CherylD

Hi, I am posting for a friend who wants to travel to Croatia with her 3 adult children and husband. She has extended family in the Dubrovnik area - but really wants to tour the entire country. She is wondering if it is better to fly in/out of Dubrovnik and/or Zagreb and is looking for hotel recommendations as well.
I have never been and really couldn't advise her besides checking tripadvisor for hotels. They will be flying out of different airports, but ORD would be the main one for most of the family.

Hoping someone might have toured Croatia recently and have an itinerary they wouldn't mind sharing.

Thank you!

JR14

I can't be much help with hotels, but chances are flights into Zagreb will be much less expensive. Last time I was in Croatia was a few years ago, but I loved Split and Hvar Island, Dubrovnik, and did an overnight further south in Kotor (Montenegro). I'd highly recommend all those destinations.

Also, I've heard great things about the Plitvice Lakes.

exilencfc

I haven't been to Croatia myself but my brother has been two years running (to Split then Dubrovnik) and is talking about going again this summer. He found it quite easy to get around though trains are liable to be late/replaced by buses. I think JR14 is right about flights to Zagreb being cheaper but flying into Dubrovnik would make an easier start to the trip - my gut instinct is to start in Dubrovnik and work your way up to Zagreb.

They might consider making a daytrip to Mostar in Bosnia from Dubrovnik

liamvad

Pula airport is good for Croatia,not sure how many airlines fly there though.

Ghentleman

Tour the country in a week? With 3 children? That will be a lot of long drives. Traffic at the coast is not very smooth in the high season and it can get very hot.
Pick a base at the coast and make 3-4 daytrips.

exilencfc

OP says the children are adults and I don't see a timeframe mentioned. FWIW I agree that a week would not be long enough

Ghentleman

I missed the fact that the children are adults.
You missed the "1 week in August" in the topic's title.

exilencfc

So I did We'll call it a draw then?

SanDiego1K

One of our San Diego FTers went to Croatia and had a marvelous time. We had gone a few months earlier, primarily Dubrovnik, Split (marvelous!) and a night in Zagreb. I was really jealous of his more extensive coastal itinerary. I went in search of a trip report, as he often writes extensively. I didn't find one, but did find a succinct summary at the end of this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/europ...some-help.html

You might search on his handle, FrAAmer, in the Starwood and Hilton forums where he said he posted more extensively.

I do think that one week is a very short time to try to cover the country. I encourage your friends to stay along the coast. It will be very congested in August, and they should expect to take a long time to cover short distances. I'd also book hotels in advance. This is an exceptionally beautiful area where many will come for summer holidays. The good thing about travel in August is that they will have far more choice of flights. Many of the flights into Dubrovnik and Split are seasonal.

CherylD

Thank you for all of the helpful replies! I will forward this along.

GUWonder

That is my suggestion too. Basing in Dubrovnik and then a few day trips or even a swap for a couple of nights elsewhere (say Lopud) is what I would do. More enjoyable IMO than trying to squeeze in the whole country in a week.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/europ...ggestions.html

ND76

I went from north to south by scheduled bus (starting from Budapest, 145 miles northeast of the Croatia border and leaving at Orah, about 60 miles southeast of Split, on the way to Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The country is essentially much of the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea and the Pannonian plains/valleys centered on Zagreb, surrounded by mountains (the Sava and Drava rivers flow eastward to the Danube through these areas).

Zagreb, the city of a million hearts, is the capital of the country and has quite a bit going for it. Rijeka (the Italians call it Fiume) is at the north end of the Adriatic Coast (I didn't get there on this trip). The second city of the country is Split, which is really lovely, about 250 miles southwest of Zagreb and connected by an excellent toll "autocesta" (turnpike). The coast line around Split simply looked superb. Zadar, about 100 miles north of Split on the coast, looked beautiful; so did Makarska, 20 miles south of Split, which my bus to Medjugorje passed through after dark. There are regular ferries from Split to the Adriatic islands like Hvar.

Dubrovnik is in Croatia on the mainland but is essentially cut off from the rest of the country by a piece of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the town of Neum is there).

Here are my photo galleries from the trip:

Zagreb (includes photos from the Stadion Maksimir, where I attended a football (soccer) match, GNK Dinamo vs. Celtic) :

http://pangborn76.smugmug.com/Other/...5164&k=rzpGjSw


Split city scenes, including Diocletian's Palace and St. Duje, the world's oldest Roman Catholic cathedral:

http://pangborn76.smugmug.com/Other/...8043&k=JvVtWzN


Ivan Mestrovic home and gallery in Split:

http://pangborn76.smugmug.com/Other/...2903&k=hpp6q5j

I found bus tickets, food, drink and lodging to be cheap on this trip. I studied two years of Russian at the university 40 years ago, so I found that I could understand quite a few words and phrases in serbo-croat (which is a Slavic language and similar in many respects to Russian, although basic words like please, thank you, how are you and good bye are different) . I really enjoyed myself and hope to go back.

TominLazybrook

If you aren't Catholic, I'd substitute Mostar for Medugorje.

Bellera

Coast is a perfect trip - Split is probably the most beautiful cities, but there's more. I advise you to visit even those small ones - magnificent atmosphere!