Croatia is one of the best destinations if you have a week or 10 days to spend on a holiday. It offers plenty of options for travellers of any kind (single, couple, family with kids, etc..)
This article narrates our (my wife and I) trip’s highlights, with links to other articles with more details about locations or guides. At the end of the article, you can find the day-by-day itinerary and more info about accommodations, restaurants, transport and tours we experienced.
We landed in Dubrovnik very early, picked up our rental car (see the article “how to easily rent a car as cheap as possible”) and drove to our Airbnb to leave our luggage. We spent the entire day, just walking around and enjoying the old town. The whole old town is within the walls of the famous castle and it looks like the streets were frozen in time. I suggest spending a full day just getting lost in the small and cute streets with full of stone-made buildings, arches and alleys. The other activity you can (and should) do is to walk on the city walls. We stopped by a nice restaurant called Gradska Kavana, which I strongly recommend.
One full day should be enough for the old town but if you want to take things slow, you can spend an additional half or full day. I wrote in detail about Dubrovnik and the logistics you need to know in the article “A trip to Dubrovnik”.
On the second day, we wanted to have some beach time and swim in the Mediterranean. There are plenty of beaches on the northwest of Dubrovnik old town, we tried two of them, Uvala Lapad Beach (which we eventually preferred) and Beach Copacabana (we didn’t like it as it was too posh). It should not take more than 15 minutes to drive from Dubrovnik old town to either one of them. There are a bunch of beach clubs there for different budget levels. We preferred to have a basic service with only beach lounges. Sea was lovely and there were some inflatable structures in the sea which you can slide from, so we tried that, it was fun (see the video below).
After spending a few hours there, it was time to leave Dubrovnik and head to Drvenik where we would have a car ferry to Hvar the next day. Before we departed, stopped by for a nice burger and salad at a place called Pantarul (good food, recommend it)
We drove about 2 hours up north to reach Drvenik. It is a small town on the coast, where you can catch a car ferry to Hvar Island. Drvenik has a beach called Donja Vala. If you arrive there early, you can spend a few hours there. There are plenty of seafood places on the coast, any one of them would do.
The third day was a long one. We caught our ferry early in the morning to Hvar Island. We drove 1.5 hours to reach a town called Jelsa where we had breakfast at Pekara San Antonio. The pastry is generally good in Croatia and you can find a lot of good pastry shops for breakfast (suggest trying “Burek”, a pastry with several different fillings to choose from).
After breakfast, we drove further to the city of Hvar. Hvar itself is a nice town, it is mostly residential and there is not much to do. However, there are a lot of small islands, bays and coves near it. You can rent a dinghy with an outboard engine to go there by yourself. I had some prior experience, hence we decided to try that. If it is the first time you are in a such a boat, they can teach you the basics before you take it. There is nothing to be afraid of, the boat and the engine are small, it is easy to manoeuvre.
We had a lovely day there, they marked the nice coves on the map, we went there and tried a few ourselves. Feeling the wind, swimming in pristine waters and exploring new coves was an enjoyable experience, it was one of the highlights of the trip. If you have very small children, it might be a bit difficult but even if you have toddler(s) or if you’re a couple without kids, I strongly recommend it.
We left the city of Hvar in the late afternoon (around 5PM) to catch another car ferry to Split. The ferry departs from Stari Grad (20 min drive). We arrived to Split at around 7:30 PM and drove to our Airbnb.
We spent the entire day (4th day) in Split and we had a lovely time. The city, like most cities in Croatia, is small and there are few places to see. It resembles Dubrovnik, with small and cozy streets to explore. The architecture and general colour palette of the city are similar to Dubrovnik as well. It is naturally less touristic.
By that time, we were a bit disappointed with the food scene in general (especially seafood). Maybe our expectations were a bit high, mussels were flavourless, the octopus was too crunchy and fish itself was not properly marinated. A quick side-note, we had previous experience of fantastic mussels in France and Belgium, amazing octopus in Turkey and Spain, and fish full of flavour in Turkey and many other countries.
We decided to try a steak house called Chops Grill, liked the steak, tried also Croatian wine, which was decent. Then we went to a nice café called Don Dino. We tried their ice cream, which was fantastic, rested a bit, had a nice espresso to boost ourselves and continued walking around.
Split has some nice ruins and a good coastal walking path. Croatia became very popular especially after Game of Thrones used Dubrovnik as King’s Landing. Split also has a place called Diocletian’s Cellars, which was also used in a few scenes.
5th day was mostly driving on the coast and stopping by in the small towns along the way until we reached Zadar. We stopped by Trogir, and Primosten. At that moment, we understood the general look and feel of Croatian cities, so each new city was a bit less exciting. The ones we saw typically looked similar to each other. There are a few other cities but we decided to skip them and arrive in Zadar at a reasonable time.
The next day, we walked around the city. Zadar is a little cute town, most of the attractions and places to visit are in the peninsula part of the city. You can easily spend an entire day, by taking it slow and enjoying the experience.
We also found a place called Garden Lounge. We loved that place, it is a bit higher than the street level, they make really good cocktails, they have big lounge seats and spots for lying down. It is a great resting and chill-out place.
