Road Trip Through the Balkans: Snorkeling, Camping & Sunsets in Croatia

2 weeks. 14 days. 13 nights. 13 different hotels/campgrounds. 3,342 miles (or 5,380 km). 11 countries. 6 different currencies. 2 rental cars. Stephen, myself, and the pup. That’s our road trip in a nutshell.

I’m a numbers-loving person so those are the facts, but there was so much more to this road trip, so much to write about I hardly know where to start! Well actually, let’s back up a second and talk about how we chose this trip. When Stephen found out the dates for his 2 weeks of holiday leave, we talked about it a bit and decided that we didn’t really want to fly anywhere because we had had so many flight cancellations last holiday (January) due to weather and it cost us a pretty penny for that trip. We loved seeing the Northern Lights and Norway, which you can check out our story here, but we wanted something a little more relaxed this time. Plus, we have the pup with us now and didn’t want to board him for two weeks. So, it seemed a road trip was in order. I’d never been on a for real road trip before and we hadn’t been to any of the Balkans countries, so what better time to start than now!

The plan was simple: not to plan. If you know me even a little, you might have laughed at that. Of course, I planned a wee bit, but not as much as usual. Realistically we had to have some sort of plan or we could be driving for weeks and never return home. I did some blog reading, Pinterest searching, and Google maps tagging to form a layout of sorts for our route. Google Maps unfortunately only lets you add so many stops, so I found a website – Furkot – that allows you to map out the entire route and goes into greater detail. Such as start and end driving times, where to sleep, distance driven, and gives you a great map overview in the end. This map came in handy so many times throughout our trip. I highly recommend it and its free! You can see the layout of our originally planned trip (before all the speed bumps we encountered) below.

We rented a car to avoid putting that many miles on our personal vehicle. It was loaded up with as much of our camping, swimming, and biking gear that would fit. I will include a huge packing list in a separate post so keep an eye out for that. To keep it simple, over the next few posts, I will explain our two-week route through the Balkans, just touching the surface of the stops we made along with hotel and camping recommendations, dining recommendations, expenses, and what we liked and didn’t like! If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend this trip – of course, modified to your liking. I hope you enjoy and if you do, give it a share!

Day One

Our starting point for this trip was Vicenza, Italy – where we currently live. We left around 10 am on Saturday morning and headed toward our first stop: Pula, Croatia. You have to pass through Slovenia in order to get to Croatia, and Slovenia requires a vignette be purchased. We bought a 2-week pass at a gas station right across the Slovenian border. Passing along many vineyards and tempting wine shops, we continued quickly through Slovenia without any stops and in no time arrived at the Croatian border. Most borders in Europe are open borders, which means you hardly know when you pass between one country and the other because there are no passport controls. Croatia was the first time we had encountered a border control. They check your passports, welcome you to Croatia, and on your way you go.

Once in Pula, Croatia, I had my eye on the arena there – basically a smaller version of the Roman Colosseum. It was absolutely beautiful and nowhere near as touristy. The Arena is the only remaining Roman amphitheater to have four side towers and with all three Roman architectural orders entirely preserved.

Tonight was the only night I had booked in advance just to ensure that we had somewhere to stay. From Pula, we then headed to Kraljevica to Camping Oštro campsite. We set up our tent, went snorkeling for a few minutes before the sunset, then grabbed dinner at the restaurant on the campgrounds.

Costs & More Info:

• Croatia Currency: Croatian Kuna (kn)
• Autostrada Tolls from Vicenza to Slovenia border: 16,50 €
• Slovenia vignette for 2 weeks: 20 €
• Highway tolls in Croatia to Camping Oštro: 4,46 € (33 kn)
• Camping Oštro for one night: 30,07 € (222 kn)
  • Address: Oštro 16, 51262 Kraljevica, Croatia
  • Website: http://www.jadran-hoteli.hr/ostro-en

Day Two

Before 7 am and in between rain showers, we quickly loaded up the tent and headed to Zadar, Croatia. We took the scenic route along the coast and enjoyed the beautiful sites, opaque waters and numerous beach coves. In Zadar, I found a free parking lot just outside the center that allowed us to stretch our legs and walk a bit into town. Zadar is a city on Croatia’s Dalmatian coast and is well known for its Roman and Venetian ruins amidst the Old Town. There are several Venetian gates in the city walls. We walked through the town, checked out some vendors, and then took a stroll down by the ocean before stopping for lunch at a secluded restaurant with a great view of the blue skies and sea.

