6 Days in Croatia

It seems a bit tight of an itinerary - you're trying to hit 5 places in 6 days (are they 6 full days?). Where are you flying out of? Are you using Dubrovnik and Split as your overnight bases?

Hvar seemed (to me) to be more accessible from Split than Dubrovnik - i.e. shorter ferry ride (I went in September, so that may not be the case in June when more ferries are available). About 1.5 days for Dubrovnik is fine - it's small if you only tour the fortified old town. Split is bigger and you can easily spend 2-3 days there, not including the smaller Trogir. It's possible to do it in one day but you'll see only the highlights. Hvar, Pakleni and Plitvice can probably be done in 1 day each. So without factoring in the transportation time to get between them, you can see it adds up to more than 6 days unless you're doing an active/ bit compressed trip and don't mind moving around a lot. If your itinerary is only 6 days, you probably won't have a chance to do much more than strolling since museums take more time.

So I guess that's a long way of saying, it's doable but a bit rushed since you're trying to hit a lot of places in a very short time.

This is a very rushed itinery. There is only one catamaran a day from Dubrovnic to Hvar which leaves late afternoon.

Split to Plitvice is a long journey for a day trip so you will spend most of the day traveling rather than time in the park. It really needs an overnight stay to do it justice.

I would check the ferry schedule and make sure that you can get from Dubrovnik to Hvar at the time you expect. Another thing to check on is which port that ferry comes into. If it docks at Sućuraj, you'd have to go all the way across the island to get to Hvar Town (~80km). Hvar is much more accessible from Split than Dubrovnik.

Plitvice Lakes is a long way from Split (2.5 hours by car, and much longer by bus). For that day trip, you'd need to rent a car so that you can get an early start and then stay as long as you want before leaving. It is much harder to make it work as a day trip by bus due to the length of the bus route and because of the limited bus schedule at Plitvice.

I had planned to do an organized bus trip to Plitvice or rent a car so I guess we can decide once we get there and find out tour times and opt for a car if that works better. I did notice the ferry schedules could be a bit tricky, but we have booked hotels so hopefully the ferries from Dubrovnik work, and if not we can always rent a car or do the bus to Split and go from there. Thanks!

We are both pretty laid back travellers so doing things in a round about way isn't a huge deal. The adventure will be fun in itself!

Shyla, I was never able to give you feedback on going from Dubrovnik straight to Hvar because I haven't done that myself. I went on a bus from Split to Dubrovnik and that took around 4 hours. Figure maybe 3.5 if you drive it. Sorry I wasn't able to help you with that portion, but yeah there isn't a whole lot to see in Hvar anyway. I will admit thought that I've been there twice and still have not had time to climb to the fortress overlooking the town. That's because I spent the whole day on the beach and I was staying in Split, not Hvar. This year I'm staying in Hvar and hope to finally climb to that fortress for the views :-).

If you were planning for an organized tour to Plitvice, that's also fine, and may be the best option considering your limited itinerary and that you won't already have a car.

Anyone have any high end dining places to recommend or any restaurants I can book before going? Thanks!

Re: restaurants, there are several high-end places in Dubrovnik and Hvar (it will be really obvious as you pass them by on foot) and if you stay in a high-end hotel, you'll have access to one (check Trip Advisor). Sorry, I can't remember the one I ate at but I realized it was not worth spending big when lesser places had delicious food as well for a fraction of the price. Good homey places are called konobas. There's no need to reserve anything until you're on the ground.

Thanks, Agnes!!

I'm quite the foodie, but I basically didn't dine out in Croatia because I've never heard great things about their food and I never was really impressed with what I had there. I pretty much lived off of street food and cheap eats there. There's a small place that everyone recommends within the walls of Diocletian's Palace in Split (I can't recall the name at the moment, but it's in Rick's book). I tried it and was unimpressed. I dined out once in Rovinj last year and again was sort of disappointed by the experience (except the view I had). Rick has recommendations for Dubrovnik where celebrities have been known to eat. Check it out. But yeah, I think most local places don't really need a reservation (maybe a day before if it's really busy).

Oh, I remeber having one enjoyable meal in Hvar right on the harbor front. I think it's called Pizzera Mama Leone. Check it out.