Brace yourselves because this might be somewhat of an unpopular opinion… we didn’t love the Northern region of Croatia’s mainland but, we didn’t dislike it either. We just didn’t totally fall in love with it. On the flip side, however, we LOVED the Southern region known as the Dalmatia (that is for the next blog). Bear with me and I’ll explain.
Ok, so let me start by saying there is no denying Croatia is a beautiful country but I think we made a few mistakes that we would hope to avoid next time around!
Firstly, we were a wee bit pushed for time. We had broken our trip through Croatia into 2 main parts – the Northern region (Plitvice National Park, Starigrad and Zadar) and the Southern region (Split, Island of Brac, Island of Hvar and Dubrovnik). We had allocated 5 days to the Northern region of Croatia compared to 14 days in the Southern region which meant we were on the move for the first 5 days. We decided we wanted to spend most of our time laying on the beaches and exploring the Dalmatian Islands so although those 5 days were exhausting, it was worth it once we were sprawled out on the gorgeous beaches.
Secondly, we were traveling during PEAK school holiday time. I don’t really need to explain this one but it was busy. ALL THE TIME.
PLITVICE NATIONAL PARK
With emerald green and turquoise lakes, towering waterfalls and winding wooden boardwalks, Plitvice Lakes truly looks like something out of a fairytale. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is nestled in the mountains and consists of 16 interconnected lakes and over 90 stunning waterfalls. Huge is an understatement! We set out for a full day of exploring Plitvice Lakes and honestly, we only covered a small section. There are multiple different walks to choose from and you could spend days walking the tracks! One day, however, was enough for us.
We spent a good 8 hours walking the trails. The lakes, trees, and waterfalls are gorgeous and a must-do if you visit Croatia! We would love to come back again during the winter season where Plitvice Lakes are covered in snow.. how magical would that be?!
Something we didn’t anticipate was the crowds. And when I say crowds… I mean CROWDS. We were aware it would be busy but we got a shock when we had to wait 45mins for the shuttle to take us to the start of the walking trail! We battled the crowds the entire day and at some points, we stood stationary in massive queues while people took photos or viewed the waterfalls. I get it, we all paid a lot to be there but it does get tiring standing in queues all day. We only learned when we were there that Plitvice Lakes is the most popular tourist attraction in Croatia, receiving over 1 million visitors per year. I guess that explains the crowds!!!
All in all, we enjoyed our day at Plitvice Lakes but like I said, one day was enough for us! The lakes themselves exceeded our expectations but the one let down was the volume of people. My advice – avoid school holidays!
STARIGRAD
From the Plitvice Lakes, we made our way to Starigrad. We settled ourselves in for the night in a sweet little campsite that was a 3-minute walk to the beach. I should probably mention that we stayed in campsites throughout Croatia as free camping is illegal! We spent the afternoon laying on the beach and had our first swim in the Adriatic Ocean! The temperature was far warmer than that of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal! The water was so warm that we went back early the next morning for another swim before setting off towards Zadar.
ZADAR
We only had one night in Zadar where we repeated the same process as the previous day and spent the afternoon on the beach. Luckily, our campsite had a private beach so we were a 30-second stroll to the beach.
On our way to Zadar, we stopped at Decathalon and treated ourselves to flippers, mask, snorkels and wait for it… a bright pink pool noodle (much to Morgans delight!). We figured from here on out we were going to be living in the water so we thought it was a worthwhile purchase!
Later that evening we grabbed our €3 bottle of wine and enjoy it while watching the sun go down.
We didn’t have enough time to explore the actual town of Zadar but maybe next time.
SPLIT
We spent the afternoon in Split as we had difficulty finding a place to stay overnight that was close enough to the town (as I mentioned early, free camping is illegal). We decided to pay for a few hours of parking and go explore as much as we could of the little town!
We really liked Split. It has a great vibe about it. It gave us the first glimpse of the medieval vibe that we had heard so much about.
Split is a port town where the likes of Sail Croatia, Bus About and Medsailors all dock in heading out to the neighboring islands. It is easy to grab an ice cream and sit back and watch the fresh-faced partygoers eager to head out on their cruise or pick the disheveled survivors of the previous week returning to the mainland where they need to give their liver a well-earned break. It is similar to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace but far less prestigious.
MAKARSKA
From Split, we made our way down the Adriatic Highway towards Makarska where we intended to get the ferry from the mainland to Brac, the first of two islands we were visiting in Croatia. The Adriatic Highway has to be one of the most gorgeous coastlines in the world. Every corner we took was an “oooohhhh” or “wooooow” moment. Morgan had to tell me to stop asking him to pull over to take photos otherwise we would never make the ferry!
Unbenowance to us, I sent a photo to Mum and Dad of somewhere we had stopped off. Mum immediately send the same photo back that they had taken 3 years ago when they cruised the Adriatic Coast! It must have been a great spot to photograph!
While we were waiting for the ferry, Morgan spent a few hours admiring the boats. Check out the photos!
The ferry ride to Brac was nerve-wracking!! To cut a long story short, the whole process was pretty messy on their part. About 8 men were trying to do a 2 man job and each person had something different to say. We had been waiting hours and as we were about to drive onto the ferry they stopped us and said: “hmm I don’t know if you will be able to get on”. Well, I was over it by that stage so I got out and directed Morgan onto the ferry myself!
Made it! 
Still nervous
DUBROVNIK
We arrived back from island hopping on Brac and Hvar and made our way to our final destination in Croatia, Kings Landing.. errr. I mean.. Dubrovnik! I doubt I need to give Dubrovnik much explanation for all you GoT lovers but for those who didn’t buy into the GoT thing, Dubrovnik is an old, walled, orange-roofed city perched above the Adriatic Ocean.
We had another great little campsite that was situated upon a hilltop that overlooked the ocean. It was perfect for watching the sunset!
What we didn’t realize before arriving was Dubrovnik is a large city but it is the old town that people travel to Dubrovnik for. In all honesty, we didn’t rate the new town Dubrovnik at all and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, however, the old town is a different story!
The old town is small and easily walkable and it is beautiful. We spent hours wandering through the hidden walkways and finding spots that featured in GoT! A highlight for us was walking the city wall. It gave us a good perspective of the size of Dubrovnik and the views are breathtaking!
Something to note however is it is busy. Again, we were there in high season. Multiple cruise ships come in for the day so the place is crawling with tourists. Because of this, we would arrive in the old town either early morning or, later in the afternoon. The city is walled, obviously, but this made it HOT. There wasn’t much of a breeze. We found a great solution to this problem though and that was ice cream and lots of it!
Although we didn’t fall in love with the Northern Regions of Croatia’s mainland, we did still enjoy our time there. We would love to revisit the Plitvice lakes in the offseason however we don’t know if we will revisit the likes of Starigrad or Zadar. We would, however, love to come back to the southern region and the Islands (see the next blog for the low down on our time on the Islands).
