My 10 Day Itinerary to Croatia

dubrovnik city wall view to fort Lovrijenac, Croatia | Laugh Travel Eat
  1. 3 weeks Europe Itinerary: South of France, Cinque Terre and Sicily
  2. My 10 Day Itinerary to Croatia

Planning the trip has always been to me as much fun as the journey itself, and it was even more fun for this Croatia Itinerary. Despite all the protests about spontaneity and flow with the moment that seems to prevail in my generation, my sister and I had firmly believed that without knowing what to see when, everything will end up being a disaster and you will end up missing spots that you will come to regret. Before you jump into defense mode – I am not saying that spontaneity isn’t good, but it’s not something that everyone finds fun.

The ultimate itinerary for anyone who want to visit the Dalmatian, Croatia. Explore the stunning Croatia including sights such as Plitvice and Krka National Park, as well as other UNESCO world heritage sights such as Dubrovnik and Split.
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With graduation around the corner few months back, our group of girlfriends decided to embark on a trip together – but due to clashing schedules and priorities, not all of us can make it in the same period of time. Finally decided on Croatia, seven out of eight of us were able to make it, but in three groups.

>If you are travelling solo, check out my friend Laura’s Balkan solo travel experience.

Armed with superior knowledge (called Google), I decided on where to go and stay, while my sister planned the nitty gritty stuff. Being a semi-control freak, she had pain strikingly planned every detail and kept them in a google doc (you can get a template here – exclusive to my mailing list). Here’s a little summary of our itinerary for anyone interested in spending ten days or less in Croatia!

Contents

Part 1: Dubrovnik

Day 1 – Arrive at Dubrovnik

stardun dubrovnik at night, croatia | Laugh Travel Eat
Stardun at night
  • Flew from London Gatwick bright and early, catching a 6:20 flight and landing at 10:35 local time.
  • We took the airport bus which took about an hour and arrived at Pile Gate, the west entrance of Dubrovnik.
  • After an hour we headed down to the beach outside the eastern gate, relaxing on the beach.
  • We went food shopping and cooked dinner

Day 2 – Day trip to the Elaphiti Islands

Lopud island beach, elaphiti island, Croatia
The Beautiful Lopud Island

Day 3 – Day trip to the Mljet National Park

solace on the opposite side of lagoon mljet national park croatia
The lagoon of Mljet National Park
  • We took the 8:15 bus from Pile Gate to Gruz Port and took the 9:55 ferry to Mjlet. There we rented bikes to cycle around the national park. We brought packed lunch and swum in the lagoon.
    Note: cycling is quite tiring and not for beginners there. If you want a more scenic way to experience the sea journey over and hike, I suggest joining a tour such as this one.
  • We took the 16:50 ferry back, brought food and cooked dinner ourselves

Day 4 – Exploring Dubrovnik

me on dubrovnik city wall game of thrones style, Croatia | Laugh Travel Eat
A Game of Thrones moment!
  • We were joined by two more in our group and spent the morning moving into new Airbnb(free credits if you sign up)
  • We cooked lunch and spent the afternoon exploring Dubrovnik and going up its city walls.
  • We had dinner at a restaurant.

Day 5 – Kayaking from Dubrovnik to Lokrum

kayak from dubrovnik to lokrum view of dubrovnik
There’s no cooler way to see Dubrovnik

Where to stay in Dubrovnik

  • Budget: AirBnBs are a great budget option.  The Sunny Apartment (for 3 people) in the old town or Garden House (for 5) outside the old town.
  • Mid-range: In a cute corner of Dubrovnik Old Town, Rooms Lavanda&Ruzmarin is a good choice in the west side. Villa Sigurata is good on the opposite end. But the old town is small anyway!
  • Splurge: Peline Apartments is inside the Old Town with a great view and high rating. If you want to be at the VERY center of action, then Apartments Festa is your place.

 

Part 2: Split

Day 6 – Travel to Split

view of split from the tower of The Cathedral of St Dominus diocletians palace split croatia
Split is just so beautiful!
  • We took the 7:15 bus to Split at the central bus station at Port Gruz – you can buy tickets right at the station/
  • We arrived in Split in the afternoon and checked into our AirBnB
  • We had lunch at a restaurant and explored the Old Town. We also booked a boat trip for the next day.
  • We brought food and cooked dinner.

Day 7 – Day boat trip from Split

  • Our boat trip from Split began at 8:30 by the port. We visited the Blue Caves, Green Caves, islands opposite Hvar and Hvar Town.
    >our speedboat driver skipped the Stiniva Bay and Paklinjaci Island, which is a shame. Here’s a tour that includes it.

    view from spanish fort with canon hvar town hvar croatia
    Hvar!
  • We brought pack lunch with us and arrived back in Split before 20:00.
  • We had dinner at a Fife Buffet.

Day 8 – Exploring Split

  • We took a break today and woke up late. We had brunch and went exploring the Old Town of Split again.
  • We then had dinner at a restaurant.

Where to stay in Split

 

Part 3: Krka, Plitvice, and Zadar

Day 9 – Day trip to Krka National Park

skradinski most viewed from the bridge with me on it krka national park croatia
Just look at the waterfall!

Need to rent a car? Check car rental 8 for the best price. We rented ours at Split and returned it in Zadar

  • We had packed lunches there and spent the afternoon there.
  • We then drove to Zadar and checked into our Airbnb and cooked dinner.

Day 10 – Day trip to Plitvice National Park

lower lake plitvice national park croatia
The famous view

Day 11 – Explore Zadar, then fly home

roman forum zadar croatia

  • We checked out, returned the cars and visited the Old Town of Zadar.
  • We had lunch at a restaurant and took the bus to the airport.

Where to stay in Zadar

 

11 days in Croatia isn't enough, but we got to Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, Krka and Plitvice National Park has been a dream and here's how
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*are affiliate links: which means if you go through and complete a sale/booking, I get a % at NO COST to you

If you want to know more about Croatia National Parks – check out my guest post on StudentUniverse!

4 thoughts on “My 10 Day Itinerary to Croatia

  1. Angie says:

    Thankyou for sharing your amazing holiday with us!

    My husband and I have 11 nights in Croatia next year travelling in June. Is there anything you would do differently if you had your time again? We are luxury travellers so am scoping out nice hotels as I write this, we also like nature and fitness so to keep relatively busy with some down time here and there.

    If you have the time to respond with your ideas that would be much appreciated.

    Warm regards
    Angie

    • Nam Cheah says:

      Hi Angie,

      It’s my pleasure to share my itinerary with other travellers! I wish we could have visited Sibenik (which has a famous Cathedral) when we went to Krka, but due to rental car problems, we set off too late. And more time in either of the National Park, particularly Krka, would have been great! Since you both like nature and fitness, you should definitely look into spending more time there than I did.

      I hope your trip planning goes well 🙂

      Nam

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