And if you need more choices - try the website "Dubrovnik on line" itself. Too many to apartments to choose from!

You both have been tons of help. I just read another posting of a trip report from croatia and this was the same place in dubrovnik she stayed and loved it! I have sent emails to both, how long does it usually take to here back or should I try to call? Thanks, I'm getting info now on the fastest way to Hvar from Dubrovnik.

Hi frommemphis,

I stayed in Dubrovnik's Old Town last September at a B&B called Villa Ragusa. Their website is http://villaragusa.netfirms.com/

The rooms were clean and the location was just a few steps from the stradum, so we were in "thick" of things, which we liked. So there were no spectacular views, but the owner, Petar, was terrific and the rooms at that time were about 60 Euros per night, not sure if the prices have increased this year or not.

Enjoy your time in Croatia...As Tracey and Happy Cheesehead have said, Croatia and especially Dubrovnik are just terrific! :)

Tracy/ happycheeshead....help!! this is why "I" should not do things last minute, it' 2:30 am and i have been on the computer since 8pm trying to figure out how to get to hvar from dubrovnik. There is only one ferry during my days that takes me to korcula and then there is no way to hvar. I should rephrase this, there is NO ferry to hvar i'm trying any way possible to get closer so that I don't have to take a painful 6 hour bus trip. My husband is going to kill me for not checking this first and this was supose to be a relaxing 1 year anniversary. OK~enough whinning!!!unfortunately our way back to rome is from hvar to pescara. I think i have totally messed up!

frommemphis, unfortunately I can't help much. As we were in Croatia in November we couldn't even find a hotel open in Hvar so we finally scrapped it and stayed on the mainland.

Just curious, but have you considered driving up to Split and then taking the ferry over? Driving in Croatia was much easier than we anticipated and only about 3 hours or so from Dubrovnik. The ride up is gorgeous and with a car you could stop when you want to take pictures and marvel at the beauty.

Good luck!
Tracy

One more option would be flying from Dubrovnik to Split and then taking the ferry over. I personally think this is kind of silly as the drive over would probably be faster, but if you are adament about not driving its another option. Croatia Airlines has very new, modern and clean planes and flights within Croatia are usually really inexpensive; we flew from Zagreb to Dubrovnik for about $40 per person.

Tracy

Frommemphis,

I don't know what schedule you are looking at but if there is a port listed as Stari Grad (after the Korcula port stop) that is Hvar.

The big Jadrolinjia (sorry if the spelling is incorect) ferry boats do not stop in Hvar Town but instead at Stari Grad which is on the island of Hvar. Once you get off the ferry there is a bus that takes people to Hvar Town.

This might be why you aren't seeing a port stop for Hvar.

If you take Tracy's suggestion and rent a car, you don't necessarily have to drive all the way to Split and take a ferry or catamaran to Hvar. There is a very short ferry ride from the mainland to a town on the tip of Hvar (I can't remember the exact name of the town, something like Surjac??) This town is on the opposite side of the island from Hvar Town and I think from reading other trip reports it can be as much as a 2 hour drive to Hvar Town from there (narrow and twisting road), but this would be an alternative to driving and navigating around Split.

Hope this helps and maybe some other Fodorite Croatia experts can chime in with the correct name of the town.

thank you all for your suggestions! i gave up and went to bed around 4am thinking our only option would be to take a bus up to split and then the 11 am ferry (catamarn to hvar) don't know what i think about taking a bus. Unfortunately the ferry stops in korcula and does not move on to Hvar or stard hvar. Tracy, did you rent a car for just the drive? I can't imagine needing it for the rest of our croatia stay. here is a itinerary I put together with question on dub/hvar? SHould we leave dub on sunday for hvar and move Hvar up on day to give us an extra day somewhere in the middle (rome or tuscany).....Ok here it goes….
Friday 7th- arrive 1:30 dubrovnik
Saturd 8th- explore dubrovnik
Sunday9th -dubrovnik
Monday 10- 6am bus to split, 11:00 ferry to Hvar arrive 12:30
Tuesday11- hvar, leave on 11pm overnight ferry to pescara
Wedned12-9:30 train to rome arrive 1:30
Thursday 13- Rome
Friday 14th- rome
Saturday 15- car from Rome or Orveito to Montelupancio
Sunday 16- Montelpancnio
Monday 17- Montelpancio
Tuesday18th- drive to sam gimignano on potto venre late lunch, end day in Monteresso
Wednesday19th- CT
Thuirsday20th-CT morning drive up to como
Friday 21-Como and Bellagio
Saturday 22- Como that night drive to around Milan airport stay
Sunday- 11am Home

Do you thihnk we need any changes!

frommemphis, we had the car for most of our trip (with the excpeption of Dubrovnik, because it wasn't needed), but our itinerary included stops in Trogir, Zagreb and Slovenia. If you did rent a car, I would just rent it for the day and drop it off in Split. No way would I choose a 6 hour bus ride over a 3 hour car ride, but that's just personal opinion.

If there is another location to ferry over to Hvar island, as lowcountryislander mentioned above, I would consider that as well. Split was not our favorite place and navigating through the traffic definitely wasn't the highlight of our trip, although if you follow the roadsigns to the waterfront you shouldn't have any problems.

Good luck once again!! Croatia isn't the easist place to plan a vacation to, but its definitely more than worth the effort.

