sinfonia

I'll be visiting a friend in the Veneto region of Italy (Vicenza area) and we would like to visit Croatia's Dalmatian Coast, taking about 5 days. Is this even doable?

We know extremely little about Croatia and need to do a lot of reading on it, but I wondered what suggestions you FTers have for where to go given our time parameters and where we are coming from. Our primary purpose of this trip is to see the gorgeous beaches and scenery. We are interested in islands as well if time permits. We are definitely open to seeing historic places that are nearby, but for this trip, knowing our time constraints, if we have to choose one style of vacation over the other, it's more about the beautiful coast than it is about seeing every historic site.

I see that we can either drive east and south along the coast, or we could drive south toward Bologna and Ancona and then cross east over the water to Split. We do intend to drive by the car, by the way, unless it is strongly urged against. Is there a ferry that takes us (and the car) over the water or is it only a pedestrian ferry? If so, it might be worth it to take the ferry in one direction and drive back the other route.

By the way, we are going in October. Is that ridiculous? I don't expect we'll be laying out at the beaches soaking up the warm sun, but we are hoping that the weather will be nice enough that we can at least stroll along the coastal towns and enjoy nature without freezing.

Ghentleman

Not a crazy idea at all, I've found that driving is very civilized, definitely if comparing to Italy. Drive to Ancona, take overnight ferry to Split. If you want to visit an island, you could opt for Hvar where you can catch a ferry back to Ancona. There's quite a few connections between Italy and Croatia, but in October they will run on winter schedule (less frequent). There's quite a few comparison sites out there. Temperatures in Oktober still quite nice, but rain can be expected.

Revilo199

That sounds perfectly reasonable and like a great trip. Croatia is a great and beautiful country and in terms of infrastructure definitely on par with any other Western or Central European country nowadays thanks to huge tourism booms in the last decades (mainly Germans and Austrians).


No need for a ferry really, you can just drive over by car via Slovenia. Be careful, even the few kilometres of Slovenian motorway you'll have to cross require a Vignette (toll sticker) for around 10€ or so and both Police and Toll Control are out there in the hundreds taking your money if you forget to buy one.

I can recommend Novigrad, Porec and Pula in Istria which are all absolutely lovely and stunning towns and with you coming in October you'll have the additional advantage of avoding the Austro-German hordes sieging those cities in the summer months.

From there you could continue on onto one of the many Croatian islands, nearby Krk and Rab spring to mind.


Enjoy!

dhammer53

We returned from our Croatia trip last July. Briefly, we flew to Dubrovnik, then took the ferry to Korcula, Hvar, and finally Split, before flying home.

http://www.croatiatraveller.com/Tran...sinCroatia.htm
http://www.croatiaferries.com/forum/
http://www.croatiaferries.com/forum/

The ferry from Italy carries cars, and also has sleeping accomodations.

If you have 5 days, limit your time to 2 places.

From Split to Hvar, it's about 60 minutes if I recall.

Since it's off season, look closely at the ferry schedule. Also, many restaurants will be closed.

dh

sinfonia

Thanks, dhammer53, revilo199, ad ghentleman, for your extremely helpful information. We will definitely make a go of this trip. We are debating which region(s) to visit now and still doing research. It seems to me that we have mostly heard wonderful things about Istria which we are told is the vineyard country of Croatia and of Dubrovnik which is supposed to be so unique. We did hear Dubrovnik is rather touristy but I suppose cannot be avoided.

I am sure once we do more research, I will be back to post more questions. Thanks again for the help! We are really looking forward to this trip.

sinfonia

We have a rough itinerary and I'd like any input you might have:

Day 1: Drive (early) from Venice to Istria, visit small towns, maybe see an Krk or Rab, stay somewhere in Istria

Day 2: Drive to Sibenik and stay there for the day and evening

Day 3: Split for the day, to Dubrovnik after dinner

Days 4 and 5: Dubrovnik

Day 6: Drive back to Italy or take ferry back

Does this look do-able? Are we shortchanging ourselves by spending so little time in Split and Istria? We had heard that Sibenik is more "true Croatian" than Split so liked the idea of that.

Also, we are going to be in Dubrovnik on Nov. 1, All Saints' Day, which is a holiday. Should we expect that nothing at all will be open that day including restaurants? We figured we would spend the day visiting churches since they will likely be open and walking around the city walls and heading to the beach.

