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How 'shut down' are islands in mid-Oct due to recent flooding?

Hi everyone,
We will be in Croatia Oct 11-24. We've heard that, due to recent flooding, many island restaurants, bars, and grocery stores have shut down a little earlier than normal. We were planning to stay on Hvar and day trip to other islands near there for about 4 days during the third week in October. Here are my questions: 1) Are businesses shutting down in Sept? 2) Just how 'shut down' are the islands in mid-Oct normally? For example, are there just 1-2 restaurants open in, say, Stari Grad--or are we talking more like 5-6? Grocery stores? Bars? 3) What do the islands generally feel like in mid-October--deserted or just a little less crowded? Thank you!

Posted by
5363 posts

I would normally encourage an early-mid October visit to Hvar or Stari Grad, but given the weather issues, I would contact your hotel or accommodations to see what the current conditions are.
I would certainly expect more than half a dozen restaurants to be open, but whether they expect to recover the tail end of the season is a tough question.
Day trips from Hvar can be a bit tricky though, so be sure to check schedules.
I would venture a guess that things should be fine in a couple weeks, and would just employ caution if driving in any areas near rivers.

Posted by
4364 posts

Here is what I learned on a late October trip to Croatia in 2022. Many businesses along the coast and on the islands are owned by people who live in other parts of Croatia. They definitely shut down at the end of the season and return to their home town for the winter. It could be small hotels, restaurants, or stores. What the cutoff date is varies. We were in Zadar the first weekend in October and the hotel we were at was closing for the season the next day.

Posted by
72 posts

I hope you are having a great trip and were able to get out to the islands. We just returned and I had scheduled a private boat trip for the 6 of us and there were no days in the entire week we were there that it was calm enough to get out. Several of the restaurants told us that they were shutting down in the next few days.