Car hire - Croatia

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

Hello all,

Flying into Dubrovnik and will be looking to rent a car at the airport. Any reccomendations on who best to go with? Note I have a full licence, but only passed in October 2012, would that be an issue (heard some places need you to have a licence for over 2 years)?

Thanks.

allycavs

Im not sure if you need a car. But I travelled Croatia from Zagreb to Dubrovnik by island hopping. Croatia has 200 islands off its coast and they are stunning. I travelled there in 2008. And you could get a boat between islands for less than €2. all boat trips were under an hour too. Hvar is the biggest island for tourists. Really nice island, nice resturants and good nigh life and so on. Split is amazing (google it) and also has a good night life. Korcula is a quite island with many vine yards. beautiful to look at. Obviously there was a few bus journeys involved aswell getting across from Zagreb to harbour and harbour to dubrobvnik and i remember another bus journey in Korcula. I know its not what you are looking for but if you are to travel in crotia its an option. dubrovnik is hilly outside the oldtown so maybe you need a car

john kinsella

Totally agree with the above. The bus services are excellent there. We travelled from Dub to Split on a bus then went island hopping all the way back to where we started.

Dont get a car unless you need to .

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

allycavs wrote: »

Im not sure if you need a car. But I travelled Croatia from Zagreb to Dubrovnik by island hopping. Croatia has 200 islands off its coast and they are stunning. I travelled there in 2008. And you could get a boat between islands for less than €2. all boat trips were under an hour too. Hvar is the biggest island for tourists. Really nice island, nice resturants and good nigh life and so on. Split is amazing (google it) and also has a good night life. Korcula is a quite island with many vine yards. beautiful to look at. Obviously there was a few bus journeys involved aswell getting across from Zagreb to harbour and harbour to dubrobvnik and i remember another bus journey in Korcula. I know its not what you are looking for but if you are to travel in crotia its an option. dubrovnik is hilly outside the oldtown so maybe you need a car

john kinsella wrote: »

Totally agree with the above. The bus services are excellent there. We travelled from Dub to Split on a bus then went island hopping all the way back to where we started.

Dont get a car unless you need to .

Great thanks! We will be travelling from Dub to Split as well, maybe taking in Trogir also.

One final questions: Did you book buses/transport beforehand?

allycavs

No just show on the day. they probably run boat trips twice if not 3 times a day and the bus times coincide with the boat times. in fact you can get a bus fare where the bus will get on the boat, get off the other side and contine to drive you to your destination if you are really lucky that a bus goes from your A to B destinations.

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

Thanks again! I know I said final question above, but have one more:

Regarding pre booking accomadation, would it be best to do this before getting to the islands? Or is it easy enough to just book in once there?

Also we want to go to a place called “Bol” on Brac Island.

A catemeran goes between Bol and a place called “Jelsa” on Hvar….but we need to get to the other side of the island “Havar town” – so we need to find out how to do that too if anyone knows? Looks like there is a main road so bus is probably easy enough?

allycavs

I used hostelworld and for a piece of mind yeah id book a few days in advance. when you arrive on islands there will be people with pics of their accommodation. many localsoffer accommodation in there place so you can barter a little with them. alot of people used them. i used such a guy in Dubrovnik. and it was a granny flat. the rest was through hostel world. split is notorious for lack of accommodation and poor accommodation . i stayed in what you could only call a goats shed with bump beds thrown in. so if you go o split i say book well in advance and even pay over the odds and treat yourself to a nice place there.

its to along ago to remember getting around Hvar but i think its a small island. im sure others here will be able to answer. i stayed in a place ed called Lukas Hostel there. real nice hostel. and his brother runs a fish restaurant near by that really nice. lukas holds bbq aswell. great laugh staying there

john kinsella

niallo24 wrote: »

Thanks again! I know I said final question above, but have one more:

Regarding pre booking accomadation, would it be best to do this before getting to the islands? Or is it easy enough to just book in once there?

Also we want to go to a place called “Bol” on Brac Island.

A catemeran goes between Bol and a place called “Jelsa” on Hvar….but we need to get to the other side of the island “Havar town” – so we need to find out how to do that too if anyone knows? Looks like there is a main road so bus is probably easy enough?

I never booked any accom before arriving. There are loads and loads of places to rent once you get there.
Little old ladies will meet you at the ports and show you pics of their rooms or apartments or whatever for very little money.
What we did was look on tripadisor the day before travelling to the island and calling the owners from the boat on the way over. Cheap as chips for lovely apartments and the owners will give you great info on the island.

Make sure you do Korcula too, its amazing.

Also, be careful with the sea urchins!

john kinsella

Also, you can go from Split to Brac, Hvar and to Korcula in that order as they are just below eachother

allycavs

Couldnt agree more with John :-) and those sea urchins are deadly lol my feet were riddled with their spines my foot got an infection aswell

Lingua Franca

You'll see that Croatians don't go into the water without special swimming shoes on, there is a reason for this! Not just the urchins but lots of pretty sharp stones in the water. Pick up a pair of swimming shoes at a seaside shop.

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

Great thanks everyone for the replies, very useful!