Renato1
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- May 1, 2015
- Posts
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Six years ago I knew zilch about Croatia, but before going back to Italy on vacation that year, I looked at a map and saw that Ljubljana in Slovenia was only a three and a half hour drive from where we were staying, and I thought - "That's less than the drive from here to Echuca - I'm going to drive there". Then one morning I was being driven to the airport for work by a Coatian taxi driver, and I mentioned that I'd be going to Italy and Ljubljana. He said - "Well, if you're going to Ljubljana - why don't you then drive another hour and a half , and go to Zagreb while you're there?" Which turned out to be the best suggestion anyone ever made to me about travel.
So, in 2009 we really enjoyed several days wandering around Zagreb, then drove across the country to the island of Krk which was delightful. We stayed in Hotel Krk with a big bedroom, a huge living room and two balconies with magnificent views for 80 Euros a night, which included breakfast and dinner. The only problems were that we were the sole english speakers among all the Germans staying there. And the "beach" was all rock and pebbles - one needed to buy foam mats and rubber beach shoes to use it properly - it felt like being in a big swimming pool, as there were lots of swimming pool type ladders and steps to get you in and out of the water. After that we headed off to the ancient Roman and Venetian town of Pula/Pola and then back home.
One was struck driving in the Istria area that most towns had signs with a Slavic name and an Italian name. It transpired that most of Istria had been Italian until the end end of WW11, and that in centuries past, most of the Croatian and Monte Negro coast had been Venetian (with the notable exception of Drubrovnik).
Anyhow, we went back to Croatia in 2013, mainly staying in Istria, and we just went back again this year where we also drove down to Split and Dubrovnik (and we took bus tours to Mostar and to Monte Negro from Dubrovnik, since Hertz wouldn't let me drive to those places).
Basically, one can choose to go visit ancient Roman and Venetian places in Italy, and one can choose to go see equally good ancient Roman and Venetian places in Croatia - the main differences being that,
a. It is much easier to drive in Croatia (wider roads, less traffic, less nutty drivers) and
b. At the right time of the year, the prices are much lower than in Italy, and
c. Meals are bigger and cheaper than in Italy, especially if one likes lots of meat, and
d. The Police seem to be tougher over there, we feel much safer than in Italy with regards to petty thieves.
For us, the time to visit is from mid September onwards - since most Germans have ended their vacations there, and have gone home. The accomodation costs plummet, but the weather is still fairly good in the low to mid 20s. In Istria we stayed at Valamar's Lanterna Apartments - a beach resort with huge apartments at around 30 Euros a night. The week before, those same apartments were going for 130 Euros a night. And the meals at the bistros there were very tasty and substantial, costing us around A$10 each. On hot days, one could enjoy the resort and the beach. On cooler days one could take day trips driving to the major historic Venetian towns of Pula/Pola, Rovinj/Rovigno and Porec/Parenzo, or to the cute smaller historic Venetian towns of Vrsar/Orsera, Novigrad/Cittanova, Umag/Umago. The only thing which might be problematic in Istria is that in general, unlike further down south in Dalmatia, most people in the towns don't know much English. So I communicated with gestures for one whole trip there, but this year I realized that all I had to do was to switch to speaking ancient Venetian, and nine out 10 people understood me.
My main criteria for booking a place was that it have car parking for my car. So in Split/Spalato I wound up paying 79 Euros a night for a fairly big apartment which was only six minutes walk from Diocletian's Palace in the centre of this famous historic Roman town, and 8 minutes walk to the main beach complex (which had real sand on it). The first night our washing machine stopped working, and the owner had a repairman out there fixing it within an hour and a half! Driving to Split from Istria was sort of interesting, as the winds can blow your car around a lot on parts of the tollway, and it can get darn cold driving at 130kph along the top of the mountains - the car heater wasn't doing a good job.
For the drive from Split to Dubrovnik I took the coastal road instead of the motorway, and was treated to three hours of amazing scenery, going past amazing looking island after amazing looking island. For Dubrovnik accomodation, I found a huge, very well outfitted apartment for 44 Euros a night in Lapad - which is 10 minute bus trip to the centre of Dubrovnik. While we enjoyed our day trips to Dubrovnik and to Bosnia and Montenegro, we really enjoyed staying in Lapad when we got back "home" at night. It has a magnificent promenade area with very good places to eat, at far less cost than the rip-off tourist prices in central Dubrovnik.
