For Bill & Monica · from Kelly & Chris
We landed in Pula on a Wednesday afternoon and did not stop moving until we flew home twenty-one days later. Istria first, then a week under sail down the Dalmatian coast, then Dubrovnik, Mostar and one last quiet harbor. Take the whole thing or build your own version. Both work.
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Nine days in the northwest, before a single island. Venetian harbor towns, hilltop villages, truffle forests and a Roman amphitheater still doing its job. This is the part of the trip we would repeat first.
Overnight from Tampa to Zurich on Edelweiss, a short hop to Munich on Swiss, then Lufthansa into Pula. Wheels down at 4:05 in the afternoon, which is the best possible arrival time for beating jet lag. Rental car at the airport, then straight up the coast to Rovinj, about forty minutes.
Kelly’s favorite place of the entire trip, and the first one she would send you to. A storybook Venetian town rising straight out of clear water, colored buildings stacked down to the sea, and a surprise around every turn. It really does feel like Venice, down to the bell tower and the water lapping at the walls, except smaller and without the crush. Coffee in tiny cafes. Hidden bars built into the rocks. Artists and seaside parks and boats in every color you can think of. Three nights was right and four would have been better.
We stayed inside the old town at Spirito Santo Palazzo Storico on Ulica Augusto Ferri, adults only, a superior palazzo room with a balcony. Worth knowing: the old town is pedestrian, so you park outside and walk in. Paid parking at the hotel runs about €20 a night.
Monica, this one is for you
Grisia is the cobbled lane that climbs from the main square up to St Euphemia, and it is the famous one. Galleries and working studios in the doorways the whole way up, painters and printmakers selling straight out of the space they made the work in. Kelly loved it. It is steep, it is narrow, and you will stop every few feet.
If your dates land in August, the whole street turns into an open air exhibition for a day and every wall and doorway becomes a gallery.
Do both of these, on the same stretch of rock
On Ulica Sv. Križa, the lane running around the seaward edge of the old town, the restaurants and bars are built straight into the cliff with their terraces stepping down toward the water. La Puntulina at number 38 is the one to book. You eat on a terrace cut into the rock with the sea directly below the table, and it was one of the most beautiful meals of the whole trip. Reserve, and ask for the lowest terrace.
Then, further along the same rocks, Valentino, a cocktail and champagne bar with no tables in the usual sense. They hand you a cushion, you sit on the rock itself with your feet toward the sea, and the drinks come to you. Go at night. With the moon on the water it is gorgeous, and it is the one thing from Rovinj we would tell you not to miss.
From Kelly's post, June 11
“Coffee in tiny cafes. Hidden bars built into the rocks. Artists and seaside parks and boats in every color you can think of. The kind of place where you wander with no plan and somehow find magic anyway.”Rovinj, Croatia
Do not skip this. We rented a car for the day and drove into the interior, which is truffle country, where the oak forests hide some of the most prized white and black truffles in the world. Four hill towns in one loop, each one perched on its own hilltop: Hum, billed as the smallest town in the world, then Kotli, then Motovun, then Grožnjan. Stone buildings going back to medieval days, flowers spilling over old walls, little art galleries and local wine at every turn.
Every one of these towns is full of things to stop for. Little shops worth going into, wineries and tasting rooms, and art everywhere, galleries and studios tucked into half the doorways. Two things we did not expect. One, the cemeteries. They are the most beautiful either of us has ever seen, headstones covered in fresh flowers with glowing lanterns and photographs, and the one at Motovun is the most beautiful cemetery Kelly has ever stood in. Go and walk through it. Two, how empty it all was. We caught it just before the season fills up and the scenery felt like it was ours.
Book this one ahead
Motovun sits in the middle of the truffle forest and Konoba Mondo is the reason to stop there at lunchtime rather than drive through. It is tiny, about eight tables on a lane just inside the gate, and it has been in the Michelin guide for years, so reserve or you will not get in. Order anything with truffle on it and then watch them shave it over the plate at the table until you want to tell them to stop.
The steak came buried under white truffle with crisp potatoes and a pile of seasonal greens, and a glass of local Malvazija alongside. It is the best lunch on this itinerary and it is not close.
