Croatia recap: What we loved (and didn’t love) during our three weeks of Croatia travel!

Even though these posts take us out of the flow of “real-time” a little bit, I really enjoy writing (and later reading) our country summary posts, so I today I am writing a recap about our Croatia travel!

In case you are interested, here are links to our previous recaps – Brazil recap, Italy recap (we didn’t write one on our time in Lefkada, since we were only there for a week and haven’t written about when we island-hopped in 2017)

Where we went in Croatia

I really, really, really liked how we set up our time in Croatia. We explored a bunch of the biggest cities (Dubrovnik, Zadar, Zagreb), got a good taste of island life (Hvar) and saw so much of the natural beauty of the country through the national parks (Krka and Plitvice). We also did a good job of balancing longer stays with shorter ones, so it didn’t feel too hectic at any one time.

• 3 nights in Dubrovnik
• 7 nights in Hvar
• 1 night near Krka National Park
• 4 nights near Plitvice National Park
• 1 night in Zadar – a last minute addition!
• 5 nights in Zagreb

Favorite moments in Croatia

Jyoti: My favorite was the day we took the boat out in Hvar. It was just the two of us, on the beautiful and clear water, enjoying the sun and each other’s’ company. Really it was the perfect day!

Damian: Damian says his favorite was the same!

The top thing we’d do again in Croatia

Jyoti: I would spend more time in Zadar! It wasn’t even on our original itinerary, but we had allocated a few too many days near Plitvice National Park, so we made a game-time decision to spend a night in Zadar. It was a little more gritty, a little more local, on the water, easy and fun. Zadar is an awesome place!

Damian: Damian would explore more of the islands. As we both mentioned above, we loved our time in Hvar, and Damian is sure he would love other Croatian islands just as much (if not more!)

What we didn’t get do in Croatia

I’ll say, compared to Brazil and Italy, we felt like we covered a lot of Croatia. The country is quite a bit smaller and, even with only three weeks (vs. six each in Brazil and Italy), we were able to cover a lot. However, we didn’t get to everything! Here are the top things we missed and hope to see in the future in our Croatia travel.

Split. Split is one of the busiest towns in Croatia, as it is the hub where many of the Dalmatian coast cruises take off. We decided not to spend time here as we were already doing a cool old city in Dubrovnik and it is supposed to be tourist-y and crowded. But we had friends who went here and loved it, so many next time!

Pula and Istria. Istria is a little peninsula in the northwest part of Croatia and many people say it’s their favorite part of the country. There is a heavy Roman influence and it would be neat to see one day.

So many islands. Croatia has hundreds and hundreds of islands and we only went to one of them. Considering how much we love the ocean and island life we need to go back. Vis and Korcula are high on my list!

Things I’ll miss from our Croatia travel

Croatia is so amazing. I had pretty high expectations going in and it was the country in Europe I was most excited to see. Croatia surpassed to expectations and it is now high up on the list of places I would recommend for people to visit! Here are some of my favorite things from our Croatia travel.

Fresh fish. Um I have never had fish that was more delicious than the fish I had in Croatia. It was always so well cooked and full of flavor. And while every single one that we tried was yummy, nothing could beat Nada’s fish at Villa Stella Mare in Hvar.

Croatian people. Before coming to Croatia, I had heard that the people were direct and perhaps a little on the rude side. From our time in the country that could not have been more untrue. We encountered friendly person after friendly person, and I especially loved how proud they were of their country. This sign up after the World Cup still makes me laugh.

Radio music mixes. Because a lot of Croatian people speak English, many of the radio stations play a lot of English music. I’m not 100% sure how the radio industry works, but the stations do seem to play the same songs over and over. But instead of being new music, it’s things like Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie, and who doesn’t love that? 

Scenery. Croatia has many, many positives, but one of my favorites was its natural beauty. There is everything from ocean to mountains to rivers to forest, and so much of it is so well-preserved. I’d go back just to see some of these sights again.

Everything is close. Because the country is relatively small (only ~22,000 square miles) it was easy to see everything by driving. We could make game-time decisions and be in a place like Zadar in only 2 hours. I have the travel part of traveling, so this was extra awesome!

Blue and clear ocean water. Have I mentioned how much I loved this yet? 😉

Paprika chips! So when new got to Croatia I was a little hesitant about paprika chips. They sounded, well, to be honest, strange. But we got some to taste and they were so good, almost like a barbeque flavored but less sweet. Now I wish they were available more in the US!

Things I won’t miss so much from our Croatia travel

As with any country, Croatia has its downsides as well. We felt like there were fewer of them vs. some of the other places we have traveled to, but here are things we don’t miss so much from our Croatia travel.

Meat meals, all the time. Croatia has a meat heavy cuisine, and specifically a pork-heavy cuisine. I don’t like pork (bacon being an exception) and I don’t eat a ton of meat, so this was less fun.

Sea urchins. As I mentioned, we really enjoyed swimming in the beautiful waters in Croatia, but we were forewarned that there are lots of sea urchins on the sea floor. We saw this for ourselves and so bought some water shoes. They worked well, but it really doesn’t help you feel “free and relaxed” when you are swimming with shoes on! (just because you can’t see them on us below doesn’t mean we aren’t wearing them!)

Crazy drivers. The drivers here are wild. They drive very fast, even around curves and near drop-offs. Anytime we were in a car without Damian driving (like a taxi) I felt panicked.

Operational snafus. I don’t know if this is because the country is still relatively young but we hit some operational hiccups that could be fixed. For example, when you get gas you park your car at the pump, fill it up and then go inside to pay. But when you do that you leave your car at the pump, which means everyone behind has wait while you are inside waiting to pay at the counter. Another example is that you can’t buy tickets to go to the National Parks online or even a day or two in advance, so the lines in the morning end up being 2+ hours long (should out again to Damian for waiting in line for us at Plitvice National Park so Noèmie and I didn’t have to).

No gelato tastings! When you want to buy gelato they don’t let you have a taste of different flavors before to help you make your choice. Lame.

Over-crowdedness. Croatia has become super popular in recent years and has exploded even more from being featured in Game of Thrones. There were times, especially when the cruise ships were docked, that the cities were mobbed. It was especially bad in walled cities, like Dubrovnik, because there literally isn’t enough space within the walls for all the people. For us it was ok because we could time our outings to the morning and evening, but if the cruise stop is your only time to see the city, the crazy crowds must be extra frustrating. I hope in the future they put some regulations around the number of people allowed in each day so it makes the experience a bit more enjoyable.

Wrap-up: Our Croatia trip in three words

Jyoti: Ocean. Old cities. New country.

Damian: Natural beauty. Outdoor adventure. Relaxing.

Some of our favorite pictures from our Croatia travel

All our posts about our Croatia travel

Finally, I thought it would be good, to have in one place, all our posts about our Croatia travel so they are easy to peruse. Here’s the list below!

• Croatia – The plan for our three weeks here
• Croatia – Our four days in Dubrovnik
• Croatia – Our week in Hvar
• Croatia – Hiking Kra National Park and Canyoning in the Cetina River
• Croatia – Hiking in Plitvice Lakes National Park
• Croatia – Visiting Zadar and Zagreb