Thanks again for all of your help.

hdogan

Bear in mind that both Krk and Rab are *south* of Istria, so if you'll be staying somewhere in Istria, you'd have to backtrack. The drive from Istria to Sibenik will likely take you 4-5 hours along the highway (uninteresting), or about an hour, hour and a half longer if you take the coastal road, which is a really beautiful ride.

Stop by in Zadar on the way to Sibenik.

Split to Dubrovnik is about 3-hours drive, with a border crossing in and out of Bosnia. If you really plan to drive there after dinner, it will either be an early dinner or a very late arrival.

Two days in Dubrovnik is too much, IMO. Frankly, it's a very small medieval town, and once you've seen it, well... you've seen it. Rather make your trip to Dubrovnik a bit longer, spend a day, day and a half there, and drive back to Split to take the ferry.

Weather can be on and off in late October, you may have wonderful warm autumn, but you may get really cold wind as well... just bring clothes for both cases

sinfonia

This was extremely helpful, hdogan, and much appreciated. Based on the travel times that you alerted us to from Istria to Sibenik, and the fact that we know we want to spend time down in Dubrovnik, Montenegro and other small towns, we decided to leave off Istria altogether.

We are grateful for any feedback to the revised plan which is:

The first day will be spent driving from Veneto along the coast, visiting small coastal towns and eventually settling in one somewhere north of Split for the evening. It may be Sibenik, it may be Zadar, or it may be somewhere else. We still need to do more research to figure out what towns to stop in and stay in and are open to suggestions.

The second day, we would likely see Split and probably stay around there.

The third day, we would likely see Korcula and maybe stay in Korcula or near Split or another quaint town, also maybe do some sailing that day. How does it work to do sailing? I actually am a sailor (as in sail sailboats for fun and regattas) but I assume someone is not going to rent me their sailboat to take out and sail myself, and my traveling partner does not sail so would not be able to crew, so are we just hiring a sailboat and skipper who will take us around? Any recommendations as to how to do this/who to use? We would likely only want it for a few hours.

The fourth day, we would head down to Dubrovnik and see all that we can see there despite the fact that it will be All Saints' Day.

The fifth day, we would head down to Montenegro. I am not sure if we should stay in Montenegro or just go there for a day trip and stay in Dubrovnik again. Suggestions?

The sixth day would be the trek back up to Venezia.

We really went into this trip with a few things that we knew:

a) We want to see and relax on as much of the beautiful Dalmatian coast as possible and enjoy the beautiful water, though I understand actually swimming in it may not be advised that time of year,
b) We are really looking for a trip where we can get to see how the Croatians live, experience it more like locals instead of from a resort-feel, maybe stay at small locally-run, family-owned hotels, etc.

However, the more that we are seeing trip reports for the Le Meridien in Split and the Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik, the more we are wondering if we should stay these places instead. We were thinking of maybe renting an apartment in Dubrovnik, but after what we have heard about the location of the Hilton, we just wonder if maybe we should rethink this. So I am wondering if there is advice as to which way to go: apartment or hotel? Rick Steve's seems to say apartment, but how easy is it renting an apartment for only two nights and is it just easier to stay in a hotel? If not an apartment, are there recommendations for good family-owned hotels? Any recommendations as to whether to stay in Kotor Bay,Montenegro or just do a day trip and stay in Dubrovnik?

Has anyone seen the sword-dancing in Korcula and is that worth seeing?

Thanks again for the help!

Revilo199

My personal opinion: That's a whole lot of driving for 5 days.

You will propably spend a whole two days driving up and down the coast on a relatively boring Croatian motorway. Plan for around 12 hours of travel from Montenegro to Vicenza.

If I were you I'd cut the Southern part of Croatia and concentrate on the Northern one. Not that Dubrovnik isn't a fantastic town, but for my very own personal taste that amount of driving doesn't really pay off.

Of course, if you like driving and long roadtrips then that's fine, I just want to shed some light on the amount of driving you are planning to do here.

hdogan

This still doesn't cut down on your driving time. Vicenza to Rijeka (the closest coastal point if you avoid Istria) is some 3-4 hours of boring drive. Rijeka to Zadar is about 4 hours on the coastal road, Sibenik another hour. So, you're looking at 8-9 hours of just driving. If you count in a stop for lunch, maybe a few sightseeing stops, you're looking into 12-14 hours in the car.