Two more stops worth your time. Fakin just below Motovun for a tasting, which is a proper modern tasting room rather than somebody's garage, and Grožnjan, which is the artists' town. Galleries in half the doorways, a jazz school, and a wine bar called TRUB with live music in the evenings. And the cemeteries. We did not expect to be moved by a cemetery and we were, every headstone covered in fresh flowers with glowing lanterns and photographs.
“I already know I need to bring my girls and my besties back for the wine and the shopping. If you ever make it to Croatia, Istria county is an absolute must see.”
Here is the honest version. Pula was our least favorite city of the trip. It is a working port town and it does not have the charm of Rovinj or the polish of the hill towns, and if you are choosing between places to spend your days, spend them elsewhere in Istria. What Pula has is the Arena, a Roman amphitheater built between 27 BC and 68 AD and one of the best preserved anywhere in the world. It is the only one left with all four side walls standing. It also still hosts concerts, and the night we spent inside it was one of the highlights of the entire twenty one days. That one building is worth basing yourself here for.
We landed at Grand Hotel Brioni, a Radisson Collection hotel out on the Punta Verudela peninsula, terraced beaches down to the water and a garden-view room. Good pool, good breakfast, about ten minutes from the old town. We kept Pula as our base through the 18th, which gave us slow mornings and easy access to the rest of the peninsula, then drove over to Opatija.
Do this one thing
We saw Lenny Kravitz play the Arena on June 14 and it reset the bar for what a concert can be. The sun set straight through the ancient stone windows while the band played, gold light pouring across a crowd that could not stop smiling. Capacity is small by arena standards, tickets go fast, and the summer season runs roughly June through September. Look at who is playing first, then build the week around it.
“If you are ever in Pula and there is a show at the Arena, go. Drop everything and go. There is nothing on earth like live music inside history.”Kelly, the morning after
Watch it
One night on the Kvarner riviera on the way south, and a smart place to break the drive. Opatija is the old Habsburg resort town, all grand hotels and a seafront promenade called the Lungomare that runs for miles along the rocks. Very different energy from Istria: elegant, slower, a little bit 1900.
Amadria Park Hotel Milenij on Ulica Maršala Tita, right on the main strip. Park-view superior room. Breakfast is extra and pricey, so eat on the promenade instead.
Two small things that made it. The hotel has a falconer who walks the terrace with a Harris hawk on his glove, which is either a bird deterrent or theatre and we did not ask. And dinner at Roko in town, which starts with a board of local sheep and cow cheeses, olives and pine nuts, and is a fraction of what the hotel restaurant charges.
The heart of the trip, and the part that survives every version of this itinerary. A long drive south down the coast, one night in Split to get our feet under us, then six nights on a catamaran working through the Dalmatian islands to Dubrovnik.
This is a real driving day and you should treat it like one. Opatija to Split is 265 miles, about four hours and ten minutes if you put your head down and stay on the A1. Nobody should put their head down. The whole Dalmatian coast is strung along this road, and almost every stop worth making is a short hop off the highway.
Here is what sits on that drive, in order, with how far each one pulls you off the route. Pick one big stop or two or three small ones. Trying to do Plitvice and Zadar and Krka in a single day is how you arrive in Split at midnight hating each other.
Port city with Habsburg bones and Trsat Castle up on the hill, looking out over the Kvarner bay islands. Barely a detour, good for a coffee twenty minutes after you leave Opatija.
The famous one, and the one we missed. Sixteen terraced lakes falling into each other, miles of wooden boardwalk running right across the water, waterfalls in every direction. It is inland, it is the longest detour on this list, and it will take most of your day. Worth it, but give it its own day rather than squeezing it into the drive. Go at opening.
We stopped here. Back on the coast, with a Roman forum sitting in the middle of a Venetian old town, plus two things on the waterfront you will not see anywhere else: the Sea Organ, a set of pipes under the marble steps that the waves actually play, and the Greeting to the Sun, a solar disc set into the promenade that lights up after dark. We gave it a short stop and regretted not giving it a day. Time it for sunset if you can.
