DAY 0:
A day full of travel. Our First flight took off from BWI Airport with connections to Montreal, Canada, followed by Munich, Germany, and lastly to Dubrovnik, Croatia. Once we landed, we converted some money to the local currency known as the Kuna, got a local SIM card, and picked up our rental car.
The first leg of our journey took us south into the neighboring country of Montenegro. Click the link to read our initial adventures! Our continue below to continue our Croatian adventures!
DAY 3:
DUBROVNIK
The famed walled city of Dubrovnik, well known for the setting of “Kings Landing” in Game Of Thrones. Seeing how we were here over the weekend, we made a conscious effort to enter the city walls early in the morning before the tour groups start to arrive. A massive cruise ship was docked off the coast.
Being a big Game of Thrones fan myself, I wanted to hit some of the most popular filming locations such as “Black Water Bay”, the famous “Shame Steps” of Cersei Lannister, and the “Red Keep”.
You will pass by many GOT stores in town. Many will have a replica “Iron Throne” which you have to pay to sit on, or you have to buy merchandise beforehand. OR, you can visit
Lokrum Island, a small island off the coast of Dubrovnik. Here you will find a few filming sites of GOT, AND an authentic Iron Throne that was used in the show. You can sit on it and take pictures here for free (despite having to buy a boat ticket to the island).
On Lokrum Island, you can also visit Fort Royal which sits at the highest point of the island. From the top, you have a beautiful view of old town Dubrovnik and the Adriatic waters. We spent some time walking the grounds and enjoying the view.
Lastly, we visited Fort Lovrijenac, which has a beautiful overlooking view of Old Town Dubrovnik. By now it was well into the evening and we were exhausted after a long day. We made our way back to our hotel and called it a night.
DAY 4:
DUBROVNIK
Our second day within the walled city. The first thing we planned was doing the Dubrovnik City Wall Walk. This is a 2km walk around the outer wall of the city. The wall opens at 8 am. We recommend doing it early because there will be fewer people and the weather will be cooler. There is very little shade or cover along the wall, so doing this walk during mid-day conditions could get tortuous during the summer months. Make sure you have plenty of water. The rest of the morning was free to explore the streets and allies at our leisure.
Once we had our fill of Dubrovnik, it was time to say goodbye in the evening hours and we were off to our next destination.
Again, we made our way out of Croatia to another neighboring country. This time to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Follow our day trip detour into Bosnia and Herzegovina here!
Or, Continue reading down below after we made our way back into Croatia, to a town called Split and continuing up the Dalmatian Coast.
DAY 6:
SPLIT
Split is a bustling port city half way up the Croatian Dalmatian coast. Famous for having a walled city, the Diocletian Palace and Saint Domnius Cathedral and Bell Tower. We spent the day exploring town and walking the beautiful Riva Street along the water. Massive cruise ships ported here. Overall a low key day. We walked the town, to visit the sites.
DAY 7: HVAR Hvar Croatia, or as I like to call it…paradise. From Split, we took a high speed ferry to the island of Hvar. There are a few different ferry companies, we took Kapetan Luka (Captain Luke). A short 1 hour ferry ride ports you into the beautiful island of Hvar. Commonly known as the party island and were celebrities come to get away during peak summer months. With us being here during shoulder seasons, it was much more relaxed and slow paced which we absolutely loved.
Here, we stayed at the beautiful port-side Hotel Adriana overlooking the harbor and seaside. Waking up every morning the sound of the water was unbelievable. Our first day, we roamed the streets and enjoyed the views. For dinner, we enjoyed some seafood at BBClub, afterwards some gelato along the peer.
DAY 8:
HVAR
Next morning we awoke by sunlight and the sounds of the ocean. We had a hardy breakfast at Adriana. Our first excursion for the day was the hike up to Fortica Spanjola. A gradual uphill hike to a simple fort overlooking the bay of Hvar. Truthfully, not much to see at the fort, but the views of Hvar is absolutely breathtaking. Entrance was 50 kuna per person. It is a popular location in the evening for sunset views.
Back in town, in the local square, we visited Saint Stephen’s Church. We ventured inside to take a look around but no photographs are allowed to be taken.
Afterwards, we relaxed back at our hotel, spent some time poolside.
We met the owner of a local restaurant, KOGO. He invited us to his restaurant for dinner and treated us to a great traditional Croatian meal. Being off season, only a few restaurants and bars are open during this time of year.
DAY 9:
HVAR
Today we woke up at our own pace. No rush, no place to be. We initially were schedule to take the ferry back to Split at noon, but we were not ready to leave. We changed our ferry time to the latest one possible so we could enjoy one more full day in Hvar. We explored freely and freely enjoyed our day. Soon, we made our way back to the Split and off to our next destination, Sibenik.
DAY 10:
SIBENIK
Sibenik is a quieter port town compared to Split. Initially, out plan was to see the town in the morning and then make our way to Krka National Park. After speaking with some of the locals they convinced us to skip on Krka as we had plans for a larger national park the following day. We spent the day exploring the streets of this quant port town.
That evening we continued up the coast to our next city, Zadar.
DAY 11:
ZADAR
DAY 12:
PLITVICE LAKE NATIONAL PARK
Another early morning start, today we made our way inland and into the mountains of Croatia to see the beautiful Plitvice Falls and Lakes. As we continued inland, we started to travel high into the limestone mountains. We had an impromptu stop at a gorgeous canyon/camp site. We stopped here for awhile, enjoyed breakfast and watched the sunrise.
We continued our way Northeast until we reached the national park. We were quite surprised how large the national park actually is. Our initial plan was to spend a few hours but after speaking with the information office, you could easily spend 6-10 hours wondering around the entire park. After experiencing it ourselves, we would highly recommend at least 4-6 hours. The park can be divided into the upper and lower falls.
We spent as much time as we could at Plitvice National Park but we had to move on as we had a long drive to Rovinj.
DAY 13: ROVINJ/PULA Our last full day in Croatia, unfortunately, the weather started to turn for the worse today. Gray overcast skies, sporadic rain, and the temperature did drop significantly. We started our morning in Rovinj.
In the evening made our way to Pula, which is a 30-minute drive from Rovinj. The main highlight for seeing Pula is a Roman Collisium-esque arena.
And lastly made our way to the airport in Zagreb
DAY 14: ZAGREB
The conclusion of our 2 week adventure along the Dalmatian coast. Visiting 3 countries, endless views and many new shared memories. We did not get a chance to enjoy Zagreb as our flight was early in the morning, but it is worth considering as there are many sites in this capital. Maybe next time?