The best travel apps for Croatia

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These days, most travellers to Croatia travel in possession of a smartphone. Let’s not beat around the bush, we’re practically glued to them at all times, aren’t we? If we’re not messaging or taking selfies for the ‘Gram (but obviously not using them for calls – who does that these days?), we’re using smartphones for the myriad of useful apps that make every day that little bit easier for us. But what are the best smartphone travel apps for Croatia to use when you visit the country? Let’s take a look at some of the apps that may help you during your travels.

The best travel apps for Croatia

Obviously, all of these apps require a wifi or data connection. Many of them are best used when you’re out and about – meaning it’s a data connection that you really need to rely on. Do make sure you have an appropriate amount of travel data from your home mobile phone network, or buy a cheap sim once you land in Croatia to use in the country. Take a look at our mobile phones in Croatia advice page.

All the apps I’ve talked about here are free!

Jadrolinija – Free

Jadrolinija is the main ferry company in Croatia,

Of most use to travellers, the Jadrolinija app lets you buy tickets through it and then displaying the resulting ticket (when boarding) on your phone. The ‘Buy Tickets’ feature is also useful to anyone just wanting to look up timetables – just a few taps and typing in your departure and arrival ports, as well as selecting the dates, will bring up all sailings for your chosen day. That’s just as well because the actual schedules section in the app is a little poor – it just brings up the PDF timetables that are displayed on the main Jadrolinija website, which aren’t formatted particularly well for mobile devices.

These are the main features of the Jadrolinija app that most travellers will use, although looking up weather for all of Jadrolinija’s destinations is useful, whilst the port webcams button comes in use if you’re trying to see how busy they may be.

The best travel apps for Croatia - Jadrolinija

The ‘Fleet’ section is a nice touch – you can see where any of Jadrolinija’s ferries, catamarans or boats are sailing at that exact moment! Maybe not the most useful bit of functionality for the standard traveller, but absolutely delightful for a travel nerd like me!

HAK – Free

Developed by HAK (Croatian Auto Club), this app will come in most use to those of you who are doing a fair amount of driving in Croatia.

It’s a little long-winded in its presentation, but there’s some helpful content here. The nearest gas stations feature will tell you exactly that, whilst also showing you the prices of the different fuel types at the stations. Places of interest (or POIs) tells you the location of things such as ATMs, post offices, parking lots and garages and supermarkets. You can also look up prices for tolls, although you do need to know the names of the entry and exit toll booths (as opposed to just typing in e.g. Zagreb and Split).

The road conditions part of the app is useful, although quite dry in the sense that it’s just a written report on stuff like road traffic, border crossing info and ferry and rail traffic issues – none of this is displayed on a map, which might be more useufl.

You can even use the app to tell you where you car is (after you’ve parked it, that is) but you do need to press a button to “set the location”…it’s not automatic!

Hopefully this won’t be something that you’ll need when on your travels, but you can also call for roadside assistance via the app.

HAC

Seeing as I’ve told you drivers about the HAK app, I may as well tell you about the HAC app. Wait, what?

The app of HAC – Hrvatski autoceste (Croatian Motorways) – relates to the ETC motorway toll device. Whilst most of you are unlikely to buy this – you can just pay tolls as you exit the motorway you’re driving on – if you’re in the country for any length of time and will be doing a considerable amount of driving, you might want to look into getting this device and accompanying app.

Uber and Bolt

You’ll likely already have the Uber app on your phone which is great – it’ll be fully up and running for when you’re in Croatia. It’ll be an invaluable app if you need to make short taxi journeys on holiday for a very reasonable price indeed. Uber doesn’t work everywhere in Croatia, but it does work in Zagreb, Rijeka and in towns and cities along the Dalmatian coast. You can even use the app for trips from and to airports.

In a similar vein, Bolt is another taxi app that’s used in Croatia that essentially works the same as Uber. You may even receive a special deal on rides if you’re a new Bolt customer.

GetByBus

We’re sure many of you travellers have come across the invaluable GetByBus website to look up bus timetable and buy tickets. Guess what – they have an app too! It’s a pretty slick app and makes quick work of bringing up timetables; you can buy tickets through it too.

Once you search for bus timetables, you’re presented with a list which clearly displays the bus company operator, the length of the journey, price and review scores. You can also find out what stops your bus will be making on route and if any tickets offer special discounts.

The best travel apps for Croatia - GetByBus
The best travel apps for Croatia - GetByBus

This app is a must – download it now!

Dubrovnik Airport

A few Croatian airports have their own app, and Dubrovnik Airport – or Rudjer Boskovic Airport to give it it’s proper name – doesn’t miss out.