Šibenik has the 15th century Cathedral of St James and two hilltop fortresses over the harbor. Just inland from it sits Krka National Park, which is the shorter, easier alternative to Plitvice if you want waterfalls without losing the whole day.
A tiny medieval old town on its own island, connected by two short bridges, Renaissance and baroque and Romanesque all stacked on top of each other. Fifteen minutes from Split, so it makes an easy last stop before you check in. It is also right by the airport if you are flying instead of driving.
What we actually did
We broke the drive twice: a couple of hours at Krka, and a short stop in Zadar for the Sea Organ. Both fit comfortably in one day and neither left us arriving in Split at midnight.
On the park: if you are driving this road with a boat to catch the next day, pick Krka. Plitvice is the more famous park and it will eat your entire day. Krka sits eleven minutes off the highway, takes a couple of hours, and still gives you the thing you came for: Skradinski Buk, a wide staircase of travertine falls pouring into a green pool, with wooden boardwalks running right out over the water and old stone mill buildings along the bank.
Go early. We were there in the morning light with the water still glassy, and by the time we left the boardwalks were filling up. Swimming at the main falls has been banned since 2021, so do not plan your day around a swim. Come for the walk and the water and then get back on the A1.
Zadar was the surprise. We only had time to walk down to the waterfront and stand at the Sea Organ, a set of pipes built in under the marble steps that the waves play, so the whole promenade hums and sighs while you sit on the stairs above it. Next to it is the Greeting to the Sun, a solar disc set into the pavement that lights up after dark. We were there and gone and we both wished we had given it longer. It looks like a town worth a proper day.
The one we did not get to, and would look at hard if you have the time: Plitvice Lakes. It is the bigger, more famous park, sixteen terraced lakes falling into one another with miles of wooden boardwalk running right across the water and waterfalls in every direction. It is further inland and it will take most of a day rather than a couple of hours, so it needs its own day rather than a slot on a drive. We chose Krka because of the boat, and we would go back for Plitvice.
Drive or fly down from Opatija and give yourself an evening in Split before you sail. The whole old town is built inside Diocletian's Palace, a Roman emperor's retirement compound from around 305 AD that the city simply never stopped living in. Bars and apartments in the cellars, laundry hanging off imperial walls. Then walk the Riva along the water at night.
Judita Palace Heritage Hotel on Narodni trg, which is the main square, about as central as it gets. Tiny hotel in a 16th century palace. Note that parking in Split is genuinely painful and expensive, so if you are driving, sort that before you arrive.
This is the piece you should book first, because it sets your dates. We went with Yacht Getaways on their Croatia Split Explorer route, one en-suite double cabin on a four-cabin superior catamaran, the Bali 4.5. Skipper and hostess on board. You board Saturday afternoon near Split and step off in Dubrovnik the following Friday early afternoon.
The rhythm is the whole point: sail in the morning, anchor in a cove for lunch and a swim, into a different island town by late afternoon, dinner ashore, sleep on the water, repeat. Hvar was the standout for us, stone streets, a fortress lit up on the hill above the harbor, and a town that does not go to bed. Vis, Korčula and Mljet National Park are the other anchors on this route.
Two things we did not anticipate. The coves are the part you will actually miss afterwards, not the towns, and you can only reach them on a boat. And order the whole grilled fish every single night. It arrives on a platter with potatoes, grilled peppers and courgette, lemon and a fistful of parsley and garlic, and it is better in a harbour restaurant on an island nobody has heard of than anywhere in Split or Dubrovnik.
Watch it
Something nobody warns you about
The catamaran has four cabins and unless you book the whole thing you are on it with other couples. We went in mildly unsure about that and came off it having made friends. Michael and Claire, an Australian couple who share our love of travel and sailing and running a business, plus four other women we loved getting to know. By the third day it was a boat family rather than a group of strangers.
Worth knowing going in: you eat together, you swim together and you are in a small space for a week. If that sounds like your idea of a nightmare, charter the whole boat. If it does not, it may end up being the part you remember.
