Hi, My wife and 15 month old daughter will be in Croatia next month and are trying to figure out how best to spend our 9 full days there and wondered if it was possible (or advisable) to take a ferry from Dubrovnik to explore Mljet and the park there for most of the day and then take a ferry to Korcula Town to stay that night? Obviously we would have to lug all of our stuff with us to Mljet, so not sure if that is practical- is there storage somewhere? Any ideas would be great (if the ferry connections exist are timely for what we want to do). Thanks!

I'm not sure if you can do this is a day from Dubrovnik. The Nona Ana catamaran leaves Dubrovnik's Gruz port for Mljet. http://www.alpex.hr/timetable.php is the web site with their schedule. We took this catamaran to Lopud, in June, on a Saturday. It was great, and after stopping at Lopud was headed for Mljet.
I think the Jadralinija only does this trip in the afternoon. The Nona Ana leaves at 9 a.m.

We were advised that once you dock in Mljet, there is no public transportation. You need to rent a car or bicycle around the island.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

One other tip, if you happen to be going to Hvar, Atlas travel does a day trip from Hvar town to Mljet and Korcula, combined. It's pricey though!

Thanks for the tip. I just saw the day trip from Havr to Mljet and Korcula, but didn't see the price. May be worth it depending.

When we were just in Dubrovnik, the person on the dock selling boat tickets laughed goodnaturedly about our 1-day visit to Mljet inquiry. Then, he advised us to stay longer than 1 day in Mljet since it takes a few hours to get there (I believe he said, "Most people stay there for a few days vacation!&quot. So, we skipped it even thought it looked inviting - we just didn't have the time. Later on in our trip, when we got to Hvar, we also saw signs advertising trips to Mljet, as mentioned in the posts above.

From Dubrovnik, we ended up taking the bus to Korcula (which stops by Orebic on the way to Korcula if you happen to be thinking about going there - and from Orebic, it's only 30 minutes to Korcula town with frequent ferries back and forth). There was only one bus leaving to Korcula at 9 am from Dubrovnik and it took about 5 hours. There is luggage storage onboard the buses and ferries during the ride - the buses charge 7 kn/bag.

The bus station and ferry station in Dubrovnik are closer to the PILE gates than the PLOCE gate. We stayed just outside the Ploce gate and the walk through the gate in the morning to the Pile gate wasn't bad - a few minutes - but with luggage and a child, just budget your time accordingly. From the PILE gate, we took a local bus to the ferry and bus stations (you could probably walk there but it would take at least 30 minutes with luggage), it cost 8 kn if you buy the ticket from a newstand prior to boarding the bus and 10 kn if you buy the bus ticket on board. You have to ring the button to stop the bus if there aren't that many people aboard getting off at the bus station/ferry station. There are also cabs (cost a lot more) if that is more your travel style.

Also, there are more ferries to Korcula Town beween Split and Korcula. If you decide to go to Korcula through Split, there are luggage storage places near the bus station and they charge a range of prices depending on size of bag.

Just fyi, from Korcula we ended up taking a high-speed catamaran leaving at 6 am to Split. The Marco Polo agency in Korcula sells tickets in advance for the catamaran the day before, and these filled up fast. I think the catamaran stopped by Hvar on the way to Split.

For more Korcula information, we found Marco Polo Tour Operator to be responsive and informative (they helped with our accomodations, too), and we emailed: [email protected]

Hope that helps!