Croatian Trip Report - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

We just got back from a 2 week vacation in Croatia in May and want to share our experiences with everyone.

Some general observations first.........

First of all we want to echo what everyone else has posted about Croatia - the country is absolutely gorgeous. From the coastal scenery with its turquoise water (looking almost Caribbean!) to the mountains and waterfalls, the setting cannot be beat! The country has an almost Italian feel to it (at least from physical appearances) and does not look Eastern European at all. The cities and country are extremely clean and there does not seem to be much in the way of pollution at all. There seems to be very little industry so the coastal waters of the country are pristine.

From a tourist’s perspective, traveling in Croatia could not be easier. It seemed that almost everyone in the entire country spoke English - from the parking lot attendants, waiters, ticket takers to just about anyone you came in contact with. All menus in every restaurant are in at least 4 to 5 languages. Frankly even though I learned about 20 words of Croatian before I left, they were not even needed. Even when I tried the responses were always in English whether I liked it or not! This took a little sense of adventure out of the trip but did make traveling quite easy! Most signs (road signs and attraction signs) seemed to be bi-lingual - Croatian and English. English has become the indispensable language of international travel.

We rented a car and found the travel to be fairly easy. The roads were well marked, signs were well placed and plentiful and the roads were in good condition. There seems to be sporadic minor road repairs all over the country. We did have about a dozen brief stops for construction on the coastal road from Dubrovnik to Split. The two motorways are great, although the east-west leg is still under construction. The north-south motorway is complete as far south as Split and will be going to Dubrovnik next year. But going south of Split via the motorway will rob you of the wonderful scenery on the coastal road. One thing we found odd on the motorways is that every single tunnel and viaduct has a name and a sign telling you how long the tunnel or viaduct is. And believe me, there are a lot of tunnels and viaducts! Gas stations were plentiful and never presented a problem. There are several downsides to car travel: firstly it often appears that the engineers who designed the Croatian non-motorway roads did not realize that straightaways exist. If you had a model road racing set as a kid, imagine a set that only came with the curved pieces and you’ll have a good idea of the Croatian road layout. Be that as it may, the roads are scenic, either taking you through pretty coastal settings or through nice little villages. Every now and then you do see a bombed out house, a vivid reminder of recent past history. The other problem on the roads is one that requires good passing skills. If you can’t pass, you will not make good time. You will often get stuck behind slow moving trucks, an ancient Renault or a tour bus. Channel your inner Italian and let it fly!

Croatia is a different type of tourist destination - there are no major sights and must see attractions. There is no equivalent of the Eiffel Tower or the Colosseum, but rather the country itself is the attraction. If you are sight oriented you may find Croatia a little disappointing. If you like to wander through picturesque towns and soak in the atmosphere, if you like cobblestone streets and stones houses, if you are a sucker for a walled city, well this is the place for you.

However, all that is good about Croatia does lead to some negatives. As the country is so attractive, it has become a major tourist mecca for most of Europe. We saw mostly Germans, French, British and Hungarians (in that order). I cannot possibly imagine what this country is like in peak tourist season. It was quite crowded in the middle of May - we cannot imagine what it must be like in the height of the summer season. We did see some Americans there as well, but they are still in the tourist minority. Once again (as I have in other posts) I must state that the Ugly American is long dead. I believe that Americans have become very good travelers and act in a very well mannered fashion when traveling abroad. This trip’s award goes to the Germans who believe their language was not meant to be spoken, but rather shouted. And please...those Speedos do not look good!!! Anyway, I think Lonely Planet said it best....... when observing Dubrovnik they stated that the city ran the risk of becoming a Mediterranean theme park. There is a certain element in all of the Croatian towns and cities that is almost like being in Epcot. The architecture and settings are gorgeous, but there is a certain unreality to it all. Dubrovnik, for example, is a wonderful city, but it seemed that every shop catered to tourists and sold typical tourist kitsch. If you wanted a “Proud Member of the Croatian Drinking Team” t-shirt, you were in the right place! This becomes ever more evident when a cruise ship pulls into port. Large groups following the omnipresent flag/umbrella toting tour guides clog the streets and alleys. Yet walk a few blocks off the main drag and it all seems so quite and deserted. Of course the bad side of this is that there did not (at times) seem to be any Croatians around!

The Croatians you did meet were friendly and appreciative of the tourists visiting their country. I felt a genuine appreciation for the fact that I chose their country over the more well known European tourist destinations. Wait and hotel staff were generally friendly as well. The big problem is that in the most popular places you travel, it seemed very difficult to meet Croatians! The restaurants and stores were filled with tourists. Many of the towns and villages we walked through seemed deserted until you turned the corner and ran into other camera toting tourists. Our least favorite place in Croatia was Zagreb, yet here we saw many “natives” as this does not seem to be a prime part on the tourist path.

