Split/Hvar

[Ross.]

About to book flights to go on holiday in August, planning on going to Croatia. At the moment I'm thinking of spending 3 or 4 days in Split, then the same in Hvar before flying home. Anyone been to either of them? How regular are the ferries from Split to Hvar? How much will the boat journey cost?

[ICTChris]

I'm going to Croatia in just under three weeks. Six of us have booked a villa in a small settlement near Omis. I can't wait.

We're planning a few trips to the islands nearby and just general chilling out. Depending on prices we might go on a trip to Venice as well as trying to check out a festival that I think is on nearby.

[GorgieRoad]

Just back today from a week around Croatia. We spent 2 nights in each Split and Hvar, and I came away wishing I'd spent the whole time in Hvar. Wasn't really impressed with Split, apart from the palace we struggled to find much to see. The beach (Bacvice) looked nice, though IMO it didn't compare to those on the islands. I might be biased since the only cloudy days coincided with the visit to Split right enough!

There should be 4 or 5 boats a day to Hvar town and even more to Stari Grad (20 minutes away). We got the catamaran which cost 60 kuna, which is about £6.50, though I think that's the most expensive one.

Generally depends what you're looking for, decent nightlife in both places though it'll be a fair bit cheaper for a night out in Split. If you're in Hvar though there's a wee shop near the Harbour that does a litre of wine for 9 kuna (£1), all you do is take your own plastic bottle and fill up as much as you want.

If it's a relaxing type holiday then I'd recommend Bol for a night or two for the beach alone (Zlatni Rat), water is incredible. Might be worth checking out the other islands like Korcula as well.

As I said though I only spent a couple of nights in each place so it was a bit of a whistlestop tour. Feel free to fire off any questions and I'll try answer them with my fairly limited knowledge!

[Ross.]

Pretty much answered everything I had for the time being. Having seen a few pictures of Bol and the beach there, that was where I was hoping to wind up for a few days anyway. Will get the flights booked this weekend and see what I can sort out hotel wise.

Thanks!

[Adamski]

I went about five years ago - one night in Split and three in Hvar. Hvar is a fun place to spend a few days - we hired a boat one day, motorbikes on another, went for walks, lazed about on the beach, and the nightlife was really good. I'd also recommend spending more time there than Split.

We moved on to Korcula after Hvar. The old town in Korcula is lovely to wander around - one of the best in the area. Some nice beaches and bars there too. Could be worth a night or two if you feel like you've had long enough in one of the other places.

[Ross.]

Booked the flights at the weekend from Basel to Split. Probably spending Saturday to Wednesday in Split, then going to Brac until the Friday, and back to Split for 1 night before flying home. Middle of August and expect I'll get fried.

[ICTChris]

Flying out on Saturday, cannot wait.

Our villa is being paid up in Euros and I've taken a few hundred euros just in case we need them but I assume most places will on ly take kuna?

[GorgieRoad]

Flying out on Saturday, cannot wait. Our villa is being paid up in Euros and I've taken a few hundred euros just in case we need them but I assume most places will on ly take kuna?

Try to avoid paying in Euros, some places will accept them but they'll often inflate it to about 1.5x the price you'll pay in Kuna, especially street market stalls.

[ICTChris]

Back from two weeks in Croatia today. We stayed about 20km outside Split, near Omis. The 'villa' was a bit of a disappointment - it was supposed to be a four bedroom luxury villa but it wasn't. It was really a three bedroom apartment, two doubles and a kind of twin but with two single beds in the reception room. There were two couples and two single women on the holiday and our two single friends were really stuck with their room, they swapped halfway through the holiday to give each a shot with the 'proper' room. There was supposed to be a pool but it wasn't directly accessible from the apartments and was down a grassy slope. In addition the family who own/take care of the villa live next door so you have their kids playing a few feet away from you and people coming and going, which isn't really what I look for in a holiday villa. There also wasn't really a social area for the group to gather in the evenings and during the day. To complete my first-world problems moan the air conditioning in my wife and I's room didn't work for the first few nights which really didn't help the transition from Scotland to 30 degree heat.

On the positive side the family who lived next door were friendly and helpful, even though they spoke very limited English - zero English in fact in the husbands case. They were really nice though and the issues we had were basically with the descriptions given on the villa letting website, who we'll be going back to about it.

