Croatia Island Hopping Contents
My Experience
Going island hopping around Croatia is such a great way to see the country. The cities are beautiful, the islands picturesque and they have great weather.
There are a lot of organised boat tours that take people island hopping which, from what I understand, become a bit like booze cruises but they’re A LOT more expensive than if you do it on your own so this is for those of you that want to go island hopping but don’t quite have the budget to do it as a tour or who prefer to figure their own thing out. That’s what we did.
Croatia is also really well known for it’s festivals and caters to all types of music. These are rumored to be the 15 best music festivals in Croatia. Croatia, and its neighboring countries, are a lot cheaper to travel than a lot of Europe too. This island hopping will certainly set you back a lot less than if you were to go island hopping in the Spanish Canary Islands or even island hopping around the Greek islands.
If you fancy a little adventure around the region you can always hop across the border to Slovenia which is known for its beautiful mountains, ski resorts and lakes.
Top Tips
Accommodation – if you’re traveling with others, and therefore not worried about being in hostels to meet other people, it’s much cheaper to book your accommodation when you arrive in each location rather than ahead of time. At every ferry port you get off you will be swarmed with people offering you places to stay at a fraction of the price of what you can find online so it’s much better to wait until you get to each location first.
Always Check the Distance – This relates to the point on accommodation above. When you get swarmed by people offering you accommodation they will all tell you their place is “just 5 minutes away”. They’ll have a printed placard with pcitures of the place for you to see if you’d like it for that price (you of course can negotiate the price too) but yet strangle don’t have a printed part of the map showing where it is. Ask them to show you on a map before you agree to staying there. Or you might find yourself 15 minutes into a walk to this accommodation that’s “just around the corner” with no option but to carry on since you’ve already walked so far away from the ferry port and the crowds will have dispersed leaving you with no other options.
Getting Around
Obviously as this is an island hopping route the main mode of transport involved is boats.
Boats– All of them leave EXTREMELY early in the morning as the water gets too choppy to leave later in the day so expect a lot of 5am starts on your island hopping adventure. To get to the ferry ports depending on where you are you’ll be able to walk or get a local bus easy enough there. So many people do the route around by boat it’s really pretty easy to navigate. Just make sure you buy your ferry ticket as much in advance as possible to make sure you’re able to go the day you’d like to.
Costs
Accommodation – For hostels you’re looking at about $15 a night, that’s roughly what we were paying for the 3 of us for private rooms too though just getting accommodation when we arrived in each location so if you’re traveling with others it really is worthwhile doing that.
Food – Most menus will have sandwiches, salads and then more substantial meat or fish based meals (there’s a lot of fish unsurprisingly given the location). The sandwiches are only about $5 and then with salads and the larger meals going up to about $10-$15. We ate a lot of sandwiches when we were there.
Croatia Island Hopping Itinerary – 1 Week Route
See the map below for the route I’d recommend for island hopping Croatia and the key reasons you’d want to visit each place in the list below. If you have more time after Split and want to explore the mainland part of Croatia head over to Zadar and then Zagreb to explore the mountains and cathedrals. There are plenty of amazing places to see in Croatia.
Click on any of the links for full details of that location, where to stay and how to get to the next destination on the list.
In order:
- Dubrovnik – City Walls, Lokrum Island National Park
- Korčula – Picturesque Town, Beaches, Food
- Hvar– Parties, Beaches
- Split– Underground Market
Duration: A week and a half to two weeks
Click on each location for more information
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