Ideas for holiday to Croatia

landsberger64

lyndasharp wrote: »

My husband and I are thinking about going to Croatia in July for a week.

A great choice, a lovely country, great food, and wonderful sunshine

lyndasharp wrote: »

We've had a look at a few websites and are now really confused about which area to go for.

It all depends what you want to do. It's a big country - and very varied east to west, north to south.

lyndasharp wrote: »

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!

You might want to consider a 2 centre holiday - Zagreb and Split or Zagreb and Pula. Zagreb is a very pleasant and navigateable city with plenty of history, museums, galleries. Split is also a very historic town, within easy reach of much of the Adriatic coast.

Beaches may be problematic if you're expecting sandy beaches - which are few and far between in Croatia. There are about 5, and they are all very small. Pebbly beaches exist all over, for instance along the Makarska Rivijera, which is 45 minutes to an hour to Split. You could consider Sibenik, that's reachable by train, very historic, and near to the Krka National Park. You could also do a day trip to the more popular (but more crowded) Plitvice National Park nearer to Zagreb.

Let me know if you want any other guide.

lyndasharp wrote: »

Does anyone have any tips / highlights / must-see areas that they think we could take a closer look at?

Look at the following for ideas - the Istrian coast (Pula, Rovinj, Porech, Umag); the Kvaerner gulf (Rijeka and Opatija and the island of Cres); Zadar; Sibenik; and the islands of Hvar, Korcula, and Vis).

lyndasharp wrote: »

Doeas anyone have any experience of public transport within Croatia, if we were to maybe move between two areas - mainland and an island perhaps?

Yes, lots, it's good, it's reliable, there's not much of a train service, but there are lots of very nice coaches. Check out Autotrans.hr (one of the bigger companies - the equivalent of National Express l)- the site is in Croatian, but there's an English version as well. Tours can be expensive, and are best booked there, rather than here. Big companies like Atlas.hr will indicate prices for you. They will also book accommodation for you, if you wish, but you can do that yourself via a variety of sites. Hotels are eye wateringly expensive and pretty ordinary for what you pay. Most Croatians hire apartments from other Croatians, and you can do the same - check out apartmani-hrvatska.hr - - the site is also in Croatian, but there's an English version as well. Most of these would be self-catering. Eating out is still relatively inexpensive outside the main touristy areas.

Croatian car driving is quite erratic, if you feel confident driving in Italy, you'd feel at home there !

jon1965

We went to Dubrovnik for 5 days a couple of years ago. It is the most amazing place, but in my opinion there is not a massive amount to do (if you want to see sights etc) . The biggest problem is the bloody tourists off the cruise ships.
We hired a car and drove down into MonteNegro for the day, beautiful and also to Mostar in Bosnia. That was a fabulous day and just to see the colour of the water in the river was worth it, non of the muddy rubbish you get here, or even clear. It was fast flowing and a greenish blue. The sea is also amazingly clear.
All in all a wonderful place.

SallyUK

Hi Mehgriff

Sure, I'll send you a PM with the details, if that's ok with you? We booked it via an agency, but the owner gave me his direct contact details, so we can get it cheaper next time.

Sal
x

mehgriff wrote: »

Sal, Can you give more details of the villa that you stayed at? I've been looking for one in September and can only see silly prices for Croatia villas so have been looking at North Cyprus instead.

landsberger64

jon1965 wrote: »

We went to Dubrovnik for 5 days a couple of years ago. It is the most amazing place, but in my opinion there is not a massive amount to do (if you want to see sights etc) . The biggest problem is the bloody tourists off the cruise ships.

Amen - unfortunately, it means that the old town gets impossibly crowded by elderly Americans and Germans, and the shops, prices and menus at restaurants now reflect this. Any places that says "WE ACCEPT DOLLARS" was charging about 50% more than the Croatian price.

jon1965 wrote: »

We hired a car and drove down into MonteNegro for the day, beautiful and also to Kotor in Bosnia. That was a fabulous day and just to see the colour of the water in the river was worth it, non of the muddy rubbish you get here, or even clear. It was fast flowing and a greenish blue. The sea is also amazingly clear. All in all a wonderful place.

We stayed for 10 days in Montenegro, well worth a visit and like Croatia was in the mid-1990s. We stayed in some lovely places and ate out very inexpensively. The Boka Kotorska isn't deep enough for cruise ships*, so is unlikely to get invaded as Dubrovnik has.

* The port of Bar is, but is unlikely to win any awards for civic pride in the near future, I must say...

apt

You do get cruise ships in Kotor, but probably half the number in Dubrovnik. The modern town of Bar is scruffy, but the old town (Stari Bar) a couple of miles inland is well worth seeing.