In terms of Croatia itself, I thought it was a great country. Dalmatia really is beautiful, stunning actually. When we flew in you got a view of the coast and it reminded me of an old film set in Italy, clear blue water, boats cutting through the waves, just a fantastic introduction. The views from our accommodation of Brac and the mountains were simply stunning, you could look at it all day. We hired a car and on one of our first nights drove down to Makarska and when you turned every corner you were met with a stunning view. The landscape really is a amazing. We spent quite a bit of time in towns in Dalmatia and they have a very Mediterranean feel, very impressive. Makarska is pretty lively at night but during the day we just wandered around the small streets for a while, you come to the end of one and there are sheer cliffs rising up hundreds of feet, spectacular.

The closest real settlement to us was Omis, which has a lovely old town with restaurants and bars as well as a lively main drag and beach with souvenir shops, ice cream stands and kiosks. We went to eat there most nights - the food was very reasonably priced but there isn't much variety. Everywhere does standard Croatian cuisine, which is specialised in grilled meat (mixed grills are a good bet) and fish, with everywhere offering a meat and fish platter to share. I love meat and grilled sausages, chops, kebabs etc so it was fine for me but one of our group is vegetarian and some places literally had no veg options. The only variation on Croatian food is pizzerias, which there are plenty of and are usually of a good quality. We found one in Dugi Rat that doubled up as a bakert and ice cream stand, proper pizzas made with good ingredients. We had a couple of pish meals though, although you have to chalk that up to experience I think. The beer was mainly Ozujsko, which was nice and goes well with the hearty food.

As the villa and pool were relatively disappointing we went out and about a bit more than we'd really planned but I'm very glad we did. Split is the closest big city to where we were and we made a couple of trips. Split is a port city and has around 200,000 people. It's not really historically been considered a tourist destination but from what I could see the last 10-15 years have seen that move on. The front has been redone and is now a marble walkway with cafes and palm trees. The main thing to see in Split is Diocletians Palace, the ruins of what is effectively the retirement home of the Roman Emporer Diocletian. It's not really a tourist attraction though, the ruins have had a whole part of the city built around them and the best thing to do is just wander in and stroll about. There are lots of cafes, restaurants and bistros in the squares and back streets, as well as nice shops (my wife tells me) and historical sites. There are parts of the walls left and various tourist displays are put on by guys in Roman soldier outfits or togas. The Palace was developed by the Christians later and there are sites from that period there as well - you can climb the Cathedral tower to take great photos of the city but I really just enjoyed strolling about, enjoying the relaxed atmosophere and then stopping for an espresso or an ice cream.

We also drove to Makarska, a nice little town that livens up at night. We then drove down the coastal road to visit Dubrovnik. Driving in Croatia is OK but they didn't seem to have many qualms about overtaking basically anywhere. The speed limits are suprisingly low which means you get a mix of mad jumping out and frustration at sitting behind old biddies. One of our group got done for speeding during our trip (83km/h in a 50km/h zone). She got fined 1000kn (just over £100) but it was halved as she paid up front. I'll do the nice Croatian copper the service of believing that he didn't divert the donation to the police benevolent fund. I enjoyed the drive down, you got to see a lot of the country and nip through a small slice of Bosnia that juts onto the coast at the resort of Neum.

Dubrovnik was a great experience. The old town really does look like a film set, like it's been set up for tourists, but once you are walking the walls you realise it's a living place. People hang their washing yards from thousands of tourists. I enjoyed the walls, fantastic views and stunning architecture. Inside the walls themselves there are lots of tourist facilities and restaurants etc. There are museums and exhibitions all over - one thing to watch out for is buying a 'catch all' ticket that turns out not to catch the places you want. We bought one in the nautical museum but there seem to be several different tickets which necessitate buying more and more. It'd probably be cheaper to just buy individually or actually plan properly, unlike us. After spending the day exploring the walled city we caught the cable car to the top of the hill above the city and took in the views, which are amazing. As I was walking round the walls someone said it looked like something from Assassins Creed and, although I've only seen the adverts and I'm not a gamer, that rang true. It really does look medieval. The downsides of it are that it's heaving with tourists, with loads of tour parties following guides, which can grate if you like to wander on your own or in a small group at your own pace. Also, it was the most expensive place we went, everything costs a bit more there.

We also visited Trogir, which is a town near Split airport, just north of the City. The centre is a UNESCO world heritage site and has lots of nice churches as well as a fort. There are some good restaurants by the marina, which was handy as we were caught in a thunderstorm while we were there so ducked into them. It was actually quite good to sit and watch the lightening strikes and torrential downpours for a bit.

