I don't understand anything written here except the names of the cities

I wonted to give the potential travelers to Croatia a couple of useful links:

1. Croatian Motorways, Ltd
That's one of the companys that builds and runs the Motorways. There's usefull information on the completion of ongoing construction works, and other things.
The Zagreb-Split Highway motorway is expected to be finished before the summer this year.

2. Croatian Automobile Club
You can find information on curent trafic conditions here (webcams, ....)

For now that's it. Ill post some recomendations later.

If anyone has any questions about Croatia just ask.

Boris

Boris, do you by any chance know how are the road conditions in Serbia and Bosnia-Hertzegovina? I'm thinking of going to Dubrovnik this summer. Going through Hungary would be a lot longer, but I don't know how the current situation & road conditions are in Serbia right now.

Unforunately no, I don't have a clue.

I've been in BiH (Bosnia-Hertzegovina) recently, but that was a short trip. The roads were li-la, not very good but not very bad allso. In BiH they dont have a lot of highways (as far as I know), mostly "ordinary" roads. As for the general condition you will have to ask someone allse, but from what I hear people in Croatia usually take a longer trip through Croatia rather than a shortcut through BiH.

And abut Serbia I don't have any clues at all. Never driven through Serbia. Maybe I can ask a friend, he's been going there a lot recently.

Wish I could have been more help.

I found some potentialy usefull sites:

1. Bosnia and Hercegovina Auto-Moto club (Unfotunately IE recomended )

2. Serbia and Montenegro Auto club

Maybe that will help.

Have you been in Croatia before or is this your first trip?

Boris

Thanks Boris,
.. no, it would be my first trip. My sister-in-law went to Croatia last year, and she especially liked it at Dubrovnik, so I thought we may go there as a 'variation' to the Black Sea (especially since the straight-line distance from Timisoara to Dubrovnik is rather small, and we would be starting our trip in Timisoara).

The roads in Serbia are very broken. It may be shorter for a romanian citizen to drive through SCG-HR rather than through HU-HR, but it is safer. Besides as of the 1st of july 2004 romanian citizens have to pay 50EUR entrnance visa in SCG or 20EUR transit visa. Bribing police officers in SCG is more common than in RO and theri expectations are higher.

@vv

Dubrovnik and Plitvice lakes are probably the most well known tourist sites in Croatia. They are really beautiful, and both are on the UNESCO World Heritage list. I've seen that both of the sites where mentioned in the Romanian conversation about Croatia.

If you decide to take your trip to Dubrovnik (and I hope you will) I want to suggest some places near Dubrovnik you can see:

- One of the places is Ston. It is about 60 km from Dubrovnik along the coast in the direction of Split. So it's about a one hour drive. Ston has two town centers Veliki Ston ("Big Ston") and Mali Ston ("Little Ston"). The town has a remarkable fortification system, The "Great wall" that is outside the city walls is 5,5 km long, and has 5 fortresses and about 40 towers. And if you like see food, specially clams, in Mali Ston you can have a great meal.

Some links about Ston:
About Ston 1
About Ston and other defensive walls

You can find useful information's about Dubrovnik and the Dubrovnik region at
Dubrovnik Online.

There is a list of recommended excursion at
http://www.dubrovnik-online.com/english/excursions.php

I would recommend:
1. The city tour (I think that goes without saying )
2. The Arboretum at Trsteno
3. Three Islands Cruise
4. Island of Mljet - National Park

Off course everything depends on how much time and energy you will have.
Good thing is that you will come with your own car, so you can go on small trips on you own.

Hope you decide to come to Dubrovnik and Croatia.

Maybe I'll have some more suggestions.

Boris

OK!
This summer me, my wife and I will spend our holiday part in Italy, part in Croatia.
For Italy it's easy 'cose we find a TUI operator in Romania so we allready booked 8 days in San Benedeto del....
But wea want to visit also Croatia, somewhere around Dubrovnik, but, unfortunatelly, romanian tourist agencies still offers "Cristmas/ New Year offers"
Do you have some hints about some decent hotels/motels you name it, with web page so I can make a reservation from Romania?

I have some links for accomodation:

1. http://www.dubrovnik-apartmani.com/

2. http://www.dubrovnik-online.com

3. http://www.dubrovnik-area.com/eng.asp

As for Hotel recomendations I can't say. I've been in Dubrovnik a couple of times, but I've slept there in hotels only twice.

