Review of the rest and travel by car in Croatia. Croatia travel by car
What you need to know when visiting Croatia for the first time:
In Croatia:
1. I believe it will not come in handy for everyone, but first of all, relax, feel the benevolent rhythm and keep up with it. If you are used to getting your own with character and pretension - it’s better not to Croatia, you won’t rest and take off all the cream of hospitality, you won’t see natural and human beauty around you, but only the sea is an incomplete impression;)
2. Slavic, an accessible and understandable language, you can even start speaking in a few days.
3. Mostly rest in private apartments. Hotels have European stars, respectively, and the cost. Their territories are small with rare exceptions, often open territories, there are not so many all-inclusive options and there is no oriental abundance. The apartments do not provide meals, there are equipped kitchens everywhere.
4. There are no private beaches, in some places there are beaches rented by hotels.
5. There are very few sandy beaches and such beaches have a rather shallow entry into the sea.
6. Beaches with partially concreted surfaces with descents into the sea, who knows - this is the most comfortable and requested from gourmets, lovers of "everything for me" ... and views, and the beach, and the sea.
7. There are no jellyfish in the sea and almost no algae. The Croatian Adriatic Sea is one of the cleanest in the world.
8. The swimming season starts earlier and ends later in Dalmatia, from Sibenik and further south to Dubrovnik, simply because it is further south and the mountains with islands create a certain climate.
9. Seasonal prices for accommodation, car rental and even in cafes ... in the peak season (July and August) are more expensive than in June and September, and in the off season you can rent an apartment with a monthly price.
10. Rest in the region of August 1-15 is better to book well in advance, even better before the New Year, because. this time is also the holiday time of the Italians, who also like to relax in Croatia.
11. There are very few single-family houses in Croatia, there are even fewer near the sea in civilized places with markets, shops, pharmacies, restaurants, and this, of course, is more expensive than apartments. Another category is villas that are of an appropriate quality, if there is a territory, then with pools and a barbecue area, and even a few kilometers from the sea, they usually cost from 200-300 euros per day (400-700 euros July-August) and more.
12. Holidays in cabins in campsites are often more expensive than holidays in apartments.
13. Russian tourists in Croatia are only 1.5-2% at the moment, so excursions in Russian can sometimes be provided only by hotels and only those that work with Russia.
14. Rest on yachts and other floating. means no less popular than land, we can say that the forces are equal :)
15. When booking a holiday in an apartment in May and later, it is recommended NOT to buy tickets in advance, but first find accommodation and adjust to it.
16. IMPORTANT! Children - also people, who are also considered when placing, are also registered, with the exception of infants up to a maximum of 2 years. The apartments are all categorized for a certain number of people (this is how taxes are paid) and another number is fraught with a fine, and inspections are quite common. Those. “a child of 5 years old, he is small, will sleep with us in bed” in Croatia is better not to mean. Yes, baby cots for babies, the apartments are not provided with the same wooden ones as you have at home, but with mobile playpens-cots, pay attention to this!
17. In Istria and Kvarner there are more hotel holidays, in Dalmatia holidays in apartments.
18. Driving cars is possible under Russian rights. Fines for violations of traffic rules and parking are quite high.
19. Bank cards are in use almost everywhere, with the exception of newsstands, souvenir shops, markets, most coffee shops and payment for transport not at stations. Rubles are not accepted anywhere.
20. Prices in shops and restaurants on the islands, if they are not connected by a bridge to the mainland, are usually more expensive.
21. High quality products, pay attention to the labels for "domaće", "hrvatski proizvod", "hrvatska kvaliteta", "mlijeko hrvatskih farmi", "meso hrvatskih farmi".
22. People often ask about sanatoriums for the treatment of respiratory tract ... The sanatoriums in Croatia can be counted on the fingers of one hand and they are not all on the sea. There are places on the coast where nature heals, so come and breathe the sea, pine trees, it is important to change the height above sea level, which means the presence of mountains is important. Asthmatic diseases are also treated over time.
23. Assuming traveling by car from island to island or to the mainland quite often, consider the cost of ferries - quite expensive.
24. Although Croatia is small on the map, the coast is more than a thousand kilometers, not counting the islands, so calculate your strength by thinking over the route every day in a new place - very tiring.
