Croatia

Croatia is still, after all of our travels, one of my favorite countries. It’s one spot I would absolutely do a repeat trip to because although in our 12 days we ventured down the entire coast, it was not nearly enough time.

Croatia was always in our itinerary, but we had no set plan of how we were going to maneuver the country. Unfortunately, we began our first few days in Zagreb coming off of miserable food poisoning we got in Budapest. After a few days spent in bed at our friend Dorian’s house, we drove to Rijeka to stay at his parent’s home. We arrived at night and had a delicious local meal of Ćevapčići (a Croatian sausage) and rice at his dad’s restaurant. We woke up in the morning to the most breathtaking view outside of our room. We spent the next few days exploring the town and visiting our friend’s favorite spots.

Over the next week, we took buses down the coast and literally got off in little coastal towns that looked appealing or that we had gotten recommendations for. We stopped in Baška, Lopar, Rab, and Zadar. We ended the trip in the southern most city, Dubrovnik. My brother also flew in for a few days to end our time in Croatia with us.

I loved getting off the bus at a terminal or on the side of the road and then having to figure out where we were going to stay the night. Sometimes we had to walk 3 or 4 miles with our 30 pound backpacks in tow before we found an information center or a local who could guide us in the right direction. We had to sleep on a bench in Baška because we couldn’t find an affordable place to sleep for the night.

Once we found a place to sleep in a new town, we would drop our backpacks and venture out for the rest of the day, finding unbelievable hidden restaurants and spots to stop for cold beers or gelato.

We spent an entire day at Plitvice, a national park located in Plitvička. We hiked through acres of turquoise water and waterfalls and enjoyed a wonderful Croatian barbeque on the water.

One of my favorite days was one of our last days spent in Dubrovnik. Felix, Christopher and I tried to find a beach we had heard was pretty popular and we got super lost and ended up in a completely different area. We followed a private access path through some trees and brush and it popped us out on small cliffs overlooking the water. We hiked down the rocks and ended up in our own private cove ‘beach.’ The beaches in Croatia aren’t sandy, but made of small pebbles. The Mediterranean water is SO clear and clean and incredibly refreshing. We stayed at that spot all afternoon before exploring the narrow cobblestone alleyways and enjoying a late lunch of mussels and beer.

Croatia was so beautiful and full of history and delicious food. It truly was my favorite leg of our European travel. It was incredibly easy to get around and as long as you like flexible travel, I would absolutely recommend making a trip there.