Of most use to travellers is the departures and arrivals boards in the app which gives live information about flights – useful if you want to learn the latest status of your flight.

The best travel apps for Croatia - Dubrovnik Airport

There are also details of how to travel from and to the airport by various transport means including by shuttle bus, local bus and taxi.

Finally, you can also use the app to check in for your flights.

LibertasApp

Another useful Dubrovnik transport app is the Libertas app which deals with local buses in and near the city. It’s useful for those of you who’re planning on using the buses to get around…and let’s face it, sometimes it’s a little difficult to make head or tale of the bus maps and timetables.

The app shows bus lines with their different colours and live bus departures. Bring up the app wherever you are in Dubrovnik and it’ll show you the nearest bus stop, which lines service it and when the next buses to arrive are.

The app is also great for anyone wishing to take the suburban buses to destinations outside of Dubrovnik, perhaps using bus number 10 to Cavtat or bus number 15 to Ston.

Secret Zadar

I was struggling a bit to find a reputable and useful local guide as an app – there are many available in the app stores, but few are actually much use to travellers!

One that I would recommend is the Secret Zadar app which…in fact…isn’t actually a standard guide to this gorgeous town but a collection of little-known facts and, well, secrets about Zadar. It’s a nice accompaniment to visiting the place and offers a slight more behind the scenes look – learn about the ill-fated city bridge, how to tell time in Zadar and about Jackie Kennedy visiting the town. There’s also a video section featuring recent clips, and a chance to hear some traditional music from Zadar – klapa singing.

Dalmatia AI

Fire up the app and select your areas of interest for Dalmatia – are they adventure? Shopping? Nightlife or culture? Once you’ve selected, the Dalmatia AI app will display locations related to your preferences and info about each place. You can favourite the places that sounds particularly interesting to you, meaning you’re creating your own little guide to the area of Dalmatia you’re visiting. If you’re not sure what to explore, simply fire up the map and see what’s near you!

The best travel apps for Croatia - Dalmatia AI

Of particular interest, you can draw up local beaches. Because what’s better than finding a beach that you didn’t know about before?

Mondly – Free

There are not many language apps that are useful for learning some Croatian words and phrases, it has to be said. Those that do exist tend to be a little thin on the ground in terms of content or are…just a little dull!

One which is anything but dull is Mondly. With its series of interactive game-style lessons, it’s a great basis for learning some helpful words to use in Croatian and the way lessons are structured repetitively means that hopefully you’ll take on board for good some of what you’re learning.

https://sigurnestaze.hr/

Citymapper – Free – iOS and Android

We sure hope you’ve come across Citymapper before. It’s an invaluable transport planning tool that offers routes using myriad different transport methods (depending on the city, of course) – trains, buses, taxis/cabs, carsharing, ferries/boats, trams, cycling and walking, to name the most obvious ones. The app also displays transport maps, and shows live departure times.

You can set it to use only certain types of transport – say if you want to travel by bus instead of train – or get it to tell you the fastest, cheapest or “simplest” options. There is also a very helpful step-free filter for those who are travelling with wheelchairs, buggies or perhaps have mobility issues. What it doesn’t share is any driving routes, of course, for this is a public transport-only app!

As I write, Citymapper is only available for one Croatian city, Zagreb. However, I would thoroughly recommend that you download it if visiting Zagreb. It makes light work of the sometimes complicated tram and bus network.

Waze – Free – iOS and Android

But what if you’re planning on doing a substantial amount of driving in the country? Ditch the expensive GPS system that your car hire company might want you to rent and opt for a free substitute.

Of course, there’s always the ubiquitous Google Maps, but for what I feel is a cleverer “sat-nav” give Waze a try. Waze will offer routes based around live traffic conditions, roads that have snarled due to traffic jams. It will also warn you of upcoming roadworks, incidents (such as car collisions), blocked lanes, hazards, road closures and even reported police vehicles. Very helpfully, it also shows the current road speed limit to help you adhere to it when driving.

Waze benefits from user-generated content for much of the above (i.e. people can report traffic accidents or hazards when they’re seen) so you can too. Just not when you’re driving, of course!

Instagram

Instagram isn’t anything Croatia-specific, but OF COURSE you must share all your amazing photos of stunning Croatia on your account and make all your friends jealous…right? Make sure to tag us up too (@VisitCroatia) and we’ll share your images on our account too!

Doodle Jump 2

When you need a little downtime from all that sightseeing and lazing by the pool, seek out the Doodle Jump. What’s this got to do with Croatia, you might think? Well, the app was developed by Croatian programming studio Lima Sky. Just the thing to while away the hours on a longish bus or ferry journey.

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