The first one does not exist any more, the second one was quite OK but i cant't remember the name. If i remember I'll post it. The hotel was in the old town (center) and had reasnoble prices and good food.


You can find a all the hotels and a lot of private apartments in the above links.

Boris

It seems taht I'm te only one posting in the Croatia topic , ahh well


A piece of advice to the potential travelers:

Since now there has been no control spped control on the Croatian highways. Now the police has installed a hole bunch of cameras on the highways, and bought about 10 so called "inreceptor" cars. If they don't stop you they will stop you on the exit.

So, drive safe and slow

Hi Boris,
Do you know - did they finish the Mala Kapela tunell? (the one near Ogulin). It is scheduled to be finished in 2005 - but I don't know if this means 'december' or 'january'
The thing is that I have a hard time making viaMichelin propose a route that will go on the highway - and I'd like to know if this is beacause it really is unusable or because there is a glitch in their program.

The tunell is scheduelled to be opened this month. Both the tunell and the part of the highway over river Krka (Pirovac-Vrpolje), near ©ibenik. So in about one or two weeks, is everything goes according to plans, there will be a highway Zagreb-Split in one piece.

Unfortunately the Mala Kapela tunell (5780 m) and the Sveti Rok tunell (5690 m) are for with only one tube opened for traffic. So in the tunells there is two way traffic, not a highway. But that not so bad, deffinitelly better than the old road.

So the tunell Mala Kapela is opened, and the Pirovac-Vrpolje part is opening tomorow. From tomorow from Zagreb to Split non stop highway.

My proposal for exotic route (not 606) to Dubrovnik:

Romania-Belgrade-Shabac-Karakaj-Han Pijesak-Gorazde-Trebinje-Dubrovnik.

I think vv is going to Dubrovnik these days,and if he loves nature...

thanks mccoy, unfortunately romanians need a visa to go through Serbia. Probably it's not to hard to get one, but well... it's just additional trouble, we decided already that we will go through Hungary

Good choice.Travel well.

Ok, so I got back from Croatia, as I promised to Boris I will write a set of impressions (it will be a bit harder to write them in english, but I'll do my best ) :
First, the 'most useful' information for those who plan to travel to Croatia:
- Exchange rate: ~ 7.25kuna=1euro ( ~2Kuna=1 RON - 'new' Romanian Leu)
- Gas price: ~7.85 kuna (3.9 RON), 95 unleaded. You can find 98 too, at some gas stations, I don't remmember the price
- Highway tolls - approximatively 0.4 kuna/km (this is a rough approximation). From Vrpolje to Zagreb (the piece of highway from entrance to Croatia to Zagreb, a little more than 200km) it's 84kuna.
- Traffic: avoid weekeneds Roads are surprinsigly free during the week, but there are some very nasty trafic jams in the weekend. Especially on the Zagreb-Split highway, you may get queues up to 20km at the Mala Kapela and Sveti Rok tunnels. Roads (other than highway) are generally 2 lanes (1 lane for each directions), and I think they are a bit more narrow than in Romania. However, traffic is generally very light and the speed limits are decent (unlike Hungary or Romania!!! - you can generally travel 'legally' at 80km/h in the villages - the speed limit is 70 and you can add the '+10' margin).One thing I found especially pleasing in Croatia is that the road signs (including speed limits) make sense, and you aren't tempted to ignore them. You know that if there is a speed limit - there is a good reason for it. Roads are generally very good - maybe not 'perfect' as in germany but better than Romania and Hungary (in Hungary I'm talking about the road Nadlac-Szeged-Baja-Mohacs-Udvar). Unlike Hungary, the toilets are free at the gas stations (my wife is pregnant so we had to make frequent stops ). In my guide about Croatia it was written that 'tail gating and reckless overtaking is a national sport in Croatia' - hahaha. They should see Romania. It's true that we saw 2-3 examples of reckless overtaking (it seems that in Croatia, as well as in Romania (and Hungary, in fact) , BMWs and AUDIs have different driving rules - of course I'm not talking about members of this forum ). We even saw a complete idiot who turned his BMW 180* in the middle of a high-speed road (100km/h speed limit) and in a place with little visibility - we braked at the limit to avoid collision. But other than that, drivers are generally disciplined and polite in traffic.