The only time I felt really uncomfortable on the trip was when driving from Split to Dubrovnik, and we were stopped at a border crossing. It transpired that for the next 10 kilometers we would be driving through Bosnia and Herzegovina in the resort town of Neum. Which meant that for the next 10 kilometers I was uninsured by Hertz - and if something happened to the Volvo SUV that I was driving, I'd be up for the full cost. I drove very carefully and told my wife that we wouldn't be stopping under any circumstances in Neum.
We also enjoyed our tour into Montenegro, visiting the old Greek/Roman/ Byzantine/ Venetian town of Budva - which is now pretty much a Russian resort town, and the old Venetian town of Kotor/Cattaro. Visiting Mostar was strange though - while bustling with tourists, it still has bombed out buildings in the centre of town from the war 20 years earlier.
As the drive back to Italy from Dubrovnik was going to be about 12 hours, I decided to stay overnight in the little town of Ravna Gora. Our hotel had an interesting menu selection - including bear steak, bear stew and bear prosciutto (we passed on them).
One thing I don't like about Italy is that I can't have a quick satisfying lunch like I do back home - one either has to have a full sit-down meal, or buy a roll or toasted sandwich. But on this trip I came across the Mlnar bakery chain in Munich, which sold various takeaway food - including what they called a sausage roll. It was in fact a hot dog wrapped in croissant pastry, which I found extremely satisfying. And that chain I later found was present in lots of places in Croatia. Then I found that the larger Tommy supermarkets also carried their versions of the German hot dog (as well as the long potato-in-pastry that my wife loved). Just another reason I feel comfortable in Croatia.
If driving to Croatia, one major nuisance is that the roads from Italy lead one straight to the toll road in Slovenia, where one has to pay 15 Euros for a vignette that one sticks on the car window and entitles you to drive on Slovenian toll motorways for seven days. Only problem is, one is only going to use the toll road for 15 minutes to get to Croatia. Last time I got caught there, I was determined not to pay the toll - I saw a gap between two big billboards which looked like it might be a narrow road, and drove through it. It was indeed a road, so I drove for an extra 20 minutes to get to the border crossing past Koper, enjoyed the sights and saved 15 Euros. Nowadays I make the navigator take me to Muggia in Italy, then follow the scenic coastal road across the border to Ankarran - where we stop and buy bread and doughnuts from the bakery - then head off to Koper. The roads are very well marked. One doesn't need a navigator for going from town to town, but one does need it to find addresses within the cities.
Anyhow, I hope you have found my enthusiasm for Croatia of interest. We'll be going to visit more of its historic towns on our next European vacation.
Regards,
Renato
So, in 2009 we really enjoyed several days wandering around Zagreb, then drove across the country to the island of Krk which was delightful. We stayed in Hotel Krk with a big bedroom, a huge living room and two balconies with magnificent views for 80 Euros a night, which included breakfast and dinner. The only problems were that we were the sole english speakers among all the Germans staying there. And the "beach" was all rock and pebbles - one needed to buy foam mats and rubber beach shoes to use it properly - it felt like being in a big swimming pool, as there were lots of swimming pool type ladders and steps to get you in and out of the water. After that we headed off to the ancient Roman and Venetian town of Pula/Pola and then back home.
One was struck driving in the Istria area that most towns had signs with a Slavic name and an Italian name. It transpired that most of Istria had been Italian until the end end of WW11, and that in centuries past, most of the Croatian and Monte Negro coast had been Venetian (with the notable exception of Drubrovnik).
Anyhow, we went back to Croatia in 2013, mainly staying in Istria, and we just went back again this year where we also drove down to Split and Dubrovnik (and we took bus tours to Mostar and to Monte Negro from Dubrovnik, since Hertz wouldn't let me drive to those places).
Basically, one can choose to go visit ancient Roman and Venetian places in Italy, and one can choose to go see equally good ancient Roman and Venetian places in Croatia - the main differences being that,
a. It is much easier to drive in Croatia (wider roads, less traffic, less nutty drivers) and
b. At the right time of the year, the prices are much lower than in Italy, and
c. Meals are bigger and cheaper than in Italy, especially if one likes lots of meat, and
d. The Police seem to be tougher over there, we feel much safer than in Italy with regards to petty thieves.
