JulieVikmanis

I have wanted to travel to Dubrovnik for a good 20 years or so. When the war came I despaired of ever getting there but as more and more reports of the beauties of Croatia have been posted, I began once again urging my husband to go. After reading probably every report ever posted on this site about Croatia in general and Dubrovnik in particular, I got started planning and I finally got my husband to agree to go.

Getting to and around Croatia
The hardest part of planning this trip was transportation. Since our usual frequent flyer airline NWA doesn't fly to Dubrovnik (they fly to Tirana and Sophia but not Dubrovnik), I needed to find some alternative airline and I also needed to figure out ferry schedules to go from one area to another along the coast since my husband was pretty reluctant to drive. Thanks to the posts on this site I was able to book flights through EuropebyAir and ferries on the Jadrolinijia site that, wonder of wonders, all worked out perfectly. The EuropebyAir thing was the slickest, cheapest thing yet. Among the airlines that cooperate is Croatia Air. I was able to book while yet in the US a flight from Rome to Split to get to Croatia in the first place. From there I found a catamaran that took us to Hvar in 50 minutes (which I booked in Split the morning of the day we took it) and a ferry to take us in 7 hours from Hvar (actually from Stari Grad on the island of Hvar) to Dubrovnik (which I also booked while in Split at the ferry terminal.) Though I couldn't get a Croatia Air flight from Dubrovnik back to Rome, I found I could get from Dubrovnik to Zagreb on another $100 per person flight and then another $100 per person flight from Zagreb to Amsterdam where we could catch an NWA flight back to the US. Thus for $600 total for two people (plus airport taxes of about $20 or 30 per ticket per airport) I was able to get not only back and forth from Croatia but also around the country a bit. In booking the tickets I received lots of info on routes that participating airlines fly and I will surely use EuropebyAir a great deal in future travels. Croatia Air was a perfectly fine carrier and the ferry to Dubrovnik was rather more like a cruise ship than a boat to just transport cars and people. It had several lounges and a restaurant and you could book cabins for the crossing from Split to Ancona, Italy.

JulieVikmanis

Split
I wasn't sure what to expect when we landed in Split. Reports had been pretty mixed. It is a big city with a lot of sprawl and considerable construction going on but the old town is charming and though we had little time, we enjoyed it. We stayed at the Park Hotel which I recommend highly. It's a fairly modern, business hotel in a resort setting with a fine restaurant that opens in warm weather onto a lovely terrace with tall date palms lighted with little white twinkling lights. We paid 150 euros per night which seemed about right. The easy walk into town to the harbor and old town takes about 20 minutes or so. The old town has lovely narrow streets where you can get lost easily and a wonderful old cathedral, being restored with UN World Heritage Site monies. It is all part of Diocletian's Palace, thus a very old Roman antiquity.. The harbor is also nice with lots of cafes and the fish market rivals that of Venice. I honestly don't think I've ever seen that many fish and sea creatures assembled in a single place in my life. It's not quite as charming as Venice but it may well be bigger. Though we were only in Split from about 6 p.m. one night until 2 p.m. the next day, we managed to see quite a bit of it.

Hvar
We left Split by catamaran, not my husband's favorite ride. He found it warm and stuffy. We'd had a nice bottle of Croatian wine with lunch and I found it a perfect venue for a nap. We arrived 50 minutes later in one of the loveliest small villages we've been lucky enough to go to. Hvar is right up there with Cassis and Positano in our opinion. It's smaller than the latter and more contained than the former and it sparkles. The streets and buildings are all made of a wonderful, slick and shiny cream/almost white stone that positively gleams in the sunlight, the moonlight, or artificial light--and seems treacherous when wet, something that happens very infrequently as Hvar is called the sunny island and gets rain only a dozen or so days a year, though I'm not so sure of that claim given that it rained one day out of the three we spent there. Like the harbor in Split, Hvar's harbor is surrounded by giant date palms. It merges with the town square which is the largest in Dalmatia even though the town itself is quite small. The square, actually a rectangle, has many cafes and bars and the town church with steeple at the end. In the early evening the young boys take over the area in front of the church for spirited bouts of soccer. The houses surrounding the square are red tile roofed and there are narrow shopping streets to explore. There's also an ancient arsenal at the end of the square facing onto the harbor which houses on the second floor a little jewel box of a theater purported to be the oldest public theater in Europe. We loved everything about this small place, especially the placement of our hotel, the Adriatic. We opened our windows to see the harbor before us and the square beyond it--all for 60 euros per night. One day we counted 26 beautiful sailboats moored in and around the harbor, making it all picture perfect. And pictures we got. I think my husband was never without either his digital or his video camera in his hand either setting up, taking or checking on a shot he'd just taken. It really is a photographer's dream and mine was in heaven.