- Accomodation: do not look for hotels. On the coast and in the Plitvice area, there are PLENTY of free rooms (private accomodation). We found rooms at an average price of 50 euro/night for 4 persons; we rented a either large apartment with chitchen & two rooms, or a simple room (with just a bathroom) + a small appartment (room+small kitchen) and once (in plitvice) we rented two rooms(i.e. no kitchen, but the host said we could use theirs). Do not look for rooms in large cities - you will find them to be more expensive and worse quality. Instead, look for small villages that are near the city (e.g. Zaton near Dubrovnik, Kastela near Split, Borik near Zadar etc.). If you go to Zagreb, it is probably best to look for private accomodation in advance, on the internet. I would reccomend Mirna Noc (250kuna = 125 RON /night),you have very good conditions there (and 250 kuna is a good price for Zagreb). In all the other cities - it is best to just look until you find the best offer (don't stop at the first one that is 'acceptable' - say that you'll come back because you want to see several offers; our experience was that we were always able to find something better within 10-15 minutes). Ah, and I would reccomend that you go towards the beach to find the accomodation - don't just limit your search to the main road, the best offers are not there.
Don't worry that you won't find a place to stay. We were in the high season, and we had absolutely no problem. If you go by car, it's quite easy to find decent accomodation. I would reccomend though that you get your room before the sun sets, I don't know how willing are the hosts to discuss with you in the middle of the night

later edit
food: between 160-270kuna at restaurants (80-135 RON), including tip (~10%, or less it was already fairly expensive...). And note that we didn't pick very fancy restaurants.... One bad habit (that I don't understand) is to serve juice at 0.2l - completely insufficient, IMO. Another bad habit is to serve old cucumbers - they are typically the size of a vegetable marrow (in fact, the vegetable marrows are smaller than cucumbers in Croatia). So if you like cucumbers, bring many of them from home, in Croatia you won't find small ones, not even in vegetable/fruit markets. And avoid mixed salads . And, the last bad thing about food: don't order soups. Croatia is the home of Podravka, and unfortunately you can see this in all the soups, we didn't manage to find one without Vegeta so we eventually gave up.
That being said, food is generally very good, I don't want to leave the wrong impression. Eat a lot of seafood, Croatia is the appropriate place to do so. I wasn't so impressed by grilled squids (Calamari), I liked the 'scampi' (langustine) better. Also I liked very much the 'cevapcici' (hope I wrote it correctly - they are similar with the Romanian "mici" except that they are smaller and thus better grilled; also the composition is slightly different, I think).
If you eat in fast foods/pizza, it is cheaper. For example, in Osijek, 1 kebab (much bigger & better than those sold at the Black Sea) was 17 kuna. Juice/water/ice tea is also more expenisve than in Romania (cheapest water we found was around 3RON for 1.5l, but you will typically find juice/water at 0.5l at 8-10 kuna). Also mineral water is much more saltier than the Romanian one (especially Jamnica), I even suspect that it's not very heathy because the Na+ content is huge. Still water (i.e. non-gaseous) is ok though (especially Jana). Milk is very good in Croatia, and cheaper than Romania (I found UHT milk, 3.8%, at 5.4kuna=2.7RON, and remmeber that we didn't go to a hypermarket....). Beer ("pivo") is a little more expensive than Romania, but not too much. I liked the Croatioan beer, you should try it before 'foreign' beer (e.g. Tuborg, Stella etc.), you may like it more, and it is cheaper than foreign beer.

