My report on a 1 week trip to Croatia from 12 July to 19 July. I will try not to repeat info posted before, and only provide new information that I found useful.
I planned and made all reservations using Internet resources:
This site, of course.
Frommer’s Croatia by Karen Torme Olson is very useful, complete and accurate.
Kayak.com to find air flights and hotels is great, and easy to use.
Google’s Earth and it’s Bookings Hotel Reservations was very useful in finding hotels and pinpointing their locations.
Autoeurope.com for car rentals.
As all postings on this site will tell you, Croatia is breathtakingly beautiful. It is also impeccably neat and clean, with very modern and up-to-date infrastructure, historically fascinating, and extremely friendly. It has an excellent network of roads, with clear directions. Didn’t get lost once.
Flew Air Croatia from Paris to Zagreb. Wish American Airlines had the knee room Air Croatia provides on their flights!
In Zagreb stayed at GOLDEN TULIP HOLIDAY hotel for $67.50 a night. It’s a 20 euro cab ride away from the airport, and 20 euros to downtown. Enormous and well appointed rooms, but with no curtains on their equally enormous windows, so 5:30 AM was wake-up time.
A few hours in Zagreb was enough for me, so we left for Opatija around noon, and stopped at Karlovac for lunch. Follow the road signs to Hotel Korana Srakovcic and don’t be discouraged when they take you to a bombed-out shell of a place. The re-built hotel is a little further down the road, and it’s well worth the stop for lunch. This is where we first discovered “blitva”, boiled swiss chard and sometimes potatoes and maybe garlic. Which we asked for at every meal throughout the trip, and found many variations.
On to Opatija, which is just lovely. We stayed at the Bristol Hotel. I am sure there are better hotels, but I fell in love with the Bristol. Large rooms with balconies overlooking the ocean decorated in great taste, and superb and friendly service. Their breakfast, also, was the best on this trip. Room rate was 87 euros, which I thought was very reasonable.
From Opatija took a day trip to Pula and then Porec, and the views from the road where diverse and fantastic.
A couple of days later we went to Trogir. Unfortunately we arrived on a Saturday night and the place was mobbed and honky tonked. Hotel Concordia was right in the middle of all the action, and their rooms were miniscule. I am sure that at any other time than a weekend in July, Trogir would have been fine. The highlight, however, was a folk dance concert in the Kamerlengo Castle.
On Monday we took the coast road towards Dubrovnik, and to our hotel Orphee in Plat. The hotel is modern, with nice rooms and bathrooms, but no air conditioning. There is a boat that will take you from the hotel to the old city. And the sun set over the pool (and the mountain) is superb.
I booked hotel rooms ahead via Google’s Bookings, but for the more adventurous you will find dozens of people on the road with signs offering rooms and apartments. I stopped to check one and found that I could have rented a large room with bathroom and breakfast for 20 euros, instead of the 106 I paid at Orphee.
There are hundreds of beaches along the coast of Croatia, and the water is crystal clear and the color they show on brochures. Most beaches are small, however, and rocky. Most were quite crowded as were most towns where we stopped, but the roads were clear.
Loved Croatia!

Thanks for the report and good information. It seems to be the general opionion of all who have been that it is a very beautiful and welcoming place. I am going 10/4!! Did you fly Europebyair from Paris to Zagreb by any chance? And, if so, did you have any difficulties with paying the airport tax at CDG? I am a little nervous about (1) finding where you pay this and (2) how much time to allow for this. Glad to hear Air Croatia is comfortable. Did you get a seat assignment at CDG? or was it first come, first serve?

Barb: Booked Air Croatia with Orbitz, and paid them $246.86 USD per person which included the service charge and paper ticket charge. We didn't have to pay an airport tax at CDG, so I guess it was included. I re-confirmed in Paris by phone a couple of days before and chose seats at that time. Only hitch is that getting thru on the phone took a long time.

Wow, that's a great price. I just went to Orbitz and Kayak and didn't find prices anywhere close to that. Guess I'll stick with Europebyair.

Thanks bltt!

Glad to know you had a great time! I am so happy that all of you are doing trip reports. By the time I get back in September, Croatia is going to be as familiar as the house next door and I won't have to do a report!

Wish I had a recipe for blitva last week when I had the farmers market swiss chard and new potatos.

thanks for sharing your trip! it has been 2 months since we went, but i'm still reading reports.. i love hearing the different ways people love Croatia! and looking forward to yours as well, happycheesehead! i really miss the place...

LOL callalilli - I was hoping to get away with skipping the report! I will do one, but I am not much of a writer. Some of our Fodorites have the gift though, don't they? I am hooked on Travelgirls trip of a lifetime right now.

Thanks for the report! I'm in the "going to Croatia soon" club, as we will be leaving in November. Can't wait! In the meantime, its always great to hear from people who went and enjoyed themselves.

Tracy