From Zadar, Krka National Park in Sibenik, Croatia was next on our list. I was super pumped for this waterfall haven. We paid 50 kn for parking and then had to walk a few hundred meters through the town toward a glass building which houses the box office and tourist information. Tickets are 100 kn per person and include the boat ride from the ticketing building to the trail for the waterfalls. The boat runs every 30 minutes. Once we arrived at the waterfall site, the signs make it very easy to follow and the path to go around the waterfall takes about an hour. The only waterfall that was available this time of the year to visit and/or swim in was Skradinski Buk, where a lot of people were swimming at the base of. There is an area roped off that’s just beautiful and looked so refreshing. For other parts of the walk/hike around the waterfall, swimming is forbidden.

It’s like walking through an enchanted forest once you get back behind the falls. There weren’t as many people back there. It was quiet, peaceful, and just magical. Pictures don’t do it justice. It’s dog-friendly, but they’re not allowed to swim. The park itself has lots of amenities, along with restaurants, drink stands, and souvenir shops. We didn’t stop to swim here, due to the fact that it was so crowded and pretty late in the afternoon, so we caught the boat back and headed to the car.

Before leaving we searched for a nearby campground on Google Maps and found Camp Barinica had great reviews. We drove there and stopped to ask if they had a spot available for one night and to our luck they did. It was a lovely little place, right by the water. We set up our tent then headed to the private beach just below for some snorkeling. The water was chilly but so beautiful. We saw plenty of sea life – starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers. Presley wasn’t a fan of sitting on the side of the beach at first, but he was starting to learn and would eventually lay down on the beach towel and just watch over us as we snorkeled the night away.

That night, we went down to the beach and drank some of the schnapps that we had purchased in Zadar while watching one of the most beautiful sunsets we had seen yet.

Costs & More Info:

• Lunch Recommendation in Zadar: Tramonto
• Krka National Park: Parking 6,75 € (50 kn)
  • Tickets: 13,50 €/person (100 kn)
• Camp Barinica cost for one night: 20 € (145 kn)
  • Address: Šparadići 1P, D8 1P, 22010, Grebaštica, Croatia
  • Website: camp-barinica.com

Day Three

Day 3 started out really well, but we had no idea what we were in for. From our campground that morning, we set out for Split, Croatia. I figured it would be super crowded considering it’s a common cruise ship stop. I was pleasantly surprised at the beauty, the liveliness, and the overall clean feeling of Split. We walked along the sea for a while before heading into Diocletian’s Palace, which was once Emperor Diocletian’s Palace. Although it is neither a palace nor a museum, it basically encompasses half the city. Inside it houses pieces from Italy and Greece, and you’ll even see a few sphinx. At 10 am in the morning when we visited, most of the shops were open including lots of bars, souvenir stands, juice stands, and plenty of delicious looking restaurants. I’d love to come back and spend more time in this neat city, especially at night! It had a nice vibe to it that we haven’t experienced in most cities.

After leaving Split, we headed toward the Bosnian border. Along the way, I spotted these massive holes in the ground way up ahead of us and since it was just a short distance off to our right, we stopped by to see what they were. Turns out, they’re sinkholes. Sinkholes are cavities in the ground caused by water erosion and a collapse in the earth. There were two side by side – Red Lake (Crveno jezero) and Blue Lake. The lakes are at the bottom…a LONG way down. It’s a pretty neat detour when headed from Split to Bosnia.

When we arrived at the Bosnian border and reached border control, we were unfortunately denied entry. This was due to the fact that our rental car from Italy didn’t come with the correct documentation in order to enter since they’re not part of the EU. They required the original paperwork and green card insurance for the rental car. We had the copies but not the original. There was nothing we could do, not even bribing would work for us. There was no way around it and Bosnia was blocking our way to the rest of our road trip. I had a moment of panic but then went into research mode to figure out what the hell to do. We found a car ferry that could get us from northern Croatia to southern Croatia that would avoid Bosnia and allow us to enter into our next country: Montenegro.