And now to the route - we stayed 10 days in Croatia. Our vacation was mixed visiting-sunbathing&swimming, and we also tried to avoid very long journeys in one day.
Day 1: Arad-Zagreb (via Nadlac-Szeged-Baja-Mohacs-Udvar-Osijek);short visit through Osijek, visited Zagreb 'by night', met with Boris . Zagreb is a very nice city, especially for a capital, I liked it a lot, unfortunately we didn't plan too much time for visiting it (from my p.o.v., capitals are typically 'not-so-interesting'). I liked Osijek too, and it has the advantage that it is cheaper than the rest of Croatia, so it's good to plan to eat there. Dakovo (close to Osijek) looked very nice too, unfortunately we saw it only from the care, I wish we had more time to visit it.
Day2: Zagreb-Rijeka-Opatija, visited Rijeka, visited Opatija. Both are nice but in a different way - Rijeka is a city spread on two hills & the valley between them; Opatija is a touristic resort, a quite 'aristocratic' one. There is no beach in Opatija though, just a concrete platform with stairs descending into the sea - so next day we went to Icici for a bath (it's near Opatija, has a 'stone beach'; in fact, there's very few sand in Croatia, most of the beaches have stones, it's good to buy some special shoes for swimming to avoid cutting your feet in the sharper stones)
Day3: Swimming in Icici in the morning, then we went to Zadar. We slept at Borik (which is some sort of suburb of Zadar, but also a tourist resort). We also ate at Borik,at restaurant 'Albin' (it was reccomended by our 'in-your-pocket' guide to Croatia) - I really don't reccomend that restaurant, I didn't like it at all; in fact after that experience, we ignored the guide when it came to restaurants (however the guide was very useful, I would reccomend that you buy/borrow such a guide if you plan to make a trip to Croatia). We visited Zadar in the evening; the 'modern' part of Zadar is not nice at all - but the old city is beautiful, worth visiting. In fact, there are so many nice places to see in Croatia, I don't even know which one I liked most.
Day4: swimming in Borik, then Zadar-Split, on the coast (not on the highway - the coast road is beautiful, really worth driving on it). We visited Sibenik and Trogir on the way, and slept in Kastella ( a village made of 5 different small villages, each of them having a different Kastel; it is very close to Split). Sibenik - we didn't even know whether to stop there, we planned a 1h stop and ended up spending 3h, it is a charming city. I was mostly impressed by it, because I didn't expect it to be so nice.
Trogir I thik is more popular, and is also very very nice. We ate at a restaurant there, turned up to be the most expesive meal of our trip even though we looked for a cheaper restaurant - so watch out for the prices in Trogir.
Day5: Swimming in Kastela, visiting Split in the afternoon; The 'modern citiy' of Split is not very nice, the old city is ok but after Sibenik and Trogir - we weren't so impressed. In fact, quite surprisingly, Split was the city that we liked the least in Croatia; maybe also because of the 'split summer festival' - they closed some of the central part to build stages, and also covered the most interesting gate with a large banner
Day6: Swimming in Kastela, then the road Spilt-Dubrovnik. On the road to Dubrovnik you have to cross the border to Bosnia & back, but it's ok, they won't even look at your passports, they hardly stop the car to look at it.
We slept in Zaton which is a vilage close to Dubrovnik. We stayed at http://www.dubrovnik-online.com/villa_patricija/ - the house belongs to a retired Austrian and his wife (which is, as they said a 'holliday souvenir from Croatia' for him - so she is born there (in Orasac, near Zaton) but she lived most of her life in Austria and they came back to retire in Croatia). It was the nicest accomodation we had during our trip - we took the room & apartamaent for 2 days, for just 90 euro. I think she (the host) liked us, and this is why we had this discount. I suspect that they don't rent the rooms for money, but for fun, to talk with different people (they have a maid so they don't to the cleaning themselves). They were very nice and friendly, both evenings they invited us to stayed with them outside for a drink - with this occasion we tasted some very good Croatian wine and liquer . The only "bad" think about this Villa was that we felt like guests in a friend's house, i.e. I wouldn' go with the kids there, I would be too afraid that thay would spill something or damage something in the house.
On day 6, we also went to visit Ston; unfortunately we arrived pretty late (we went to look for accomodation first, and then returned to Ston). However, the town is very nice too, it has a 5km fortification system which is the largest in Europe. And the food is excellent there, too .
Day7: swimming in Kastella, then a visit to Dubrovnik. As Boris wife's said "everybody tells you how nice Dubrovnik is, but you can't really imagine it until you get to see it". A really beutiful place. Unfortunately, even if it is mostly restored, in some parts you can still see the traces of the bombardaments
Day8: the road back to Split, than on the highway to Plitvice. We ate in Omis, which is also a very nice resort - and I think they have sand beaches, too! Plitvice is in the mountains, so it is considerably colder then the coast. The road to Plitvice goes through Kraijna, which was badly impacted by the war. You can still see damaged hoses, empty villages and so on... it is pretty sad. We stopped to sleed in Karlovac, but it wasn't probably the best idea, we should have went further to sleep in the north of Plitvice.
Day9: Visit Plitvice lakes. They are really very very beautiful, and different from the rest of our trip (natural beauty vs. cities). It is worth to reserve a full day for visiting Plitvice, you have plenty of things to see and it's a pitty to be in a rush. Entry to Plitvice is quite expensive (95kuna - almost 50 RON per person) but we found out that they will only check your ticket when you take a boat, and you can visit the whole park without taking any boat . Just kidding, I don't think it would be wise to be caught without a ticket....
Day 10: The road back to Romania It was weekend, so we had lots of traffic, and a shorter-than-planned stop in Osijek.