25. If you have Schengen insurance in Croatia, you will NOT be served, because. Croatia is not yet in the Schengen area.
26. A very low crime rate, but in the season, as elsewhere, there are "guest performers", so keep your bags, documents and phones with you, be careful!
27. Croatia is a very hospitable country, private accommodation services here have been polished for decades in their quality and you can always be sure that you are long-awaited guests. You will always be helped to solve problems during your stay, as well as brighten up your holiday with their attention and courtesy. Those who do not need extra attention are recommended to stay in hotels.
28. You can’t even imagine how much there is to see in this small country with a thousand islands.
From personal experience of appeals :) I definitely missed something, I feel ... I will add it later :) The author of the text is Yulia Shevaleva.
More and more modern people want travel around Croatia on your own and with the onset of the spring-summer season, friends and acquaintances turn to us with a request to suggest how best to organize a vacation and orient on prices.
Consider the following initial data: month - July, term - 2 weeks, vacationers - two, form of recreation - travel around Croatia with a rental car.
Renting a car and paying for roads in Croatia
The cost of renting a small car (Fiat Punto, FW polo with a 1.2-1.4 liter engine and the like) for two weeks is up to 500 euros. You can arrange car rental both at the airport of arrival (list and contacts of Rent-A-Car at Zagreb airport, Rent-A-Car at Pula airport), and at your place of residence. In Istria, the car is driven directly to the apartment. Let's take an average mileage of 1200 km during the trip. (~100 liters * 1.5 euros = 150 euros).
If you flew to Zagreb, then the distance to the sea coast of Istria is 350 km. There and back - already 700 km., And you will also ride every day - for this you take a car. If you are heading from Zagreb to Dolmatia, then the distance grid looks like this: 230 km to Zadar, 430 km to Split, 700 km to Dubrovnik. So figure out what kind of forced march you would like to make on your vacation. To the cost of renting a car and gasoline, you should add the cost of travel on high-speed roads.
You will get to Pula (Istria) by paying 108 kunas (60 kunas to Rijeka + 48 kunas Učka tunnel and Istrian epsilon), i.е. about 561 rubles. (if you want to convert kunas into rubles, then you need to multiply kunas by 5.2, and if in euros, then divide by 7.3, that is, 108 kunas / 7.3 = ~ 15 euros). If you plan to travel to Dalmatia, you can check the fare yourself on the HAK website. Choose the direction of the road and the point of arrival (for example, Zagreb (Lucko), then look in the table for your destination, that is, the exit from the road and see the amount in category I. The motorway has not been built to Dubrovnik, you will reach the Makarska Riviera along the highway, the final destination Vrgorac, and then you will take a regular road that winds along the sea through the mountains.It should be noted that the average speed drops significantly - up to 50-60 km / h.The road is scenic and the plus is that you can stop at the place you like and swim "There is one more subtlety on the road to Dubrovnik. You will pass a small section of roads through the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina. During the tourist season, a continuous stream of cars passes through the checkpoint, so if you are not stopped, you should not wave the "red-skinned passe", pass easily Transit travel is free, but the mood of the customs officers is different, they can inspect with predilection.So, car rental 500 euros + (15 0 - 200) euros for gasoline + (40 - 60) euros for road tolls = we get from 690 to 760 euros per trip. Of course, the cost will depend on how far you plan to travel and on what route. Now for the next part of your journey - this is a rental property in Croatia.
An axiom known to all travelers: the longer you live in one place, the lower the price per day. But July (we took this month for calculations) is an active tourist season. Start from the price of 45 to 55 euros for an apartment for two. Here we take average, real prices, of course, they may differ for each specific case, both up and down, but on average this is an adequate cost for July. If you are ready to stay in rooms with a shared bathroom, then the price will be from 13 to 20 euros per person. In Croatia, when staying in apartments and rooms, it is not customary for customers to offer breakfast. This is due to the fact that for catering it is required to obtain an additional "permission" - for a treat. For breakfast you can only count on the hotel. So, for accommodation you will need from 630 to 770 euros.
A few tips on how to find places to stay for the night for yourself and for the car when traveling around Croatia.
1. It is better to start looking for a place to sleep before dark.
2. There are information points for tourists in the towns, they are marked with the letter (i), if you do not want to walk around the apartments and ring the doorbell, you can contact such an information point, and they will tell you which apartments are free and contact the owner, so that he will accompany you and show you the apartment. In this case, the price will be about 10% more than if you contacted the hosts directly, since they pay a commission to the information desk.
