Hello all,
I recently returned from two weeks in Croatia. Week 1 was a multi-sport trip w/ US outfitter REI Adventures. Saw Zagreb, Plitivce Lakes, Paklenka, Zadar, Trogir, Split, more...all of this was wonderful and beautiful, but that was before the Dalmatian Riviera...
Week 2 was by myself in southern Dalmatia. I drove from Split to Cavtat where I stayed (just south of Dubrovnik); good deal on Sixt.com rental car. Driving the %26quot;highway%26quot; (aka main thoroughfare) is not for the faint of hear nor the inexperienced driver. The 220k (130 m) ride took 5 1/4 hours, with only one quick break. I did not travel over 80kph the whole time!
Visited Dubrovnik via ferry. Took longer than others had advised - 1 hr 15 min going out, was almost late for my tour. Did a city tour, also walked the walls - must do! Dubrovnik was simply amazing. A trip to Croatia is not complete without a visit!
Cavtat was a lovely small beach town, on the quiet side as I had hoped. I stayed in the monastery for two nights (great location, pain to get your stuff in/out there - no cars in old town), and Haus am Meer for the balance. The Haus is run by a German woman who speaks about as much English as I speak German. She is a bit strict, but in a good way, and I felt like she was watching out for me (like the day I went into Montengro - which incidently, I did not love (Kotor)).
I also went out to the Peljesac peninsula. Saw the stone walls in, uh, Ston, which are 2-3x the length of those in Dubrovnik. Also saw the mussel farms in this area. Did some wine tasting there - was pleasantly surprised by a number of Croatian wines (Zlatan Plavac was my favorite). The peninsula is gorgeous - grape vines, fig %26amp; olive trees, rolling hills, gentle sea. I got to the end (Orebic) but did not have time to get to Korcula.
I had plenty of great seafood, and also some good Italian (including pizzas!), but prices in the Dubrovnik area - even in Cavtat - are significantly higher than elsewhere, even Zagreb.
The water was nice - not bath temps, but warm, and the high salinity allows for easy floating. It was gentle enough for me to go out in a basic, sit-on-top kayak - once in the group, once on my own.
Weather in early September was stellar - 28-37C (82-98F) during the day (37 was up in the hills w/ the sun beating down, not at the beach), and I never needed a jacket or sweater at night. It never felt too hot or stuffy (but understand - I live in Austin, home of 20 days %26gt;38C in June...). No rain.
Language was not an issue. Younger Croatians took English in school (older ones took Russian), and in tourist areas, everyone knew enough to communicate (and I learned a fair share of Croatian myself - which was defn. appreciated).
What might I have done differently? I felt like I spend too much time in the car, by myself, driving very slowly around crazy mountain curves. I don%26#39;t think the day bus trip options looked that good tho...so perhaps I might have just chilled out a bit more (I%26#39;m an active person and that is hard!).
All in all, a wonderful place, lovely people, great food and drink, and still relatively affordable. They%26#39;re billing it as %26quot;the Mediterranean as it used to be%26quot;...and it is. Go now, before this changes!!!
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Great to hear that you had a great trip amdude66. Thanks for the update!!!
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Thanks for the trip report. I am heading out to Croatia on Friday and very excited. Always nice to see how others got on.
What about Kotor did you not like? I had planned to do a tour to Montenegro for a day but would like to know more about your experience.
Did you do a formal wine tour on the Peljesac? Again I had hoped to do a day tour there but will likely not have enough time to do all that I have my eye on.
Thanks for any info.
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