well... that's about it. Croatia is very nice, worth visiting, especially worth visiting by car. There are still many things we didn't see (e.g. the islands, the 'Istria' peninsula etc.), so we hope we will come back in the future. The sea is very nice there, very clean, and because of the islands it is also very calm. So it's a good thing to go in one place, and spend a traditional vacation at the seaside. In fact, right now I don't imagine why someone in the western part of the country would spend the vacation at the Black Sea and not in Croation (it's actually a shorter trip, and as I said - the sea is much nicer there).

I must say, quite a post, I'm impressed by the length and details. I'm really glad you liked your triip and visit.

I hope that nobody from Split will read this

he he...the first international forum meeting was held in Croatia!... vv and Boris... after several meetings in France and Austria between romanians (from Romania with ones living in other countries), Boris is the firstnon-romanian member which organize one in his country...! ... I hope you have pictures!!!!... don't hesitate to publish them on the forum...

P.S. vv... nice vacation, nice novel.....I hope you will publish also the romanian version of it...

Not really shure I'm the organiser, vv maybe did a bit more of that. But that's not the point, nice to have made some new friends.

Unfortunatelly no pictures , but next time I'll bring the camera

I'll be in Croatia this Saturday, at Malinska. On the way back to Romania, I would like to visit Zagreb (very short, just 2-3 hours).
1. Can anybody tell me if I risk to get lost in there? What I want to do is drive through Zagreb, leave the car somewhere and then walk a little bit around. Are there enough signs to get back on the highway? I don't want to offend anybody but after some bad experiences of some friends that got lost in Sofia and Budapest I don't want to risk. I have a detailed map of Croatia but I ask anyway.
2. What are the "must see" points on the Krk island and around? I don't want to go too far from Malinska because the main purpose of my vacation is: sun, swim and sleep

Thanks.

I don't think there is a risk of you getting lost in Zagreb.

I suggest this:

1. If you are comming from the direction of Rijeka, when you pass the tool gates just go straight until you come to a "circular" crossroad (I don't know the name of that type of crossroad, but it's a circle with roads going to the centre of it).

2. Then take the third exit from the "circle", you will be on bridge crossing the river Sava. Stay in the same lane you entered the bridge.

3. After the bridge you take a right turn on the trafic light. After cca 50 m there is another traffic light, you just follow the road that bends to the left.

4. Then you are on a road called "Savska cesta". On the fourth traffic light (second big crossroad), you take a right turn on the "Ulica grada Vukovara". Before the traffic light you must cross the tram rails that are on the road and go to the right most lane.

5. After you turn go in to the left lane. On the second traffic light (first big crossroad) take a left turn to "Miramarska street". There are two lanes that are turning left to "Miramarska" street (ulica is Croatian for street), you take the left turn from the right lane of those two. On Miramarska stay in the right lane. You will pass a gas station and go underneath a stell bridge.

6. On the traffic light turn right and stay in the right lane.

7. On the first traffic light turn right and the follow the road. Cca 20m after the bend on your left side is an entrance to a garage that is below ground. Park there, the time is not limited. I don't know the prices now, but it's maximum cca 1 EUR an hour.

I sugested a garage because on the streets in the centre you have a time limit in most of the places.

The garage is called "Importane Centar garage" and it is underneath the "Esplanada Regent Hotel", so if there is any signs for those two follow them.

When you are going back do this:

1. When exiting the garage turn right (the same way you came in the garage). Just follow the road to the traffic light.

2. On the traffic light go straight

3. Take a first left turn, and again a first left turn.

4. And on the traffic light go straight (you are back on Miramarska street). Pass underneath the steel bridge again.

5. On the traffic light go left. After the turn go to the right lane.

6. On the first big crossroad take a right turn (after cca 300 m or a bit more there is a traffic light)

7. On the traffic light take a left turn. And the you just go straight and the road will "turn in to a highway" going in the direction of Lipovac (East, towards Serbia)

As for Krk, maybe you can visit Vrbnik and Lubenice. Try the white vine called "Vrbnicka zlahtina" (acctually Vrbnièka ¾lahtina)

I would suggest that you find some time to visit the Plitvice lakes national park when comming from Rijeka to Zagreb.

