Croatian Roadtrip

CROATIA!

My friend and I decided to do a little 12 day road trip through Croatia!

Because we had limited time, we chose to mainly do the coastline as we wanted to have a more relaxing, beachy vacation. We decided to skip Zagreb and Zadar (which I’ve heard are really beautiful), but we wanted to stay away from the big cities!

This was our itinerary for the 12 days:

Day 1- Plitvice National Park
Day 2- Krka National Park
Day 3,4,5 – Split
Day 6,7- Hvar Island
Day 8- Bosnia (Mostar, Blagaj)
Day 9,10,11- Dubrovnik
Day 12- Montenegro (Kotor)

We landed in Zagreb early in the morning at around 7am. We picked up our rental car from the airport (and got upgraded to a Jaguar by the cutie behind the desk LOL) and headed to Plitvice National Park where we would stay that night! It was about a 2 hour drive to a small town near Sibenik where we stayed in a cute little Air Bnb.

Entry tickets to Plitvice National Park are cheaper after 3pm, so we chose that ticket option because it gave us time to rest after our long flight before entering the park! It’s way less busy at this time, however the only downside to this is that the park closes at 6 so you have to rush a bit inside the park.

The park is huge and theres a bunch of different areas to explore! We quickly explored the Upper and Lower lakes around the entrances. There’s so many beautiful photo ops everywhere, so you could definitely spend a whole day here if you wanted to!

The next morning we woke up early and headed straight to Krka National Park, which was about an hour and a half drive from Plitvice Park. We took the ferry to the entrance to save time and got beautiful views along the way. Once there, we took a dip in the main waterfall and walked around the trails for a few hours! It was SO PRETTY but packed with people even first thing in the morning!

After Krka, we continued our drive to Split (another hour and a half drive)! We stayed at Marasovica Apartments which was only a 5-10 minute walk into the main city! The location was perfect and the owner was a gem. Also if you book the top apartment you get the whole rooftop with a view of the city to yourself!

The main street is super cute, filled with little souvenir shops and restaurants right along the water. The first day we walked aimlessly down every street and people watched along the way.

The following day we hiked up to Park Marjan – the entrance to the path was right by our AirBnb which was perfect! You get views over the whole city at the top, and it’s really not that intense of a walk (a few stairs but it’s not long). About halfway up there’s a cute little cafe that overlooks the city, we grabbed a cappuccino here and relaxed for a while!

For dinner we ate at a restaurant called Fig Split. HIGHLY recommend. We came here 3 more times throughout our stay LOL.

At night we headed to Diocletians Palace, which after 8pm turned into a dancing party with a live musician! Super fun, and you can drink your own alcohol in the square 🙂

The following day we went to Kasjuni Beach. It was a bit of a far walk from our place (40 mins) but definitely doable! The beach was beautiful and wasn’t very busy – If you like quiet I’d recommend coming here over Bacvice Beach in the main city.

To be honest, I wish we had spent less time in Split. You can only walk the same streets so many days in a row. By the third day, I was just itching to get onto the next place.

The next day we hopped on a ferry to Hvar to spend the next 2 night on the island. We kept our car parked at our place in Split (since it was free), and only took a small luggage with us.

Our AirBnb host picked us up from the ferry port and took us to our apartment. It was very simple, but walking distance to everything which was key!

As soon as we arrived, we walked down to a beach called Mustaco. The view before you descend down is absolutely GORGEOUS! We spent a few hours here..the water was absolutely breathtaking. (One thing to note though is that the sand is very rocky and uncomfortable to lay on, so bring a comfy towel!)

The next morning we walked up the gazillion stairs to the Spanish Fortress, which gives you a ridiculous view of the ocean and the main city of Hvar! It was my favourite thing we did in Hvar. We didn’t pay to go into the Fortress, just walked to the top to get the view!

The following day we relaxed, wandered the cobblestone streets, and ate lots of gelato. And of course ate at Fig Hvar.

The next morning we hopped on a ferry back to our car in Split and started driving towards Dubrovnik. Since we were so close to Bosnia and Herzegovina, we decided to take a little detour and make a quick stop in Mostar and Blagaj to see the famous picturesque bridge and monastery.

Mostar was sooo cute and quaint. We walked down to the water below the main bridge and watched people jump off it 🙂

After Mostar we drove to Blagaj which is a famous monastery known for being built into the cliffs on the water.

We then continued to Dubrovnik – I cannot stress this enough…. look at the map…don’t just blindly follow Google Maps. It took us on the most ridiculous cliff drive with only one car able to go through at a time..I have never sweat so much driving and I almost cried a few times when another car was coming from the opposite direction. LOOK at the map first and make sure to take the highway and NOT the backroads LOL!!

We finally arrived in Dubrovnik after sunset which was a bummer, because the drive into Dubrovnik is known to be gorgeous when you can actually see it in daylight! We arrived at our AirBnb which was GORGEOUS but the parking was the most confusing thing ever so I wouldn’t go back there with a car.

Our AirBnb had a balcony overlooking the city and had the most beautiful view of sunset every night.

The first day in Dubrovnik we headed straight to the Old Town and went right up to walk the Old Wall. Give yourself a few hours to walk it as literally every turn is a jaw-dropping view. It’s crowded so get there early in the day!

After walking the wall we went over to Lovrijenac Fortress which has stunning views of the outside of the wall! It’s included in your day ticket so go here the same day!

The following day we decided to hike up to Mt. Srd instead of taking the cable car up. The hike was pretty hard..basically zigzagging the whole way up to the top and there’s next to no shade. The view at the top overlooks the whole Old City, definitely a must do in Dubrovnik!

Since we were so close to Montenegro and had a car, we decided to do a day trip to Kotor. It’s about a 3 hour drive from Dubrovnik, which is pretty far for a day trip but we thought what the heck..we’re never going do a designated trip to Montenegro so might as well see it since we’re so close and cross off another country off the list! The drive was easy and the border was no issue at all.

Kotor is a beautiful city.. situated right on the Bay of Kotor surrounded by the limestone cliffs of Mt. Lovcen. We drove up to the top of Mt. Lovcen and got the most spectacular view of the landscape!

There’s lots of cute little restaurants along the Bay, and there’s an old town with lots of cute shops! We go a quick bite to eat and then headed back to Dubrovnik before the sun went down! The quick day trip was worth it in my opinion!

The following day we took it easy, as we were flying home the next day! We went back into the old town and walked around the cobblestone streets for a few hours, and then went Buza Bar to catch the sunset! Buza Bar is hole in the wall bar right on the side of the cliff with gorgeous views of the sunset over the ocean! It gets super busy here so come an hour or two before sunset to get a good seat! (The drinks here are really pricy though so pace yourself haha)

The next morning we headed to the airport to fly home!

Croatia was a beautiful trip and one that I will always remember! It is definitely high on my list of my favourite countries in Europe. The country has so much to offer and is easily accessible for any budget level. If Croatia isn’t on your list add it now! 🙂

Thanks for reading

xo steens