Split to Korcula is, if I recall correctly, about a 3, 3 and a half hour ferry ride. So, again, you're looking at 6-7 hours of travel time if you're going to Korcula and back. However, you can take the ferry to (the island of) Korcula in the morning, and continue down Peljesac peninsula towards Dubrovnik (i.e. you don't need to backtrack to Split).

Actually, I have no idea. You may want to call up the marina in Korcula and see if they have any such services. You might be able to rent a boat for a day form charter agencies as well, as late October is off season, and they might want to get the boat out at least for a day. However, to charter a boat (without crew) you need Croatian Boat Leader's license (or similar license issued by a EU country).

Make it a day trip.


You won't be able to get to see how the Croatians live simply because you'll be spending most of your days in the car.


Late October will be no problem. That's considered low season, and I'm sure you'll be able to find an apartment. Bear in mind that if you rent an apartment in the Old Town, you will have a parking problem.

It is, but I'm not sure if they have regular shows that late in the year. It's usually an open-air show, and the weather might be on and off that time of year, so they may not want to risk it for low attendance.

Now, on to suggestions:

As Revilo199 said, you're packing WAY too much driving. Want a suggestion? If you really want to go that far south, instead of spending the whole of first day in the car, on day 0 (or -1, depending how you count) drive to Ancona, take an overnight ferry to Split. Start your adventure from Split. Look if there are ferries from Dubrovnik to Ancona for your way back.

If you want less driving, and don't insist on Dubrovnik, don't skip Istria. It's a magical place, and you can easily spend the 5 days around there, never heading more south than Krk. Actually, that time of year, you might want to be there and take a day trip to Plitvice Lakes, since autumn is the second best time to visit the lakes. By late October, the rivers will be full of water and waterfalls will be stunning.

If you really want to see how Croatians live, pick ONE place and stay there and relax. Especially as the year comes to an end (Oct-Nov-Dec), some of the islands become really quaint and serene and beautiful, and start belonging to the natives rather than the tourists. Go to Vis or Hvar. Even Korcula. If you want to cut down driving, go to the island of Losinj. It's a short ferry ride off the coast of Istria, and then you have the connected islands of Cres and Losinj to explore. Spend whole five days there. Get an apartment in an old stone house in a village. Watch fishermen bring in fresh fish in the morning. Explore a small part of the island, go hiking around some of the nice beaches. In the afternoon, have a nice lunch and watch fishermen mend their nets and prepare to go out.


Maybe find a small shipyard or local boat/fishing club and try to catch an old man mending his wooden boat.


Walk down the local park or promenade, watch the old ladies sit in for their gossip sessions.


In the evening, go to a good Konoba and share a bottle of local wine over some great local food.



Trust me, five days of that, you won't be bored, you'll relax, see some beautiful scenery, and really see how Croatians live, without going through the stress of having to drive for hours somewhere every day.

All the images are from google, and actually places I mentioned in this post

sinfonia

Again, you have been very helpful. Thank you.

Dubrovnik has become a "definitely, yes" stop for us on this trip. Because of this, we figured we'd give up Istria so that we could see Dubrovnik, figuring only 7 hours for the Vicenza-Zadar drive. I see, now, that the coastal route says 8.5 hours. We also had no idea that the ferry was so long to Korcula!

The photos and idea of staying in one place and exploring all the natural beauty and local culture that the island and village has to offer is so compelling. And yet, if Dubrovnik is a "must" for us, as well as seeing other small coastal towns on the coast, we thought the ferry option might be best.

However, we were planning to drive (coastal route) for the following reasons:

1) We read that ferries can be unreliable that time of year and may be canceled altogether. We don't want to drive down to Ancona only to find out our trip will lose a day or two depending on when the next ferry goes. I see that there are limited routes available that time of year, but we can find Ancona-Split available. But it is not available the night that we wished to go, which means we would have to alter our plans.
2) But when we calculate the driving time to Ancona (5.5 hours), then staying on a ferry all night, the actual time getting there is not any faster. Though part of it is overnight (was it 12 hours, I think?), it still takes quite a bit of time to get there.
3) We checked into flights and renting a car. We could save ourselves maybe 2-3 hours total by flying (factoring in time to get to the airport and check in ahead of time, etc.) but for only a couple of hours, it wasn't worth it to us since we would miss seeing some of the coast and stopping in places such as Zadar, etc. on the way down to Split since the way we have the trip planned, we wouldn't have much time to double back and go up there once we arrived in Split. It does sound like a long day of driving, but I think we have to be fine with it given the fact that we really want to go to Dubrovnik and see the Dalmatian coast.