I hope I helped,

Boris

I've just came back from Croatia and I'll write here some of my impressions. First, thanks Boris for the directions. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to visit Zagreb so we've decided to leave it for someother time.
We wanted to see too much in just a few days and we ended up being tired . The next time I'll go in Croatia I'll take at least 10 days, if not 2 weeks. This time we've lost one day to go to Venice in Italy (my wife and the friends I was with insisted) and it was really crazy because I drove around 550 km in one day and walked around 10 km in Venice in a very very hot day - the next day I've slept 1 hour on the beach (I was the only driver in this hole trip).
What I liked most in Croatia: services! We still have a lot to learn to get to those standards. I think it is something related to our way of thinking because I cannot explain it otherwise. Our travel agency in Romania made a mistake and instead of booking us an apartment at the upper floor we ended up at the ground floor. We've explaind the lady at the reception the situation, she showed us the mistake made by the firm that handled our reservations, she apologised (even though it was not her fault!!!) and the next day she found a free apartment for us, with balcony as we wanted. What was more interesting was that we didn't have to pay anything else extra or to give her a small "gift" as in Romania.
Everybody was asking you if you liked the food, and I didn't saw anywere a tip already included in the bill (as in Costinesti, at the Black Sea, where you find on the menu "6% remisa" and you don't have any idea that it means to pay extra 6% for the services - a tip in fact, already included - that's really stupid: this is the reason you go to a restaurant: so that someone else serves you!!! ).
Gas was a little more expensive than I've expected: on the Krk Island and on highways (excepting Ina) the gas was 8.20 kuna and at Ina it was 7.98 kuna. Exchange rate was around 7.30-7.35 for 1 euro, but on the island it was 7.20 to 7.25.
Basicaly there were enough road-signs but we still got lost a little bit in Rijeka (we wanted to drive-through and see the town a little bit). We ended up on the right track quickly.
I've really liked a lot the highways and tunnels. We've expected more trafic considering it was Saturday but it was acceptable. After driving in Romania all my life I guess you can hardly find something worst .
The food was good, I liked pleskavica and cevapcici. Even if I'm not so much into experimenting food, I liked calamari and pizza with sea-food (I don't remember how was called but it was good). Pivo also good - I've tried a lot of beers but I liked Ojusko (I hope I wrote well) better. I don't like wine so much, but I've tasted red and white wine and they were good(my wife apreciated it and this is a good sign though she talked too much afterwards ).
The water was excelent, very clear and warn, you could see the fishes and the rocky beach gave me a sensation of privacy. Nobody to step on your things or still them or even guys coming to you to sell stuff - excelent conditions.
What I didn't like there, but I saw it in Romania too: there should be a certain age and weight limit for topless . I know I'm being mean but that's it. After 2 wales about 90 kilos and 50 years and something remained topless not very far from us I couldn't eat at lunch .
I think Malinska is a place to go if you want quaitness. The big disco on the island Crossroad was already closed for this season and there were not other places to go, except restaurants and bistros.
In the end, it was a very nice vacation, and I hope I'll return soon and see more of Croatia. This time I won't make any reservation and try not to stay more than 2 days in one place - I hope romanians won't change the law in the sens that I'll need a reservation to get out of the country
I hope I was not too boring - I'm not really a talented story teller

You are wellcome, if I know I will help!



The story was nice! The bit with the age limit for topless made me laugh, because I was expecting something else.

The beer is Ozujsko (actually. o¾ujsko)

I see that a lot of people say that they liked cevapcici, but that is not a Croatian dish, even though I like it. It's a Bosnian (BiH) dish (with a strong Turkish influence), but it can be found in Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia,.....

P.S. Aboout 1 hour ago I just came back from my holiday, and it was a nice one

@boris
any info about trains/buses from zagreb to coast? Porec area mainly? tnks

You can got to http://www.akz.hr/voznired/voznired.aspx
and find buses for the date you are interested in.

POÈETNA STANICA - is the starting station (which is ZAGREB)
ODREDI©NA STANICA - is teh destination (jou can write only the first few letters of the town)

ODABERI DATUM - is "pick a date"

Then click on TRA®I - Search

If it does not help tell me the date and the destination and I will look it up for you.