For us, the time to visit is from mid September onwards - since most Germans have ended their vacations there, and have gone home. The accomodation costs plummet, but the weather is still fairly good in the low to mid 20s. In Istria we stayed at Valamar's Lanterna Apartments - a beach resort with huge apartments at around 30 Euros a night. The week before, those same apartments were going for 130 Euros a night. And the meals at the bistros there were very tasty and substantial, costing us around A$10 each. On hot days, one could enjoy the resort and the beach. On cooler days one could take day trips driving to the major historic Venetian towns of Pula/Pola, Rovinj/Rovigno and Porec/Parenzo, or to the cute smaller historic Venetian towns of Vrsar/Orsera, Novigrad/Cittanova, Umag/Umago. The only thing which might be problematic in Istria is that in general, unlike further down south in Dalmatia, most people in the towns don't know much English. So I communicated with gestures for one whole trip there, but this year I realized that all I had to do was to switch to speaking ancient Venetian, and nine out 10 people understood me.
My main criteria for booking a place was that it have car parking for my car. So in Split/Spalato I wound up paying 79 Euros a night for a fairly big apartment which was only six minutes walk from Diocletian's Palace in the centre of this famous historic Roman town, and 8 minutes walk to the main beach complex (which had real sand on it). The first night our washing machine stopped working, and the owner had a repairman out there fixing it within an hour and a half! Driving to Split from Istria was sort of interesting, as the winds can blow your car around a lot on parts of the tollway, and it can get darn cold driving at 130kph along the top of the mountains - the car heater wasn't doing a good job.
For the drive from Split to Dubrovnik I took the coastal road instead of the motorway, and was treated to three hours of amazing scenery, going past amazing looking island after amazing looking island. For Dubrovnik accomodation, I found a huge, very well outfitted apartment for 44 Euros a night in Lapad - which is 10 minute bus trip to the centre of Dubrovnik. While we enjoyed our day trips to Dubrovnik and to Bosnia and Montenegro, we really enjoyed staying in Lapad when we got back "home" at night. It has a magnificent promenade area with very good places to eat, at far less cost than the rip-off tourist prices in central Dubrovnik.
The only time I felt really uncomfortable on the trip was when driving from Split to Dubrovnik, and we were stopped at a border crossing. It transpired that for the next 10 kilometers we would be driving through Bosnia and Herzegovina in the resort town of Neum. Which meant that for the next 10 kilometers I was uninsured by Hertz - and if something happened to the Volvo SUV that I was driving, I'd be up for the full cost. I drove very carefully and told my wife that we wouldn't be stopping under any circumstances in Neum.
We also enjoyed our tour into Montenegro, visiting the old Greek/Roman/ Byzantine/ Venetian town of Budva - which is now pretty much a Russian resort town, and the old Venetian town of Kotor/Cattaro. Visiting Mostar was strange though - while bustling with tourists, it still has bombed out buildings in the centre of town from the war 20 years earlier.
As the drive back to Italy from Dubrovnik was going to be about 12 hours, I decided to stay overnight in the little town of Ravna Gora. Our hotel had an interesting menu selection - including bear steak, bear stew and bear prosciutto (we passed on them).
One thing I don't like about Italy is that I can't have a quick satisfying lunch like I do back home - one either has to have a full sit-down meal, or buy a roll or toasted sandwich. But on this trip I came across the Mlnar bakery chain in Munich, which sold various takeaway food - including what they called a sausage roll. It was in fact a hot dog wrapped in croissant pastry, which I found extremely satisfying. And that chain I later found was present in lots of places in Croatia. Then I found that the larger Tommy supermarkets also carried their versions of the German hot dog (as well as the long potato-in-pastry that my wife loved). Just another reason I feel comfortable in Croatia.
If driving to Croatia, one major nuisance is that the roads from Italy lead one straight to the toll road in Slovenia, where one has to pay 15 Euros for a vignette that one sticks on the car window and entitles you to drive on Slovenian toll motorways for seven days. Only problem is, one is only going to use the toll road for 15 minutes to get to Croatia. Last time I got caught there, I was determined not to pay the toll - I saw a gap between two big billboards which looked like it might be a narrow road, and drove through it. It was indeed a road, so I drove for an extra 20 minutes to get to the border crossing past Koper, enjoyed the sights and saved 15 Euros. Nowadays I make the navigator take me to Muggia in Italy, then follow the scenic coastal road across the border to Ankarran - where we stop and buy bread and doughnuts from the bakery - then head off to Koper. The roads are very well marked. One doesn't need a navigator for going from town to town, but one does need it to find addresses within the cities.
Anyhow, I hope you have found my enthusiasm for Croatia of interest. We'll be going to visit more of its historic towns on our next European vacation.
Regards,
Renato
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