from white marble and again, is incredibly pleasant to walk on! After exploring for a bit over an hour, we decided on an incredible pizza place called Portas Pizza (yes I know, not very Croatian, but admittedly there wasn’t a lot of Croatian food that was vegetarian friendly!).  One of the highly rated restaurants in Split was Villa Spiza – a family run tavern which is extremely sought after for its handwritten menus and local produce. Unfortunately the local produce features a lot of fish and meat!

On our walk back to our Airbnb, we stumbled across four incredibly cute kittens and their very protective mother! We spent about 30mins trying to entice them to come out and then proceeding to play with them on the sidewalk before finally venturing home (sidenote: there are a lottttt of cats in Croatia, it’s great!). When we got back to the apartment, we looked up boat tours for the next day. A lot of our planning for this holiday was done the night before, but with tours like this, I would advise looking at them further in advance because they do sell out. We managed to find one tour on Viator that didn’t go through Trogir, but went to the blue lagoon, a village, and another island. We booked the 2pm timeslot, but shortly after our booking, we received a text stating that they weren’t running the afternoon timeslot and asked if we wanted to go on the morning tour instead. Because we didn’t have many other options, we agreed and paid $214 (for both of us) for a 5-hour speedboat tour. In hindsight, we would have loved to have booked the 5-island and blue cave boat tour but they were all booked out when we were looking (we also thought we only had two nights in Split so the Thursday was our only day to book…turns out we had three nights so we could have booked it for the Friday…whoops). Also important to note – the blue cave requires an additional entrance fee on top of the boat tour, to be paid in cash, on your arrival. Depending on the season, it’s either €18 (during the off season) or €24 ($40) during the spring and summer season. You also are no longer allowed to swim in the cave given the high traffic that frequents the area.

On our way to the boat tour, we stopped at kava² to start our morning the right way (with a brilliant coffee) and this place did not disappoint! The boat tour started at 9am from the esplanade and took us to a cute village, Maslinica, 30mins away. The itinerary originally had us going to the blue lagoon first, but they changed the order of the day so we could go when it was slightly warmer, not that it made much difference! At our first stop, we ventured around the Martinis Marchi Castle (which is now a luxury hotel) while some others grabbed a coffee and a bite to eat. Admittedly we didn’t end up doing too much as Jas took some travel sickness tablets which worked a bit too well…so much so they actually knocked her out and she needed to take a nap haha. We stayed here for about an hour before getting back on the boat and heading to the blue lagoon – our first swimming spot.

IMPORTANT! Although May is a great time to visit in regards to it being less busy than the peak season, the water is FREEZING! I don’t mind cold water, actually, I love a refreshing dip, but that’s usually under the provision that there’s an opportunity to get warm afterwards. The water was apparently 16 degrees…fine for a quick dip, not okay for prolonged swimming. And this was the main snorkelling place too. Which was stunning given all of the fish, but limiting because of how cold the water was. When we were there, in mid-May, there were about 10 other boats there. In peak summer, apparently there’s over 200 boats in that same area!

After our swim, we tried to thaw out on the back of the boat in the sun…but unfortunately the 18 degree sunshine wasn’t doing much to dry our bathers nor warm our skin. I was freezing. Despite having a jumper, I couldn’t get warm. We had one final stop at Ciovo Island which was another place we were permitted to swim at yet no one did because they were still shivering from the previous swim! So we found somewhere to lie down and try to absorb whatever sun rays we could. We arrived back at Split around 2pm and went to grab lunch at Foccacina Sandwich Bar and our second coffee at KaKantun coffee. The focaccias were elite here so we only ate half before heading off to another beach (Plaza Obojena) in attempt to warm up in the sun.

