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Croatia has been on my bucket list for years.
But not because I was a Game of Thrones fan…(that would come later!)
Having seen friends’ pictures and read many travel articles, it appeared to be beautiful, intriguing and full of history and it was exciting to hear that my airline was planning to fly that route starting in the summer.
Booking our flight for the end of September, I had three and a half months to plan, but fear suddenly gripped me! With ten days at our disposal, I wasn’t sure how to tackle the trip. We were going to fly into Dubrovnik, but what other cities could we fit into our itinerary? I stared at the map of Croatia, but really had no clue how far each city was from the other and how easy it was to get to and from.
After endlessly putting off the task of booking my hotels, I realized that in order to find a place fitting of our needs, I needed to figure it all out…and quick! Thankfully, my friend Kris had just returned and had posted about his trip on Facebook. Giving him a call, I quizzed him on his itinerary and rattled off a list of questions, trying to get the gist of what would work for my husband and I.
As we talked, I scribbled down some quick notes and I formulated a plan. But would it work?
Kris thought so.
The plan was as follows:
- Day 1: Depart New York’s JFK International Airport
- Day 2: Arrive Dubrovnik
- Day 3: Drive to Kotor, Montenegro, explore and return to Dubrovnik
- Day 4: Drive to Split, Croatia with a detour to Mostar, Bosnia
- Day 5: Split, Croatia
- Day 6: Depart Split, via ferry, for Hvar, Croatia
- Day 7: Hvar, Croatia
- Day 8: Depart Hvar, via ferry, for Dubrovnik
- Day 9: Dubrovnik
- Day 10: Depart Dubrovnik
With an itinerary in place, it was time to hit Airbnb and figure out where to stay. After a long day of perusing the site and countless emails and calls to my husband, that all finally fell into place, one city at a time. Why Airbnb? There are some really nice hotels in each city, however, I learned that some of the nicest places were on the Airbnb sites, especially within the walled city of Dubrovnik and Diocletian’s Palace in Split, where larger hotels are not located due to each’s confines. While it would have been nice to stay in Lapad (near Dubrovnik) and have views of the sea and a swimming pool, would we really have time to enjoy a refreshing swim? With so much to see and do, I seriously doubted it! Plus, every time we wanted to head to town, we would have had to catch the bus or call Uber.
Next came transportation. Cars? Buses? Ferries? Yes, No and Yes. I decided that we would rent a car upon arrival and drive to Split where we would drop it off at the airport. Using Uber to get to our Airbnb in Split, we would be on foot and then utilize the ferry to Hvar and then back to Dubrovnik.
Ok…were we ready?
I hoped so!
The only thing left was to figure out what attractions we wanted most to see in each city and then…
Wait until September!
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