JulieVikmanis

Though I can't say that I credit Croatia with great food by any stretch of the imagination, we did find better food in Hvar than in Dubrovnik, Split or Zagreb. My thanks to marktynernyc for his many suggestions on this and the Chowhound site of places to eat in Croatia. Our favorite places to eat in Hvar were: Hanibal (named for a Croatian poet) directly on the square with an excellent fried fish plate and a good arugula and warm shrimps salad, the Golden Shell--a Slow Food place with an ebullient chef who makes a mean sea snail salad, a decent lamb with rosemary gravy and a fun crepe with almonds and sugar and Luna Konuba--a cute little place decorated with colored driftwood pieces and featuring four cheese gnocchi and good veal chops with the ubiquitous but very tasty boiled potatoes with swiss chard, garlic and olive oil. Both these latter two are found on a kind of restaurant street, one block off the main square to the left if you're facing the church at the end. We also had a very nice lunch in an idyllic setting on a porch of a house with views of the poppies in the field just in front of the Franciscan monastery on the island. After Dalmatian ham slices we feasted on the typical fish stew with three types of fish, langostines and lots of potato slices. The chef/owner's perfectly behaved children were having their lunch at a nearby table.

While on Hvar we took a day trip by taxi to Stari Grad, the second largest settlement on the island. It had a nice harbor and some interesting narrow streets with old houses and churches so it makes an ok day trip if you've got more than a couple of days on Hvar, but it certainly is no equal to Hvar.

Dubrovnik

We left Hvar island early from the ferry station outside of Stari Grad via the Marko Polo, one of the largest ships in the Jadrolinija line. It made one stop at Korcula and though we were in the restaurant at the time, my husband left his lunch to step outside and take pictures of the harbor on that island which looks nice, but not as nice as Hvar either. The ferry docks at the new port is in the newer part of Dubrovnik, so our entrance to the town I'd waited so long to see was pretty inauspicious. We grabbed a taxi to our hotel, the Villa Dubrovnik, about a mile or so down the coast from the walled old town. The view from our hotel window back to the old town was perfect--and so was the old town. It is constructed of the same creamy, gleaming stone that is used in Hvar. Sadly the rooftops are even more red than those of Hvar because so many have had to be reconstructed from the damage done to them during the war in 1990-91. Sad, but more beautiful now that they are so distinctively red in contrast to the near white stone. Awesome is such an overworked word, but that's exactly what this place is.--both from up close as you sit at a sidewalk café and view the buildings of the Stradun, identical to each other the length of the street, putting one in mind of the Place des Voges in Paris, and from a distance as you take in the whole of the walled city jutting out into the sea . But before I wax eloquent about the city, let me tell you of our hotel.