3. You can walk around the village yourself, looking for nice places to stay for the night and ask:
“Imate li slobodan apartman (sobu)?” - Do you have a free apartment (room)?
"Za dve osobe" - for two people. Cjena - price.
And it is better to write the numbers on paper so as not to be mistaken. Payment is usually requested immediately. You must also ask for your documents for registration.
4. If you settle in a fairly large settlement, then be sure to ask the owner of the apartment where you can park your car for free. This is especially true of Dubrovnik, the Makarska Riviera, Trogir, Split, Sibenik, Zadar, Zagreb and all cities on the Istrian coast, where the availability of free parking spaces is either severely limited or non-existent.
Gas stations in Croatia.
At petrol stations in Croatia the procedure is different from what we are used to :). You pull up to a gas station, take a gun and fill the tank with gas first, while you can independently regulate how much gasoline you fill, focusing on the scoreboard, where the numbers of displacement and the cost of gasoline in kunas run. And already after you have poured gasoline into the tank, you go into the gas station building, call the number of the gas station and pay. Such a trusting attitude towards customers! :) At most Croatian gas stations you can also have a cup of coffee with pastries, and at some you can have a snack or even a full meal in a self-service restaurant. I especially recommend Tiffon gas stations, where you can have great coffee with delicious cakes and have free Wi-Fi. On the way Zagreb - Pula or vice versa, there are two Tiffon gas stations with self-service restaurants where, depending on the season, you can even taste the game that is found in the local forests. Prices are quite moderate.
Parking in Croatia. If in the settlement you see parking spaces marked with paint (usually blue), then look for a payment point. The parking machine has information about the hours of payment (for example, from 7 am to 6 pm) and the cost per hour. In addition, parking lots are divided into zones (1, 2, 3). The highest cost per hour is in the first zone, and there may also be a limit on the number of hours of "standing" (one or two hours). This is due to the high attendance of the city center. In no case do not stand in parking spaces with yellow markings - these are parking spaces for the disabled and valet parking is strictly monitored.
There are two ways to pay for a parking space. First - we pay with metal coins in the device for the required number of hours, after which it is necessary to put the receipt received from the device under the glass of the car from the passenger compartment. I wouldn’t specify it this way, but Russian drivers are such “naive inventors”: either they pay and take the receipt with them, or they put it under the wipers (and people around are different ..., there are too resourceful ..))), and then they are surprised that they have another receipt under the wipers - for a fine! The usual fine is 60-80 kunas, but can reach 700 kunas, depending on where you leave the car. Payment of the fine is made in any bank.
The second payment method is sending SMS from a Croatian mobile phone.
We always recommend our guests, especially those traveling by car, to purchase a Croatian SIM card. You can buy it at any newsstand or gas station. "Molim karticu za mobitel" - please give a card for a mobile phone. It costs 25 - 40 kunas.
A four-digit number for sending SMS is written on the parking payment machine (for example, 8402). In SMS, indicate the full letters and numbers of your car number and send it to the four-digit number indicated on the parking machine. Within 2 minutes, you should receive a response SMS with confirmation that payment for such and such a car number, at such and such a tariff and in such and such a zone has been accepted. Through the phone you pay every hour of parking. You will receive a notification SMS 15 minutes before the end of the payment. In short, everything is reasonable, very convenient and humane.
It is difficult to imagine how much money it will take you to pay for parking. I can only inform you that the hourly rate varies from 3 to 6 kunas, depending on the city and the parking area. Another important cost item is food.. This is a purely individual matter, so I’ll just give you some prices in restaurants and prices for some products in Croatian stores.
Breakfast: coffee - 10 kunas, pastries - 10 kunas, yogurt - 7 kunas, scrambled eggs in a cafe - 15-20 kunas. I note that the Croats are loyal if you come to them in a cafe with your pies, that is, you bought pastries in a bakery and sat down in a cafe to drink tea and coffee. If you are staying in an apartment, you can save on breakfast as you can shop for groceries and organize your own breakfast in your own kitchen.