Vis, and the best table of the week
Vis is the furthest island out and it stayed a closed Yugoslav military base until 1989, which is why it still feels like the least polished stop on the route. Above the town sits Fort George, built by the British in 1813 and now restored into a restaurant, gallery and lounge bar. It is five to ten minutes up from the harbour by taxi or a walk uphill if you are feeling it.
One more reason Vis looks the way it does. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again was filmed here in 2017, standing in for a Greek island, and once you know that you cannot unsee it. The harbour scenes are Vis town. The taverna is Jastozera in Komiža, a lobster restaurant built out over the water. The singing and dancing on the wooden dock was shot at Barjoška, a cove on the western tip you can only reach by boat, with taxi boats running out of Komiža. And Stiniva, the cove where the cliffs almost close over the entrance, is in the film too. It is one of the most beautiful places on the whole coast and worth the trip on its own.
Half the pleasure of the island is pulling into a cove and finding a small white and blue bar sitting right on the beach with impossibly clear water in front of it. Do that at least once.
Back at the fort, go for sunset and book ahead, because in July and August it fills. Dinner runs from six, the lounge bar opens at eleven in the morning, and there is a stone courtyard with long tables and string lights where you wait for the light to turn. Two practical notes: no beachwear, and wear shoes that like gravel and uneven stone.
The island stop to plan around
A walled medieval town on its own little peninsula, with the mountains of Pelješac across the channel and streets laid out in a herringbone so the wind cannot run straight through them. It claims Marco Polo as a native son, which may or may not be true and is charming either way. Smaller and calmer than Hvar, and easier to love.
Monica, do your shopping here. The old town is full of small, good shops tucked into the stone lanes, the kind run by the person who made or chose everything in them rather than the same six souvenir stalls you see in every port. It is the prettiest place on the route to wander with no plan, and Hvar is close behind it for the same reason.
Go up to Massimo, in the Zakerjan Tower in the northern wall. You climb the stairs and then an actual ladder to get out onto the top of the turret, and your drinks arrive hauled up by rope and box because there is no other way to get them there. Sunset over the water toward Pelješac, and as everyone points out, the hard part is getting back down.
Here is the trick nobody tells you. Book a rooftop table at one of the restaurants that looks down onto the tower and you get the whole show with dinner. We sat up there and watched people come up the ladder one at a time and the box of drinks go hauling up the outside of the wall, over and over, with the sun going down behind it. It was delightful, and the meal was one of the best of the week.
From Chris's post, June 26
“After a week of chasing the wind, swimming in hidden coves, and waking up to a different island every morning, it's time to trade sails for stone streets.”Leaving the boat in Dubrovnik
Which islands, and how to do them
The islands we reached were Hvar, Vis and Korčula, with Mljet and its national park on the same route. Hvar and Korčula were the two we loved most. Hvar for the fortress, the stone streets and a town that does not go to bed, Korčula for the walled old town and the cocktail bar up in the tower. Vis was beautiful in a rougher, quieter way, and dinner at Fort George with those views was worth it on its own. Book that one for sunset.
Do it by sailboat if you possibly can. That is our strongest recommendation on this page. You wake up somewhere new every morning, you swim off the back in coves no road reaches, and you never stand in a ferry queue. If a week on a boat is not for you, two alternatives work: take day trips out of Split or Hvar, or pick two islands and stay a few nights on each. You will see the towns either way. You just will not get the coves.
One regret. We never made it to the Blue Lagoon, the shallow turquoise bay off Drvenik Veli near Trogir that most Split routes stop at on the first day. If you are planning the week, ask for it. And while you are at Vis, the Blue Cave on Biševo next door is the other one people rave about.
Four days on land at the end, including a side trip into Bosnia and Herzegovina that turned out to be one of the most memorable stops of the whole trip. This is the week we are still posting, so the photo frames here are waiting on us.
Off the boat at ACI Marina in the early afternoon and straight into the Old Town. Two nights here is enough to walk the city walls, ride the cable car up Srđ for the view back down over the terracotta roofs, and get thoroughly lost in the limestone streets.