JulieVikmanis

The Villa Dubrovnik was not my first choice. Based on Grasshopper's raves about the Villa Argentina I had hoped to stay there but they were full up with an international banking conference. So was the Excelsior. I had almost resigned myself to staying on the western/northern side of the city without the wonderful views of the old town, when a very belated response from my e-mail to the Villa Dubrovnik came in offering me a room for 220 euros. We jumped on it and were amazed at their request to send a bank draft or cashiers check for full payment to their agent in Zug Switzerland to hold the room but did that too. Though we had troubles aplenty with that Zug connection and still haven't straightened everything out, it was worth it for the wonderful view. Not so wonderful is the climb down and up to the hotel from the road. Must be ten flights of 5 steps each in a pretty garden-like setting but sweat producing nonetheless and a toughy for those of us still recovering from knee replacement surgery. The rooms were what I refer to as Relais and Chateau quality and the bar and restaurant which doubles as the breakfast room, both face the old town from differing levels of the hotel. On yet another level are several levels of rocks upon which the hotel places lounge chairs for those who wish to sun or climb down the ladder for a swim in the Adriatic. There is no pool in the hotel. The views back to the old town at sunset are especially pretty. I know all dogs think their pups are cutest and all travelers think their hotels are the best but I do think it would be hard to beat the Villa Dubrovnik. I stopped into the Argentina (past which we walked each day on our way into town) and found its lobby lovely, much larger than the Dubrovnik's but was appalled to find glass between myself and the lovely view of the old town. I could see the restaurant a floor down but it looked big and impersonal in comparison to the Dubrovnik's, which is overall IMO a smaller, more personal hotel. The Excelsior has the same view as the Argentina and without the offending glass, but its balcony is small, again comparing it to the balconies of the rooms, the restaurant and the bar at the Dubrovnik. Though the Dubrovnik is probably about twice as far from the town as the other two, the walk is very pleasant with lovely views of the sea and the hotel provides a motor launch that ferries guests back and forth to the town on a fairly frequent schedule. The food at the hotel, its poorest feature, was a bit better and certainly more sophisticated than that in the downtown restaurants but not markedly so. Service was excellent, though in a more friendly than professional manner. If you're considering the hotel for a stay, be sure to ask for a room on the same side of the building as room 224. They face the old town while many others face the island across from the hotel. I'd guess that you can see the old town from their balconies, but they don't have the nice, straight on view that was possible from our room.

JulieVikmanis

We walked the walls of the city from one gate to the other but not all the way around (that knee replacement thing again--and a very hot sun.) We went to the small but colorful market on three successive days and watched the feeding of the pigeons. It's amazing. At a fraction of a second before the noon church bells ring the pigeons become very restive. As the bells start to ring, they fly about the square uncontrollably and then the man with the bucket of corn steps forth and begins to scatter it as the pigeons swoop down in a mad scramble to consume as much as possible before the rest get more than their share. Filming this melee was a special treat for my husband and several other assembled camera buffs. We also toured the various church interiors, did some window shopping, took a day trip to Cavtat,a pretty little resort community about 18 km from Dubrovnik on the way to the airport, and attended a concert of the Dubrovnik Symphony at the Rector's Palace, which took place within the small open air courtyard of a building with people seated on the interior steps of the palace. Dubrovnik has a variety of musical events in its various churches, pretty much on a set schedule and with very inexpensive ticket prices (ours to the symphony were 15 euros for a very impressive concert.) Mostly we just sat at cafes and restaurants and soaked up the beauty and tranquility of the city--except for the weekend when lots of local tourists seemed to pack the place up pretty completely.

While in Dubrovnik we ate at several places recommended on this and other travel/food sites. Food lacked a certain variety to make it really good or memorable. We had lots of fish and meat platters and even resorted to a Chinese restaurant to break the monotony on a couple of occasions. If you find yourself similarly challenged for something different, try the Shanghai restaurant on the street that leads out of the Pile Gate. About two blocks or so up you'll find what was described to us as the only Chinese restaurant in the city and possibly in Dalmatia. They had pretty good food all the way around and excellent duck dishes. We also had a fairly good meal at the restaurant of the Pucic Palace hotel right next to the market and a nice meal at Nautika just outside the Pile Gate--nice views of the sea and the walls on an open air terrace and food a cut above that offered at most of the other places in town. While the Croatian food was nothing to write home about (or to spend much time on in a trip report on Fodors), the Croatian wine was excellent. We had a Grgic (related to the Grgich vineyard of the Napa valley) at the Pucic palace which was very good and we found Dingac on most menus at from $15 to 25, a good buy and an excellent wine.

Unlike so often happens when you wait so long for something and then it doesn't measure up to your expectations, Dubrovnik was almost everything I had dreamed of and hoped for (great food would have made it perfect, but that was all it lacked.) It is a jewel of a place. Shiny, small, beautifully honed to perfection with pleasant inhabitants to boot. I'd go again and again, especially if it were a bit easier to get to.