Lunch at the restaurant: salad - 15-20 kunas, soup - 20-30 kunas, mussels - 45 kunas, pizza - 45 kunas, grilled squids - 60 kunas, pasta with something - 60 kunas, meat - 60, fish and seafood 60 - 150 kunas Juice, tea, coffee - up to 15 kunas.
Thus, a full meal for two can cost from 200 to 300 kunas (30 to 42 euros). Or you can keep within 100 kunas for two by eating Croatian pizza, which, at times, is better than Italian.
Dinner at the restaurant: salad - 15-20 kunas, hot seafood or meat 60 - 150 kunas, dessert - 30 kunas, tea, coffee - 15 kunas, a liter of homemade wine - 50 kunas, a bottle of wine - 80 kunas. Dinner for two - 300 - 450 kunas (42-70 euros).
Once again I want to say that if you live in an apartment and the cooking process does not spoil your vacation, then you can save a lot on food, at least twice. Croatian markets and shops sell excellent fresh seafood and fish, vegetables and fruits, as well as absolutely everything you need for good nutrition.
Prices for some food in Croatia:
Fish (these are the prices for the freshest fish, not frozen): Dorada, Seabass - 50-80 kunas per kg, depending on the size of the fish, the smaller, the cheaper it is. River trout (Pastrva) - 25-35 kunas per kg. Navaga (Oslic) - 40-50 kunas per kg.
Meat: Beef 45-60 kn per kg. Pork 35-60 kunas per kg. Chicken 25-35 kn per kg.
Sausage, ham 80-150 kunas per kg.
Cheese - from 60 kunas per kg. and higher.
Milk - 6 kunas per liter,
cottage cheese 30-40 kunas per kg,
yoghurts - 2.5 - 5 kunas per piece,
sour cream 7-9 kunas per 250 gr.,
butter 14-20 kunas per 250 gr.
Eggs - 12-15 kunas for 10 pcs.
Flour - 4 kunas per kg
Sugar - 7 kunas per kg
Table wine - 20-30 kunas, dessert or varietal wines 40-120 kunas per bottle 0.75. Croatian beer 5.5 - 8 kunas per 0.5 liter.
But at least sometimes I recommend you go to a restaurant for dinner, it creates an unforgettable atmosphere of a resort holiday.
Travel Croatia by car both convenient and pleasant, because in Croatia there are excellent roads and by car you can visit a lot of interesting and amazing places not covered by mass sightseeing tourism, such as, for example, the town of artisans and creative people - Groznjan, whose cozy streets you can see in the photographs of this article.
For a long time we were going to go to the sea to Croatia and there was no time for everything.
And yesterday I just took and bought tickets to Split for 3000 rubles - I searched and bought and you can’t get anywhere.
We have 2 weeks in September before starting our canal cruise in Germany and that time is allotted for Croatia (mostly) and a bit of Italy (we will get there from Split by ferry to Ancona).
The return flight to Moscow will be from Italy, but tickets have not yet been purchased.
Holiday plans in Croatia
For me, this is not the first trip to Croatia, but Ikrinka is the first to get to know this Balkan country.
In Croatia, we have mainland and island beaches in our plans - it will be necessary to draw up a map of good beaches for the next season.
Shooting beautiful coastal cities from the air with a drone also greatly popularizes this direction compared to neighboring Montenegro.
Evenings in coastal restaurants with grilled fish and octopus.
Maybe: I was there, although the people there are dofiga - they liked it, but Ikrinka was not
What you need to travel to Croatia
We do not need a visa to Croatia - we have permanent residence in one of the Schengen countries, but anyone who has a Schengen visa can safely go to Croatia: I wrote about this in an article
I will only add that now Greece is handing out three-year Schengen visas right and left - - so what's the point of fooling yourself with local visas?
Car rent at this price - the best option to explore more in a short period of time.
True, you will have to use car ferries many times, and they tend to go less often than ordinary passenger ones, but they definitely happen at least twice a day.
Where to stay in Croatia
This is not a problem at all: we are going to Croatia in early September and the majority of vacationers have left the Adriatic coast and are now gathering their children to educational institutions or getting up for work on an alarm clock.
The housing stock in Croatia is huge, so in September there is no problem to come to the place, see the apartments live and, if you like, immediately book cheaper on booking using the mobile Internet.
We ordered Internet for the car, but in general, we’ll probably just buy a Tele-2 card with a 2 GB package for $ 10 and one of the iPhones will distribute wifi.
