Ideas for holiday to Croatia

lyndasharp

My husband and I are thinking about going to Croatia in July for a week. We've had a look at a few websites and are now really confused about which area to go for. We like history, museums, galleries, would be nice to sit on a beach briefly and national parks, countryside, walking, cycling are good, plus cities are fun too... and there are just too many interesting areas to choose from! Does anyone have any tips / highlights / must-see areas that they think we could take a closer look at?

Doeas anyone have any experience of public transport within Croatia, if we were to maybe move between two areas - mainland and an island perhaps? Or Dubrovnik / countryside / Split??? Or are we better off just booking day tours with some of the local tour companies? Or I suppose we could hire a car?

Also any recommendations for good (but not too pricy) accommodation would be welcome! Would prefer the small and interesting B&B type accommodation - or even self catering - to big hotel chains...

Thanks!

richardw

The beaches aren't sandy, so if you really like fantastic sandy beaches, it may not be for you.

You could easily spend a week going to Split and the Islands there, a lot to see.

http://www.venezialines.com/ have interesting ferry routes between Venice and Croatia and Slovenia.

Rovinj and surrounding area is lovely.

Croatia is very popular with people who can drive there from central europe such as Austria and Southern Germany, so if you can go out of the main school holidays it may be less busy.

lyndasharp

I'm about to start a new job as a lecturer so I'm a bit stuck with the holiday times now! My husband is also refusing to go before the Morris Minor National Rally on 2nd/3rd July as he wants to make sure our project car is finished off and shiny... he has ambitions to walk off with a trophy for best ex police car. At the moment there's still quite a bit of work to do though! So I think we might just have to put up with the busy time of year for holidays.

Not that bothered about sandy beaches, I get a bit bored with beaches after a couple of hours, so that's probably the least essential part of a holiday! It'd just be nice to be able to visit one - even if it's not sandy :-)

apt

Croatia should not be too crowded in early July except for Dubrovnik old town. It's a brilliant summer destination. Many beautiful Venetian towns and crystal clear water for swimming. Split is probably the best place to fly to if you want to visit the islands, but you can also get to Korcula and islands south of that from Dubrovnik. Istria in the north also has many fine coastal towns, especially Rovinj.

richardw

Week 9th-16th July might be okish just before the main school holidays.

Lots on Croatia http://www.guardian.co.uk/search?q=croatia&section=travel

whatyadoinsucka

the whole of croatia is brilliant. I want to do the full length, as i only got to dubrovnik. But i met my brother and wife and they had travelled the coast from venice (v.cheap flights).

In fact the whole former yugoslavia is great,
a few years ago i got a train from ljubljana to venice it was 6 euros. slovenia and lake bled are beautiful places, further around the coast pula http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pula_Arena my brother had a 4* hotel overlooking the coliseum for £40 a night
he then went on to split and then the islands hvar and korcula before meeting us in Dub which he said was really nice
a nice article on the guardian if its good enough for a bond girl
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/jan/29/gemma-arterton-croatia

i can really recommend serbia, belgrade is a cool city, i then got an overnight train through the montenegran mountains to budva / kotor on the coast, which i loved which is then a 3 hour bus ride to dubrovnik. I really enjoyed this country and even being in the euro was cheap.. a can of beer, a bottle of pop and some chrisp with change from a euro in our local shop

public transport is ok, bus times can be found online, checkout tripadvisor or bootsnall.com and read some posts on particular towns/regions

from dubrovnik a brilliant side trip can take you up to mostar in bosnia, which is a lovely little town, with memorys of war pockmarked on many buildings..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MbXeMEsBpI

if i had to be honest i love the former yugoslavia, its like italy but a little bit more eastern, but so much more value for money
great seafood, pizzas, pasta can be found.

flavia84

My boyfriend and I went to Croatia a couple of years ago. We were interraling in Eastern Europe, but as Croatia was our last country, we hired a car and drove from Rijeka all the way down to Dubrovnik.

A few tips:

- If you do decide to drive, there is a coastal road most of the way down that has stunning scenery. However, this coastal road was single carriageway, and I can imagine it gets quite busy in peak times (we went in September). For quicker travel, there is a motorway, but obviously that is much less scenic! Remember that Croatia has zero-tolerance for drink and driving.

- If you do decide on Dubrovnik, there are no train links to it (or there weren't when we went, which was part of the reason why we hired a car). You can get there by car/bus/flying. Dubrovnik is very special city, fully of history of the war there. You can walk around the old town walls, from which you can see the scars of the war.

- For ancient history, you can go to Salona, near Split. It was a Roman town of 60,000 people, and there are plenty of ruins to walk around.

For national parks, I highly recommend the waterfalls in Krka national park, near Sibenik. There are a series of seven waterfalls, with a wooden walkway around them so you can explore them, and you can also swim in the pool of water at the bottom of them. There is a boat that gets you there crossing a lake (I think there might be another method to get there, but we got the boat).

-For accommodation, there is plenty of self-catering apartments and villas you can rent (remember, we went in September, so prices are probably going to be much higher in July. Also, I'd recommend you book something before you arrive, as July is going to be busy!). We found the people there to be very helpful, and at one place even offered us a drink and a chat when we arrived!

Hope this helped! I really enjoyed my time in Croatia, and hope you will too!

lyndasharp

Thanks everyone, that all sounds really good. I think we are tempted by Split... though it does all look lovely, but there's nothing to stop us going back next year to see a different bit! After looking at flight costs my husband might even be convinced to go for June instead of July, as it will save about £200, and that would be a nice bit of extra holiday spending money.

kavics17

If you can, go in June as school holiday in and around Croatia starts mid June so it gets crowded by beginning of July.

Lisa0812

Stayed in Rovinj (Istria) years ago.

The whole area is beautiful. Did all the trips and had a great time.
Venice for the day was great. It's certainly a place that I would eventually like to revisit.

Seem to remember Porec had a bit of a beach area.

Wassabi

Dalmatia Split is the best region for summer vacation. Small towns have nice beach, clear sea and lots of tourist attractions. Private accommodation is cheap if you connect directly to apartment owners. All information about Croatia, travel, regions, gastronomy and private accommodation find on croatiatourist.hr