For dinner, we cooked for ourselves but went out in the evening (after having a very warm shower!) to Emiliana Gelati – a highly rated gelati place. We were so glad that we had the extra night here as it just allows you to relax rather than having to pack up again and get back on the road. So for the Friday, we explored the Green Market after grabbing a coffee at 4 coffee and a cinnamon scroll and bread at Kruščić bakery – a bakery renowned for only using a few ingredients in their bread. The scroll was delicious, the bread, not so much. It was so dense that it was hard to eat…although nothing that a slathering of Nutella and banana couldn’t fix! Admittedly, we didn’t really know what to do with ourselves on this day as we didn’t have anything planned and it wasn’t really warm enough to go to the beach. So we continued to explore the shops, went to VEG (a plant based restaurant) for lunch and then to the café that our Airbnb host recommended…Kavana coffee. The view was excellent, the atmosphere and coffee? Not so much. It was a shisha bar so the indoors smelt of smoke. But we sat outside and I did some writing while Jas did some drawings. After politely getting moved on for taking up a table and only ordering one espresso, we went back to our apartment to make dinner again and watch a movie. Which we paused halfway through to watch the sunset at Marjan Hill and Teraca Vidilica and…visit the kittens again! Safe to say I was missing my fur babies back home.

Our original plan on the Saturday was to go to Krka waterfalls on our way to Zadar, but with entrance fees at €20 per person in spring and €40 per person in summer, we couldn’t justify it. Many people advised that if you had to choose between Krka waterfalls or Plitvice Lakes, they would opt for the latter because there’s a lot more to see and do so it’s better value for your money. Also, it was pouring rain. So instead, we grabbed a coffee at kava² again, had our dense bread for breakfast, and stopped off at Trogir to explore the markets and the old town in the pouring rain. The roads and footpaths were flooded so we didn’t stay too long – just long enough to buy some local salt for Jas’s sister and then drove on to Zadar.  After checking in to our Airbnb, we ventured out to explore the city including visiting an intimate (tiny) record shop and stopping at Kavi coffee to watch the men’s champion’s league final between Arsenal and PSG (in which Arsenal devastatingly lost in penalties). Our next stop was dinner at the Botanist – an incredible vegan restaurant with a really beautiful story about four brothers who started this restaurant. The food here was outstanding too – probably the best vegan burger I’ve ever had. After dinner, we waited for sunset to watch the light show and listen to the sea organ – a unique art piece designed by Nikola Bašić. On our way home, I managed to get hit on by a Croatian asking if Jas and I were mother and daughter, before being told that he could show me a ‘really good time’ later. Swerve. Despite this failed invitation, I never really felt unsafe in Croatia but I suspect if I was travelling alone that might be different.

On Sunday, we had a very early start in order to get to Plitvice Lakes before most of the tourist buses got there (around 10:30am) so we got up at 6 and left by 7. We drove to grab a coffee from the café we went to the day before, Kavi, as they were the only café that was open at 7am…only to find out that they weren’t open until 8 despite both their Google hours and hours on their door stating that they were open from 7. Good coffee was hard to find in Croatia so we had to make do with a terribly made coffee from a bakery. The drive took us about 2 hours because we opted for the scenic (and non-toll road) route. In order to know which car park to direct ourselves to, we had to first choose our walking route. Plitvice lakes has many different walking trails, perfect for all different levels of fitness and time constraints. After doing some research, we opted for Route H, a 9km walk starting from entrance 2.

Tickets can be pre-purchased before arriving and are again, not cheap. Twenty-three euro per person in the shoulder seasons (April-May) and €40 per person during peak season (June-September) whilst only €10 during the low season. When you buy your tickets, you have to select a time slot and you have an hour to enter during that time. We selected a 9am time slot and entered at about 9:45. Make sure you go to the bathroom or get rid of any rubbish before you start your walk as there’s nowhere along the trails for a toilet break or bins to discard of your rubbish.

The trails are really clearly marked so it’s hard to get lost! Route H starts with a shuttle bus to the upper lakes before you start descending along the trail over boardwalks and through incredible views. Honestly, Plitvice Lakes was as stunning as Switzerland. Everywhere you looked, the lakes were a pristine blue with luscious greenery around. You aren’t allowed to swim here (as it’s a national park – same now with Krka waterfalls) but the views are worth the money. It’s not something you want to rush either – we probably spent about 5 hours walking at a leisurely pace, stopping frequently to take in the incredible views (and to wait for others on the narrow paths to take in the views too). Because of the narrow paths, that’s why they advise getting their earlier in the day – to enjoy some form of serenity before it becomes overwhelmed by tourists. During this particular trail, you end up taking a boat across Lake Kozjak (which you would walk if you did the longer trail K) and end up at P1 by the lower lakes where you then continue the rest of your trek. We had our lunch here before finishing off the rest of our walk.

On our way back to our car, we grabbed a canned coffee (I grabbed a canned americano and Jas a disgusting caramel latte) as the local café didn’t look overly promising. We then commenced what was supposed to be a 2 hour drive to Zagreb but ended up taking us nearly 3 because we opted, again, for no tolls. THIS WAS A MISTAKE! We did this not just to save money (as we didn’t know how much the tolls would cost), but also because we didn’t know how the tolls worked and it was only supposed to add about 10mins on to our journey. The backroads we went on were not user friendly – no speed limits, very narrow, and not always paved.

We finally arrived at our final accommodation which we booked on Booking.com and it was incredible! A little flat at the back of a family’s house, where a Dad who didn’t speak any English, greeted us and helped carry our bags into the room. Not only was the apartment stunning, it also came equipped with an infrared light sauna! The hosts left us a platter of cheese and meats (which we obviously didn’t eat) and some bread, jam and butter. One of the most hospitable stays we had and only for $80 for one night too!

Before getting too settled, we decided to return the car at night rather than dealing with it in the morning. Reading online (which I would advise against), a lot of people recommend returning rental cars the night before rather than during after hours in the morning as you’re still held liable for the car even after you’ve returned it. I was concerned (because of what I had read online and past experiences with rental companies) that we were going to be accused of damage to the car that we didn’t do. So we opted to avoid this stress and dropped it off on the Sunday night then proceeded to walk 1.5 hours back to our apartment. It was such a warm and peaceful evening so the walk (surprisingly) went quickly.  

Because of our 6am flight to Trondheim, we pre-booked a trip with Lyft to collect us at 4:15am so that we would be at the airport by 4:30 – this was probably earlier than we needed, but we would rather that than stress about being late and missing our flight. Next stop, Ida! And Norway!

Travel notes summarised:

· Booking in May is great to avoid crowds, but not great to enjoy the weather. If I ever went back to Croatia, I’d advise going at the end of summer where the weather and water are warmer. A lot of shops also aren’t open in the shoulder seasons

· Groceries are cheap, but activities are not. Croatia has only been doing tourism for the last 20 or so years so they still aren’t sure how to price things – so they overcharge. Expect to pay €40 for a lot of activities you want to do – like the Dubrovnik walls, Plitvice Lakes, Krka waterfalls etc

· Coffee is very hit or miss and isn’t cheap either – their americanos (our long blacks) also only come with 1 shot so you have to ask for an extra shot…for usually another €1.5!!

· When looking at boat tours from Split, don’t leave it until the night before like we did as things book out

· Car hire – we went with Enterprise and it was seamless. Only $282 for a week but with a €1000 hold required. They also tell you to fill it up to 1/8^th of a tank on return too

· Driving is a bit chaotic – speed limits aren’t clearly marked and Croatians also don’t obey the speed limits

· Parks are VERY narrow – so avoid driving to supermarkets if you can to protect your hire car

· The drive from Dubrovnik airport into Dubrovnik and along the coast to Split is stunning – highly recommend this

· Make sure your accommodation comes with a free park! Paid parking becomes veryyyy expensive (especially in summer). We parked our car at our accommodation and didn’t use the car again until we left to make sure we avoided any chance of getting hit

· Cats are everywhere (a cat girl’s dream)

· Plitvice Lakes National Park is absolutely beautiful – this is a must if you’re in Croatia

· We stayed for 6 full days and I think that was enough for when we went. Perhaps if the weather was warmer, we might have wanted to stay longer but we couldn’t really enjoy the beaches which is one of the best things (we’ve heard) about Croatia

Best coffee places

· Dubrovnik – Cogito coffee (hidden at the back of the old town)

· Split – kava² and 4 coffee

· Zadar - Kavi

Food

· Dubrovnik – Soul Kitchen, Panini Bar Franco Romano, Peppini’s Gelato Garden

· Split – Portas Pizza, VEG, Focaccina Sandwich bar, and Emiliana Gelati

· Zadar – The Botanist