I had 16 pax on a 19 days Eastern European trip that covered Slovakia, Poland, Czek Republic and Austria. The group flew back on 22 Jun at 10PM. That left me and another member, who was able to get additional leave, for a short extension trip of Croatia. We stayed six nights in Croatia before flying home. We used the public transport (one train ride, buses and two ferries) and stayed in apartments with cooking facilities. As meals in touristic Croatia is relatively high, we opted for simple self-catered meals with provisions bought from the numerous supermarkets.
Plitvice Lakes National Park / Cystal clear waters
Day 1 Fri 22 Jun Vienna to Zagreb: Left the Vienna hostel at 2PM and headed for the Sudenbanhof or Southern Train Station. The train left promptly at 4PM for the 6.5hr journey to Zagreb. We pass right through Slovenia, another country before reaching Croatia and the capital of Zagreb. We checked into the local youth hostel in basic dorms and had an early night.
Day 2 Plitvice and Europe's Juizhaiguo: Using the information obtained from the hostel staff, we opted for the second earliest bus to Plitvice National Park. The walk to the local bus station took us 20min and along the way, we could see parts of old Zagreb, with the typical old buildings. The Old Town Centre would have been prettier.
It took 2.5hr to get to Plitvice National Park, where we dropped off at Mukinje Bus Stop, one stop away from the second entrance to Plitvice National Park. We spent a bit of time looking for accomodation, a nice room in a small cottage. The land lady is used to having tourist and gave us enough info to get us started on our visit. We walked some 15min to the ticket counter. From here its about 20min by truck-bus to the beginning of the trail walk. The half day walk turned out to be a wonderful experience with amazingly cystal clear waters, waterfalls, turquoise coloured lakes and an abundance of fishes and birdlife. We wished we had a couple of hours more to simply take our time to enjoy this UNESCO listed park.
Many Malaysians would have received email, started about 2 years ago about Sungai Jagung Kedah with pictures. This is a scam email and the pictures attached to that email is of Plitvice Lakes National Park.
Waterfalls in Plitvice Lakes NP / Hvar Town and Castle
Day 3 Trogir, Split & Emperor Diocletian's Palace: The land lady provided the bus timings for our trip to Split. We caught the 945AM bus that had quite a lot of passengers, coming mostly from Zagreb. Along the way, the bus stopped at the major towns, all quite mordern towns. The journey to Split would have taken 6hr but an hour before Split, the bus stopped at Trogir. Upon reading that this was a UNESCO site and as we still had a couple of hours of daylight left, we got off the bus. We spent about 2hr in this walled town with a wide waterfront promenade that encloses a maze of medieval streets, much of which are still inhabited by locals. The town architecture is of Romanesque and Renaissance, having being ruled by Romans and the Venicians at one time.
Another local bus took us to Split 1hr away. It took us a while to get accomodation as most of the budget options in the Old Town areas were not available. We finally secured a two room apartment with, shared with an elderly Japanese couple, who were also looking for budget accomodation. It was late evening when we visited Split, the second largest city in Croatia and its UNESCO listed Diocletian's Palace. It gets dark very late in Jun up to 9PM and the streets was filled with visitors enjoying the long days.
Day 4 Island of Hvar: We got information about the ferries for our next travel destination Hvar Island. Then we spent about 2hr walking about the narrow streets of Split including the Diocletian's Palace. Croatia was once under the Roman rule and Diocletian was a Roman Emperor who built his palace here. Much of the 220 buildings within the palace boundaries are still home to some 3000 people as well as housing shops, cafes and restaurants.
We boarded the big ferry late morning and arrived in Stari Grad on Hvar Island 1.5hr later. Stari Grad has a ferry terminal and local buses shuttle passengers to Hvar Town, another 20min away. This is where most tourist end up. We had made prior arrangements with our "accomodation consultant" in Split. We were met at the bus station and showed to lovely apartment, located on a hill with great views of the town. We spent the rest of the day walking along the town's sea front with its array of cafes, shops and restaurants. Hvar Island is famous for its lavender fields.
Diocletian's Palace in Split / Dubrovnik Walls
Day 5 Walled City Dubrovnik: We left early to catch the ferry to Dubrovnik, which left at 10AM, a jouney of some 8hr. This huge car ferry stopped on several major islands including the pretty island of Kocula. This is one of the many beautiful islands on the Dalmatian coastline that has become a very popular destination for holidaying Europeans.
From the jetty, we took a bus to Dubrovnik Old Town, some 20min away. We had also made prior accomodation arrangement and our "consultant" took us to yet another apartment located within the Old City Walls, in fact, less than 50m from the famed main street known as the Placa. We shopped for provisions at one of the few nearby supermarkets and cooked dinner before walking about the Old Town. Like Split, town shuts down late as night falls very late at about 9PM.
Day 6 Walled City Dubrovnik: We had a whole day here and decided to visit Kolocep Island that is part of the Elafiti Islands. Its only 25min from the jetty and has the usual clear water beaches plus olive groves, orange/lemon orchards and ancient pine forests. The town was not particularly attractive, in many ways similar to all the other Dalmatian islands. So we went back to Dubrovnik early and rested.
In the evening, we went on the recommended City Wall walk that took us an intentional slow 2hr to go around. There are many viewpoints to view this UNESCO listed site, with its thick city walls. The evening light made for good photography. With its numerous cafes, restaurants and beautiful setting, Dubrovnik is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Croatia. Its long coastline also boasts of numerous holiday homes and resorts.
Day 7 Fly to Bratislava and Home: We left early to catch our 8AM flight to Bratislava on a budget airline, arriving 1.5hr later. A local bus took us to the train station. From there, we bus to the main bus station where we left our luggage and got information about getting to Vienna Airport. We took the bus back to the Old Town and spent a couple of hours having lunch and some last minute shopping. We return to the local bus station for a convenient public bus that took us all the way to the Vienna Airport 1:20hr for our flight home.
Main street Praca / Roofs of Dubrovnik
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