Go everywhere, Do everything

Our Croatian adventure started out with a thought about having a week on a boat and then ended up being 3 ½ weeks and 3 different countries because why wouldn’t you add on Bosnia and Montenegro if you get the chance!

This holiday was also a bit of a surprise because while I sorted out the boat part, my friend Sarah (who had more free time and energy then me) sorted out a lot of the accommodation and activities, so we didn’t always know what we were going to be doing.

Below is our itinerary for an epic 25 days, mainly in Croatia but also with some little trips in to Bosnia and Montenegro.

Day 1: Fly Stanstead to Pula. Drive to Krk (Krk blog post here).

Day 2: Krk – Pool day

Day 3: Ferry to Rab and Goli Otok tour. Drive to Zagreb. Dynamo Zagreb football game. (Zagreb blog post here).

Day 4: Zagreb – Sljeme Ski Resort and Zagreb walking tour.

Day 5: Zagreb – Museum of Broken Relationships and Museum of Illusions. Drive to Plitvice Lakes.

Day 6: Plitvice Lakes (Plitvice Lakes blog here).

Day 7: Plitvice Lakes. Drive to Sukosan.

Day 8: Sukošan – Pool day. Evening in Zadar, sea organ and lights (Zadar blog post here).

Day 9: Sukošan – Zadar sightseeing and Escape room (Zadar blog post here).

Day 10: Trogir and drive to marina to board yacht GoX.

Day 11: Aboard GoX (GoX blog post here)

Day 12: Aboard GoX

Day 13: Aboard GoX

Day 14: Aboard GoX

Day 15: Aboard GoX

Day 16: Aboard GoX

Day 17: Aboard GoX. Drive to Split (Split blog post here).

Day 18: Zipline and Split sightseeing.

Day 19: Cetina river rafting. Drive to Mostar

Day 20: Mostar – Day tour of Bosnia

Day 21: Drive to Dubrovnik. Cable Car and museum (Dubrovnik blog post here).

Day 22: Dubrovnik – Walk the walls. Drive to Igalo, Montenegro.

Day 23: Igalo – Herceg Novi (Igalo blog post here)

Day 24: Igalo – Perast.

Day 25: Igalo – Aborted trip to Kotor. Drive to Dubrovnik. Fly Dubrovnik to Luton.

Logistics

Accommodation

Our accommodation was booked through Air BnB and Booking.com. We stayed in a variety of places from hotels to apartments and fancy to rustic. Each place had its own charms and there wasn’t anywhere that we wouldn’t stay again. There is a review to each accommodation we stayed at linked from each blog post.

Transport:

We had 2 hire cars. The first one we picked up at Pula airport and dropped off at Split airport before our week on GoX and the second was picked up from Split airport and dropped off at Dubrovnik airport. We never really had any problem parking in any of the places we visited even with a larger vehicle (we had a 9 seat van). In Dubrovnik we made sure the apartment we booked had parking available. Driving was easy and the roads were good everywhere.

If doing a similar road trip you will need to make sure that your insurance covers you to take the car across borders, you will also need extra insurance if you plan to take the car on a ferry.

Money:

Croatia used Kuna when we were there but as of 2023 they are now part of the Eurozone and use the Euro. Montenegro also use the Euro, Bosnia use the Convertible Mark. We used our Revolut card in all countries to pay for things and withdraw money without any problems.

Borders:

I’ve read lots about the long queues at the borders during the summer but this wasn’t our experience. We never waited longer than 30 minutes to cross and we crossed several times from Croatia in to Bosnia, then back in to Croatia, then in to Montenegro and back to Croatia again. We did get a passport stamp at nearly every crossing so make sure you have space in your passport.

Crossings usually consisted of the driver handing over our passports, them being stamped and then handed back. We were never asked to get out or about who or what we had in the car.

We visited in August 2022 when Pip was 10 as a group of 7.