Croatia – Super yachts and dinghies.

One of the first things you will notice about Croatia, is that it is full of the 1%. In the whole week I was there I still couldn’t get over the number of super yachts getting about. This reached an exorbitant pinnacle when Mark Zuckerberg (Gday Mark if ya reading) eclipsed the Hvar Harbor with his 107m insanely stupidly stupidly big yacht (huge big dick energies from Mark).

Apart from making you wish you had won the lotto or been a seed investor for Instagram, in terms of Summer destinations, Croatia ticks all the boxes you would want from a sun filled beach holiday and for me, just takes the cake over Greece (except in the food department… Gyros’… c’mon).

The other thing that is an absolute must do, is hire a small dingy (for those who aren’t already in a 60ft+ boat- and if you are in one of those, can we be friends?)

✔ Islands

✔ Nightlife

✔ But can escape crowds

✔ Bit of History

✔ Great swimming (and some cliff jumping)

All in all Croatia is very relaxed and there’s plenty of room for everyone to have a piece of beach/cliff top for a sun bake. Even the more touristy places were quite slow paced, busy, but still laid back, not what I was expecting after the blogs I read beforehand.

Myself and two mates started in Split and then island hopped our way down to Dubrovnik over a week. Getting in-between islands was easy- the ports are right near the town centres, and cheap- a ferry cost about 10 pounds (can be bought at the gate or pre-booked online).

SPLIT

We started off in split for a couple nights- stayed in Outlanders Tribe Hostel. Don’t get me wrong, Split was nice, but I am glad this was the first stop of the trip and not our last. I have heard there are some nice spots up north to go visit (Krka National park) but the town itself didn’t wow us.

The old town in Split is quite cool but it seemed that options to swim were not as abundant as other places we went. We ended up having a swim at Kasjuni Beach which was about a 25 minute walk from the centre. I recommend no more than 2 nights here.

I give it 3 out of 5 super yachts

Hvar

We got to spend 3 nights here- staying at “Hvar Out”. The hostel is in a great location and has a great roof top terrace as well.

We get off to a slow start here but once we had got our bearings we got sorted with some food and drink, later hitting the pub crawl (Hvar Pub Crawl). This is definitely one of the better pub crawls I’ve done (so much so we did it twice). The crawl costs the equivalent of about 20 pound and with that comes an hour of free drinks on a boat cruise (but not a lame free drink hour that some crawls do, you so easily got your moneys worth here), entry to a few pubs back on the mainland and then free entry (worth nearly 20 pound anyway) to the famous Carpe Diem beach club (drinks are super expensive here- come pre dranked). For those who want to kick on after that, head to pink champagne on the mainland.

The other thing that is an absolute must do, is hire a small dingy (for those who aren’t already in a 60ft+ boat- and if you are in one of those, can we be friends?) and go driving about the smaller islands in the area. You can find a secluded beach, anchor up and spend the day. Be prepared, take some drinks and food and get comfy. Boat hire places are every where and for about 50 pound you can get your own small boat.

This was probably my favourite stop on the trip so I’m giving it:

4.85 out of 5 sunsets from the terrace.

Mjlet

This was a quick one-night stop after Hvar- a welcomed rest after indulging the nights previous. Mjlet is a very quiet island that’s home to a UNESCO national park. For ease of ferries, we stayed in
Pomena (at Guesthouse Pomena) which also gave easy access to the Park.

We didn’t plan this the best and only spent a few hours in the park. We hired bikes in Pomena which got us there. If I were to do it again, you could spend a whole day in the park chilling out and swimming.

I really enjoyed the slow pace and scenery of this island, I’m giving it:

4.2 out of 5 early nights watching Netflix.

Dubrovnik

Last stop on the trip was Dubrovnik. I don’t know why but I wasn’t looking forward to Dubrovnik. Maybe it was because I was really enjoying the island life and thought it was going to just be another city. In the end though it was right up there as a favourite of mine. We stayed at “Hostel Villa Garden” which was in such a good spot- right near the old town. I highly recommend staying near the old town. We could go cliff jumping and swimming less than a 10-minute walk from the hostel, about a 5-minute walk to the old town and supermarket.

The first night we went out for a few drinks, with one thing leading to another we manage to find ourselves in a club called Revlin (in the top 100 clubs in the world as decided by DJ MAG (??- I don’t know, but it was good). Its free entry if you have a flier before 11. A flier isn’t hard to get either, people are handing them out.

The next day, it was hotttttttt, and we stupidly decided to walk up Mount Srd (where the cable cars go). After sweating out even the moisture in my eyes, we were rewarded with some cool views of the old town (famously used in scenes for Game of Thrones). It’s worth a look. Topped off with some great seafood, out of 5, I’m giving it:

4.6 cold waters at the top of Mt Srd.

I'll be back!

To date, Croatia is my favourite summer destination in Europe. Ill definitely be back- I’m not sure whether it will be to island hop using the ferries or maybe look at doing a sail Croatia or a yacht week (have heard great things) but either way you do it, you won’t be disappointed.

My Trip Details

Flights:

Skyscanner

Accommodation:

Split - Outlanders Tribe Hostel.
Hvar - Hvar Out
Mjlet Guesthouse Pomena
Dubrovnik Hostel Villa Garden

Others:

Booked the boat, pub crawls and other fun things there.