One Week in Croatia Guide – My New “Thin Place”

We spent one week in Croatia following our one week in Portugal to celebrate our thirtieth anniversary in June. And I want to share it all because that place is pure magic as far as I’m concerned. It immediately became one of our new “thin places” from the minute we arrived.

Why did we love it so much? Croatia is filled up with Roman ruins, pavement polished from thousands of years of use, delicious food, and beach vibes. Could you get better than that? Dave and I don’t think so.

I’m going to give an overview of this trip in this post. And then I’ll go into more details from each stop in upcoming posts. Because I just don’t know a better way to record all these details I want so much to remember! We started in Dubrovnik, headed to the island of Hvar, then made quick stops in Split and Trogir. I feel like we kinda nailed the itinerary because our pace wasn’t scrambling from one thing to the next, included beach relaxation as well as history. We kinda scrambled for our one week in Portugal trying to see everything, so this more relaxed pace felt so nice.

Did we miss a lot?

You bet.

There is so much to see in Croatia!

But hey, I love this place so much I’m happy to have some goals to get back there again some day.

A day-by-day breakdown of our one week in Croatia Itinerary

1. Dubrovnic – Explored hotel and local beaches, headed to Old Town to walk the city walls at sunset
2. Dubrovnic – Back to the city to climb to Fort Lovrjenac, visited Rector’s Palace and the Franciscan Monastery
3. Ferry from Dubrovnik to Hvar, explored the harbor, found some pretty delicious food
4. Boat Tour from Hvar to Pakleni Islands and beaches
5. Bike ride from Hvar harbor to the Old Town Stari Grad, Milna Beach and the Fortica Fortress
6. Ferry to Split, explore Diocletian’s Palace, climb the bell tower
7. Uber to Trogir to experience that magical little town before heading to the airport to head home

Days 1-2: Dubrovnik

This is where we fell in love with Croatia. It all started with finding an incredible little swimming spot by our hotel:

…and walking the city wall at sunset:

Top Things to Do:

Walking the City Walls was for sure my favorite thing. There was something so incredibly beautiful thinking about all the thousands of years of history wrapped up in that city stretched out below us:

…and the sea stretched out beyond:

See that little cafe perched there on the rocks below? Incredible.

I was so giddy I couldn’t get enough of all the new views around every corner.

I’ll share more when I do my Dubrovnik post.

Rector’s Palace

This is a museum inside of a Gothic-Renaissance palace. It holds all kinds of artifacts and interesting historical details.

Franciscan Monastery

The architecture of this monastery was so beautiful, more photos coming soon.

Fort Lovrjenac

We climbed to this cool Fort atop the mountain next to the city. Game of Thrones was filmed here so there are all kinds of tours going on surrounding those sites. But I haven’t seen that show and just thought it was beautiful.

Where to Stay:

We stayed about fifteen minutes away from the Old Town near Lapad. I loved our hotel (Dubrovnik Palace) because of how it was situated right on the water. There was a bus that came every 15 minutes that would take us into town. But it would be pretty cool to stay right next to the Old Town as well.

What we missed:

• Mount Srd Cable Car
• Lokrum Island

Yes, we heard they were awesome, but couldn’t fit them in.

Now Published: Full 2-day Dubrovnik Itinerary with all the details.

Days 3-5: Hvar

Croatia has so many islands to explore and we wanted to stay on one. We chose Hvar because it’s the most famous and sounded like our vibe. We were sure hoping we chose right and boy howdy, when we landed there from our ferry we realized we did.

It is incredibly picturesque, easy to explore, and was such a great spot to jump on a boat from and explore the Pakleni Islands.

Ideas for Hvar

• Take the ferry from Dubrovnik to Hvar
• Go on a boat tour of the Pakleni Islands and the Blue Cave, we chose this one
• Bike from the Old Town to Stari Grad
• Explore all the quaint and beautiful things in the harbor
• Climb to Fortica Fortress – we did this on e-bikes which was pretty awesome

Here’s the Blue Cave which we sure loved:

Biking Hvar

This was one of my favorite things we did. THANK YOU @lillieeatsandtells for the great tip.

Here’s a map of where we took our bikes…except I forgot to mark that we took the Southern route back home and stopped at Milna beach.

Our triumphant arrival at the fortress after a full day of huffing and puffing up and down hills on our bikes.

So much more coming about that adventure!

I love that they’ve made it so easy to island hop in Croatia. These ferries are reasonably priced and get you where you need to go.

Now Published: The Best Things to Do with 3 Days in Hvar – An Itinerary

Day 6: Split

On Day 6 we headed to Split. We weren’t expecting much because we had heard this was actually skip-able. Is “skip-able” actually a word? Ha! But you guys, don’t skip this spot!! We loved Split. Would you want to spend a few days there? Probably not. But there was such a cool feelign in the air there and maybe we were just really pleasantly surprised how much we liked it.

What to see:

• Diocletian’s Palace
• Climb the bell tower

Stepping into the Diocletian’s Palace was like stepping back a few thousand years in history. By this time we were carrying our roller bags all over the place so Dave stayed with our luggage while I climbed the bell tower.

I LOVED the climb as well as the gorgeous views sweeping out in all directions.

What we missed:

• Marjan Hill
• Cathedral of St. Domnius

Now Published: What to Do on a Day Trip to Split

Day 7: Trogir

We spent one evening and the next morning/afternoon in Trogir before heading to the airport. It was honestly a magical little town my friend had told me about. No cars can fit and everywhere you turned was incredibly picturesque.

What we did:

• Explored the tiny alleyways and find the best food
• Climbed around the Kamerlengo Fortress
• Trogir Cathedral
• Best gelato:)

Now Live: How to Visit Trogir and Split in 24 hours

Travel Tips for One Week in Croatia

Best time of year to travel to Croatia

The months of May to September are supposed to be the best. I feel like we lucked out in mid-June because the crowds weren’t too crazy by then. I’m sure July and August are nutty.

What to pack

We love to pack light so we don’t have to worry much about luggage. Any trip we take we just take our backpacks and a carry-on roller bag. This necessitates some handwashing once in a while, which we don’t mind. We choose neutral clothes that can be worn in lots of different configurations.

I have a whole post on how to pack light when traveling to Europe. Because we love to only take carry-on bags with us. Always.

Map of our Itinerary

I marked the cities we visited, except for Trogir which is too small to show up:

See how much we still have left to explore? I’ve heard great things about road trips to the national parks and also Montenegro. Next time…

Transportation Options

We opted not to rent a car in Croatia. Ubers are pretty cheap and it’s really easy to take the ferries from place to place. We heard parking your car is tricky and expensive so we were carless and were pretty happy with that choice.

One Last Tip…

Be sure to get at least one scoop of gelato every night.

Amen.

I feel like this 7-day Croatia Itinerary helped us see ancient ruins, learn so much history AND provide for some relaxation. It was at the top of our bucket list, and still is, because there’s so much more we’d love to see. But 7 days gave us such a great overview of this newest “thin place” we adore.