On the northwest tip of the peninsula, there is the sea organ and the greeting to the sun, which are the most touristic and usually the most crowded spaces. We heard about the sunset in Zadar and decided to go there early to be able to get a good spot. We were right, we picked a good spot and a lot of people rushed there before the sunset.
Sunset was absolutely amazing. I have seen a lot of beautiful sunsets in my life and this was definitely one of the best. Below you can find the time-lapse of it. It doesn’t really do justice though, being there and witnessing it first-hand was a magical experience. I can recommend bringing some drinks before you sit down to watch it (we had our beers with us).
We picked Zadar as our base for the next two daily excursions, a boat trip to Kornati Islands (a beautiful set of islands and bays) and a trip to Krka National Park (an inland forest and nature resort)
You need to take a ferry from Zadar to Sali first. From Sali, you can arrange a boat from many different agencies to take you (typically with a group) to the islands and bays. We had a nice day, we stopped by many beaches, and bays where we had ample time to swim, snorkel and enjoy the sea.
The next day’s plan was to go to Plitvice National Park, which is the most famous National park in Croatia. We made a mistake by not booking a ticket online and we found out a huge crowd and an exceptionally long queue for a daily ticket. We realised there is no way we can get a ticket for that day and searched for an alternative.
We found another national park with good reviews on our way back to Dubrovnik, Krka National Park. This time, we were lucky enough to find tickets online and we managed to get in. It is also a popular destination, not as famous as Plitvice but still it was crowded enough.
We spent half a day there, enjoyed nature, waterfalls and forest paths. We spent about three hours there. You can spend more time there as the park itself is large and there are many alternative routes to take but we had a long way ahead and we wanted to save some energy for the road.
After the park, we started our drive back to Dubrovnik for our flight the next day. It was a bit more than 4 hours but it was an enjoyable drive and we were lucky to catch the beautiful sunset, which was a worthy closure to this amazing trip.
The next day, early in the morning, we had a flight to catch and we returned home with a lot of fantastic memories and a few more kilograms.
Contact me if you have any questions about Croatia, I would help as much as I can.
Daily Itinerary:
Day 1: The flight to Dubrovnik and spend the day there
Day 2: Dubrovnik and drive north to Drvenik to catch a ferry to Hvar the next day
Day 3: Ferry to Hvar (with a car), rent a dinghy and explore little bays and coves around. Go to a Ferry and go to Split
Day 4: Full day Split
Day 5: Drive to Trogir, walk around. Drive to Primosten. Drive to Zadar.
Day 6: Full day Zadar
Day 7: Ferry to Sali (without a car). Daily boat trip in Kornati Islands
Day 8: Drive to Plitvice Natural Park, could not get in. Drive to Krka National Park. Drive back to Dubrovnik
Day 9: The flight back home
Accommodation and restaurants
Dubrovnik:
Accommodation: Airbnb: Address: Sinjska ulica 4. Press here to see it. It was a good place, we paid about €110 and stayed one night. Experience was decent, location is not close enough to walk to old town.
Lunch (Day 1): Gradska Kavana. Good seafood and tasty cocktails. It also has a fantastic view of the harbour.
Lunch (Day 2): Pantarul (just outside of Dubrovnik, close to beaches): We tried burger, chicken and salad, they were all quite good, I can recommend that place for a nice lunch.
Drvenik:
Accommodation: We stayed at a place called Apartments Johnny. Made the booking through booking.com (€55). It was clean and close to the beach.
Dinner: Konoba Bukara. The food was average, not amazing (maybe we had high expectations). Local beer in Croatia is pretty good, we liked it.
Split:
Accommodation: Airbnb. Address is Gorička ulica 10, paid €170 total for two nights. It is a nice place just outside of city centre.
Dinner: We went to a highly recommended place called Konoba Kod Joze. They were super busy that night and we did not have a reservation. We had to wait some time but managed to get in eventually. The food was not as good as we expected, given their high rating.
Lunch and dessert: Chops Grill, liked the steak, tried also Croatian wine, which was decent. Don Dino, we tried their ice cream, which was fantastic, rested a bit, had a nice espresso to boost ourselves.
Zadar:
Accommodation: We stayed at an Airbnb apartment (Ulica Nikole Tesle 15). It was close to city centre and we paid about €200 in total for three nights.
Dinner: La Famiglia. The food was pretty good but the service was not great.
Breakfast and lunch: OX – Meet and Eat for breakfast, food was average, the service was not good. We decided to give seafood another chance and tried 4 Kantuna. Calamari was quite good, we were happy with the food and service.
Transport and tours:
Ferries between mainland and Islands: The service is provided by a company called Jadrolinija. You should book the ferries in advance, especially during summer months as there are not that many in a day and it can be crowded.
Kornati Island Tour: The company we booked, Adamo Travel Agency, was really bad, they promised us to get back to Sali to catch a ferry back to Zadar 7PM but they were late (although we specifically told them about our requirements and they agreed) and we ended up missing our ferry. We were lucky though, there was space available in the last ferry to Zadar at 8PM and we managed to get it. The tour itself though was good.