Our one real regret of the whole trip. We did not walk the walls. We left it until the afternoon, the heat coming off that limestone was brutal, and we talked ourselves out of it. Kelly has wished ever since that we had just done it. Learn from us: walk them the morning you arrive, at opening, before the sun is on the stone and before the cruise ships unload. Two kilometres around the top of the city with the Adriatic on one side and the rooftops on the other. It is the single best thing in Dubrovnik and we let it go.
We stayed at The Pucić Palace on Od Puča 1, right beside Gundulić Square, and it is the one we would tell you to book. A 17th century palace that belonged to the Pucić family, knocked about by the 1667 earthquake, restored and reopened as a hotel in 2002. Rooms are named after famous citizens of Dubrovnik. Two restaurants, Lucijan on a ground level terrace at the edge of the square and Magdalena up on the panoramic top terrace looking out over the rooftops and church domes. It is in the Michelin Guide.
The location is the real luxury. You are inside the walls, a minute from the Stradun, and the morning produce market sets up on the square outside your door. You walk out into the Old Town before the day trippers arrive and it feels like yours.
Buy the Dubrovnik Pass online before you go. It covers the city walls, which are the single most expensive ticket in town, plus the museums and the public buses. Buy the digital version the day you arrive. Walk the walls early, before the cruise crowds and before the heat, and the Pass has paid for itself by lunchtime.
Worth doing even if you never watched it
Dubrovnik played King's Landing, and a walking tour of the locations is a genuinely good way to see the city whether or not you care about the show. It gets you to Fort Lovrijenac on its rock outside the walls, which was the Red Keep and has the best view back at the Old Town on this page. The Jesuit Stairs, where the walk of shame was filmed. Minčeta Tower, the House of the Undying. Pile Bay standing in for Blackwater. Most tours run a couple of hours and you come out of it knowing how the city fits together, which is more than you get wandering on your own.
Go in the morning. Same reason as everything else here.
Book this before you arrive
The cable car runs from just outside the north wall up to the ridge above the city, and the ride alone is worth it. At the top is Panorama Restaurant & Bar, sitting on the edge of the drop with the entire Old Town laid out below, the walls, the terracotta roofs, the harbour and the islands out behind it. The view is genuinely beautiful and the food holds its own, which is not always true of a place with a view like that.
Get a reservation, and ask for a table on the terrace. It books out, especially for sunset, which is when you want to be up there. Go up in the late afternoon, have a drink at the bar while the light drops, eat as the city turns gold and then comes on in lights below you, and ride back down in the dark.
If you watched the show
Most of the Game of Thrones capital was shot right here inside these walls. The Jesuit Stairs are the walk of shame, Fort Lovrijenac is the Red Keep, and the little cove under the west wall stood in for Blackwater Bay. You do not need a tour to see any of it, just walk. Though the Old Town will happily sell you one, along with a photo next to Tyrion.
Go here at golden hour
On the south side of the Old Town there is a gap in the wall with a hand painted sign reading “cold drinks.” Buža literally means hole. You squeeze through it and come out on the cliffs, where somebody has bolted a bar and a few concrete terraces onto bare rock above the Adriatic. People swim off the ledges, braver ones jump, everyone else drinks and watches the sun drop behind the island of Lokrum.
Four things nobody tells you. There are actually two of them: Buža II is the lower, bigger one with the thatched roof and table service, Buža I, also called Mala Buža, is the smaller casual one up above. It is cash only and there is no ATM once you are down on the rocks. Get there around 6, a good forty five minutes before golden hour, or you will not get a seat. And skip the middle of the day entirely, when the cruise ships empty out.
On the jumping: the rocks are uneven, there are no railings anywhere, and it is a long way down. Worth watching. Only worth doing sober, and only if you genuinely swim well.
A day trip north into a second country, and very much worth the border crossing. Mostar is built around Stari Most, the Ottoman-era Old Bridge over the green Neretva River, destroyed in the war in 1993 and rebuilt stone by stone. Bazaar streets, copper workshops, and a history that is still visible in the buildings.
We stayed the night at Hotel-Restaurant Kriva Ćuprija on Onescukova, which is steps from the Old Bridge and has its own little bridge and waterfall. Breakfast included. Two practical notes: the hotel takes cash only, and Bosnia uses the convertible mark, not the euro, so hit an ATM when you cross. Bring your passport.