Weather wise, I think many of the promotional pieces and others’ comments are a little deceiving. The weather definitely reminded us of our home base of Florida. It could be gorgeous and sunny one minute and cloudy and rainy five minutes later. We actually were in a town which was sunny on one side and rainy on the other. The supposed state of perpetual sunshine was just not there!

One of America’s worst “gifts” to the world (no, not McDonalds) has to be tobacco, and boy do the Croats sure appreciate it. I think smoking in Croatia is actually worse than in Italy (our previous runner-up for the smoke filled restaurant heaven). I think one of the reasons that things seem so smoky is the shortage of American tourists. My unscientific observation placed Americans fifth in the tourist visitors scheme of things.

On to the specifics...........

As Americans, we love the lure of the open road, so we opted to make this a road trip. We first flew into Dubrovnik (we flew from Florida to New York, New York to Vienna and then Vienna to Dubrovnik). From the air you get a great overview of the country with its turquoise water and many islands dotting the coast. The airport appears from out of nowhere in the middle of the hills. We used Nikola Serkovic (a recommendation of “tcreath”) for the taxi ride from the airport to our hotel. We were to later use him for a day trip to Montenegro. We decided we would rent a car after our Dubrovnik stay. We stayed at the Hotel Excelsior which was the nicest hotel of the trip. We had a room that overlooked the old city and Lokrum which was only a short 10 minute walk away. We stayed for 3 days which we felt was sufficient. We spent 2 full days in Dubrovnik exploring the major sights, circumnavigating the wall, prowling the side streets and taking a quick jaunt to Lokrum Island. We also took a long day trip using the services of Nikola Serkovic to Montenegro. Nikola was an excellent choice......he was friendly, informative and spoke great English (although he did not think so!). He acted as both a guide and driver. He would take us to the destinations, give us some background information and let us wander around at our own pace. The route was as follows: start at Dubrovnik Fort on Mount Srd (breathtaking view, too bad the cable car is gone.....it would be a very long walk to the top), drive into Bosnia to Trebinje (mediocre town..but who can resist listing Bosnia as a tourist destination <especially since we were not going to Mostar&gt and then Montenegro, specifically the towns of Perast, Kotor, Budva and then Sveti Stephan. Kotor was our favorite.......very charming and mostly empty. Budva was jammed pack full of people in the middle of May. I shudder to think what it would be like in the height of the season in summer.

Like most travelers, we had to pick and choose what to see and what not to see. Based on this being a driving trip, we unfortunately opted to not visit the islands as much as we wanted to see Hvar and Korcula. The logistics and timing of the ferries just did not work out. So after staying in Dubrovnik we got our rental car and hit the road. We used Sixt Auto Rental which we have used before. The cars are great, the rates are phenomenally cheap and the service is always abysmal. We rented an Audi A-6 with unlimited mileage for 1½ weeks for around $1,000.00. We were told that Sixt had a rental office at the Hilton. Actually their office was at the airport and they brought their cars to the Hilton. That meant that you could not arrive early or late...your car would be delivered at the appointed time. Or so they said....... we sat with our bags in front of the Hilton for an hour before the car arrived. Too many problems with inoperative cars due to tourists using regular gas instead of diesel in the rented cars. After the snafu was resolved we were quite satisfied with the car.

Off we went via the coastal road on our way to Split. The road reminded us of the Pacific Coast Highway in California, only much more scenic. The sight of the turquoise waters, tiny islands and surrounding mountains was amazing. We stopped for lunch in Mali Ston and also visited Ston. After lunch we headed for Split. Out of nowhere torrential downpours appeared making the driving very difficult. The road was 2 lanes all the way and often stopped briefly for road construction. The aforementioned slow trucks and old Renaults had to be passed frequently. A note on the Bosnian corridor. I forget which, but one of my recent guidebooks actually said that you needed a visa to pass through the corridor. Not true!!! When passing through customs merely drive through the transit lane without stopping. Neum in Bosnia seemed to exist for one purpose only: Super Diskount stores! Not worth the stop. Continuing up the coast in the intermittent downpours (remember we’re from Florida so we know sub-tropical downpours) we finally arrived in Podstrana. We opted not to stay in Split due to the lack of hotels and instead stayed at the newly re-opened Le Meridien Lav Podstrana. The hotel is right off the main road on the water and is an easy ten to fifteen minute drive to downtown Split. The hotel has been refurbished and extremely nice. Even though the hotel is part of the Starwood chain, it had its local quirks. Like no chairs on the balconies and about ten chaises and chairs by the pool. They are still awaiting delivery for chairs and chaises. Many days you had to go through a convoluted procedure just to get to the pool area.