Boris

Thank you, Boris.
i just wanted general info about buses. like how convenient is to use the bus/train network to travel along the coast, say, from Zagreb to Rovinj to Split and back.

I think it can be done with out any problems. There's buses going around all the time. I would recomend the buses, rather than trains, because the trains are a bit too slow and more expensive. But in teh train you have more space and the trip is more confortable.

It's not a problem in my opinion.

Thank you. maybe i'll bother you again in summer, when i'll do the prep.

No problem, just do that

Hi Boris

Me and my wife are planning to make a trip to Croatia this summer and we need some help in order to choose the best itinerary (at this moment this is Bucharest -Zagreb-Trogir- some island - Dubrovnik - return home).
By reading all this thread, we figured out what to do in this trip, but we have no idea in which island to spend two days. So we need your help in this issue. We planned to visit Hvar island. Is this a good choice? Is there another island more beautiful than Hvar ?

Thank you!

Regards,
Dan

I think Boris will recommend Mlijet
Be careful, there are lots of things to see in Croatia, so if it is your first visit there, I would recommend that you skip the islands and just visit the mainland (it takes a lot of time to get to an island and back, you will basically loose two half-days - i.e. a day in total). Of course, if you have a long vacation (more than 14 days), it is well worth the effort to go to visit the islands.

Hvar is an excellent choice. I visited Hvar two times, both times I was in the town of Hvar and I had a great time. I must say that I still have a lot of Hvar to see, because I was only in the town of Hvar.

To answer you question "Is there another island more beautiful than Hvar ?", Croatia has 1,185 islands, islets and reefs (I had to look up the number on the net). I can not pick a most beautiful one, and I can not say if there is a more beautiful island than Hvar, it wouldn't be fair to all the other place I haven't seen.

I have sailed with my grandfather in his boat, and I have have visited a lot of islands in the "central part" of the coast (or to say in the Zadar aquatorium), also I have visited some of the Croatian islands as a tourist arriving by bus and other pubic transportation means.

It would help if you could say what type of environment you wish to find. Urban with a lot of parties or some isolated island with piece and bars closing at 10 pm?

Mljet is also one of my favorites , but I still have to visit it

I will be glad to help if you have any other questions

LATEER EDIT:

As "vv" said, take yout time and for the first visiit see one part of Croatia, Croatia is a beatifull and slow country , there is a lot to see here.......

Thanks Boris.

Got your message. It is really hard to choose when it comes to Croatia..especially when you go there for the first time.

I think we will stay in Hvar for couple of days, before heading to Dubrovnik.

But do you have any ideas for accomodation near Split. I was thinking about Trogir, but then I read it is quite expensive...Should we stay somewhere else?

Waiting for news from you
Dan

Roxana,
I stayed in Kastela; you can easily find accommodation there. But it only works if you go by car
If you go by train/bus, go to the port, you will find a lot of people offering accommodation. It is not quite as nice as the ones in Kastella, but at least it will be in the middle of the city.

Ok VV...
Kastela it is.

Actually it might be even better than Trogir since it is closer to Split..
In which of the 7 Kastelas did you stay?

And by the way, where did you swim? This is tricky isnt it?

Roxana.

Here's a little bit more about Ka¹tela

http://dalmacija.net/kastela/

http://www.kastela.org/

I've never stayed there, just drove through so vv's a better source of information about Ka¹tela.

Boris

Thks Boris,

I will check the websites and wait for VV to give me some extra infos...

By the way, should we spend one night in Zagred or rather in Karlovac?


Roxana

@roxana1806

Definitely Zagreb, Karlovac is allso a nice town, but....

I live in Zagreb, Zagreb is bigger, and ..., so I recommend Zagreb, but if you only plan to sleep and go on there's not much difference.

I don't remmember which one, just go on the streets that lead to the beach and you will find plenty of rooms for rent. Or simply drive on the main street and you will see the 'sobe'/'zimmer frei'/'free rooms' signs. A piece of advice - don't rent the first free room that you will find. There are plenty of choices, look up and in 15 -30 minutes you will surely find something you really like.