Tracy

tracy,
thanks for all your help. I have looke dfor any way possible to hvar besides taking a bus! I'm the same way there is no way I want to do that. i found that i could maybe rent a car or get a driver for a sunday day trip (i think you said Montenegrro was nice) and then use that car the next morning todrive to split drop it off and make the 11:30 ferry to hvar. My only other question is that i read someoness thread that said it took them 9 hours in july to drive this because of road construction? I don't know how to find out if they are still under construction? Last question (right) what did you think of the itinerary~ is the fri-sun in dub enough with us getting up early monday to hvar?

ok i do have one more tracy,
i read a post that said Nikola was great. Is this a driver? and if so, could i get some info. We would love to see Montengerro but don't know enough about it and also I don't mind driving to Split, but maybe this would also be an option!

I just looked up my trip report and found Nikolas information. Here it is:

Nikola Serkovic
385/0/98 243-305 nikola.serkovic.du.htnet.hr

We just fell in love with Montenegro. It was just so beautiful, and having Nikola there to give us information made it that much better. And he took us to the fort high above Dubrovnik, which offers some incredibly spectacular views.

I think you could do the drive to Montenegro yourself, as the road system seemed fine. You might get hung up at the border for a few minutes, but as long as you have correct documentation (make sure the car is allowed into Montenegro and you have the papers to prove it) you should have no problems.

I think your itinerary looks fine. Because I haven't yet been to Hvar I cannot really comment on that part, but 2 days in Dubrovnik is good. You could feasibly do Montenegro as well, but its a full day and would take a day away from Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is certainly not big and can be seen in a day or two, but it has so much charm that its one of the few smaller places I've been to where I felt I could have stayed a lot longer and not gotten bored. But we only had about a day and a half in Dubrovnik because we chose to go to Montenegro and felt like Montenegro was worth it.

If you are interested and it helps, my trip report can be found at http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...amp;searchText and pictures of our trip can be found at www.kodakgallery.com/tracybates. Just pan down the albums until you find the Croatia one. Montenegro is in a separate album below Croatia.

Hopefully this helps some, and feel free to ask more questions.

Tracy

frommemphis,

I just looked at the Jadrolinija schedule and I THINK the ferry Marko Polo leaves Dubrovnik at 10 am on SUNDAY, stops on Korcula for 30 minutes and arrives on Hvar (Stari Grad) at 4:30 in the afternoon. Not sure if you wanted to look at that option, it sure does take up practically a whole day and is one day earlier than you planned. You will want to verify this info, but thats the way it looks to me.

We had a car so, to get to Hvar from Dubrovnik, we drove to Drvenik and took the 25 min car ferry to Sucuraj (far east tip of Hvar) and drove to Hvar Town (far west tip of Hvar). There are 9 ferries throughout the day on 9/10. I have no idea if that would work for you. 1. I have no idea if you can rent Dubrovnik>Hvar one way 2. the drive from Sucuraj to Hvar town is disliked by some drivers. We had no problem with it and look back fondly on it now.

What ferry line are you taking from Hvar to Pescara?

Hello happycheesehead~
thanks for the info. I think we are going to rent the car, but I was thinking about driving to split. We are going to take the ovrenight ferry to ancona arrive at 7 am to catch the 7:55 train to rome? any other suggestion. I really appreciate all the great help I have recieved on fodors.

Have a question about driving, when trying to book on line they said if we were to take day trip to montenegro we would need a $50 cross border card and we need an international drivers license?

I can't answer your last question but just wanted to add that the most recent issue of Travel + Leisure magazine has a 3- or 4-day driving trip through the parts of Croatia you mention. It describes it as one of the great driving trips of Europe! Based on the article, we're thinking of doing this (over more days) next year.

happy and tracy any suggestions on this overnight ferry to ancona I have no idea what type of cabin to book..one is 238 euro's for vip cabin? and the other only gives me info that there is a toilet for 203 euros???

Unfortunately I don't have any advice on that. We did look into taking an overnight ferry from Italy long ago when we first considered going to Croatia but decided against it so I don't really have much memory on what I researched. You may want to do a separate post here on fodors and title it something like "overnight ferry from Italy to Croatia" and see what you come up with. I imagine a title like that would capture the eye of someone who has done it or is thinking about doing it and has done some research.

As far as driving in Montenegro is concerned, we didn't drive there but I do recall the sticker that was necessary. An international drivers permit is easy to obtain; just go to your nearest AAA office. I think it costs about $10 and its basically just a translation of your drivers license in various languages.

Good luck with everything!
Tracy

Hi frommemphis,

We did not take the ferry either, so no help there, sorry.

We did, however, drive into Montenegro and we did not buy any special sticker. I would imagine that when we specified we were going into Montenegro at the car rental desk at the Dubrovnik airport they gave us a car that was "Montenegro Ready" We provided the documentation that came with the car when we crossed the border and we were not questioned about it at all. My DH did have an international drivers license.

We used AutoEurope as our broker for our car rental if you want to give them a try. They set us up with Sixt for $263 for Sept 4-11 last year, with a pick up in at the Dubrovnik airport and a drop at the Split airport.

So, are you still trying to see Hvar? If you are flying into Dubrovnik and ferrying out of Split you would have so many great options of wonderful things to do without spending the time to get to Hvar and back.

Have you found accomodation yet?

we have everything booked and a nice surprise to find all the places we wanted to stay throughout the entire trip were available. My husband is very reluctant about the montenegro. But we will regardless have 3 days in dub. and 2 in hvar. i do have to figure out the overnight ferry and confirm our place in dubrovnik. I just found my plane ticket $500 cheapers on the same site i bought it on and they said they could not do anything...but that just doesn't seem right so i'll have to investigate that! 35 days and i can't believe it is coming together