Hi, we are an active late 50s couple & have traveled in Europe before.
We enjoy history, architecture, art, regional food & wine.
We will be arriving by foot from Bari by ferry, Mon June 25th & staying at the Villa Adriatic apartment for 3 nights.
We would like to do a day trip (organized tour perhaps) to Mostar & would be interested in any other suggestions. Can anyone suggest a private or small tour group in Dubrovnik?
We have booked private tours in other cities & have found them much better than the larger group tours.
After Dubrovnik we would take the bus to Split or ? for a night & then to Zadar for 2 or 3 nights with a tour to Plitvice (any suggestions for tour company?). The remaining days until July 4th are open. We need to arrive in Zurich (Muri that is about hour away) for the night of July 5th.
We would rather travel by public transit, but would rent a car if needed.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thank you,
Wilkie
8 days from Dubrovnik to Northern Italy ahy help would be appreciated
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Wilkie,
We did a similar trip in 2008 though we started in Split, took the ferry down the coast stopping overnight in Korcula then on to Dubrovnik. After a couple of days we and drove up the coast from there, staying first in Mostar and then Zadar. We stopped at Plitvice on the way which was lovely but VERY busy. WE dropped the car in Pula and took the bus to Rovinj where we took a ferry to Trieste. It was a lot cheaper to than taking the car across the border which was prohibitively expensive.
We stayed overnight in Mostar which we very much enjoyed and did a fascinating private walking tour with a guide named Alma (recommended by Rick Steves) Here's where we stayed http://www.muslibegovichouse.com/ and where to contact Alma.
http://almasguidedtours.blogspot.com/ The time we spent with her learning about the situation in Bosnia was the highlight of our trip.
We found the drive very easy and enjoyed being able to stop where and when we wanted to. I would certainly think about renting a car for this trip.
Hope this helps.
I think you have time for a trip to Hvar. I would spend the night in Split, go overnight to Hvar, and then come back to Split for another night before going on to Zadar. Like all ports, Split is an interesting place to hang out, and Diocletian's palace (broadly conceived) is fascinating. Be sure to go into the vaulted areas below ground.
I like the suggestion to go on to Pula, spend a night, then go on to Rovinj for the ferry. I can't get enough of Istria.
See if the catamaran going from Zadar to Pula with island stops on the way,fits your schedule. (www.lnp.hr). This is a beautiful trip and costs very little.
thanks welltraveledbrit we had not thought about staying the night in Mostar, but the Hotel you mentioned looks great. Do you think that the 3 nights in Dubrovnik are too much, we thought a beach day might be good as this is the middle of our 4 week trip?
Thanks Ackislander for the Hvar suggestion. Is it possible to get around there without a car?
Littlevicky I looked up the web page but had a hard time reading it. Do you know how long the trip was & what time you boarded?
Any suggestion for lodging in Zadar or Spit or Hvar?
wilkie
Thanks again
I too have a problem with the English version, try the Croatian.
Boat leaves Zadar 16.00 and arrives Pula 21.05, fare only €13
We stayed at the Riva hotel in Hvar and had a lovely room looking over the harbour. I have to say we found Hvar town and Dubrovnik (which is a beautiful city) completely given over to tourism. We found the restaurants in Hvar to be more expensive than Rome! Perhaps Hvar is different if you spend a week there and get out of town but while it is beautiful we weren't fans. WE visited before the peak season at the very beginning of June.
Dubrovnik is a beautiful city and we spent a couple of nights there. I enjoyed walking the walls and we had some very good meals, However this is a MAJOR stop for cruise ships, they disgorge thousands of passengers every day. This is not an exaggeration, sometimes there are three or more huge ships in the harbor. This completely changed the experience. I would return but only outside of cruise ship season. Sorry to be so negative, perhaps others didn't find it so bad. We found the city so busy that we took a local boat to another small island to find refuge one afternoon and that was lovely.
We liked Zadar, it doesn't have the perfect pristine historic core (because of bombing during the war) and therefore has been saved from being completely given over to foreigners. This felt like a city where local people lived and went about their business and we enjoyed it. Split also feels like a "real" city and the history is quite fascinating.
Overall we enjoyed Mostar, Istria and Slovenia far more than the southern coast of Croatia. So many of our friends had recommended Croatia but then they were there years ago and I think it's a different place today. In my opinion you have to stay longer or get further out of the towns to have a better experience.
We did have an amazing experience on one day. We had to get from Korcula to Dubrovnik and I contacted Secret Dalmatia (in advance) to arrange a day out with a winemaker including lunch , a winery tour and a transfer into Dubrovik. It was an extraordinary day and like our day in Mostar, we felt we really learnt about the history and the experience of the people. We had some great local food and enjoyed the wine. It was expensive but gave us one of the few moments of insight during our trip.
Sorry I'm not being more positive. I'm curious to know whether others have had a similar experience? I should explain that we often travel off season or go to more off the beaten path destinations (Mali, Syria, Uzbekistan etc) but have certainly spent plenty of time in Europe during the high season and Croatia is one of the few places I've had such a visceral reaction to.
PS We visited in early to mid June.