It turns out that though we were planning to day-trip Korcula on a Saturday (drive from Vicenza Thursday, to Split Friday, to Korcula Saturday), the catamaran only runs Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays that time of year and at 7:45 AM. I'm not sure how reasonable it is to think that we will have that long day of driving Thursday and be all the way down in Split and ready to board the catamaran at 7:45 AM the next morning. Is there another island we should visit near Split instead? We were less interested in Hvar than Korcula.

Can we drive directly to Dubrovnik from Split? I understand there is a border crossing in/out of Bosnia, but not sure what to do about the extra insurance required to get through this passing. Where do we obtain this insurance? Will we have problems with the border crossing at Montenegro as well for this? What about through Slovenia? I understand we need the vignette which we will get, but is Bosnia the only crossing the requires some sort of car insurance and if so, what insurance is it?

Thanks again for all of the help.

hdogan

Also count in any stops, lunch break, sightseeing and so on...

For insurance, as long as you have the european Green Card (Carta Verde), you'll be fine in Bosnia and Montenegro. If you don't have it, just contact your car insurance company to issue you one. It's just a matter of having the form, nothing else. Your Italian car insurance should have you covered.

Regarding the trip from Split to Dubrovnik: I mentioned before that you can drive *through* the island of Korcula. There are two ways to get from Split to Korcula: Catamaran (passenger only) and car ferry (cars+passengers). Instead of going back and forth to Split, do the following:

Take a car ferry to Vela Luka (on the W tip of Korcula), drive across the island to Korcula town (on the E tip of Korcula). From there, take the ferry to Orebic on Peljesac peninsula, drive down Peljesac (another beautiful drive!) and to Dubrovnik. That way you avoid crossing through Bosnia. Peljesac also has some great wines, so if you're into that, a friend of mine has a vineyard+wine bar+restaurant on the hillsides, I'll send you the contact info
The only issue is that the ferry leaves split at 3 PM on Saturday (arrives to Vela Luka at 5:40PM), but you could sleep over in Korcula town and leave for Dubrovnik the next morning.

I'd really recommend doing that.

Which route were you looking at through Slovenia? If you'll take the Italian highway to Trieste, then down Basovizza, Kozina, Starod to Pasjak border crossing into Croatia (E61 route), you don't need a Slovenian vignette. It's only required for highways and motorways, and on that route, there are none. After you leave the Italian highway at Padriciano, the next section of highway is some 5 kilometers after entering Croatia.

hdogan

BTW, if it fits your schedule, you can look into taking a ferry from Dubrovnik to Bari, and driving up Italy for the way back. It departs Dubrovnik on Tue, Thu and Sat at 10PM, getting you there at 8 AM the next day.

sinfonia

All of the information posted here is really helping us create and firm up plans. We loved the Korcula suggestion and tried everything we could to make that work but with ferry times, it just took too much time out of our schedule. Still, we liked the idea of the peninsula so have incorporated that into our plans.

Our trip will be similar to what I posted with minor changes:

Day 1: VENICE TO ZADAR: Drive from Venice to Zadar (E61 and coastal route once we get to Opatija area), stopping at a couple of towns for stretching our legs and meals. We know this will be a long day but have resolved to not be in a rush about it and just enjoy the beautiful scenery. Stay in Zadar at a sobe or apartment. Right now, we are considering an apartment in Old Town Zadar.

Day 2: ZADAR, SIBENIK, SPLIT: See Zadar in the morning and make our way to Split, stopping in Sibenik and other small towns. Arrive in Split by dinner time. Stay at Le Meridien Split/Lav.

Day 3: SPLIT, MAKARSKA, PELJESAC PENINSULA: See Old Town Split in the morning and then make our way down toward Ston/Mali Ston on the Peljesac peninsula, stopping in Makarska and driving through Metkovic where we read there may be (in the summer) mandarins and local honey roadside which is exciting to us, but I wonder if driving through at 6 PM on the last day of October is going to bring us bad luck finding roadside local goodies. We realize we are going to get to Mali Ston late in the day (about 7 PM), so we figured we would have dinner there (since the region is so highly acclaimed for gastronomy), and just stay the night there. However, we are having trouble finding a whole lot of options for accommodations in the area as most rentals are a minimum of one week and the hotels are not that exciting us. Keep in mind that we are not expecting fancy places - we are all for small, local hotel that are more modest, but we just are not finding a lot. Does anyone have any recommendations as to places to stay for one night near Ston or Mali Ston? We also considered just driving in late that night to Dubrovnik since it is so close but we were hoping to take it more leisurely. We also found that there are apartments for rent for one night in Slano which is on the way to Dubrovnik. We don't know anything about it other than it is on the way to Dubrovnik.