Anyway, we were here to visit Split. We spent three days here. Many seem torn as to whether this is a legitimate tourist destination. We happened to love Split. The city had a lot more local character than Dubrovnik and had a more “real” feel to it. Dubrovnik is absolutely gorgeous yet somehow seems to have an almost contrived atmosphere to it. Split did not. We saw many more locals here and the city had less of a touristy feel. We saw many class trips and locals going about their daily business. Of course we visited Diocletian’s Palace and also walked through many squares and along the Riva. The Riva is THE place to be at night where an Italian-like passegiatta occurs.

Our last day in the Split area we spent on a long day trip. We started in the ruins of Salona, the ancient Roman predecessor city to Split. A quick trip from there led to Klis Castle. From there we visited Trogir and Sibenik. Like many others, we found Trogir to be an extremely charming and picturesque town, perfect for just wandering about with no worries of seeing all of the “major” sites. Trogir as a small island is quite manageable.

At this point in time our daughter felt that all of the walled cities were starting to look the same. This was good timing as we had decided to temporarily leave the coast and head for Plitvice National Park. The drive from Split was very easy. One half of the route was via the motorway. A brand new road with a speed limit of 130 kph. Not much traffic and great road conditions. The roads off the motorway are two laners that wind through mostly farm country. Light traffic and pretty scenery. At Plitvice we stayed at the Jazero Hotel in the park. Adequate housing similar to such places in the US National Parks. The park is extremely popular and seemed to have a lot of school trips in attendance. Most people seem to make the first lake loop and then leave. If you hike the full distance the crowds will thin out dramatically. The terraced lakes and their cascading waterfalls are very pretty. The lakes have an almost unworldly color to them. Well marked paths and suggested routes on your admission ticket make a trip to the Upper and Lower Lakes quite easy. There are walking paths, boats and trams that make travel easy. However, beware of large groups of elderly British tourists barreling their way onto the trams! We found that a full day at Plitvice was sufficient for us.

We had decided that we wanted to visit the Istrian peninsula, so we hit the road again using a combination of local two lane roads and the motorway. The east-west motorway is still being constructed so often there would be only one lane in each direction. There were many tunnels and viaducts, with some tunnels measuring more that 5 kilometers! We stopped for lunch in Opatija, a very crowded beach resort town in the southeast corner of the peninsula. We arrived on a Saturday where parking was extremely limited. Afterwards we headed for our base of operations in Istria, Rovinj. Istria has an almost Italian feel to it and Italian seems to be the second language in these parts. Many signs were in Croatian and Italian. We stayed at a resort hotel, the Hotel Eden on the southern part of town. Many of the roads in Rovinj (outside the old city) are one-way streets, so it is often difficult to get to where you are going! Anyway, we spent three days in this area as well. On our first day we saw the old town of Rovinj. Very picturesque but very steep. All roads lead to the top of the summit where the town cathedral is located. An interesting town to wander through, but one does run the risk of “all of these walled towns look the same” syndrome after a while. Still, quite atmospheric and enjoyable. We spent the other two days on days trips in the area. On the second day we headed south and went to Pula, Bale and Vodnjan. Pula was very enjoyable as it was a little departure from what we had seen before as it was quite heavy in the Roman ruins department. On the third day we headed north visiting Porec, Piran (in Slovenia) and Motovun. The drive through the hill country was amazing.

We spent our last two days as follows: we drove from Rovinj to Zagreb. We went to Zagreb purely based on transportation needs. The drive to Zagreb was mostly via the motorway so it was an easy drive. Navigating in Zagreb was a little tricky but we lucked out seeing signs pointing to our hotel. We arrived around lunch time and spent the afternoon touring Zagreb. Frankly, Zagreb is a city that only merits an afternoon. It was probably a lot more magnificent in days gone by and seems to have acquired the Italian characteristic of graffiti on almost every building in the lower town.

We left before dawn the next morning to make sure we had enough time before our flight. Zagreb has a very small airport and the early arrival was unnecessary. The airport was almost like a municipal airport in a small USA town. No jetways and a common waiting area with shuttle busses to the planes. We retraced our flights to get home (Zagreb to Vienna, Vienna to New York and New York to Florida). We flew Austrian Airlines for most of the way.

So that’s the trip report in not so much a nutshell. A wonderful experience but not quite as much an adventure as other trips. Going in off-season or in shoulder season I would think would be a must! I cannot imagine what it must be like in the heart of the summer season. The towns and cities plus the roads must be so crowded that it would suck the enjoyment out of a place which thrives on its atmosphere.

If anyone would like any further details (assuming I haven’t put everyone to sleep by this point) feel free to ask!

