Croatia in the off-season – absolutely worth visiting!
For the past few months, I have been in touch with a traveller to Croatia who was planning on visiting the country in the off-season. The lovely lady in question, Emily, was fully aware that March and April weren’t beach and sunbathing time – but seeing as she’s from California, those weren’t a priority for her! She also knew that the weather might bring some challenges, but hoped spring weather would be the norm. (In the end, she ended up encountering a non-March-typical massive snowstorm when trying to visit the Plitvice Lakes!) I decided to ask Emily some questions about her travels – read on to discover all about her experiences of visiting Croatia in the off-season.
Note: all of the amazing photos shown on this page were taken by Emily. Aren’t they just wonderful?
What made you decide to visit Croatia in the off-season (and in general)?
We have long had Croatia and the Balkans on our travel radar, and recently had friends who have travelled there and who really whetted our appetite for the trip. We chose to go to Croatia in the off-season because we were hoping to travel without big crowds. We had friends who told us that the Plitvice Lakes National Park and Dubrovnik were just jam-packed when they were there, and we really wanted to avoid that.
I know you visited Plitvice; although you were there in March, you encountered unexpectedly heavy snow! What was that experience like?
We were hoping that late March and early April, we would have at least decent weather. We were quite excited to see the waterfalls at Plitvice and that beautiful area. As it turned out, of course, we had all the snow, but that proved to be its own special adventure, so in the end, we didn’t feel too disappointed. Sadly, the park was completely closed, but there was a panoramic trail of the park- just a kilometre or two, but it had been tromped on enough that we could walk there and see some waterfalls in the distance.
When we were at the Hotel Jezero, they had an All Europe Junior Go tournament, so there were lots of families with smart kids who had a lot of pent-up energy from being stuck inside. Imagine soccer games in the hallways…it was fun, and we were only there for two days, so we went with it and had a good time.
How did you plan your trip?
We planned the trip by getting recommendations from our friends who had been there and looking at the Overseas Adventure Travel itinerary for their land-based and ship-based trips, and then checking with Google Maps and Rome2Rio to get help with transportation options.
I looked at Booking.com and Google Maps for hotel information and reviews. We really like to do things ourselves!
My husband loves to take care of the transportation, and I get to pick hotels, trying to maximise square footage and comfort with a reasonable cost.
Of course, in Dubrovnik, I queried “steps” in all the reviews, because while we can do stairs, we didn’t want to do hundreds every day. I completely failed in selecting our accommodations in Kotor – the fact that the bathroom was, while private, down 15 steps from the studio with the bedroom and kitchen was sort of buried.
Otherwise, the hotels and the Airbnbs we found were available at really reasonable rates and were of very high-quality.
I understand you undertook several walking tours. Do you find these are great ways of getting to know a destination? How did you decide what tours to do?
We do find walking tours a great way to get oriented to a new city, and try to do them in every place we go. We like to do general walking tours and also street art tours when they are available. We didn’t find any street art tours in Croatia, but we did have one in Mostar. Last year, we had a phenomenal street art tour in London that took us through the Brick Lane area – have you ever done a street art tour? We also went on one in Paris that was quite cool!
For the city walking tours, we recently discovered Guru Walk. We liked that we could read about the tour guide and pick the tour accordingly.
It sounds like you enjoyed many parts of your travels, but do you have any particular highlights?
Marijana, our Zagreb tour guide, was amazing!
We particularly loved our time in Dubrovnik, but Zadar and Split were amazing as well – it was quite windy when we were in both cities, and we did wish for better weather.
We were sorry we hadn’t arranged a stay on one of the outlying islands. We found the Adriatic to be just as picturesque and beautiful. We were blown away by the color of the water!
We also found the food to be so fresh and delicious! We think the quality of the produce is superior overall to what we get here. Although we live in California and get produce from our farmers’ markets, the fact that they use fewer pesticides and chemicals in the food in Europe, as opposed to the United States, really pays off in terms of flavor.
We liked taking the ferry from Split to Dubrovnik, and found the bus trips interesting.
Going to the Symphony at Lisinski Hall in Zagreb was also really cool – we like going to a concert when we travel to do something that brings us to a place that is more local than touristy. The restaurant we went to before the concert (Restoran Trnjanka – see it on the map) was super local-feeling. It was fun.
Thank you so much to Emily for taking the time to write about her experiences of visiting Croatia in the off-season. It sounds like a wonderful trip!
If you would share your experiences of travelling to Croatia, please drop me an email!
“. I don’t sleep at night. I’m soo nervous. I dreamed of this journey so long. I studied some, but not too much. I peeked at the photos that Luca posted as he traced the island, but I didn’t want to spoil the surprise. And I did well. The trail starts uphill, of course! One of those nice climbs, 10 km with gentle hairpin bends and fairly consistent slope not more than 10%. It goes up. You always go up. Luca warned me. There are no plains. Only climbs alternated with descents. Sweet climbs; Rough climbs; hanged climbs that does not rise, because in addition to being steep, they have a bumpy and slippery bottom. Sunny climbs. Infinitely long climbs. Deceptive climbs that let you think that you arrived at the top, while instead, behind the curve, there is another hidden climb. Climbs that when you get to the top you don’t believe it. Climbs that take your breath away, but when you arrive, reserve unimaginable surprises.
The moment the plane lands in Zagreb, one can’t help but notice that the airport barely looks like an airport from any other mainstream metropolis. I mean not in terms of infrastructure but the human activity around reiterating the fact that this is a sparsely populated country with a total population of 4.2 million.
One can do a conducted walking tour to get a better understanding of the history of this place. Coming down from the upper town, one can see a variety of cafes and eateries lining on both sides of the street, the name of which I find hard to remember. It is a pedestrian-friendly area with no dearth of places to sit and munch and watch the crowds go by.
Zadar is a seaside town with most of all tourist activities happening along the sea coast with the most popular among them being the Sea organ. We approach the sea coast from the old town square. Lined with loads of eateries and small shops, the paved narrow streets have something to catch your attention at every step. Trinkets, souvenirs, clothes et al on both sides beckon tourists. These narrow streets lead to an open courtyard with a tower, some historical monuments and a picturesque view of the sea. There are cathedrals and churches aplenty if you have an eye and ear for history.
This is the most popular hub for tourists at Zadar and rightly so. As dusk approaches, the waves become higher and the sound from the sea organ increases. The day closes with a spectacular sun set.
One can easily spend at least 2 days just wandering and idling around in the old city soaking in the history or just doing some monument gazing. ‘Stradun’ or the main street can be fun both during the day and at night. It’s always crowded with tourists and connects the entire old city with lanes and by-lanes. Scores of shops and restaurants are lined up all along that serve local Croatian fish delicacies apart from conventional cuisines. Absolutely not-to-miss!
The island also has a monastery and a small salt-lake aptly called ‘Dead Sea’. Both locals and tourists throng to this lake to soak in the sun and splash around in this lake that is absolutely calm hence the name. The iconic ‘Iron Throne’ from ‘Game of Thrones’ is housed here in the museum, you can take pictures with yourself on the throne.