Croatia recommendations please.

[Ifulikepinacoladas]

Looking at Croatia for early July next year. It will be me, DH and DS16.

We would like a lovely hotel, very near or on the beach. Hopefully near one of the bigger cities to visit.

While I am happy to do nothing all day long, DH and DS need activities, like jet skis, kayaking or similar.

Budget would be around £3k. Could spend more but having looked on Love Holidays and On the Beach, this seems to be fine.

Would love some ideas for us, thank you in advance.

Zadar area is lovely and cheep to get too via Ryan air
Cavtat is amazing but beach is not sandy

Dubrovnik also lush

We hired a car and explored these areas to find jet ski beaches etc

The Lone Hotel in Rovinj is fabulous and right on the beach. Rovinj its self is gorgeous and there are quite a lot of nearby activities.

Rovinj is fab, tho maybe a bit quiet for a teenager.

We paid more than OP's budget for two of us in July this year. Was bloody lovely though!

Rovinj is fab but maybe for like a day trip?

What about the Verudela peninsula in Pula? Large resort with hotels and lots of activities. Could hire a car for the trip too (Pula airport hire about 150quid for a week). Drive up to Rovinj for a day out. Also drive to one of the two water parks near Pula.

Pula city centre is lovely, small and beautiful, great for a mooch around.

I think Rovinj would be over budget. I'm spending 3K for a solo holiday there, and had to compromise on location to get that.

You can also do a Ferry day trip over to Venice from Pula. It's a very long day out, and not cheap, but would tick Venice off the list if it's somewhere you fancied seeing at some point.

I have been to Cavtat, which has the activities you describe. You can also get a very convenient boat to Dubrovnik.

I'm following for inspo, I went in a cruise in September we stopped in Croatia and Slovenia and we were blown away! Definitely going back for our main holiday next year. We went to lake bled and there was a lovely hotel rose or something similar - would love to incorporate a couple of nights there

Villas apartments mlini in Mlini. Only the villas or apartments as the hotel itself is very dated.
Mlini is a small village but you can walk to cavtat along a coastal path and there’s a boat direct to dubrovnik very close to the hotel.

This sounds good, will definitely have a look, and @featheryfancy that sounds like the kind of place / thing we'd like doing.

Thanks all so far for suggestions. I will look at them all.

DH has wanted to go to Croatia for a long time and this trip will be a 'taster'. We'd like to go again incorporating possibly staying on Hvar. This is also first holiday without our DD as she is going with her bf, hence why only 7 days in case DS gets fed up with our company 😄

We just stayed near Dubrovnik in the beach area. There is a hotel group with beachfront locations and a bus stop right outside to Dubrovnik centre. Ideal for you. We stayed in Ariston. The area is called Babin Kuk.

My colleague and his family went to Pula and loved it. Stayed AI but left the resort to visit the local beaches, town etc. They did lots of water sports, arranged via the hotel.
We went to Zadar and the island of Krk, self catering. I can recommend both. Everywhere in Croatia has boats trips and water sports, but we went in inland for days out too. Plitvice National Park and the waterfalls is worth a visit.
I don't think you can go wrong with Croatia. It's beautiful, the food is great, the people were friendly. It's more expensive than Spain, that's the only negative I can come up with!

The hotel group with the best beach is Valamar by the way. We were in Royal which has less accessible beaches.

Dubrovnik definitely, my favourite place in the world.

Cavtat is beautiful and about 30 mins from busy Dubrovnik by bus or boat. We went this July and can highly recommend the Hotel Supetar but for 3 of you, you'll need 2 rooms which will bump up prices. I was also surprised at the cost of eating out, a pizza lunch for 4 of us with soft drinks was £80-100, a proper dinner of grilled fish/meat and a salad for 4 was easily £150..add a further 25% for Dubrovnik prices. It is a stunning place but we were surprised by the cost of things this summer.

Cavtat is gorgeous

I went to Cavtat we drove to Montenegro Dubrovnik Budvar and Bosnia too easy access

Are there some beach resorts that are cheaper than others? I knew Dubrovnik was expensive but a bit surprised at the high prices I’m finding elsewhere.

So we've actually booked an apartment in Zadar, thank you @BaronessBomburst .

We looked at all the recommendations and have a list for future trips that we will definitely take, so thanks everyone.

The apartment we've booked has great reviews is 2 mins from a beach and has a pool too. The flights we are going to book are good value and go to Zadar airport. Flights and accommodation will be just under £2k which I think is amazing, so @craniol keep looking! We try to book everything separately, not against package holidays, but I feel more in control and think you can get better deals doing it yourself.

We will hire a car too so will get to some of the national parks, and DH and DS can go off in search of activities/ adventure.

Rijeka, Opatija and Krk. I hear good things about the Hilton in Rijeka, and a Michelin starred restaurant!

Just seen your update. Are you hiring a car? Can recommend some amazing restaurants but they’re further North.

I'll pop back later with some recommendations for Zadar!

That would be fab, thank you!

@PurBal we will hire a car but probably not for eating out. We are in Zadar so able to walk to the restaurants there, otherwise DH can't drink if we go further 😄

Sounds like a great choice.