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Croatia was the majority of the second half of our 2023 European summer adventure. We started our travels in Zagreb, Croatia’s capitol, before quickly heading up into Slovenia. Here’s the travel guide if you missed it. We reentered Croatia to stay on the Istria peninsula with a couple days on the Adriatic coast. Read more about our favorite salty, pastel-colored coastal towns in this travel guide. On our way east to Plitvice Lakes National Park, we explored the charming hill towns of Istria and then south to Split, Hvar and Bosnia, Dubrovnik and Montenegro. Come along!

DAY 1 — ZAGREB, CROATIA

Jumping back to the beginning of our trip, we had a layover in Munich before arriving in Zagreb. Getting in around 1 pm and running on pure adrenaline. It’s a wonderful, low key airport compared with the horror that is Munich. After grabbing coffee at Cafe Nero, we picked up our rental car and headed into Zagreb to check in at Hotel Esplanade. We immediately got dressed, refusing to let anyone to lay down or close their eyes and headed out for an early dinner at Vinodol, recommended by the concierge. If you can power through this first weird day with an early bedtime, it’s WAY easier to get everyone on European time. This is my no. 1 tip when traveling with kiddos.

Zagreb was very reminiscent of a trip I took while studying abroad to Bratislava, Slovakia. “Gritty” would be a great way to describe it. While there are cute pockets, there was quite a bit of graffiti everywhere (at least right in the hub where we stayed), stickers stuck on every street sign, and every major site was under construction, clothed in scaffolding and impossible to make out. Now it’s probably a good thing for a city to do all the work at once but not great for the traveler that hits a city during that window.

DAY 8 — HILL TOWNS OF ISTRIA

Made famous by the discovery of massive truffles and only about an hours drive away from Rovinj, are some charming hill towns of the Istrian peninsula. This area reminded me of Tuscany which makes sense with Italy being so close. We drove straight to Motovun, perhaps the most popular town but loved the artsy hill town of Grožnjan more. Onward through the abandoned Završge on our way to dinner in Livade and finally got on the road for a late evening drive to our AirBNB near Plitvice Lakes National Park. We had considered staying at the charming San Canzian Village & Hotel. But in an effort to increase the length of our stays in each place, we chose Rovinj for two nights instead. If you are visiting just Croatia, I’d linger longer in the charming hill towns.

MOTOVUN

With a hotel you can stay at, charming castle wall walk, and eateries with a view, this town is adorable. We climbed the bell tower, walked around the wall, bought truffle salt (my only souvenir from this whole trip!) and had a glass of wine while overlooking the valley below. Just beautiful.

GROŽNJAN

I wish we could have spent more time here. It was simply charming and lovely in every way. About 15-20 minutes away from Motovun, the vine-draped stone houses, cobblestone lanes, artist studios galore, captured our hearts. There seemed to be treasures down every hidden walk. There was also a little grocer shop filled with yummy local foods. We left with treats for the drive.

Blue Dress

We ate dinner at Konoba Dorjana in Livade after stopping briefly in the mostly abandoned town of Završje. Dinner was delicious but the service was SO slow. We fully understand European eating etiquette at this stage in our lives but when you’ve got a three hour drive ahead that the wait staff was aware of and three starving kiddos causing a ruckus, we just assumed they’d work with us a bit more. We completely thought they had forgotten half our meal an hour and a half in and we’re starting to get antsy to tackle the drive, so we asked for the bill. The waiter said the rest was coming. And he was right…45 minutes later. Oh Europe. We love you but we almost ate our hand and didn’t get to our AirBNB until almost midnight.

DAY 9–PLITVICE LAKES NATIONAL PARK

Plitvice Lakes is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and worth every bit of headache to get here. It’s closer to Zagreb and would make more sense to visit from there but we were driving in all the way from the Istrian peninsula which made for a pretty exhausting drive, roughly 3 hours. Pay close attention to the direction google maps is taking you. The settings matter. Sure we saved 2 minutes but Google maps almost killed us on a windy, dark and scary mountain road only for us to realize there was a much straighter and more widely traveled option. All for 2 flippin minutes.

