The Best 9 Things to Do in Croatia This Summer
Croatia was the first country I ever traveled abroad to (without my parents). My sister and I got to spend 3 incredible weeks in this beautiful country in the summer of 2019. I would not trade my experience for the world. Looking back, we always joke “should we have gone to any other countries while we were there??” But having the time to fully experience one country and its culture is incomparable to hopping around and just hitting the major sights in multiple countries.
If you are looking for major sights to see in Croatia, look no further. I’ve compiled a list of my personal favorite 9 things to do in Croatia.
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This is just so cool. I have never seen anything else like this in another city. Make sure you buy your tickets online in advance and get there right when they open at 9 AM! We were able to avoid all the crowds by doing this, and really take our time walking all the way around and getting incredible photos here.
If you’re traveling in the warmer months, make sure to wear sunscreen, and bring a hat or sunglasses! There is pretty much no shade for the entire walk. Another reason to get here early before the sun gets crazy hot! When we were there, this was the Caffe on the Wall, which was selling drinks, so we stopped here for a bit to enjoy the view of the water!
2. Tour the Blue Grotto
I feel like I am going to say this about everything we saw in Croatia, but the Blue Cave Grotto was AMAZING. Such a unique experience. We actually went on a full day boat excursion that made 5 different stops from the Split Port, the Blue Cave being one of them. This was really nice because someone else was organizing the itinerary and you can only get here by boat.
3. Visit Krka National Park
Again, WOW. The photos do not even do this place justice. The water is this incredible blue-green color, and you walk down this really cool wooden path to get to the waterfalls. If you can, try to plan your visit on a sunny day so that the water color is the most vibrant! But as you can see, when we went it was a little cloudy and it is STILL gorgeous.
When we visited Krka waterfalls, you were allowed to swim in the waterfall, which I don’t believe is allowed anymore. We honestly did not personally go in anyway though, as the water is pretty chilly!!
I also want to give an honorable mention to Plitvice Lakes National Park. I personally did not go, but have a lot of friends who have gone and said it was absolutely unreal. So if you have time to check out both, definitely add them both to your list!
4. Relax at Banje Beach
This beach was just down the road from our Airbnb, and we actually ended up spending a fair amount of time here! We would come here to journal, tan, and hang out with new friends! It was the perfect chill spot. One interesting thing that I hadn’t experienced before in the US was that the beach was not actually made of sand, but rather small pebbles. This was actually pretty painful in terms of laying out, or walking into the water, so we ending up wearing our sneakers to the beach haha. And by the end of the trip we were just sort of used to it, but definitely a surprise when we first arrived!
The Banje Beach Restaurant and Night Club is also right on the beach; we came here for drinks the first day we arrived. There is something about being RIGHT on the beach with a drink in hand that just really kickstarts vacations for me.
5. Visit Lokrum Island
Lokrum Island is just a quick 15-minute ferry away from Dubrovnik! There is a dedicated Lokrum Island Ferry that costs about 5 Euros one way and is constantly running throughout the day. While on the island, we ran into tons of wild peacocks and hung out by the watering hole!
This is also where the Iron Throne is located, for all of my Game of Thrones fans out there. I had watched the first 3 seasons before coming to Croatia, but we did not do much other Game of Thrones sightseeing.
6. Boat to Hvar
During our time in Split, we also took a day trip out to Hvar! This was part of the same boat tour that stopped at the Blue Cave. We had a couple hours in Hvar, and explored the local market. I would also highly recommend hiking up to Napoleon, where you can get these unreal 360° views of the entire island. It isn’t a very long hike (20-25 minutes) but is pretty steep. We weren’t sure how long it would take so we were sort of running up the hill haha it was so worth it!
7. Party at Culture Club Revelin
Culture Club Revelin might be the best club I have ever been to. It was so much fun. They have incredible DJs playing every night, and some nights they even had a fire show it was crazy. It starts getting busy around midnight, and there was also free general admission before midnight!
8. Explore Fort Lovrijenac
Fort Lovrijenac was really cool; if you climb up to the top you get a really great view of Dubrovnik and the city walls. Admission is pretty cheap and it was a cool way to spend an hour in the morning! We combined this with walking all around the city and exploring, after walking the city walls first thing in the morning.
9. Day Trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina
I think this day trip was possibly the most random thing we did. In our first few days here we signed up for a day tour to go to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and, if you have the time I would highly recommend it. We didn’t tell our parents we were doing this at first, because we thought they might be nervous, but we felt very safe with the tour guide and our group. Definitely check the Travel Advisory board before going in case the situation has changed, but again, we never felt unsafe.
Also, our tour guide was hilarious; we sat up in the front row with him and were cracking up the whole time. He took us to Kravica Waterfalls, which were so pretty, especially since it was unexpected. The food in Bosnia & Herzegovina was delicious; we had a Mediterranean-style lunch with pita!
Having spent 3 weeks here, I definitely have a lot more recommendations if you are planning a trip! Drop a comment below or send me a message, I would love to share my knowledge! And don’t forget to subscribe for more.
mariss
