Croatia + Bosnia

It’s been my absolute dream to visit Croatia! One of my best friends had gotten married in Florence in the past summer, and the timing worked out for taking days off. A lot of the Balkan areas have such rich history, especially the break of Yugoslavia back in the day intrigued me so much (as a ten year old!) 

 6 days was perfect for visiting Croatia and Bosnia for the first time - leaving room for another trip in the future)! When I tell people how I managed to visit 3 major cities in Croatia AND Bosnia, most people ask how or why since there’s no breathing time, but it’s quite the opposite! 

The easiest and efficient way to move around Croatia was by car for us (this is why we weren’t too exhausted from travel). There are buses that frequent, along with tour guides that are one way. We went in early June, and this was actually not yet peak travel time! In the future, visiting in April or May might also be great to avoid the hefty tour crowds! 

Packing wise in early June, it was HOT. Shorts, tanks, hats and sunglasses will be your friend. When visiting Bosnia, it’s better to dress modestly/ carry a scarf only if you want to visit the mosques. 

Our trip was 1 day in Zagreb, 2 days in Split, 1 day in Bosnia, and 2 days in Dubrovnik. We initially were to stay in Zagreb for 2 days, but due to flight issues, it had to be shortened. Our plan was to visit Slovenia as a half day trip, but we soon scratched that as our flight had been delayed for a day, and it might have been for the better in this circumstance! The biggest perk was actually seeing Slovenia and the Julian Alps from the plane! 

Julian Alps in Slovenia from our flight

Day 1: Zagreb

Upon landing in Zagreb, we noticed one big difference between the airports we’re used to and the this one- the whole airport took all of 2 min to leave. Right outside of baggage claim were all of the rental car companies, and it was pretty quick to get the keys to our car for the following week! Everyone was extremely friendly and gave lots of recommendations on what to do.

Finding parking near the city center was not hard, there are a lot of parking garages, all ranging from $25-$35 for over 24 hours. The alternative route to travel around Zagreb is to take the tram that runs directly from the airport to get to your destination within Zagreb. It’s convenient to stay in the city center area if you’re on a time crunch during your stay.

Zagreb city center is a huge metropolitan city lined with both beautiful Viennese-styled buildings (due to its succession during Austro-Hungarian rule) and more modern buildings. As we drove to our Airbnb, we saw the famous Croatian National Theater. It’s regal look was striking through the green landscape. 

City Center

Croatian National Theater

Zagreb has plenty of activities to do while there - so many unique museums such as the Museum of Hangover, Museum of Broken Relationships, Museum of Chocolate, Nikolas Tesla Museum, an underground tunnel fom WW2 (only closed on Mondays). 

We spent one full day in Zagreb, getting in around 10am. By 6pm, we had seen a lot of the main areas of Zagreb. Our airbnb was located right in the middle of city center, and our host was wonderful! The apartment had it’s own cafe/bar in the courtyard. We were excited to start venturing around. Walking through the city center was a breeze. Everything was about 10min max to get from one end to the other. Living in New York, it was a familiar sense. 

Our first stop was to get the famous Strukli from Le Struk. Strukli is a Croatian dish which is a baked strudel that can be either sweet or savory. We ordered a truffle strukli and a blueberry one! Both were delicious, and after coming back home we’re craving it again! 

From there, we stopped by the Museum of Hangover. This was a cool, curated experience learning a lot about the college culture in Croatia, and learning about the anecdotes of everyone’s rough nights. It was quite entertaining! There were a lot of “drunk games” as well, like the drunk goggles and walking from one side of the room to the other. Trying the famous rakija - a Croatian fruit brandy (which was very strong, but delicious!)

There are so many parks around Zagreb! We enjoyed strolling through the Zrinjevac Park, which had a protest going on, a small jazz band, kids playing tag, and college kids on dates. 

The Chocolate Museum was on a whim, where we realized we had seen most of Zagreb already! What a fun experience! Every room in the museum is dedicated to the process of chocolate, where we get to try the next form. We started from plain dried cacao, to cacao butter, to dark chocolate, milk, etc. At the end of the experience there is an all you can try chocolate tasting where we felt like kids again! 

Alas, it was dinner time and we wanted some authentic food! We stopped by Batak Grill (not knowing it was a chain). The food was fantastic, we started off with an Aperol Spritz and then ordered the meat platter for 2. We knew Croatia was well known for their Cevapi’s and the food did not disappoint at all! 