In Zagreb, it's harder to find good accomodation. you have to plan ahead. I reccomend 'Mirna Noc' ("silent night") look it up on the internet, you will find it and you can make a reservation. But only if you go by car, it's impossible to get there by publict transportation, it's quite isolated.
As to Zagreb vs. Karlovac, I would also pick Zagreb

I have just noticed this topic (Croatia in English) and I wanted to add my "2 cents" to the discussion. I have visited Croatia in the summer of '05. Stayed in Krk island (in Silo...) for 1 week. All in all it was OK, except the beach, which, of course, is not a beach but a series of jagged rocks and boulders...Very difficult to find a flat place to lay on...I sort of knew this before going in, so I suppose I should not complain too much...Anyhow, my biggest "gripe" was with the police (traffic police). I was driving a brand-new Peugeot 407 registered in France, with sensors to turn on the head-lights if it's dark outside. It was 1 p.m., a nice sunny day and this guy pulls me over (strange way of signaling to stop: guy comes out ON the road and waves at you...if I wasn't paying attention, I could have run him over...). He motions to me to get out of the car and points at the front of the car! OK, says I, what's the problem? He insists on pointing to the car, vaguely in the direction of the head-lights and then points at some passing cars (all had the head-lights on). It took me a long time to realize that he was trying to tell me that I did not have my lights on. Of course I had no clue that this is the rule. Next thing I know, he shows me a document and points to the top where it says "300 kuna". By this time I had realized that he was not the happy cop extending his welcome greetings to a new visitor of Croatia but he was merely giving me a ticket for 300 kuna (at the time, aprox $70, I guess...). So what can you do with a guy who does not speak English, is dressed in a police uniform and asks for money? You pay your fine and keep moving on...I suppose this is true for most any country. It certainly is for California, except you don't pay up front, you go in front of a judge and then pay...Anyhow, back to my encounter with Croatian law enforcement: I guess I had broken the law and the poor fellow was just doing his job in enforcing the law, but he could have just given me a warning or something...(similar thing happened in Hungary, and the cop just let me go...)
To end my post on a HIGH note (and true): I had a good time in Croatia and these things are part of the "flavor" when traveling.

I think we will spend a night in Zagreb..or near it..It depends on the road and when we get there..

I was surfing the net yesterday and found some pictures from Pelsejac peninsula, near Dubrovnik. Has any of you been there? Is it worth spending a day there? Or rather head straight to Dubrovnik?

And for Bilabong, from what I know there is this new rule regarding the lights during the day...so be carreful next time in Europe. Anyway I understand that the rest of the time in Croatia was ok...

Roxana

Boris, VV
Thanks a lot for the information you shared with us (me and Roxana ).

bilabong, when travelling in a foreign country, it is a GOOD thing to check the driving rules at least
But this is just a guess

@bilabong

Well in Croatia you have an option to pay up front, or to get a bill sent to your home address. But if you are a foreign citizen you have to pay up front, or go in front of a judge immediately, and that's a time consuming option.

Actually they do give a warning quite often, I was stoped because one of my front lights wasn't working and just got told to fix it. But it's not that they allways warn you for a "small" thing, sometimes they fine you.

Anyway, glad you had a nice time in Croatia

@roxana1806

As for Peljesac, go at least to Ston on you way to Dubrovnik, see the town and fortifications and have a nice meal (sea food offcourse ).

I've allready posted some links in this topic.

That's my recomendation.

It looks like you plan to visit a lot of places, how long are you staying in Croatia?

Well, my wife just showed me that we have a leaflet from the hosts in Kastela: we stayed in Kastel Luksic, at 'Apartmani Roko' - e-mail roko.zovic@st.htnet.hr
(it was nice, I recommend this one - but you may also find others you like there)

This just shows that good service pays off

Well Boris,

I admit I have a problem..
I want to see everythink in 2 weeks which is impossible...

The latest plan is this:
2-3 days in Kastela, 1-2 days on Hvar, 2 days in Zlujana, 3 days in Dubrovnik, 1 day in Plitvice and then home.

It is a little complicated.
What do you think?

VV, thanks for the adress...We will keep that as an option especially if you recommend it.

Roxana

Well it can be done, youll just do a bit of travelling. I really recommend to see Plitvice, I've been there twice and the lakes are really beautifull.

Hope youll have a good time

Thanks for the help.
Maybe we will get to see you during the trip..If not, maybe you come to Romania one day and we can help you too

Roxana

Hello VV

Just one more question.

Did you have any problems at any border when you left?
I mean, if we have enough money, do we also need a reservation in Croatia? Because we would rather find rooms there...then make reservations at a romanian agency.

Thanks
Roxana