Does anyone on this board have any experience doing a small ship cruise along the Croatian coast? Seems like a great way to see the islands and some of the small ports in the area, but reviews seem to be really mixed. AdriaTravel and Katarina Line appear to be the two major operators and both seem to offer the same product - small ships (25-30) passengers, minimal frills and overnight in port. Thoughts, experiences?
Posted by
Berkeley CA
1307 posts
I have no experience with this (yet), but Grand Circle also offers small ship cruises along the coast. They are a reputable company and worth checking out.
Posted by
winston salem, nc, usa
1078 posts
Just returned from doing an 8 day, 7 night cruise on the Kleopatra from Split to Dubrovnik and back to Split. It has 20 cabins and a crew of 6- our cruise had 38 aboard, including our best buddies and 1 other American couple with their 2 adult (20 & 27) daughters. Others on board were Australian, Norweigien, Swedish, and from Belgium.
Included were a basic breakfast and a nice lunch. We used TripAdvisor for restaurants with great success for the ports visited. You can check out www.cruises.croatia-istria.com for prices and details.
There were many small ships available, however, because of the "youth" on some of the other boats, toward the end the had the look of Chinese Junks with the amount of laundry hanging from the sides- out ship was many "adults" even though we didn't act like it!
This was our second small ship cruise our first was with Variety Cruises in Greece, and we are seriously looking at another next September for a week cruise around the Azores before we do the Douro region
Posted by
Coquitlam
220 posts
We spent a week on one this September. Great way to see the coast. Chose one that meets your time frame and price as the ships are very similar in quality.
Look for a new ship as I think the quality of the furnishing in the cabins will wear out quickly. The cabins are small, so you spend most of your time in the public areas.