The best type of housing in the Balkans is apartments.
This is a kitchen, this is the absence of typical corridors and typical doors, not to mention typical neighbors - I'm talking about good apartments, not the Crimean-Anapa version.
The best way to book an apartment is to find and make a reservation in advance on the AirBNB website, but we have a very mobile trip not tied to place or time.
If we want, we will leave the car in the port and move to Italy.
Currency exchange in Croatia
In Croatia, as in Europe, plastic is accepted everywhere: you can pay in shops, gas stations, restaurants, hotels.
Cash - well, maybe in the market or on the road to buy fruits or seeds.
You can change any hard currency (that is, not rubles) at a bank or right at the airport - $ 100 will be enough.
The difference between the rate at the airport and somewhere in the bank to which a taxi of 20 euros will be a penny.
Restaurants, cuisine in Croatia
The cuisine in Croatia is very similar to Italian - there is a strong influence, and most of the tourists here are from Italy.
Compared to Montenegro, which is more similar to Turkey (both in appearance and demeanor of the locals, and in cuisine), in Croatia there are more seafood on the tables than meat.
Fish, shellfish, octopus, which is generally a great specialty here and is well prepared.
Croats make good white wine, and of course red. In general, white wine is more difficult to make.
Very popular Italian ice cream (probably the best in the world) and desserts. All in all, it's okay to eat here.
Well, in general, probably everything.
As usual - I will keep an online travel diary on the forum -.
For most tourists, traveling independently without the help of an agency is something out of a fantasy series. Many are driven by fear: “How will I get there?”, “What about housing?”, “What to eat?” - these and many other questions are asked by indecisive people. In fact, there is nothing to be afraid of.
When planning your vacation on your own, you are not limited by any time, geographical or any other framework. If we are not “attached” to the hotel, meals by the hour and beach cards, the vacation will sparkle with new colors. You can travel to different cities. Where you like it - stop for a few days, explore the surroundings, try the local cuisine and move on.
But before you go on an exciting trip, we recommend that you plan everything in advance so that there are no difficulties on the road.
Do I need a visa for Croatia?
A visa for Russians and citizens of Ukraine for up to 90 days is not required. This requires an invitation from an individual / legal entity or confirmation of a hotel reservation. You can read more about visa requirements.
How to get to Croatia by plane?
Charter flights are organized from all major cities during the season. Planes fly to Split, Zagreb, Pula, Dubrovnik. Flight duration from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Rostov-on-Don - 2.5-3 hours. From Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk - about 5 hours. Since October, almost all charters have been removed and only regular flights remain.
Often at the last moment you can buy tickets at bargain prices. We recommend monitoring the sites Anydayanyway, Skyscanner, etc. Very tasty offers appear here from time to time. More details can be found.
Is it possible to get to Croatia by train?
If you are afraid of flying or for some reason prefer rail transport, there are also such solutions. During the holiday season, there is a Moscow-Budapest train with a trailer car to Split or Zagreb. It is impossible to call this option convenient, since the train takes two days. You need to apply for a transit visa before traveling.
Traveling to Croatia by car
It is impossible to say that a car for a trip to Croatia is just a mode of transport. After all, if we decide to go on such a long journey to the Adriatic coast by car, then we want to do more than just get from point A to point B. A trip to Croatia by car is an exciting journey that requires preparation and careful planning. You can read about it in the article: ".
Where to stay in Croatia?
Unlike Turkish and Egyptian resorts, where there are no other accommodation options besides hotels, Croatian resort towns will offer a considerable choice.
How to rent an apartment in Croatia?
The most popular type of accommodation is apartments. Usually, the owners of private houses rent out part of the rooms as hotel rooms to vacationers. Conditions are usually no worse than in hotels. The rooms have air conditioning, hair dryer, towels, shampoo. There are many resources on the Web where you can track offers, such as Croatianapartments.
Hotels in Croatia
Far from everywhere is such a great combination of prices, service and quality of hotels, as in Croatia.
Camping in Croatia
This type of accommodation is also very common in Croatia. There are about 260 campsites in the country, 12 of which are for naturists. On the site http://www.camping.hr/ you can find comprehensive information about Croatian campsites. We only note that the cost of parking ranges from 20 to 40 euros per day. 
