Greece or Croatia in late July

[WannaWannaSweetie]

Hoping someone can help me with this one.

I'm hoping to take my family (DH, 2 teenage DD's) and my elderly parents away for a warm holiday this summer.

We love our own villa/home with a pool but somewhere close enough for my parents to walk to shops and cafes, and for us to walk to a beach.

We'd love to try Croatia or a Greek island but have experience of neither.

We don't really want to rely on cars (apart from hiring one perhaps for a day or two to explore).

Parents don't mind the heat as long as villa has air-con.

They're in their 80's with good mobility but we've always been let-down by previous bookings - Villa owners who state that facilities are in 'walking distance' when they are not, no pavements etc and we've had to resort to taxis.

I'd love to go somewhere where they can get up and go without having to rely on us to take them (I certainly don't mind - but my DP's don't like asking!).

Would love some advice please!

Any small town in Croatia will do this. Eg Primosten, Brela, Rovinj, Rogoznica - depending on the vibe you want. You’ll need a car or a taxi to get there from the airport though, but these all have a beach and a town (restaurants, cafes, market) and lots of houses to rent all in walking distance.

Following as my 18 year old and her friends are looking for similar - walking distance to beach and bars etc in the evening, have been looking at the Greek island but good idea to check out Croatia too.

Makarska on the Croatian riviera is beautiful. We've been twice.

Thanks everyone.

@LittleMonks11 where did you stay? Was it Airbnb or package?

We stayed at this hotel which is walking distance along to Makarska town - along a beautiful stretch of beaches

www.aminess.com/en/aminess-khalani-hotel

We didn't go on a package but I think you can do them with the main tour operators

There are lots of cheaper hotels with pools along that stretch overlooking the sea which is like the Caribbean (except pebbles) and the water is the most crystal clear I've ever seen (and I've been around)

We flew to Split and picked up a car which we also used for day trips - last year we did a day trip to Dubrovnik

I'd go back again and as we didn't fit in an island trip yet

Makarska has a good nightlife apparently

Croatia's lovely but lots of the coastline doesn't have sandy beaches if that's important to you.

I have been to Croatia a couple of times and Greece a few times. I've only stayed in a villa once in Crete but it wasn't very accessible to the main village which we didn't know until we got there!
We stayed in hotels outside of the main locations in Croatia and my experience from those trips was that it was easier to walk into the main town than in Greece but obviously it depends on the exact location.

Thanks everyone. It's a bit frustrating.

It seems as if you can't have privacy in your accommodation without being out in the sticks a little.

You could look up the address of some villas on instant street view and then you would be able to explore the area and see how easy it is to get around on foot?

Villa Plus has a “car not required” filter which shows you places in a village/town

By the way, couple of things to consider

It will be hot, 30 plus, might be mid 30s. Desire to potter to shops/cafes might be reduced in those temperatures especially for people in their 80s.

Beach towns are often on a slope down to the sea so a villa which looks close might be quite an uphill walk back from the sea to the villa (and restaurants are mostly by the sea too). We’ve been caught out this way before

I think if you want to be car free you probably need to accept being right in town

I would street view the locations and follow the road to the town centre, it's not uncommon to have walk on roads with no pavement in some countries. I love Croatia, more so than Greece, but it does lack sandy beaches, there are hardly any. Rovinj is gorgeous, really enjoyed our time there.