Any tips for a Croatia holiday?

[AuburnConkers]

Late in booking our summer holiday this year, but we've decided on Croatia. Haven't booked accommodation yet but flying to Split (2 adults, 2 teens). Have 2 weeks to play with.
We'll probably stay in Split a few days, then rent a car and explore a bit. Any tips for places to visit / avoid? Are the islands worth exploring? We want to see Dubrovnik.
Would love to hear about places off the beaten track too that are worth a visit / stay.

Yes, there are many places with concrete swimming platforms/walkways into the sea, but there are loads of beaches too. Although they're almost all rocky/pebbly. But in many places the pine trees come down very close to the water, so you're sitting on more of a layer of (hard) soil and needles than rocks or pebbles.

Islands: I think some are known for being busy 'party' islands, but others are less well known or are partially or totally nature reserves where they only let on a certain number of visitors, or only a certain number of people can stay overnight, so it's quiet after the day-trippers leave. There are so many islands in Croatia, there's a lot of choice.

I have to say I've not been overly impressed with the food; but maybe that's because we've tended to stay in or near fairly international and mainstream holiday towns and the food's been a bit generic. I also quail at the price of some of the fresh seafood dishes. Rovinj was ££££££ if you had anything more than some preserved sardines.

Thanks for all these amazing tips. So good to hear firsthand experience. Lots to digest… but I cannot wait. Sounds like such a beautiful place!

If you go further south, towards Dubrovnik, Korcula and Mljet are both islands worth visiting (Korcula is where Marco Polo came from and has a lovely medieval town and nice beaches around the island), Mljet has amazing swimming/climbing/jumping spots and an island on it (so there is an island on the island).

As people have said: take beach shoes. Sand is rare.

Bosnia is excellent if you have time to visit on the way down. Mostar and the waterfalls at Kravica are both worth visiting and near the border. (It cost us a few pounds extra to get insured for this in a hire car - not much at all although you need to plan ahead.)

Dubrovnik is amazing but probably too packed to be worth it.

Roads were all fine when I was last there (in Croatia) - better than where I live in the UK by a long way. Bosnian country roads were a bit more basic in places.

I had one of the best holidays of my life in Croatia. Such a beautiful country. We stayed in Lapad which is right next to the old town in Dubrovnik.

It was a fantastic base, we went into Dubrovnik on the bus many times, went island hopping on a boat and a couple of day trips to Bosnia and Montenegro.

Top tip is pack water shoes for the beach and sea. Sea urchins there are brutal!

Have a wonderful time!

We stayed in Cavtat not far from Dubrovnik and it’s one place I would return to you can get a ferry or bus into Dubrovnik from there. Top tip we were given was to check on how many cruise ships were in a day and pick a day with the least and also go into the town later in the day as a lot of the cruise ships leave about 2pm.

I stayed near Pula. So many amazing places. other than those mentioned already, Motovun was small but stunning. Park at the bottom and get the minibus up.

Also look at 'agritourism' to find farms that provide lunches using their own produce. We turned up at one near Motovun, the only visitors, lady there spoke no English but called some reinforcements who arrived shortly after to translate, then left again. We had a jug of fresh pear juice from their orchard, a chicken stew and bread, oil etc.really delicious and a great scheme to help small farmers.We were also joined by a loose donkey and pony who very politely requested our leftovers and got a bit of bread.

That is no longer true as there is now a bridge.

We flew into Split and went straight to the islands. We didn't hire a car and used buses but the ferries take cars.

We went to Brac (Supertar and Bol), then onto Hvar, Korcula (my favourite) and then boat to Dubrovnik. This was before kids so we just got accommodation from locals meeting the ferry. Paid 8 pounds per night for a lovely apartment in Korcula town but this was 20 years ago!

We stayed a few days in each place, longer in Korcula. Then got the train from Dubrovnik back to Split for flight home.

Best holiday ever!

I loved Dubrovnik but it was crazy busy and it was out of season with low numbers of cruise ship passengers. I'd just go for a day trip.

My other top tip is to eat lots of lavender icecream

That sounds incredible. Really off the beaten track and totally memorable!

Sounds like a good idea. Really want to see Dubrovnik but hordes of tourists is really off putting…

We are planning to go in July. We’re flying into split - 1 day, then thinking onto Brac. We’d love to go to Plitvice Lakes National Park for a couple of days. We have 10 days, though given the distance I’m not sure if this would be a bit rushed and we’d be better off island hopping round split?

I'd avoid Dubrovnik in the summer, it's teaming with tourists as all the cruises turn out there. The islands are beautiful and on some of them, we were the only Brits. I'd definitely hire a car. Enjoy!

Head to the walls at sunset.

Visit Lombok Island.

Water shoes!!!! That’s my recommendation. Other than that, you can’t go wrong, it’s à beautiful country.

We are very late in planning this years holiday. Thinking about flying to Dubrovnik, straight to Mljet for two nights, then Korcula for four nights and Brac for four nights, then fly out of Split. We were aiming to stay near Korcula Town when there, but is there anywhere we should aim for on Brac. I saw a pp mentioned Bol.
I'll aim to book ferries beforehand but it looks like they are pretty frequent between those as foot passengers.
Any hotels or other recommendations? We will take beach shoes 😀

My biggest trip is to book a window seat for the flight. Looking out at all the islands is absolutely phenomenal.

Not too keen on Split/Zadar/Dalmatia it's not very pretty, hills but lots of buildings. Beaches packed with people and not v. clean.

Dubrovnik or the King's Landing is absolutely overcrowded and expensive.

Hvar is very popular.

Istria/Rovinj or Rijeka/Opatija (such a pretty town) might be more chill and relaxing.

The best thing about people spending their summer in Croatia, small islands, crystal clear sea, can snorkel, nature, privacy.

Let us know how you liked it 😉

I can't agree about Zadar. Beautiful and fascinating city (remains of a Roman forum and a Byzantine church for starters), and I found the beaches clean, and not over-busy considering I was there in August. It's also where a lot of ferries go to some really beautiful islands.
Rovinj OTOH, while it is a pretty town and has glorious views out to sea, I found a bit tawdry – full of 'art galleries' selling tourist tat pictures, heaving with shops and stalls offering cheap jewellery and naff postcards and scarves etc, and very crowded at same time of year. Not so friendly either. And restaurants £££. And there's not much swimming apart from a small and busy area with a concrete platform and a few rocks. In Zadar there are actual beaches.

Yep. I have been 3 times, absolutely love the place!

@MarkWithaC I'm pleased you enjoyed Zadar so much! Now we know where Marc will be, come August

Perhaps sadly, I'm not going to Croatia this summer, in the interests of branching out a bit . But I will miss the Adriatic.

We have just come back from Rovinj. Amazing place. And food was fabulous as well. Very Italian influenced and better IMO than lots of places in Italy itself!

We stayed in Dubrovnik, Hvar and Korčula.
We loved Dubrovnik and Hvar and would go back in a heartbeat.
Korčula was ok.