Camping is very common in Croatia. For a small fee, you can set up a tent or rent a "motorhome"
Briefly about food in Croatia
Is it possible to imagine a quality vacation without delicious food? We doubt. Even if you are staying at a hotel with three meals a day and drinks in between, we recommend you skip dinner several times and visit a local restaurant. Not only are the dishes excellent, but the portions are huge. It happens that one is quite enough for a family of three.
If you go on vacation with a child, then you can not do without self-cooking. Prices for products in stores here are lower than Western European ones, and the quality is no worse.
Croatia is a great choice for independent travel. A visa is not required, the country is quite calm and safe, the language is simple and understandable, and the local population is always sincerely friendly, ready to help at any moment.
I talked about my first trip to Croatia and how I had a dream to travel Croatia by car.
Dreams come true - this is not only the slogan of Gazprom, but mine too, may they forgive me for plagiarism. And in most cases, we ourselves take certain steps to implement them.
A few years later, a whole chain of events brought me here again, and ... with my loved one, and who had a driver's license (honestly, this was not a defining criterion, rather, a nice bonus!).
Implement road trip in Croatia can be done in two ways:
- On your car. If you can easily endure long journeys, and are not limited by the travel time (well, or not very limited), you can also go by car. The advantages are obvious - you travel in a car that you know well, that you are used to, and save the cost of rent and air travel, although you spend more on gasoline. Travel time, counting from Moscow, will take you an average of 3 days one way, but there is an opportunity to see several countries along the way: Belarus, Poland, and then, depending on the route, Germany, Austria, Hungary.
An example of a route from Moscow to Croatia by car:
Sometimes Google Maps also offers a third option - through Germany. It is a little longer, but if you switch to it, you will see that there is a little less roadwork on it, which means there is less risk of getting stuck in a traffic jam, besides, with this option, you can also see Germany and stop for the night, for example, in Dresden.
You can vary the routes - no one bothers you after Dresden to head for Prague and stay there for a day, then go to Salzburg or Vienna of your choice, and then head for Croatia. When traveling by car, you can also stop by Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, as well as see Plitvice lakes- according to the logistics of movement, it will be more convenient than going to the lakes from the coast and then returning back. Or you can plan Plitvice for the return trip, many write that they well deserve two days, so you can plan an overnight stay there and walk around the reserve to your heart’s content – in my personal rating, this is perhaps one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.
But still, in my opinion, this option can be chosen with a vacation duration of at least three weeks, which is not always possible to afford.
Therefore, the most common way is to fly to the destination country by plane and rent a car.
This time we were able to escape to Croatia for only 10 days, so we rented a car on the spot. In addition, I managed to buy a ticket to Split under the special offer of S7 airlines for only 9 thousand rubles there and back. My companion (it just so happened that we took tickets separately) for 15 thousand round trip, but, as it turned out, he got a business class for the promotion.
There were no problems getting the car at the airport, and soon after landing we were driving along the most beautiful road along the Adriatic Sea from Split to the village of Baska Voda, which I fell in love with from my last visit.
The famous bay of Vrulya at the entrance to the village of Brela Since this article is dedicated specifically to car trips, I will not dwell on the details of booking apartments in Croatia (you can read about this in), but simply tell you where we went.
Our regime was mainly this: a day - a beach, a day - trips. First of all, we went to the nearest town - Makarska. It is 15 minutes from Baska Voda to it, and if we draw parallels with our urban planning, we can say that Makarska is something like a regional center. Accordingly, there are more large shops and hotels, more choice of evening entertainment.
Makarska, mountains and pines 
Square in Makarska Of the sights in Makarska, the Franciscan monastery of the 15th century stands out.
Like in most Croatian cities, it has its own old town with its narrow shady streets, sandwiched between stone houses traditional for Croatia, with clotheslines stretched between the windows of the upper floors, cobblestones on the pavement, shutters made of old dark wood.
As Wikipedia tells us, Cape St. Petra divides the coast within the city of Makarska into two bays. In the eastern bay, from Cape St. Petra to Cape Osejava (Osejava) there is a port and yacht piers, while the western one is a resort recreation area with beaches, along which stretches a long promenade Marineta with hotels, cafes and shops.
