Croatia: The Islands

Getting There

Transit throughout Croatia is not the quickest.  There aren’t trains connecting the large cities yet, and while the Dalmatian coast is spotted with large islands, the ferries only go certain days a week to specific islands.  Even once you make it onto an island you need to time out your travel in advance to make sure you can make it back to the mainland the day you need.  Josh and I did a fair amount of research and decided to take an early morning bus from Dubrovnik to Split and then take a ferry from Split to the island of Vis. The bus took about four hours to get to Split- it was probably about three hours away in actuality, but we had a few stops along the way (cigarette breaks- it’s shocking how many people chain smoke in Croatia).  It was a beautiful drive; the road hugged the Dalmatian coast the entire way and we passed through all the small towns on the Adriatic. The bus became a local one for brief stretches, which we thought was very interesting. At one point we briefly passed through a stretch of mountains and through what I think was Bosnia-Herzegovina border, but we still aren’t sure.  The road that we were on was one of the only roads connecting the south with the north. It was a pretty bouncy ride- a few of the stretches I thought my stomach was going to take revenge on me. Dang motion sickness…but I made it off the bus without having to use the plastic bag. Success.

Split

As soon as we stepped off the bus into the Split bus station, we were swarmed with various people and groups pushing their excursion or private room (Sobe) on you.  It was overwhelming.  Josh and I grabbed our packs as quickly as we could and shoved our way past them.  We had a 3 hour gap of time before the ferry to Vis left so we grabbed the tickets, ditched the packs, and meandered into the Old Town of Split to get a crash course of Diocletian’s Palace. The Roman Emperor, Diocletian (Emperor in AD 284-305) built the palace for his retirement.  During his time as emperor he was responsible for dividing the huge empire up among four emperors (which ultimately led to the empire’s decline).  He was also known for torturing and executing Christians. So… not the best legacy. But he had a beautiful palace.  And ironically, Diocletian’s mausoleum is now a Cathedral in present day, honoring the very people he convicted. A lot of it was really old and still intact, but it was mixed throughout with some new, restored areas, which made it feel very eclectic and cool.

It was busy, but you could get around easily, and even though it was supposed to rain that day we managed to make it through the afternoon with sunshine. After a much too brief walk of Split we headed back to the marina and continued our leg of travel to the islands.

Vis

Bus to bus, to ferry… after a full day of travel we finally make it to the island of Vis.  Worth the trek. Vis is incredible. It hasn’t been ‘found’ yet by the teaming masses, the way Dubrovnik has, or like the island of Hvar which is a nearby island and a hotspot for partying. It had a charming, small town feel with a marina full of beautiful large yachts and sailboats.  A lot of people know about Vis because of the cave attractions nearby (blue cave and green cave which we go to), but it seemed like most tourists stay on Hvar island rather than on Vis- probably because it is not easy to get to unless you sail there.

Our Airbnb host Mirsada met us at the marina and walked us to our condo, which was super helpful because there’s not way we would’ve found it otherwise. She spoke good English and gave us the lowdown on the island.  We were only staying in Vis for two nights (which we regretted) but we knew we had to see the Blue Cave on the small island of Bisevo nearby, and wanted to see as much of the other beaches and caves as we could.  Mirsada called one of her friends who does tours and got us all setup for the next day, for a much better price.  We had a low key, relaxing evening that night. We cooked some dinner and walking around our small town on the water looking at all the insanely large sailboats and yachts.  Croatia is definitely known for sailing. Josh and I had never seen so many large boats in one location.  They all had cute names, and came from what appeared like all over the world.  We walked past the rows of them imaging what life would be like if we were sailing around the Adriatic.

The blue cave as it’s called is caused by sunlight which reflects through the ocean water coming from the white floor of the cave and bathes the cave in aquamarine light, while objects in the water appear to be silver.  Turns out we were lucky to even be able to see the caves- they are only doing tours every other day now, and we had lots of storms through up being much larger then we thought, and we ended up being with a tour group full of Slovenians- so not much English was spoken on the boat.  We had a great time anyway, and did a full day tour of the island and the nearby caves.  The blue cave was definitely worth the effort.  It was electric!  Our boat took us to the tiny island of Bisevo, where we transferred into smaller boats that could fit into the small space. The port was very controlled and they monitored the blue cave- they’d only let in a few small boats/groups at a time.  We waited in a small queue then our turn came.

About 12-15 of us all ducked down, then made it into the glowing blue cave.  We were there at the perfect time of day when the sunlight hits the bottom of the cave just-so, making it bounce off all the walls and glow.  It was fantastic! We didn’t get much time in the cave (5-10min) but definitely a unique experience.