Do this after dinner
Go back out once it is properly dark and just wander. The bridge is lit gold over black water, the minarets are floodlit above the rooftops, and the bazaar lanes are still open and glowing. And from somewhere above you the call to prayer comes out over the whole valley, one mosque picking it up after another. It is the moment from Mostar we both still talk about.
The eating is better than you expect too, and it is not just the hotel. The lanes around the bridge are full of good places, most of them grilling over coals with terraces hanging out over the water. And the shopping is genuinely fun rather than the usual tourist tat. Hand beaten copper, rugs, lamps, jewellery, much of it made in the workshop behind the stall while you watch.
The reason to stay over
Almost everyone does Mostar as a bus day trip out of Dubrovnik or Split. They walk the bridge, buy something copper, and are gone by late afternoon. Stay the night and you get the other Mostar: the bridge lit gold over black water, the minarets floodlit above the rooftops, every terrace along the river full of people eating, and the whole place about ten degrees cooler. It is a completely different town after dark and it costs you one hotel night.
Eat here, not in town
We did not expect the hotel restaurant to be the thing we talk about, and it is. The terraces are built out over the Radobolja, so you eat with the stream and its little waterfalls running directly beneath you, the crooked stone bridge on one side and the minarets going up behind the roofs. Sit down at dusk and the whole valley turns blue while you order.
The food is properly Herzegovinian rather than tourist menu. Start with the cheese board, which comes as a slab of local sheep and cow cheeses, rolled cheese, a bowl of kajmak, a bowl of red pepper ajvar, olives, walnuts, almonds, grapes and cherries, with warm flatbread alongside. Then grilled meat on a wooden board with rosemary, roasted peppers and courgette, and a potato with sour cream. Book a terrace table when you check in, because there are not many and they go.
After dark
45 minutes further south
Everyone compares Croatia's waterfalls, Plitvice and Krka, and forgets that the best one on this whole trip is over the border. Kravica is a travertine cliff 25 metres tall and 100 metres wide with the Trebižat river coming over it in a curtain, into a green pool you are actually allowed to swim in. That last part matters, because swimming has been banned at Krka's main falls for years now.
It is 45 km south of Mostar, about 45 minutes down the M17, which makes it an easy half day out of the same hotel. Entry is €10 a person from April to October and free the rest of the year, cash is easier. Swimming runs June to September and the water sits around 16 to 20 degrees, which is bracing and completely worth it. There are paddle boats, and a mini train down to the falls if you do not want the walk.
Go on a weekday morning before 11. Midday in July and August is the worst of both worlds, packed and flatly lit.
The smartest logistical move of the whole trip. Cavtat is a small harbor town twenty minutes south of Dubrovnik and about ten minutes from the airport, so instead of fighting Old Town traffic on departure morning you spend your last evening on a quiet palm-lined waterfront with a good dinner and an easy drive to the gate.
It turned out to be more than a logistics trick. Cavtat is a hidden gem and we would happily have given it three or four days instead of one. It is quiet in the way Dubrovnik has not been for twenty years, a palm lined promenade curving around the bay, boats knocking against the dock, swimming straight off the rocks, and almost nobody. If you want a few slow days at either end of a trip like this, put them here rather than in the city.
We ate our last dinner at the hotel restaurant looking out over the harbour while the whole thing turned gold. A good way to end twenty one days.
Hotel Cavtat on Iznad Tihe, gold room with a terrace, seasonal pool. The restaurant looks over the harbour and is worth booking a table at even if you are not staying. They run an airport transfer if you have dropped the car. Check out at ten and you are at DBV with time to spare.
Out of Dubrovnik, connecting through Frankfurt, into Tampa at 3:55 in the afternoon the same day. You lose nothing and you land with an evening left.
If you cut this trip down to a week, these are the five that survive.
Live music inside a 2,000 year old Roman amphitheater, with the sunset coming through the stone windows. Check the calendar before you pick dates.
Hum, Kotli, Motovun, Grožnjan in one day by rental car. Truffles, medieval stone, and almost nobody there in early June.