Very nice trip and a better report.
Thanks for sharing !

Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Great job! And cheers to yet another I Love Croatia member!! What a club we've become!

Thank you for taking the time to write, your report will surely help us in our planning.

Thanks so much for this great report. We're hoping to go to Croatia in the next year or two and I'm saving your valuable information. Do you recall the approximate rates at your hotels?

We were in Croatia last summer and pretty much share your impressions and we also liked Split more than Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik in the summer is so crowded with tourists and tourist shops and restaurants that it was not very enjoyable. The coastline of Dalmatia is pretty but I do not think it compares to Big Sur. The water may look nice but swimming in it is not like swimming in the Carribean where you can easily find much clearer and warmer water. We only visited Dalmatia but found many elements of the Costa del Sol in Spain in (although much prettier) in it's heavy orientation to European tourism which made getting a sense of Croatia as an individual country difficult even when we were visitng friends. I am glad we visited but I am afraid that it is not the undiscovered mecca for travelers.

i"t's heavy orientation to European tourism which made getting a sense of Croatia as an individual country difficult even when we were visitng friends. I am glad we visited but I am afraid that it is not the undiscovered mecca for travelers."

Europeans have been visiting Croatian coast for decades ( way before it was discovered by the Americans).
To get a "sense of an individual country ( whatever that means) one would have to spend some time visiting places other than the obvious tourist destinations.
This, most likely, applies to any country.
We recently spend a few days in a small coastal town in Italy where the locals did not speak English and the menus were in Italian only . I was glad my poor Italian was sufficient to ask for directions . It was really refreshing and in some way felt "more" Italian
than the usual Rome, Venice, Florence triangle.

Most enjoyable report - thank you.

Thank you for taking the time to post your helpful observations.

This was a perfect trip report and a big help in my own planning for the fall. Question: if you only had 8 nights vs. the 14 you had, what would you recommend deleting and what would you say is a "must"? Thanks again,
Winnie

My opinion of course" Dubrovnik is a must. A bit on the touristy side, but if definitely earns its title "Pearl of the Adriatic". I would do the coastal run up to Split and see Split and Trogir. I would also see Pltvice N.P. I would eliminate the Istrian run and perhaps save it for another trip (perhaps if you were going to Venice).

Thanks for the report! We are going in March and were hesitant to book for the off-season, but I am glad we decided on the iffy weather in favor of less tourists!

Do you know if Nikola (your tour guide) does day trips to Mostar? How did you get in touch with him?

Not sure if he does Mostar or not.....but I would not see why he wouldn't. Driving wise it's probably more or less the same as the trip we did. I communicated with him via e-mail. Here's his address:

[email protected]

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks for the recommendations. Of course half of our party has set their hearts on Istria and we will be coming by way of Venice. Thinking of spending first night in Trieste. Maybe we will have to skip anything inland. We do want to allow at least 2 days in Dubrovink. Everything else in between still tbd.
Winnie

Thanks jrlaw10- I've been curious about Croatia and really enjoyed your frank report- I like your writing style too

Enjoyed it. A great read.

great report.

Croatia is beautiful - the food is delicious. My only quibble - Croatia needs better bath towels and pillows. I've been going for the past 5 years and am taking break this year - going to Morocco.

(I'm not sure which is worse, outta-shape men in speedos or outta-shape men in granny-like swim trunks.)

Why do americans think nothing exists until they have been there? As one emailer said, europeans have been going there for years, myself being one of them, and btw. I love men in speedos get sick of seeing americans in baggy swimming trunks, and saying in loud nasal tones "gee honey , look at that".

Hi
I enjoyed your report on Croatia very much. We were there about 5 yrs. ago before most of the American tourists began visiting. We drove down from Slovenia into Croatia. We stayed in Istria, in Porec and Rovinj for most of the time and met no Americans. Just as an historical point, Istria used to belong to Italy and after WW2 many Italians left due to fighting. Back then the expressways and tunnels were not built.[tunnels all over Europe have the distance marked] We drove over that long 2 lane to Trogir, stayed 2 nights, found it touristy and drove back to Istria. The Croatians we met were very friendly and did tell us they liked Americans. I'm glad you enjoyed your trip, it brought back some memories.

Missed a question there...sorry. We traveled in a party of 3 so we got suites in all of the hotels we could. Here are the rates as I remember:

Hotel Excelsion = $550.00 w/breakfast
Lav Meridien = $450.00 w/breakfast
Jazero = $85.00 per room (2 rooms) w/breakfast
Hotel Eden = $250.00 w/breakfast
Sheraton 4 Points = $200.00 w/no breakfast

And on another subject....60 year old men who weigh 250 pounds in Speedos...must be an acquired European taste