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Croatia home base for a week.

Posted by (Vancouver) on

My wife and I will travel to Croatia for 8 nights during the second week of Mar, 2020. It's our first trip there. We will be arriving from Istanbul and flying out to Athens.

We're in our mid 50s and want to rent an apartment(s) to soak up Croatian culture - shopping in local markets, learning Croatian cuisine, etc. We don't need, nor want, to run around ticking a bunch of touristy items off a "to do" list. However, we'd like to do a few day trips.

We envision having one home base for 8 nights, or maybe 2 for 3-5 nights each. I haven't looked yet, but it may be difficult to find apartments that will book for less than a week???

To minimize time and effort spent relocating, we're looking at Split, Dubrovnik and/or a Dalmation Island city. I think we can only reasonably do 1 or 2 of the 3. My guess is Dubrovnik and Korcula or Split and Brac or Hvar.

We can fly direct into DBV (2h) but not direct into SPU (5-6h). Likewise, we can fly out of DBV directly (1.5h) but not out to SPU directly (5-6h).

Any suggestions? Any suggestions for a home base city on one of the islands?

Cheers, and thanks in advance,
Bob from Vancouver

(My apologies if this post is a repeat. I posted once before, then it disappeared.)

Posted by
3046 posts

I would consider Split for 3 nights, Plitvice Lakes 1 night, and Zagreb 3 nights. That way, you get the coast, the best park (Plitvice Lakes) and the capital city. I'm not sure there is any place in Croatia I'd stay for 7 nights. But staying at these 2 places (plus PL) you get the best of the coast and the interior.

Posted by
5384 posts

The second week of March is still winter and the weather will not be so warm. I’d avoid islands and stick to larger cities where there is a year round population not focused on beach holidays.

Posted by
6113 posts

You certainly need to avoid the islands at that time of year, as many facilities will be closed for the winter and the ferries run less frequently. Split or Zagreb would offer you more day trip options eg Plitvice, Trogir etc.

There are many options such as Airbnb, Booking.com or Trip Advisor which will offer accommodation for less than a week.

Posted by
847 posts

Too bad you can't fly directly into Split cause that would be your best bet. Quite a few day trip options from there including Plitvice Lakes (better as an overnight, but at that time of years I would think crowds would be less so a day trip probably ok), Trogir, Sibenik, Brac and Hvar.

But since it seems in your case to make more sense to do at least in or out of DBV (and you probably want to see it anyway) I would do 3-4 nights there (day trips possible to Mostar, Montenegro) and then move to Split for 3-4 nights. If ferries make it possible you could do 1-2 nights in Hvar between them. Hvar town is known as 'party central' in summer but in March it should be OK.

Many accommodations in Croatia are small apartments. We stayed in several on both our trips and our stays were often only 1-2 nights. I don't think you'll have any problem finding places with at least kitchenettes if not full kitchens. I booked everything on booking.com

Here's the trip report I just posted. Doesn't include Dubrovnik, that was a previous trip. (That trip was Dubrovnik 4 nights with day trips to Mostar and Montenegro, 2 nights Korcula, 2 nights split (with day trip to Trogir). But that was in summer and and we traveled by ferry between them. Flew into Dubrovnik and out of Split. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-5-weeks-in-italy-croatia-france-summer-2019

Posted by
3843 posts

I am reading that you can fly into Dubrovnik from Istanbul and then Dubrovnik to Athens. I’m pretty sure there are flights to Zagreb from Turkey. You can stay there for 2 nights, to to Plitvice for one night, then bus to Split for a few nights with day trips, then final nights in Dubrovnik, flying to Athen from there. Read about each city to decide how many days. Split is all about Roman history and Dubrovnik is Medieval history. We love Dubrovnik but really love Split. It is still fairly warm down south, they rarely get snow in the city. When they do it is newsworthy.

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