Kelly’s favorite place of the twenty one days. Venice without the crush. Swim off the rocks, eat dinner on them, then sit on them with a glass of champagne at Valentino once the moon is up.
Split to Dubrovnik. You cannot reach the coves and the small island harbors any other way, and the pace is the reward.
One night in a second country, at a bridge that was taken down and rebuilt, plus the best waterfall of the trip 45 minutes south. It changes the shape of everything.
This is the first thing we would tell you. We went in June and loved it, but if we did it again we would shift to the shoulder season for the cooler weather. May and September give you the same water and the same long light without the heat sitting on you all afternoon, and without the crowds that land in July and August. Istria in early June already felt like it was ours. In May it would be quieter still.
Order the local white everywhere and stop looking for labels you recognise. Malvazija in Istria, Pošip on the islands. It is delicious, it is cheap by the glass, much of it is made in small natural batches, and neither of us ever woke up feeling it. Kelly could not get enough of it.
The catamaran runs Saturday to Friday on a fixed schedule, so it anchors your whole itinerary. Pick that week, then build the land days around both ends of it.
In to Pula, out of Dubrovnik. Croatia is long and thin. Backtracking to your arrival airport costs you a full day for nothing.
The hill towns need wheels and so does the drive south. Split and Dubrovnik punish you for having a car, between the parking prices and the pedestrian old towns. Pick it up at Pula airport and hand it back the day you board the boat.
Opatija to Split is four hours before you stop for anything. Pick one big stop or two small ones, not three. Plitvice alone will eat the day, and that is fine if you plan for it.
Croatia is on the euro now. Bosnia is not, and Mostar has places that take cash only. Pull convertible marks from an ATM once you are across.
It bundles the city walls, the museums and the buses. Do the walls right at opening, before the cruise ships unload and the stone starts radiating heat.
Twenty minutes from Dubrovnik, ten from the airport, and a fraction of the chaos on departure morning.
The best hours of this trip were unplanned. A cove we anchored in. A cemetery in a hill town. Coffee somewhere we had never heard of the day before.
All of it bookable, and every one of these was a good stay. The service across the board was excellent, better than we expected almost everywhere, and there was not a single place on this list we would swap out.
| Nights | Where | Town | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 10–13 | Spirito Santo Palazzo StoricoUlica Augusto Ferri 44 | Rovinj | Adults only, inside the pedestrian old town. Balcony room. Paid parking, book it with the room. |
| Jun 13–14 | Grand Hotel BrioniVerudella 16, Radisson Collection | Pula | Beachfront on Punta Verudela, terraced beaches, pools, spa. Ten minutes from the Arena. |
| Jun 18–19 | Amadria Park Hotel MilenijUlica Maršala Tita 109 | Opatija | On the main seafront strip. Skip the paid breakfast and eat on the Lungomare. |
| Jun 19–20 | Judita Palace Heritage HotelNarodni trg 4 | Split | Tiny hotel on the main square inside Diocletian's Palace. Parking is the one headache. |
| Jun 20–26 | Yacht Getaways, Split ExplorerBali 4.5 catamaran, en-suite double cabin | Split → Dubrovnik | Board Saturday afternoon, off Friday early afternoon at ACI Marina Dubrovnik. Skipper and hostess included. |
| Jun 26–28 | The Pucić PalaceOd Puča 1, Gundulić Square | Dubrovnik | Our pick of the whole trip. 17th century palace inside the walls, a minute off the Stradun, rooftop restaurant, morning market on the square outside. Michelin Guide listed. |
| Jun 28–29 | Hotel-Restaurant Kriva ĆuprijaOnescukova 23 | Mostar, BiH | Steps from the Old Bridge, with terraces built out over the Radobolja. Eat here, the restaurant is the best meal of the trip. Breakfast included. Cash only, and Bosnia is not on the euro. |
| Jun 29–30 | Hotel CavtatIznad Tihe 8 | Cavtat | Gold room with a terrace, seasonal pool, airport transfer available. Ten minutes from DBV. |
Add or drop stops above and this updates.