Monday of last week we drove over the border into Bosnia to visit Mostar. Our hire car came with a green card to allow a trip into Bosnia and I'd heard that Mostar was worth a visit so we mapped out where we were going. I grew up with the Yugoslavian wars on the news so it was a little bit of a novelty to be holidaying in Bosnia, which would've been the punchline to a joke twenty years ago. However, I really enjoyed Mostar and Bosnia, it was my favourite part of the trip. The drive was good, again the scenery was amazing, lush green mountains all around. We wound our way through the back road as we were a bit sick of the coastal road and, speeding ticket aside, it was a great experience. Crossing over to Bosnia was a piece of the proverbial and the roads over the border were good.

The section of Bosnia that we were in was the heavily Bosnian Croat areas. It really shows - Croatians are patriotic and there are flags all over Croatia proper but that's turned up a few notches in Bosnia. Lots of the houses have the Croatian flag and some of the villages have them displayed in public as well, slung across roads or from buildings. The Croats are Catholic and while there were religious statues, posters, shrines in Dalmatia, I found them more prominent in Bosnia. This is worth noting given what happened in Mostar and the realities of Bosnia today. When we drove into Mostar we were clearly going through the Croatian (Western) part, once again flags were everywhere. We drove about for a bit and eventually found an entreprenurial Bosnian who was running a car park that should have had about four cars but he'd squeezed in ten. He only charged us a couple of euros though.

The Old Town of Mostar was a big change from the European / Italian feel of Croatia / Dalmatia. You really could be in Turkey and a few of our group who'd been to Turkey said that it reminded them of this. It's also peaceful due to no traffic being allowed. The Old Town has been restored since the war and is now full of tourist stalls and coffee bars. I'm not really one for souvenirs but my friends seemed to think that they were of a better quality than the usual stuff - a couple of jewelry stalls had men working in them producing the pieces. There is also lots of war based stuff - pens made of bullets, models made of bullets, army surplus uniforms and, worryingly, AK47 magazines and bayonets. You could also buy a T-shirt with Tito on it and an FK Velez shirt.

The centrepiece of the Old Town is the Stari Most bridge, which stood for hundreds of years until Croatian forces destroyed it during the war as they beseiged the Bosnian forces in the town. The Presidents of Croatia and Yugoslavia, Tudjman and Milosovic, brokered a deal to effectively carve up Bosnia for their Serb and Croat kin and the siege of Mostar was one result. Up until then the Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks had been allies but elements in the Croat community in Bosnia decided to take advantage of the terrible situation that the Bosnians were in to land grab from them. The siege was brutal and marked by atrocities - a number of Croat commanders have been convicted of war crimes as a result. The Old Town, especially the Eastern side, is marked by the Bosnian flag, a marked contrast to the rst of the town. There are a number of exhibitions around the bridge, including one showing video footage of the tank shells destroying the bridge.

Slightly cheerier are the local guys who climb over the barrier and collect donations from the crowd before diving into the river. "No money, no music!" one said, all in good spirit. We also visited the Mosque, where you get a good view of the bridge and can buy a fez for a couple of quid. We went for lunch just off the old Town and got a good plate cheaply. The people who work in tourism there must be brilliant at mental arithmetic as they accept euros, Bosnian marks and Croatian kuna. Sometimes you'd buy something in euros and get your change in marks or kuna. We had to head off sooner than I'd have liked from Mostar but I really thought it was a special place and I'd love to go back to Bosnia, maybe Sarajevo. I've subsequently watched a documentary on the siege and the fact that I can spot the places we were as Croat snipers shot old women doing their washing is quite chilling. I'm not a ghoul though, the main thing that appealed to me was the peace and sense of calm as well as the beautiful surroundings of Mostar. You really cold be in the East, we even heard the call to prayer while we were there.

That's enough typing for now I think. I'll let you know what I had for breakfast each day later.

[Ross.]

Not enough detail there for my liking Chris....

Looking forward to the holiday, though I won't get around anywhere near as much as you seem to have(Only there for a week, and I don't drive).

[Ross.]

Week in Croatia done and dusted.

Split was fantastic, the old town and Diocletian Palace were very picturesque and had plenty going on. Stayed on the island of Brac instead of Hvar, with a couple of days in Bol, 2 minutes from Zlatny Rat beach. A but more sedate than the mainland but well worthwhile.

The food and drink were top notch, everyone we dealt with was incredibly friendly and helpful(And they all seemed fluent in 3 or 4 languages as a minimum), and the women were absolutely out of this world. If my missus ever dumps me, I am moving there.