Family holiday in Croatia - Any help/advice?

NeilF

NeilF

NeilF

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So thought we'd look at going to Croatia for a family holiday this summer.

I'm wondering if anyone here has been over there who could comment on locations? So far we're considering Zadar or Rovinj?

Idea would be to have amenities (town) near/around us, and beaches with a short drive (hire car).

We could then use the car to visit elsewhere too. But a couple of beaches nearby is a must. It seems for example from Zadar, Nin is a nice beach only a short drive away?


Any advice/help would be very useful! Thanks!
 
I spent a couple of weeks staying in a town called Zminj, and I visited Rovinj but not Zadar. Personally, I thought it was a great destination, but certain towns such as Rovinj were absolutely packed with tourists - not so many Brits, but lots of Germans and Austrians and their huge RVs.

If you drive along the coast you can find some fantastic, deserted beaches - we had a 4x4 so we explored a lot of the rocky tracks by the sea which often lead to some really cool beaches/scenery. The island of Cres is well worth a look as well - still one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to.

I wanted to go again this year, but it doesn't look like I'll get round to it. :(
 
We have holidayed in Croatia four times, beaches tend to be very rocky and not huge swathes of sand, the weather is good and the locals are very friendly. Croatia is very popular with the Russian holidaying hordes, you can spot a Russian a mile away by the amount of designer brand clothes they are wearing :D

1st time we went to Hotel Istra at Rovinj, the hotel is on a small island in the bay, the hotel has it own regular ferry service back to Rovinj harbour. The cafe with Parrots on the menu near the ferry docking point used to be excellent.
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g303833-d313332-Reviews-Island_Hotel_Istra-Rovinj_Istria.html

My favourite Croatian resort is Hvar town on the island of Hvar, this is a 1 hour ferry journey out of Split harbour on the hydrofoil service. Outside of Hvar Town bay is an archipelago of islands, the locals have small ferry boats and they take you out to the islands for 30-50 kuna each return fare.
Head over to Stipanska island and visit the Carpe diem beach bar, great food and good watersports. We stayed at the Hotel Adriana which is a really good boutique style hotel, the top floor bar is superb and is often filled with celebrities from the luxury yachts in the harbour but it is quite expensive now, due to the Russian's liking it so much.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g303808-d644528-Reviews-Adriana_Hvar_Spa_Hotel-Hvar_Hvar_Island_Split_Dalmatia_County_Dalmatia.html

http://www.carpe-diem-beach.com/html/carpe_diem_beach.php

Last year we went the resort of Cavtat which is about 10miles south of Dubrovnik, great resort and easy to reach the old town of Dubrovnik. We stayed at a small hotel on the end of promenade on a B & B basis called the Hotel Supetar and ate in the local restaurants. Again this is a popular yachting area and multi million pound boats would dock in the harbour every night.
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g303804-d615523-Reviews-Supetar_Hotel-Cavtat_Dubrovnik_Neretva_County_Dalmatia.html

Hopefully we will go to Croatia again this year in September. If you need further tips PM me.
 
The Craig said:
Dubrovnik is really nice. But not one for a hire car (traffic is awful in peak season)
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Dubrovnik has got too popular because of the cruise terminal, they bus huge numbers of cruise parties to the old town for guided walks, after 7.30pm the old town is so much quieter, last year went to a superb concert in the Rector's Palace on the Stradun. Great bars and restaurants aplenty.
 
Super Tigers said:
Dubrovnik has got too popular because of the cruise terminal, they bus huge numbers of cruise parties to the old town for guided walks, after 7.30pm the old town is so much quieter, last year went to a superb concert in the Rector's Palace on the Stradun. Great bars and restaurants aplenty.
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I agree. We seen one of the supercruisers and it dwarfed the entire city!

I stayed in an apartment about 20 mins walk out and it was pretty ideal. It gets very humid in dubrovnik tho! I also recommend doing a kayak tour.
 
WE stopped in Cavtat which is about 10miles south of Dubrovnik, the prices of hotels, food and drink is about 30% less and you can travel to Dubrovnik very cheaply by bus, taxi or water bus. Croatia is a maritime country and they have small boats bobbing along the coastline all day taking tourists and locals to all the local islands and resorts for a few kuna.
 
We stayed in a villa for 15 just outside of Trogir last year. Was a 2 minute walk to the beach and some restaurants, 20 min walk to town or you could get a ferry and about 20 minutes drive to Split I think.

It was very nice but the Villa owner was insane and kept coming in and moving our stuff and making up crazy rules. She also purposefully locked me out and turned off the wifi when I asked her not to move my things lol!
 
Lovely country. I've been to Porec, Zminj, Rovinj and Optija. Really liked the first three, not so keen on the latter.
 
Anyone been to/stayed at Pula?

If so is it a reasonable base camp? We'd be looking to be able to drive to beaches in 20-30mins? Eat at Pula so nice restaurants etc? And venture off for day trips elsewhere. eg: Rovinj.
 
What Super Tigers said - Hvar is awesome. Those little islands just off the harbour are to die for.
 
Zefan said:
What Super Tigers said - Hvar is awesome. Those little islands just off the harbour are to die for.
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But is Hvar a little cut off? So if we were to get a villa there (with hire car), would it make travel to elsewhere a lot longer? ie: To get off the island and back to a main road? And beaches on Hvar?
 
NeilFawcett said:
Anyone been to/stayed at Pula?

If so is it a reasonable base camp? We'd be looking to be able to drive to beaches in 20-30mins? Eat at Pula so nice restaurants etc? And venture off for day trips elsewhere. eg: Rovinj.
Click to expand...

We went to Pula when we holidayed in Rovinj, we caught the local bus service to get there, the bus meandered along the coast road which caused my wife to get travel sick, nothing new there! We went to the Roman amphitheatre and walked along the sea front, it was quite a busy place with ferries arriving, I am not sure if cruise liners also call at the port. The last time we were there was about 7 years ago and was quite a smart place and the bus station to was a bugger to find when we wanted to get back to Rovinj. It would a decent base to travel around though and is also handy for the airport.
I am going to dig some pictures out from the NAS.
 
Pula

pula1.jpg


pula2.jpg


Hvar

Hvar1.jpg


Hvar%20harbour.jpg
 
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