Plitvice Lakes National Park is a series of beautiful turquoise lakes (the water really is that color!) cascading down magnificent waterfalls. At one part in the park you take a boat across to the other side. For the most part, the boardwalk, one of the most impressive engineering feats I’ve ever seen, does not have rails. If you have a toddler you’ll need to wear them. It’s too dangerous and no strollers are allowed. Get that Ergo out and strap them down. Aubrey was fine at 4 years old but I would have been nervous had she been any younger.

We purposely stayed at an apartment near the park entrance because we wanted to get in as early as we could and we struggle with early morning wake ups. We were in line at the second entrance around 8:30 am which is an impressive feat for us. But the hoards of people and tour groups were already there too. The way the itinerary fell, we were visiting on a Sunday. I wonder if we had chose a weekday if it would have been less busy.

We followed Rick Steve’s itinerary through the park and it worked out great. Once you get down into the lakes and further down the main trail, the crowds thinned and it felt more enjoyable. I don’t think there’s really a great option for beating the crowds here, its too spectacular of a natural wonder to have the place all to yourself.

We had lunch in the park at Lička Kuća and it was wonderful! Regional cuisine that felt more Hungarian than anything we had had up to this point. It was conveniently located next to where we parked.

SPLIT

Split is a 2.5 hr drive from Plitvice Lakes National Park on a relatively straight highway with tolls. You go through several long tunnels to get down to the coast and if you hit Bura winds, prepare yourself for an interesting drive. They have warnings up when it is blowing because big trucks can be knocked completely on their side. Luckily our drive was uneventful. We got to Split and parked right next to Diocletian’s Palace and a short walk to our VRBO. Parking was very expensive (like $100 euros!!!) and had we known, we would have parked elsewhere and walked further. You certainly pay for the convenience but because there are no cars in the old town and you have to shlep all your bags to your accommodation, we thought closer would be better.

DAY 10–FERRY TO HVAR

Trying to figure out the ferry schedule is a tiny bit complicated but everything we read recommended getting reservations in summer because ferries sell out. We used Jadrolinija to book the car ferries. Be warned though that if you’re wanting to island hop they don’t have a direct route car ferry between Hvar Island and Dubrovnik. This makes no sense. You arrive in Stari Grad on Hvar Island and need to drive over to Hvar town (about 20 minutes) but unless you want to go all the way back to Split to catch a different ferry to go right back by Hvar on your way to Dubrovnik, you need to drive across Hvar Island to Sućuraj (a little over an hours windy drive), catch a car ferry there to the mainland and then drive on to Dubrovnik. Which is what we did.

BEACHFRONT VILLA IN HVAR

Hvar is known the world over to be a party town with loud, rowdy nightlife going into the wee hours of the morning. This has never been our scene and not appropriate with three kiddos in tow. It’s also apparently very irritating to the locals who hate what it has become. Hvar Island is SO much more than that though and to avoid it because of this would be unfortunate. Staying in Hvar was not high on my list. Rather, I wanted to be close enough to visit but stay somewhere quiet and relaxing. This Villa fit the bill perfectly at only a 10 minute drive away and had its own quiet cove.

It is big and could have easily fit more families if traveling with friends. The owner lives above the villa and was so helpful and kind. He has lived on the island since the 1970s and knows everyone and everything. Even took my husband grocery shopping when we arrived so I could get straight in the pool with the kids. He kindly made us dinner reservations at several lovely restaurants and we were treated like royalty when we arrived at those restaurants. It was wonderful!

Louise Misha Dress | Raffia Belt (similar) | Woven Earrings (similar) | Sunglasses

HVAR TOWN

Wandering this sun-soaked town was a joy. The beautiful coral stone and sand-hued buildings was a sight to behold. The first night we ate at Macondo and had the best seafood of our trip here, specifically the Gregada. We also ate along the harbor at Dva Ribara.