I like Makarska, it’s really good to walk there, take a look at the yachts, go shopping, but for a rest, so to speak, basic accommodation, if we consider Central Dalmatia, I would still choose Baska Voda or Brela next to it, with their long promenade ( one village smoothly flows into another, so it is difficult to understand where one ends and another begins, so there are more than enough options for walking), lush pine trees hanging over the very edge of the sea, neat villas with orange tiled roofs and beautiful beaches surrounded by bright flowering shrubs, marked with the Blue Flag.
Baska Voda at sunset 
The second sortie was already further away - to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is a fairy tale city, a city of legend. For those who are in the know, it was there that most of the Game of Thrones was filmed, there really are landscapes and architecture, as if descended from the pictures of a medieval novel, smoothly turning into fantasy. Dubrovnik is included by UNESCO in the top three most beautiful cities - monuments of Europe of the Renaissance, along with Venice and Amsterdam.
Roofs of Dubrovnik 
You need to plan a whole day for Dubrovnik, as you can spend quite a lot of time in it, plus time for the road.
And do not forget to take your passport with you when you are going to Dubrovnik - after all, the path runs through Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, you will first have to leave Croatia, then re-enter. Those. for one round-trip trip, you cross the border of the state four times. As a rule, there are no problems with this. In a number of cases, we simply waved our passports in front of the border guard, once or twice our passports were taken in hand for a quick look. So far, entry to Bosnia and Herzegovina for residents of the Russian Federation is visa-free. The road, as you can see on the map, runs along the sea, and the views will always be such that it is impossible to resist the desire to stop and take pictures. In addition, from time to time on your way there will be secluded bays of extraordinary beauty with clear water, so that every pebble at the bottom is visible from the road, so you will most likely want to stop and swim, at least once along the way. Take this into account when calculating the travel time. We drove, for example, to such an amazing place with the purest water and freshened up there before continuing our journey.
Closer to Dubrovnik, one can observe an interesting picture - a lot of barrels floating in the water, not floating randomly, but in ordered rows, that is, clearly fixed in one place. This is the famous oyster farm in the town of Stone, and you may well turn there to feast on fresh oysters.
We also passed such an interesting valley, pitted with clearly artificial channels filled with water - we could not help but stop to take a photo.
In Dubrovnik, leave the car in a parking lot, as close as possible to the Old Town. We chose the first one that came across, just followed the signs “P”, while focusing on the map in the navigator, and then go on foot. Be sure to walk along the streets of the Old Town and climb the fortress wall surrounding it. To completely go through the entire wall, it will take about an hour, according to my feelings, they didn’t pinpoint exactly. From the wall you will see the city, admire the beautiful panorama of the sea and the harbor with many different types of water transport: boats, beautiful yachts, sailboats, cruise liners ... the view of the harbor definitely resembles an illustration of a book about pirates, and in general the feeling that you are somewhere then in a fairy tale, it did not let me go all the time of the walk.
Coming back to reality: don't forget your hats and protective cream if you are going to walk along the fortress wall.
We did not spend the night in Dubrovnik, but I think it would be nice: I imagine how beautiful the city is in the evening, when crowds of tourists subside from it. But we, having walked up to our heart's content and taking pictures, decided to return to our already almost native Baska Voda.
On the way to Dubrovnik or back, you can stop by the beautiful city of Mostar, located on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or you can plan a separate trip there.
Mostar (the name of the city is translated as "Old Bridge") is spread along both banks of the Neretva River. Its main attraction is the Old Bridge across the Neretva, which connects the two parts of the city, and, in fact, gave it its name. The bridge was built by the Ottoman Turks in 1566 and included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. But during the war in 1993 it was completely destroyed (and the whole city was seriously damaged, on many houses, as a memory of those tragic events, traces of shootings and bombings were preserved) and restored in 2004, and during the restoration they tried to use the original material as much as possible, for which many blocks of the destroyed bridge were raised from the bottom of the Neretva. Now it is a symbol of the country's return to peaceful life. Also noteworthy in the city are old Ottoman-style houses, Plaza de España (city center), an old mosque, a Franciscan church and an Orthodox cathedral, which was also damaged during the war, but is to be restored in the near future (perhaps some work is already underway) .
About what other cities and sights we visited while traveling around Croatia by car, my next stories will be - subscribe to updates on the site using the "subscribe" button on the main page of the site or our