JulieVikmanis

Zagreb
We left Dubrovnik in the late afternoon and flew into Zagreb about 6 p.m. with a flight out the next morning at 8 a.m. In spite of our short time we saw most of the sights of the old town and got a pretty good feel for the place. It sprawls and is nothing like the little jewel that is Dubrovnik. 1 million of the 4 million citizens of Croatia live there and there is evidence everywhere that it is a very growing city. The downtown area has lovely parks and squares and cafes everywhere. The old town has a beautiful cathedral, other interesting churches including one with an intricately patterned roof, and apparently a very large central market that I would love to see someday in operation. We did catch a wedding happening in one of the churches with the family or honored guests interestingly seated in front of the bride and groom at the alter observing the ceremony. The place seemed very much a modern, growing city with a desire to preserve its heritage. We liked it and would spend more time there if we get to Croatia again. We stayed at the Hotel Dubrovnik right in the main downtown area, a modern, business hotel that because of its location was perfect for our needs.

Amsterdam
This was our little trip bonus. We had from 11 a.m. on one day to 4 p.m. the next in Amsterdam because of our flight in from Zagreb on Croatian Air and our flight out on NWA. We've been to Amsterdam many times before and so just relaxed and walked around with no particular sights to see. We took the walk through the Jordaan district recommended in the Eyewitness guide to Amsterdam and enjoyed that. We ate at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants near the Leidesplein--Manchurian. And we had dinner at one of our all time favorite anywhere restaurants--Zuid Zeeland on Herengracht, a small, modern place with fabulous flowers, nice art and excellent food--tuna tartare with green olive tapenade, crispy pork with crispy baked potatoes and veggies, chicken with wild mushrooms and truffle sauce and again good wines including a red Bandol and a nice selection of cheeses. It was a welcome relief to have some variety in the selections once again. Our big find in Amsterdam this time was our hotel. As often as we've stayed there (we fly NWA and KLM and often wind up with a night there before flying back to the States) we've never found a hotel that seemed totally right for us. The Estherea seems to come close. It's located on the Singel canal and we had a canal view room on the 5th floor with breakfast for 157 euros. While the halls are a bit uneven, the room itself was nicely appointed and probably recently redecorate. The bathroom was enormous by Amsterdam standards. The place is close to the Leidesplein area and pretty much in the middle of things. Service was pleasant and the breakfast was ample. They also have free internet. We will undoubtedly be back.

We will be back in Croatia, on the Istrian peninsula this fall when we stay in Piran Slovenia, so already I'm looking to returning to this, one of my new found favorite countries. Our son-in-law is a sailor and we're already planning how we might take him and our daughter on one of the wonderful boats from one of the wonderful marinas we saw everywhere on the Dalmatian Coast. It is a great tourist destination and is destined to become even moreso. Go now. As always, happy to answer any questions I can.

JetLag

Hi Julie,

THANK YOU for this trip report! I especially appreciated your descriptions of Hvar, but the whole thing was very helpful. I'll file this one as a keeper.

Grasshopper

Julie, Brava! Great report. I'm so glad you became one of our growing groups of Croatia afficiandoes! Have you noticed that nobody who goes has anything negative to say?

I'm so glad to have your report of Villa Dubrovnik. We have been chatting amongst ourselves about it and wondering if it would be a good choice. It sounds very nice indeed!

when you go back to Istria, I highly recommend that you visit Pula for the Roman ruins. And Rovinj is a lovely fishing village, a little bigger than Piran. AFter that you can head up to Ljubjliana and Bled! So much to see, so little time.

Thanks again for your excellent report.

alohatoall

Julie, many many thanks for this report. We're alredy planning our trip next May, and this info is invaluable. At this point, we're planning to rent an apartment in Dubrovnik and stay there one week, taking side trips from there -- any reaction to this idea? Once again, many thanks.

JulieVikmanis

Thanks for your kind comments. Grasshopper, your point that no one who has been to Croatia says anything negative about it is exactly the point I made with my husband when I was arguing to make the trip. We will be at Lake Bled three days before traveling to Piran and intend to take day trips to Rovinj and Pula while we are there. I hope Northern Croatia and Slovenia live up to the high standards set by Dalmatia and Zagreb. We plan to meet the sailing son-in-law and my daughter in Piran. I'm thinking maybe we can charter a sailboat while we're there and do some sailing along the Istrian peninsula.