DAY 12–HVAR FORT

On the way into Hvar town, you go right past Hvar Fort. You can hike up from town but with tiny kids it is easier to drive. Had we been sans kids, we probably would have been up for the challenge. Cade’s prosthetics were hurting and we would have had to carry our walking averse 4 year old.

For our second full day in Hvar we explored the fort, went back to the home and swam all day in the pool (the sea urchins were everywhere and scary) and spent the late afternoon exploring the cobblestone streets again, picked up pastries at Nonnies for breakfast and ate dinner at Juniors where Kai had his first octopus pasta and we had our first Hugo of the trip. I’ll get a recipe up for this light alcoholic drink soon because we’ve been making them all summer and it is my new favorite drink.

DAY 13–A DRIVE TO DUBROVNIK

We checked out and said goodbye to Hvar town for an 1.5 hour drive across the island to Sućuraj where we had a car ferry reservation to the mainland. This one stressed us out a bit because it was a day reservation not a time reservation. Meaning if we got there late for the departure we were aiming for and the line was too long, they just bump you to the next one a couple hours later. We had about an hour to kill once we arrived and it wasn’t too busy. The town is tiny and cute.

Sea Skirt | Sandals | Tank (similar) 

DUBROVNIK

On our way down the coast to Dubrovnik, we purposefully avoided the new bridge that opened this year specifically to bypass Bosnia and opted to drive through Bosnia instead. There used to be long border delays and you were forced to drive through on your way to Dubrovnik. Now it’s a choice with that convenient, controversial bridge. Bosnia was my 45th country and we stopped in Neum to get a snack. We didn’t have time to make it to Mostar which is the popular destination in Bosnia to pair with Dubrovnik.

We were starving when we arrived and prepared ourselves for mediocre food as Dubrovnik’s food scene is notoriously touristy. Luckily, we weaved through some old alleys just exploring and stopped at the lovely restaurant called Nico’s Trattoria, with outdoor seating. Hugo’s in hand, we dined well and meandered back to our cute VRBO apartment I neglected to get pictures of.

DAY 14 — A FULL DAY EXPLORING DUBROVNIK

We woke up slowly, had tea/coffee on the rooftop of our rental apartment, made breakfast and strolled out around 10:30. I am not a morning person. We felt a bit of tension on this day because it was really the only day we had to explore Dubrovnik which makes you want to get a move on it and my list of places to visit was long but everything we read said to get to the walls by 8 am to avoid crowds and we just couldn’t do that. This was day 14 for us and we were tired. We could not get ourselves or the kids up and fully functioning for an early morning wall walk which is the no. 1 thing to do in Dubrovnik. So we waited until the tail end to do that and enjoyed the sights in the city instead. It ended up being better than we could have ever imagined.

Highlights of the day included meandering back streets, hiking up to Fort Lovrijenac through the Pile Gate, the Franciscan church and monastery, swimming in the ocean outside the Porporela, cooling down in the Aquarium, walking the city walls at sunset, dinner in front of the Church of St. Ignatius, and a nighttime ride on the cable car for a spectacular city view.

DUBROVNIK’S WALL WALK

After strolling the city and going swimming just outside the walls, we headed back out, right before closing to explore Dubrovnik’s Wall Walk. We assumed sunset on the wall would be horrific but it was our only option given our decision to linger through the city. And it was SO good. The sunset colors light up the city, the crowds weren’t bad (like surprisingly empty) and the temperatures were lower.

Sunset colors from the wall overlooking the city of Dubrovnik is spectacular. Pay for admission about 45 minutes to an hour before they close. Everyone seemed to already be at dinner and we had some lovely shots of the city with that magical evening light.

We stayed out late and woke early the next morning to head to Montenegro for our last day. That travel post will be up soon. In the meantime, I hope our Croatia–Summer Travel Guide has inspired you to get the passport out and travel. This is a big, beautiful country filled with unique experiences and some great food. Rent a car, stay someplace salty and bring the kids!