After the cave, our boat took us back to Vis and stopped at a couple other points, then gave us a few hours at a rocky beach on the other side of the island from where we were staying.  We swam for a long time.  The water was crystal clear and got really deep fast- but definitely rocky! We had a tough time getting in and out, but it was a lot of fun.

 That night we went out to dinner and managed to get into a really popular restaurant on the water, right by all the sailboats.  We got there early for European standards (6:30) so we managed to get a table.

We tried the cuttlefish risotto, which seemed to be a popular Croatian coast dish.  The food was fantastic, and it was really fun sitting so close to all the boats and watching them come in from their day of sailing and dock up. Lots of large groups of men came off their boats, and some groups that were on smaller mini-sailing cruises. We really didn’t see any Americans there (as far as we know).  It was a different world than we are used to and we loved it.

Hvar

Our stay on Vis was too short. The next morning we had to take a ferry out, to get to the other island we were staying at- Hvar.  When we booked our trip a few weeks back we wanted to stay a couple nights at the calm relaxing island, and a couple at the crazier island, assuming that since they were right next to each other they would be easy to travel back and forth to.  Not the case.  There was only one ferry a week that connected the two, so we had to go back to Split and then transfer to another ferry to get to Hvar.  It was kind of a pain, and we were so in love with Vis that we didn’t want to leave, but our Hvar booking was non-refundable so we had to go.  This was a time when planning ahead bit us. The ferries worked out pretty well- we got on an early morning one in Vis and there was only a 30min wait to get on the next one to Hvar, so we were happy about that.  But the storms decided to come in full force on this day- it was pouring rain in Split and ended up pouring rain the entire day into the evening on Hvar.

We arrived to what felt like a monsoon, and ran for cover under a building.  We tried waiting out the storms, but they weren’t really letting up.  Eventually we made it to a café with some umbrella coverage and shared a table with a guy who turned out to be from Michigan- small world!  He let us sit with him and he was great to chat with.  He was 84 years old, and traveling throughout Europe with a group.  He was super sharp for his age.  I hope when I am that age I can still make it to Europe.

Finally there was a brief gap in the storms, so we made a break for it and hustled it up some major hills to the place we were staying.  Thank goodness they let us check-in early, because the rains started again. We ended us being inside most of the day, watching the crazy storm, trying to play with our absolutely terrible wifi connection and hoping we could get online for more than 2 minutes, but the storm kept crapping it out.  No luck.  So we read.  I read about half of my book. Not a crazy party experience, but we were dry so we were happy. We made it out into the storm during another little break to grab groceries and some seafood for dinner, but apart from that it was all inside.

The next morning was much nicer.  The sun found its way back to the island and we woke up ready to get outside.  We went for a run along the rim of the island on a really nice bike path and scoped out the lay of the land.  It was a really pretty island as well, and lots of massive yachts in the marina to gawk at.

The island was much hillier than I thought it would be. We did a little hike up to the top of the island and went into an old hilltop fortress that was used to protect them for hundreds of years. It was a great view.  We spent the afternoon walking throughout the island and stopped periodically at some of the rocky beaches, grabbing a beer here or there. It got pretty dark and cloudy again, but the rain held off for the most part.

Croatia beaches are so interesting, because they are just stretches of rocky land.  They put some buoys in the area and a few ladders are cemented into the boulders and then you just jump into the crystal clear water.  A lot of them have chairs and loungers, but they are way overpriced for anything we wanted to pay.  The nice ones were between $10-20/person.  Since the weather was pretty threatening we weren’t about to pay that, so we hung out on the benches and rocks.

Hvar is well known for its lavender (smells amazing), its yachts, late night parties, and its wine. So that evening we went out in the town to some wine bars.  The first one we went to was hands down the best- it was the oldest one in Hvar, and incredibly charming and cute.  I was obsessed with the décor! We had an amazing glad of red that nothing could compare to the rest of the night.  We hit up another local wine bar also, that had house mad wines for only $1 USD! Yes for the budget 🙂

We found a authentic Croatian restaurant for dinner that night, and had to wait until around 9 to eat because it was so small and crowded, but worth it! It was delicious.  The only minor issue was that we stink at eating fish with a lot of little bones and one of our dishes has hundreds of bones.  We struggled a bit, but it was great anyway.

After dinner we decided to head to the party area, and it was starting to take on the crazy life we heard it did.  But we just weren’t in the mood for $12 cocktails and electric blue flashing lights with bass thumping, so we opted out and called it a night.

The Croatian islands were awesome.  We wished we had a little more time to spend on them, especially Vis, but they were great while they lasted.

We were ready to go further north and see some waterfalls.

On to Zadar…