Croatia Itinerary

[Flimpychunk]

We are hoping to go to Croatia next summer and I was after ideas of where to visit!

So far, I'm thinking that we fly to Zagreb, spend a day or two there, drive to Rastoke and then Plitvice. After that, I think we'd probably want to be based in one place and that's the bit I'm struggling with.

Does anyone have any recommendations for anywhere that:

• has sandy beaches
• is preferably on an island
• is somewhere that would allow us to go on day trips up to an hour away so we can still explore more of the country

I have no experience of Croatia at all so any advice would be very gratefully received!

Krk Island or Murter island are both connected to the mainland by bridge rather than ferry which might be useful

Hvar and Brac are both stunningly beautiful and the ferries to Split are pretty regular but they’re about an hour long.

Dugi Otok has amazing beaches and is usually not busy even in the height of the season - ferries from Zadar are 45 minutes but you can also hop between islands on boat tours etc.

Thank you so much!

DP has thrown a curve ball and thinks we should just fly in and out of split so hvar and brac seem most likely. It's a shame as I think DS2's travel sickness will prevent us visiting Plitvice, which I really wanted to do, but perhaps Krka National Park will have to do instead.

Croatia is simply fabulous! Could you book two separate flights and fly into Zagreb and out of Split or Zadar? There is a train twice a day that runs between Zagreb and Split, would using that help with the travel sickness? We were in Zagreb September 2022, we used it as a gateway for visiting Slovenia and I'd allocated it a full day. I hadn't researched properly and found a lot of the tourist sites in Zagreb were shut as repairs were ongoing following the 2020 earthquake. We were able to walk through the Gric tunnel and visit the tower with the canon that fires at midday, but St Marks church, cathedral etc were all still shut to visitors and that appears to still be the case a year on. We ended up in the museum of illusions to fill time. Plitvice is mid-way between Zagreb and Zadar, it's only a 90 min drive Zadar to Plitvice, would that be manageable? Plitvice is magical, but we went October half-term (so low season). I've not been to Dugi Otok, but CherryAssam was recommending above, you acces Dugi Otok from Zadar. Split is also great. Croatia not known for sandy beaches, they are few and far between, the coastline beaches are fairly pebbly.