While for me there is no place like home, I also love to travel. Thankfully, I am married to someone who is equally eager to explore the world, preferably to locations yet undiscovered.
Last June, we spent ten days in Croatia, a country that none of us had previously visited, and that has been a popular travel destination in recent years. As you know, Croatia was one of six republics that made up the former Yugoslavia. It is situated along the Adriatic Sea and travelers explore the country by boat, bike and automobile. While I can show you pictures that illustrate the country’s natural beauty, I cannot do justice to the history of this part of eastern Europe in a blog post. It was interesting as we traveled throughout the country and into nearby Montenegro to hear locals, our guides and drivers tell us their perspective on the break up of Yugoslavia, who was on what side of history and how that affects relationships today. I am interested in returning one day to visit Bosnia and perhaps Serbia to gain an even broader perspective of this region.
In any case, Croatia by itself is quite a large country so were encouraged to pick and choose where to travel given the time we had. We focused on the southern sections of the country, along with visits to two Adriatic islands. Our trip took us to the country’s second largest city, Split, Plitvice Lakes National Park and Dubrovnik, all World Heritage UNESCO sites. Nestled between these stops were stays on Hvar and Korchula, islands that are a study in contrasts. Towards the end of our trip, we enjoyed tastings at two wineries and spent a day in nearby country, Montenegro before heading home to the states.
I was inspired to post about the trip because in the past month, a few friends have asked us for our itinerary which we are most happy to share. At the end of the post, I’ve listed a couple of hotels and restaurants that we particularly enjoyed and can recommend.
Overall, the trip was fantastic and for the most part, went off without a hitch. While I wouldn’t necessarily call Croatia a food destination, we had some incredible meals and some very good ones in every spot. We found the Croatian wines to be quite good and even had some shipped home. The people were incredibly friendly and we always felt safe. Croatia’s currency is the Kuna (Euro in Montenegro) and prices seemed reasonable most everywhere we went.
The photos below will give you a glimpse of the architecture that will probably remind you of other cities and islands around the globe. Enjoy and if you have questions, please don’t hesitate to pop me an email!
To start off, here’s a screen shot of The Kitchen Scout website with a new tab called Travel. This is where I have stored all my past travel posts from places both near and far. If you find yourself traveling to Croatia down the road, click on the Travel tab to find this post…
Our first stop was in Croatia’s second largest city, Split…
Diocletian’s Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest attraction in the city. Below is one of the palace’s courtyards followed by a photo of a section of its interior which is below ground level…
Views of the cathedral (above) and its bell tower which we climbed. Not for the claustrophobic as it’s quite tight up there…
The architecture is beautiful and the older part of the city is filled with little alleyways where we stumbled upon lots of fun entries such as the one below…
A view back to Split from Park Marjan…
Next stop was the Plitvice Lakes National Park which is a 3 hour drive from Split. Despite the fact that it was quite crowded with tourists, we were happy to have seen this unspoiled national treasure. The park has 16 lakes, renowned for their color, that are inter-connected by a grand collection of waterfalls. There is a well-laid out system of wooden walkways that allows the park to be very manageable by foot. We had a guide so she directed our course which was very helpful…
That’s us in the lower right corner below. We are not very tall, but hopefully this gives you a sense of the magnitude of our surroundings!
The colors were truly spectacular…
From Split, we took a catamaran to Hvar, one of our two island destinations. There wasn’t a bad view in site on this popular island that loves to party. We had one afternoon and one full day on the island which was just right. Unfortunately, we were supposed to go on an excursion to the famous Blue Caves but it was cancelled as the tide was too high to access the caves. Instead, we hired a captain and small boat and were able to sneak in swims and refreshments in lots of coves around Hvar and the Pakaleni islands that we would never have experienced otherwise which was really fun. Our captain ignored the hotel’s recommended lunch spot and instead took us a wonderful little spot where we had one of the best meals of the trip…
A walk up to the Fortress atop Hvar…
and a look back…
View from our boat…
Our lunch spot named Molionte, a family run restaurant where the owner told us what she could make for us (no menus). My husband and I opted for the specialty fish with potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, pepper and olives. It was incredible…
Our third stop was the island of Korcula, about an hour or so away from Hvar that was also accessed by catamaran. By comparison, Korcula is much smaller and I would argue more elegant than Hvar. Maybe we were tired or just into the groove of our trip by then, but this stop was by far our favorite. And we barely did anything other than lounge by a beach, take a short tour of the old town and enjoy delightful meals and friendly hosts and hostesses everywhere we went. There were also a few spiritual moments for us on this stop that are too difficult to explain, but which solidified Korcula as the trip winner! A former Greek colony and location of Marco Polo’s childhood home, Korcula was beautiful. We were thankful to be there ahead of the crowds as it isn’t a big place…
Love the cobblestone streets…
Site of Marco Polo’s house. You can see an image of the route he traveled on the left…
Departing from Korcula was sad and followed by a drive along the coast to Dubrovnik. Along the way, we stopped at two wineries to have tastings which was really fun. We really enjoyed the Croatian wines and one of the vineyards we visited, Milos was owned by a family that could trace its history in the area for 500 years. They supplied wine and olive oil to the hotel we had stayed at on Korcula and we ordered both to be shipped home which was a great souvenir of our trip.
We also had an oyster tasting. Not sure how that slipped into our itinerary unnoticed, but if anyone suggests it to you, politely decline ok? You’ll thank me. And that’s coming from someone who really enjoys oysters 🙂
Dubrovnik is a magestic stone-built city. The height of the walls alone will take your breath away, and the inside is almost like walking around a movie set as it’s quite magical. Having said that, it’s also quite commercialized and there are lots of tourists. Natch.
The weather was absolutely beautiful so before dinner on one of our evenings, we “walked the wall” which is a must-do. The distance is about 1.5 miles so it doesn’t take long and the views are spectacular of both the city itself and the Adriatic.
These pics were taken at all times of day and night, starting with this one of the entrance to the city…
Views of and from the walls…
On our last day, we visited Montenegro. A part of Serbia until 2006, Montenegro is now an independent country that is largely Christian Orthodox. The country is 80% mountainous and about the size of Connecticut. We visited some of the highlights including the Bay of Kotor where the island of Our Lady on the Rocks is located…
Two more stops in Persat and Budva and we made our way back along the coastline.
What a great trip! Just writing this up is making me want to plunge into that Adriatic water again sometime soon.
If you’ve been to Croatia, please comment below to let us know other must-do activities for those who haven’t visited as yet.
Here is a short list of a few hotels and restaurants we can recommend…
Hotels:
Restaurants:
Pensatore Kitchen & Wine on Korcula
Until next time…
Sooo glad you’re adding a travel tab, so I will be able to find this again. What an amazing trip. Can’t wait to get over to that neck of the woods someday. Thanks for the inspiration, Val!
Wow! What an amazing trip! Your photos are spectacular. I have never been to Croatia and frankly didn’t even have it on my list until now. Thanks for sharing!
Your trip looks amazing, Valerie! The sights (and the photography) are breathtaking!!
Sign me up as one of the people who wants your itinerary! Did you do all of the travel research yourself, or do you have a travel agent you like to work with?