Croatia · The Adriatic
The walled coast, and a thousand islands.
Old towns, island-hopping boats, waterfalls and the long Dalmatian coast. Dubrovnik, Split, Hvar, Plitvice, the Blue Cave and the quiet bays in between.
Only in Croatia
A blue cave, lakes you walk across, and King’s Landing.
Boat days and walled old towns turn up all over the Mediterranean. These three you won’t find anywhere else. Each one is reason enough on its own to book Croatia. Build the trip around them.
Off Vis
The Blue Cave on Biševo
Around midday the sun slips through an underwater opening and fills the whole grotto with a glowing blue light. It happens in only a handful of sea caves on earth, and this is the famous one. Boats run from Split, Hvar and Vis, then you slip through the low mouth of the cave in a small wooden tender.
- 1 Split/Trogir: Blue Cave, Mamma Mia, Hvar and 5 Island Tour
- 2 From Split: Blue Cave, Mamma Mia, Vis & Hvar 5-Island Tour
- 3 Dubrovnik: Blue Cave & Sunj Beach Boat Tour with Drinks
Inland
Walking across Plitvice
Sixteen lakes stacked in turquoise and jade, linked by waterfalls, with wooden walkways running right across the water so you walk through the middle of it. The colour comes from the travertine on the lakebed. It is a UNESCO site, and there is nothing else in Europe shaped quite like it.
- 1 From Split: Plitvice Lakes Guided Tour with Entry Tickets
- 2 Split: Self-Guided Plitvice Lakes Day Tour with Boat Ride
- 3 Zadar: Plitvice Lakes with Boat Ride and Zadar Old Town Tour
In Dubrovnik
Standing in King’s Landing
Dubrovnik’s old town stood in for King’s Landing, and the locations are all on foot: the Jesuit Staircase from the walk of shame, the old harbour, the fortress walls above the sea. Guides who worked on the show walk you to the exact spot each scene was filmed.
- 1 Dubrovnik: Epic Game of Thrones Tour + Lokrum & Saver Option
- 2 Dubrovnik: The Original Game of Thrones Tour & Lokrum Option
- 3 Dubrovnik: Game of Thrones Walking Tour
The Adriatic
More islands than a single summer holds.
The Croatian coast breaks into more than a thousand islands, most of them a short hop apart. Hvar for the lavender and the late nights, Vis for the quiet and the Blue Cave, the car-free Elaphites just off Dubrovnik. From spring to autumn the boats run between all of them.
Island cruises & boat trips →Start here
If you only do one day trip, make it this one.
The day that fills up first every summer. With a single free day on the coast, this is where to spend it.
The classics
Croatia's Most Popular Tours
Krka, the Blue Cave, Plitvice, the Dubrovnik walls. The days that fill up a Croatian summer.
By place
Pick a base on the coast.
Each one is a different trip. Split for the palace and the island boats. Dubrovnik for the walls. Hvar for the late nights. Zadar for the sunsets. Plitvice for the lakes.
By tour type
Or pick the kind of day you’re after.
A boat if you want the islands. A kayak under the Dubrovnik walls. Rafting on the Cetina, a waterfall walk at Krka, a wine road through the hills. The Adriatic does a bit of everything.
Plan the trip
Where should you base yourself?
Croatia is long, and driving end to end eats a whole day. Most trips pick one or two bases and day-trip out from there. Here is how the big three compare.
Hvar & the islands
The island most people mean by the islands.
Hvar town wraps a yacht harbour under a hilltop fort, with lavender fields inland and the bare Pakleni islets a ten-minute taxi-boat offshore. Most island days leave from Split or Trogir and string Hvar together with the Blue Cave, Vis and a swim or two in between.
- 1 Split/Podstrana: Blue Cave, Hvar & 6 Islands Speedboat Trip
- 2 Split: Hvar, Pakleni, Brač & Šolta All-inclusive Tour
- 3 Split: Hvar, Brač, and Pakleni Cruise with Lunch and Drinks
Where the rivers fall
The waterfall days.
Krka, where the boardwalk runs right up to a wide curtain of falls, and the lakes and cascades of the parks beyond it. Three day trips that trade the salt water for fresh.
For the restless days
When you can’t sit still.
Rafting and zip-lines through the Cetina canyon above Omiš, a sea-kayak under the Dubrovnik walls, a quad through the Makarska back-country. The half-days that earn the long lunch after.
Stone, salt and history
The old towns, on foot.
Diocletian built a palace at Split that never stopped being a town. Dubrovnik ringed itself in walls you can still walk. Trogir, Zadar and Korčula pack a thousand years onto a few marble streets. Go slow and look up.
Plan it
Three days, three sides of Croatia.
Short on time? The islands, the lakes and the walls, a day for each, with the driving saved for the evenings.
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