We caught the car ferry with Jadrolinija from Ploče to Trpanj and splurged on a resort – All Inclusive Adriatiq Hotel Faraon – for the night with a hot shower, WiFi, and AC. Just as the sun was setting we managed to get a snorkel session in and saw a pod of dolphins less than 100 meters from us. Stephen said he could hear them when we were under the water. It was magical. There’s a beach right across from the hotel that wasn’t crowded that time in the evening. The hotel also had a restaurant but we meandered down the square where a band was playing along the beach and many people were out dancing and having a great time. We ate dinner and scored ourselves delicious fresh seafood.
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We went on this trip with no expectations and with this bump in the road, it set us back a bit, but we continued to stay positive and that made all the difference.

Costs & More Info:

• Sinkhole Address: 21260, Imotski, Croatia
• Jadrolinija Car Ferry for 1 car & 2 people: 27,28 € (202 kn)
  • Address: Trg kralja Tomislava 26, 20340, Ploče, Croatia
  • Tickets: Park in line, then purchase tickets on site
• All Inclusive – Adriatiq Hotel Faraon cost for one night: 110,35 € (816,98 kn)
  • Address: Put od Vila 1, 20240, Trpanj, Croatia
  • Website: booking.com
• Dinner Recommendation in Trpanj: Konoba Trpanj

Day Four

From our hotel, we drove south toward the Montenegro border. We came upon a small town by the name of Ston where we saw a castle and fortress walls stretching up the mountain. We weren’t able to walk the entire stretch of walls – it was miserably hot outside and Presley was begging for shade.

After Ston, we drove into Old Town Dubrovnik, Croatia and found an easy parking garage and walked toward the city walls. When we exited the parking garage, we saw graffiti writing that said “Old Town” with an arrow and we decided to take that route instead of the busy tourist way. It was such a beautiful backstreet and avoided the crowded sidewalks and street crossings, which was nice since we had a dog with us… so we didn’t have to worry about crossings. The flowers and the steps along the way were just so picturesque. We crossed the moat and walked into the Old Town and were struck by its massiveness and beauty. There were walls as far as we could see, fortresses, and many castles within eyesight. While it was very crowded, we walked through the town admiring the quaintness of it and the many shops inside. If you continue through the Old Town you will eventually arrive at an inlet where there are sailboats and boat excursions and you can walk out to the end of Dubrovnik for fantastic views when looking back.

Game of Thrones was filmed here, hence the nickname King’s Landing, so it has become a huge tourist destination along with being a cruise ship port. There were plenty of activities and I could’ve easily spent days here. Between the Game of Thrones tours, kayaking out to the islands, or any of the boat excursions that go back and forth between Dubrovnik and Split, they would keep you busy for a good solid weekend. You can walk the city walls for 150 kn each, but it wasn’t in our budget for that day.

After leaving Dubrovnik, we drove to the Montenegro border, where we were again denied because of our rental car documents. Long story short, we drove back to the Dubrovnik airport and rented a car for 5 days and left our current one in long term parking. There was no other way besides renting two at the same time, so we took the brunt of the cost and went with it.

FINALLY we made it into Montenegro and stopped at a nice campground, Autocamp Naluka, on the Bay of Kotor. It was a charming little camping spot among lime trees and olive groves. They had the nicest, cleanest restrooms and showers we had seen yet. They recommended a nice pizza place down the road right by the bay and we had a wonderful dinner while watching the sunset and enjoying our night in a new country.

Costs & More Info:

• Ston Castle Walls Tickets: ~10 € (70 kn)
• Dubrovnik:
  • Parking Recommendation: Dubrovnik Public Parking Garage located here (40 kn / hr)
• Montenegro Currency: Euro (€)
• Autocamp Naluka, Montenegro cost for one night: 20 €
  • Address: Морињ 85338, Montenegro
  • Website: http://www.naluka.montenegro.com/
• Montenegro Dinner Recommendation near Kotor: Tramontana Beach Bar

I hope you enjoyed our recap of our first four days of this incredible road trip and maybe even found it helpful for your next road trip or travel plans. Stay tuned for more posts to come by subscribing to be the first to read! If you liked this, or even loved it, let me know in the comments below or give us a share!

Continue reading onward to part two here! Balkans Road Trip Part Two: Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina