Croatia?

[preppy]

Any suggestions on areas to visit in Croatia? We want to do a 9 day trip on the coast this summer. I am looking for ideas on hotels and restaurants.

I am also wondering if we should look into visiting another country while we are in the area, maybe Italy or Austria? Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

[rubyjem]

Split is amazing and I definitely encourage you to spend some time there. We stayed on Brac island which was nice. Bol is beautiful and would be a great place to stay as well. If you are interested in visiting another country, I would highly recommend Mostar, Bosnia. We had an absolutely wonderful time and are already looking into going back.

[justthetip]

It's on my list, so I have no advice. i did I read a nice travelogue on the Hither & Thither blog however:
www.hitherandthither.net/

[Mushe]

We absolutely loved Croatia!

We started in Dubrovnik and splurged on this hotel: www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g295371-d302914-Reviews-Hotel_Bellevue_Dubrovnik-Dubrovnik_Dubrovnik_Neretva_County_Dalmatia.html. It was near enough that we could walk to the old town, but had amazing views and a private beach.

From there we went to Hvar, which was seriously beautiful, and a bit more relaxed than I've read some of the islands are.

Split was just okay for us, but I know some people really like it. We toured the palace but then stayed overnight on Trojir, a small island very close by. The crowds in Split aren't really our scene, which is why we did this instead.

From there we drove to Plitvice Lakes, which is far up and inland, but amazingly beautiful.

We ended our trip by taking the ferry from Porec (1.5ish hours) to Venice.

What kind of vacation are you envisioning? It might be easier to get recommendations with more information.

[Deleted]

If you only have 9 days I think you should stick to Croatia only. We spent 12 days there a few years back at the end of summer and loved it. You can check out my blog posts here: aroundtheworldwithrebecca.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Croatia

I agree Plitvice Lakes is worth the trip and I loved Split. The squid is spectacular, I ate it almost every night...

[scout8]

I also thought Plitvice was worth the trip. We loved Split. I think there is plenty in Croatia to fill 9 days, so I wouldn't go anywhere else. With that said, we did combine Croatia with Slovenia and really enjoyed Slovenia too.

[emilyinchile]

Nov 14, 2012 0:21:38 GMT -5 Mushe said:

We started in Dubrovnik...

From there we went to Hvar, which was seriously beautiful, and a bit more relaxed than I've read some of the islands are.

Split was just okay for us, but I know some people really like it. We toured the palace but then stayed overnight on Trojir, a small island very close by. The crowds in Split aren't really our scene, which is why we did this instead.

We did exactly the opposite of this and loved it. Croatia is one of my absolute favorite countries, and I'm dying to go back to see the Plitvice Lakes. We spent about 9 days just doing those three spots, but if you can fit in Plitvice I would probably try to. I wouldn't add another country though.

[preppy]

Thanks for the recs, I will check these out.

As far as the type of vacation, we like a mix of low key chilling on a beach mixed with adventure type activities (climbing, hiking, kayaking, etc). We would want to spend most of our time on the shoreline.

[Mushe]

Nov 14, 2012 8:41:56 GMT -5 preppy said:

Thanks for the recs, I will check these out.

As far as the type of vacation, we like a mix of low key chilling on a beach mixed with adventure type activities (climbing, hiking, kayaking, etc). We would want to spend most of our time on the shoreline.

Sounds wonderful! I would definitely encourage you to check out Plitvice. You can't go on the water of the lakes, but there are trails around them with varying difficulty.

In Hvar, we rented a small boat and went around the archipelago. It was really neat! There were people doing that who stopped to snorkel or dive around the various small islands, although we didn't do that.

[preppy]

Nov 14, 2012 11:15:56 GMT -5 Mushe said:

Nov 14, 2012 8:41:56 GMT -5 preppy said:

Thanks for the recs, I will check these out.

As far as the type of vacation, we like a mix of low key chilling on a beach mixed with adventure type activities (climbing, hiking, kayaking, etc). We would want to spend most of our time on the shoreline.

Sounds wonderful! I would definitely encourage you to check out Plitvice. You can't go on the water of the lakes, but there are trails around them with varying difficulty.

In Hvar, we rented a small boat and went around the archipelago. It was really neat! There were people doing that who stopped to snorkel or dive around the various small islands, although we didn't do that.

So you couldn't go in the lake water at all? That's interesting. I have looked at some photos and it seems gorgeous, maybe we will do 2 nights up in the lake region then head down to the coast. Any hotel recommendations for the lake region? We prefer to stay at luxury type accommodations.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far ladies!

[keweenawlove]

I loved Croatia. I think Dubrovnik is a must for sure. We rented an apartment up the hill from Old Town which gave us an amazing view of it. If you want to explore more of the shore, a day trip to the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro might be worth it. It’s not too far of a drive from Dubrovnik.

I agree with pp that Mostar is another good option for an easy country to get to. Both Kotor and Mostar were easy to get to and were so different from Croatia.

I don’t even think you’d need 2 days near Plitvice. We hiked most of the trails there in about half a day. There is a boat that will take you between the upper and lower lakes. It was beautiful. You can’t get out and kayak or anything but a lot of the hikes are on bridges over the water. I’m not sure how many luxury-type accommodations you’ll find in that area (did Rick Steeves have any good ones?). From that I remember, most of the places to stay were B&B type places. That area was hit really hard by the war and there’s a lot of recovery still going on.

[Mushe]

Preppy, the pp covered it about the lakes, there's a boat that takes you from upper to lower, but you can't kayak or anything because it's a really sensitive ecosystem.

It's a national park and they run all the hotels there. We stayed at a B&B, but my parents stayed at the nicest of the (3?) hotels when they went, and it was very utilitarian. MH checked his email and FB on their computer and his account got hacked. :/

But yes, I think you don't need more than 1.5-2 days there. We did 2 nights, 1.5 days, and it was a good amount.