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Croatia-extended stay alone

Hi all,
I am traveling to Croatia in September and joining a tour for 8 days. The tour ends on Oct 3rd. After that tour I have 3 days on my own in Split before heading to Italy (hopefully via the ferry from Split to Ancona-see different post) to meet up with some friends. So, here are my questions:

1) Where to stay? I checked some bnb sites and found some cute rentals in Diocletian's palace area. Is this area safe for an older woman to stay alone?
2) My tour does not get me to lake Plitvic area and I would like to know if it is realistic to do a day tour from Split to there and back?
Any help you can offer is appreciated. It's my first time to Europe/first time traveling alone :)

Posted by
5687 posts

A few years back I stayed in Split in early October at a soba (private room - with private bathroom) I found on one of the hostel booking websites. My soba was close to the palace area. I'm a guy so I can't speak to the safety of single women there, but Split felt perfectly safe to me day and night. In Croatia, it's common for people to rent out sobe (not necessarily inside their homes - often an outside building with private entrance) - depending on how "B&B" is defined it could largely be the same thing.

A day trip up to Plitvice from Split would be a very long day, and in October the days would be getting shorter, so you wouldn't be able to stay too late in the day. I'd only do it as an organized tour or by renting a car. Otherwise, if taking public buses I'd suggest either spending a night at Plitvice (there are a couple of hotels right in the park) or going on to Zagreb, which is a few hours closer to the park. From Zagreb you can, at worst, take a train to Ljubljana, Slovenia and then a bus to Venice - not sure where you are headed in Italy though.

Croatia has nice, comfortable, reliable buses - I didn't take one to/from Plitvice but I have heard of cases where buses won't stop for passengers because they are full, but in October I doubt that would be the case. There isn't really a bus station in Plitvice, just a couple of stops along the road as I recall when driving past them.

Others might suggest visiting Krka National Park instead of Plitvice - I haven't been to Krka (looks beautiful) bu(t it is much closer to Split and looks like an easy day trip.

Posted by
16893 posts

Buses between Split and Plitvice take 4-6 hours each way and September does not enjoy the extra bus departures that run in July and August. I agree that you could find more of Croatia to enjoy without going that far.

Posted by
2 posts

You MUST try out Couchsurfing.com! Everything is reliable and set up with stable, friendly, travel-oriented people that are just waiting to host you and show you around! I couchsurfed for a month in Scandinavia and I couldn't believe the amount of sights and friends that I saw and made. :) People are willing to host for several days, and include laundry/food/your own bed, and it's free.