We are flying into Split mid May late in the evening. Unfortunately, It was the only direct flight from Prague on that date We are having a difficult time figuring out to spend our 8/9 days. since flying into Dubrovnik would have made this much easier. My husband loves sea-kayaking and would love for us to spend some time - day trips on the water. We want to explore Split, the islands Hvar, etc, Dubrovnik, and then drive up north and catch a ferry to Venice. Of course, we want to see as much as we can but want to enjoy our vacation .Any suggestions of how we divide our time would be greatly appreciated. Would also love to hear any suggestions on how to get to Venice. Is there a hotel near the Split airport that we can stay on our arrival?. Thanks.
Hi, Split Airport is 30min away from Split town so you can just book transfer, take a bus to the town.
Book 3 nights in Split, transfer to Dubrovnik with some nice stops on the way, spend 2 nights in Dubrovnik, take a catamaran to Hvar, 2 nights in Hvar, catamaran to Split (1h is journey) and proceed to Rovinj (private transfer/rent a car). Spend the night in Rovinj and next day take a ferry to Venice.
For some help with transportation and day trips you can check with this guys:
https://private-experience-croatia.com/
Feels like the “ferry to Venice” part of this is having an outsized influence on the itinerary. I can’t imagine a quick flight from Dubrovnik to Venice would cost that much. Or it would at least be worth the time/effort saved. This way, you’d have a pretty standard run from Split to Dubrovnik with a couple days at Hvar or Korcula between. You wouldn’t even need to rent a car, just connect via ferry.
If you’re more set on this, then Split is not the worst place to start. It’s a sizable city with plenty of tourism options for swimming, kayaking, and other excursions. I thought it was great actually, and certainly worth a couple nights. I’d save most of your outdoorsy stuff for Hvar, then head up to Istria and Rovinj. Dubrovnik doesn’t make the cut in this scenario.
Thanks for your suggestions. They were helpful in figuring this out. Getting from Croatia to Venice is actually the problme and very time consuming. Probably more so in May. I think we decided that we would spend the first night in Split and take the ferry early the next morning to Dubrovnik for 2 nights. We will take a later morning ferry back to Hvar for 2 nights and then take a late afternoon ferry back to Split for 2 nights. We will figure out a sea-kayaing day while we are on Hvar. From Split we will rent a car and drive to Zadar for the night and the next day drive to visit Plitvice and then drive to Rovinj for the night. We will catch a ferry to Venice. I realize its a bit of a rush but given the transportation times, this seems to work best.
For a day trips on the water I can suggest a Blue Cave tour from Split.
You can find more details here: https://bonaca-tours.com/tour/blue-cave-group-tour/