Alohatoall, we enjoyed our 5 days in Dubrovnik including one for a day trip to Cavtat. There are other day tips to islands that anyone who enjoys natural, unspoiled beauty and swimming would probably enjoy a lot. We tend to prefer cities with sidewalk cafes to beaches so for me 5 days in Dubrovnik area was enough. If you, however, enjoy the natural beauty thing, I'd think a week would be a good amount of time to devote to the area and an apartment would be less expensive. We bumped into a couple from Oregon who were staying in sobes which they had found both very cheap and very classy accommodations. You'll love it. May was a lovely time for our visit. Aside from the day of rain in Hvar, it was beautiful weather. Warm but not insufferably hot. Sunny but with breezes. In short, perfect.

candert

Julie - Your trip has got me even more excited to travel this fall. It goes right along with the other reports I've seen regarding Croatia and Slovenia.

If you are able to locate a boat in Prian (and my wife agrees), I'd love set a course down the Istrian peninsula.

The Sailing Son-in-law

marcy_

Julie,
Thank you for posting your informative trip report! I enjoyed reading it, and I'm more eager than ever to visit Croatia.

It sounds as though you had some trouble convincing your husband to go; my husband was skeptical at first, too. I think he's decided it would be OK, but I'm going to have him read your report for further encouragement about the idea.
Thanks again for posting!

nina1123

Great trip report! Can't wait to go in August

Mathieu

Julie, wonderful report ! Well organised and beautifully written. I printed it out and read it on the train home yesterday evening and it makes me anticipate my first trip to Croatia in September even more. A question for you. Was English spoken in the cities and out-of-city areas ? Other than the local language and perhaps Italian, are French or German useful to have in Croatia ? I'm only planning on travelling along the Dalmatain coast (not going inland this time) and to some of the smaller islands around Hvar, Split and Dubrovnik so my question is relative to this area. Thank you.

marktynernyc

Julie - Glad you and your husband had a great trip. I'll have to try Hanibel when I'm in Hvar this September. The owner of the Golden Shell is very personable, isn't he?

JulieVikmanis

Mathieu, The best language to have in Croatia other than Croatian is English but a wide margin. All students have to take a second language and most take English. We had no problems in the smaller towns like Hvar than in the larger like Dubrovnik and Zagreb. Croatia is very much like Czech Republic in respect to language. Most everyone speaks some little bit of English and many speak it very well.

marytynernyc--Yes, the proprietor of Golden Shell is quite a showman. I think if you tell him to prepare what he likes for you, he'd probably pull out all the stops. His was surely one of the best--and most fun and interesting--meals of the trip. He couldn't help commenting on everything. Great guy. Do try Hanibal. It's a bit modern, but pleasantly so and the food was very good. Are you expecting to travel frequently to Croatia. I know you spent quite a bit of time on one trip, and now you're already planning to return. Is this likely to become an annual or at least bi-annual destination for you? I can see how one could become addicted.

Judy

Julie, do you know if the Hotel Adriatic in Hvar has a website?

Jonas

I'm not Julie, but think I can help. Hotel Adriatic is owned by Suncani Hvar (Sunny Hvar) company, and their web site is:
http://www.suncanihvar.hr

Jonas

Mathieu, Italian is handy on the coast, especially in Istria and German in northern Croatia, but also on the coast 'cause the most tourists come from Germany / Austria. But as Julie wrote the most people, especially younger, speak some English.

JulieVikmanis

Judy, Jonas has the right site for the hotel. Besides the Adriatic, you may want to look at the Palace and the Slavija, all three are on the main harbor, each on different sides. I wouldn't be interested in the Amphora. It's too gar from town, though the walk over (once, not time and again) can be pleasant. Delfina is on the same side of the harbor as Adriatic but a bit further from town. It didn't seem to be open when we were there. May have been closed until later in the summer (?) or permanently. Don't know why it's a 2 star. Very modern from the outside. A little charmless.