Croatia in April

intouch44

I'm thinking of heading to Croatia around Easter and would love to hear recommendations from those who have already been there, have googled images and it looks fab but would like to make the most of my time there, will probably be able to spend 10-12 day there.


Thanks

kupus

Where are you flying from, odds on you will have to hire a car to get to most places anyway. What do you look for, how many going. What do you want to do, activity holiday(walking, hiking cycling) or just plain old lazy unwinding holiday.
One thing is, if you expect to go swimming in the sea forget about it. Its too cold.
Hotels or guest houses?

If you start in Dubronik then its best to stay around that vicinity, same with Istria/Pula.
And do day trips to the various islands and national parks. But start with giving more info on what you want to do.

MOH

We went for two weeks a couple of years ago.

Flew into Zadar, spent two nights there, bus to Split for a night.
Ferry from there to Hvar for 3 nights, ferry on to Korcula for a night.
Were supposed to get a ferry down the coast to Dubrovnik but it was cancelled, so had to get the local bus instead. Only took about 3 hours, though it left about 6am which wasn't fun.
Spent about a week in Dubrovnik, did a couple of day trips, flew back from there.

Zadar is nice, not much to it apart from the sea organ and the area around it, which is pretty cool. Maybe worth a night if you have one to spare, or if you're flying in/out of there.
Split's a nice walled city that's worth a night or two.
Hvar is lovely, small harbour town full of expensive yachts, worth a couple of nights. No real beach there, although you can do a day trip to other islands that have a few small beaches, it's mostly quite gravelly though.
Korcula claims to be the birthplace of Marco Polo, every second business is named after him. Another walled town, although we didn't get to see much of it due to the ferry cancellation, and it was lashing rain. Worth a night or two.

3 or 4 nights in Dubrovnik should be plenty to see everything, maybe an extra day or two if you plan any day trips - we did a day trip to Mljet island which turned into an overnight when high seas prevented the catamaran going home, one to Montenegro which was fine except that Kotor was about the 5th walled city we'd seen, and it was getting a bit sameish - we'd actually booked to go to Mostar but the hotel rep got it wrong.
Dubrovnik itself isn't that big, you'd want to allow half a day for doing the walk around the walls though. And if it's hot don't do it at midday, or bring plenty of water.
Oh and Dubrovnik airport is tiny - we allowed the usual 2 hours before hand, and the taxi driver was laughing at us. Said everyone does that, but really an hour max should be plenty of time.

We were there end of May/start of June, and the weather was pretty decent overall - no idea what it's like at Easter. Really liked the country overall though.

Tiesto

Would Dubrovnik be the best city for nightlife?
My friends and I are looking at going also towards the end of April for 4/5 days.
Together we know very little about Croatia so starting to do a bit of research now.
Our priority would be nightlife so trying to figure out what would be the best city for this.

Thanks

kupus

Depends what age you lads are.... Croatia wouldnt be party central like spain or have dance parties like Berlin, and Dubrovnik certainly not. It would be geared towards couples mostly having a few beers or a couple glasses of wine.
Party place would instead be places like Pag island (zrce) Rab or Hvar island, but these dont kick off until mid June.
The culture here is mostly of Cafe-bars with late night discos usually a taxi ride away from the center of towns/cities or in out of the way locations to minimize noise.

But your priority is nightlife in April, so to answer your question Croatia is not for you....
if it was end June & July then answer would be....yes, if you want something a little different to Ibiza and others.

adamski8

^^ or zagreb but that isnt near the sea

The Lovely Muffin

Croaita is nice, I was in Dubrovnik a few years ago for two weeks and it was very, very expensive.

Here's a couple of posts I made about it, don't let them put you off, just be aware Dubrovnik is pretty expensive.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=76600610

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=76612989

They are from this thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056463814

If you do go to Dubrovnik, I'd recommend walking the wall, it's a great experience and the view is fantastic.

Though I personally wouldn't go back again, nice as it is, it's too expensive and having visited once, I've no desire to visit again.

delly19

Flew to Dubrovnik the end of march last year.spent two night there which was more then enough as its quiet small.very very quiet that time of year as the tourist season is only starting & still a lot of places closed.hired a car & drove to Mostar in Bosnia (amazing place) & then to Sarajevo,which is abit like Dublin.then drove down through Bosnia & into Montenegro to Budva & Kotor etc.the most beautiful places & Bosnia was unbelievable & cheap as chips.did it all in 7 days-one full day of that driving,so I think about 1,000km in total.so worth it-amazing experience & you have plenty of time in 10-12 days to appreciate it!!!

intouch44

Thanks for all the replies, some great ideas there!

Anybody got any recommendations for hostels in Dubrovnik?

KDII

I stayed in FreshSheets in Dubrovnik this summer.

Reasonable enough price wise and they were really sound. Its actually within the walls of the old town so kind of a narrow tallish building we got the double room at the top "heaven room" as they called it.

As far as I know they're voted the best in Croatia, and its right beside Buza 1&2 this cool cliff diving rock beach bar thing.. i know u prob won't be swimming but lovely for a coffee or a drink watching the sunset!

Best testament to it was them almost constantly sending people away saying they were full, they had been booked up weeks in advance. They organize pub crawls etc and day trips to the islands too if you're into that kind of thing.