Best way to get to Hvar, Croatia?

[hairymelons]

It is a fools errand of a holiday but my lovely friends have hired a villa in Hvar and are paying for me to join them for a few days.

I will have 2yo DS and am 20 weeks pg so I could do without a horrendously long journey.

I'm not sure whether to fly to Split which would be a pain this end but a shorter transfer over there, or to fly to Dubrovnik which would work out better for flight times and the journey this end.

Anyone done the journey with small children? Am I insane to even contemplate it?

I used to work on an island near hvar called Brac. It was 45 mins from split on a boat. I think the next stop on that boat was hvar. Dubrovnik is 4 hours from split so at a guess id say going from Split would be quicker.

HTH.

We've done it both ways although before we had children. I would say Split is easier. You can either get the catamaran direct to Hvar Town which is 50 mins (although this can be very bumpy and lots of people were sick when we did this) or you can get the ferry to Stari Grad which takes 2 hours from what I remember Stari Grad is about a 20-30 min bus journey from Hvar town). Much easier to have a longer journey this end than be on a ferry for hours at the other end - there is nothing to do on the ferries, there's usually a kiosk for drinks and snacks but that's about it. The ferry from Dubrovnik to Hvar town is 6.5 hours. We've got a 2 year old now and I can't imagine having to keep her entertained for that long. One year we did get the ferry from Dubrovnik but we stopped off overnight at Korcula which is a very pretty island and that broke up the journey - probably a bit too much hassle with all your bags etc though. The Jadrolinija website has all the ferry/cat times.

Hvar is beautiful though so well worth it! You can get little boats to the Plakeni islands which are lovely and you could also get a boat to Brac for the day which has a great shingle beach - brilliant for your 2 year old (most of the beaches in Croatia are pure rock!)

Thanks ladies, think we will go for the longer journey this end. DH doesn't know this yet as he will be dropping us of and collecting us. Wish me luck with that one!