Day 4: DUBROVNIK: We will head to Dubrovnik, making it in time for a 10 AM church service. We plan to walk the walls, take the cable car, visit the other major sights (and maybe Buza Bar for the evening), and out to dinner somewhere. We will be at the Hilton Dubrovnik that night.

Day 5 : KOTOR BAY: We will drive to Kotor Bay, spending the day down there. We were hoping to hire specifically a sailboat and skipper for half of a day, but have run into trouble in that we are going during the off-season (we will be there Nov. 2) and it seems most boats stop at the end of October. Specifically, we wanted a sailboat and as mentioned here, I need a certain license to sail so we would need to hire a skipper instead of going bareboat. Stop for dinner in Cavtat or the Konavle region or somewhere on the way back for a "local" dinner (we are very interested in agrotorismo) to Dubrovnik and stay at the Hilton again for the evening.

Day 6: TO ITALY. We love the idea of taking the ferry back as suggested here by hdogan, but the ferry does not run the days we are traveling. We will drive the "quick" way instead of scenic this day as it will be the longest day of driving.

A few questions:

a) How do you find a reputable sobe or apartment (Zadar and peninsula are)? I see many listed on booking.com and other websites but know nothing about many of them so don't know how to discern what would be good Some tour guides say sobes are regulated and listed on certain websites (though I don't know what those official websites are) and other tour guides say they are unregulated. Should we feel comfortable with something on booking.com or not necessarily? Also, Rick Steve's guides say to book directly with the sobe instead of through a site, but we have no idea how to do such a thing as most are only listed on third party sites.

b) Any recommendations for accommodations in Zadar? We prefer to stay in Old Town.

c) Any recommendations for accommodations near Ston or Mali Ston or even Slano or somewhere else in the area?

d) Any recommendations for restaurants in Mali Ston and also on the way back from Kotor Bay near Cavtat or Konavle area? We love the idea of local farmhouses and whatnot.

e) We were unsuccessful renting sailboat in Split or Makarska or Zadar because they tend to rent longer (minimum one day but usually minimum of a week) so found a charter company that does rent for half-days but don't have skippers available the day we are there. Is there a trick to hiring a local sailor outside of using a charter company?

f) Will we find roadside goodies for sale when we pass through Metkovic?

Many thanks, again, for your fantastic help and information.

hdogan

It is regulated, but I'm not sure if there is a central registry. If I were you, I would go for the booking sites. Look at airbnb as well - in general, any community-driven site where you can see reviews of actual people who stayed there will be a good starting point.

Also, every village/town has a Tourist Board office, where you can simply walk in and ask for available accommodation. They have a pool of non-occupied places to direct you to. However, there is no screening for these places, so you may end up in a less nice a place than if you looked upfront.

Furthermore, in some places you will simply see people with a board "sobe" standing roadside. Those are the most unreliable as far as accommodation and host quality goes.

Konavoski Dvori for the way back


Boka Kotorska is quite a boring place to sail, actually. If you're planning on going sailing, do it from Split or Zadar.

Do you have a EU-issued skipper / boat leader license? Some of them are recognized by Croatian authorities as being valid. For Italians, that would be Patente per imbarcazione da diporto issued by the port authority, I'm guessing you're both Italian cizitens?

EDIT: I see that you are Amtrak basic, so you may be a US citizen. These are recognized by Croatian authorities:

- Basic Coastal Cruising (American Sailing Associaton)
- Basic Keelboat (US Sailing Association)
- Bareboat Chartering (ASA)
- Basic Cruising (USSA)
- Bareboat Cruising (USSA)
- Advanced Coastal Cruising (ASA)
- Coastal Navigation (USSA)
- Coastal Passagemaking (USSA)

Along with the US licenses, you need to have a radio operators license, since any sailboats you rent will have a VHF radio. I'm not sure if you get it along with your sailing certification in the US...

Actually, mandarines picking season starts in October, so you might be in luck!