There were a lot of cute bars and rooftops that were open late, but we opted to get some rest since we had a full day ahead! 

Day 2: Plitvice Lakes, Zadar, and Split

Plitvice Lakes

We picked up a quick breakfast from a coffee shop early in the morning. We packed a sandwich and a few bureks for the road. We drove an hour and a half south to Plitvice Lakes National Park! The drive was serene and we were surrounded by small towns and lush green forests. As we neared Plitvice, we started seeing more mountains and hills and small creeks here and there. The park opens right around 9am, it’s best to get in by 8:30am. Our tickets were for the 9am entrance, and finding a parking spot was a bit tough, we noticed a lot of the lots closer to the entrance being full. 

What a stunning experience. The tickets we had were for the lower lakes only due to time constraints since we were going to drive down to Split from the park, but we were able to walk through the lower lakes within 3.5 hours. It was amazing to walk on wooden planks on the turquoise blue waters. 

Be sure to pack some protein bars and other small snacks to nourish yourselves on the hike. Once we made it to the end of the lower lakes, we lined up to take a boat that would take us to the upper lakes and then a shuttle back to the entrance. The line to the boat takes about an hour if it’s crowded, but there are plenty of small snack shops around in the area for a quick bite in line. The boat ride was perfect to cool down from the heat, and then it was a short hike to get to the shuttle pick up point. However, if you choose to forgo the boat ride, you can continue hiking, but it will take about 2.5 hours instead to the checkpoint exit. If you plan to complete both the lower and upper lakes, be mindful that it will take up to 7 hours. 

View from boat

Zadar

Plitvice Lakes to Split is about a 2 hour drive, so we had left Plitvice around noon and we weren’t expecting to drive by Zadar! Zadar is a port city filled with Roman-era ruins. We didn’t want to take up a lot of time on our detour so we found an area on the hills where it’s a great view of all of Zadar. 

While we wanted to park and drive around, we realized there was so much traffic and a huge influx of tourists from the cruises that were docked in front of the water. We ended up picking up a quick lunch and then continuing our drive down to Split! 

Split

After another hour of driving, we finally made it to Split! We were looking forward to Split the most. Our Airbnb was located right within the palace gates and there was a certain charm to the Old City. 

When we got in, the first thing we noticed was that there was a cat sanctuary where the locals created homes for them! This was honestly extremely adorable. 

Split is well known for seafood, so we definitely had to try it! We went to Kavana and ordered the tuna tartare for appetizer, and for entrees: the blue fish special and the white fish special. The blue fish was swordfish with lentils and the white fish was dentex with a side of potatoes. Both were great dishes, but my personal favorite was the dentex since it had such a tender and almost oily flavor which was worth salivating over! 

After dinner, we decided to walk around the diocletian palace and the waterfront pier area and called it a night to prepare for the full day of adventure the next day! 

Day 3: Split

After our first long restful sleep in a few days, we started off the day with a free walking tour. Our tour guide was wonderful and showed us all of the cool areas of the Diocletian Palace and among other areas of the Old City. The architecture and how the architecture had remained kept us in awe. We learned a lot about how Split used to be under so many different nations in just a short span of 30 years.

For lunch, we stopped by Belina, and we tried Croatia’s national dish of black risotto (made from cuttlefish ink), octopus salad, and truffle pasta. The black risotto was buttery goodness, the octopus salad was so fresh and light, and the pasta was delicious. Definitely ate to our hearts content! 

We had some more cevapi for dinner which was good, but not as good as the ones we’ve had in Zagreb.

We decided to check out the night life in Split since so many people had recommended it. To our dismay after a few bars, we were upset to realize a lot of the nightlife is catered to younger crowds and tourists from America and the UK. At night Split embodied Miami, which isn’t bad, but not what we were quite expecting. We ended up picking up gelato and walking all the way to Marjan Park. The area of Marjan Park was a lot more quiet, filled with smaller local bars. 

Day 4: Bosnia

Starting off the day bright and early, it was so exciting to go to Bosnia! The drive from Split to Bosnia was about 2 hours (and actually a great midway point to Dubrovnik). When going to Bosnia, you just need to show your passport at the immigration line, it wasn’t too stressful at all! The drive went from being coastal, to hills, to giant and looming mountains all around us! 

Blagaj Tekija

The first stop in Bosnia was Blagaj Tekija. Blagaj is a historic village in Bosnia, and home to the famous Dervish monastery. We did a tour of the monastery and it was extremely peaceful and humbling to learn more about the practices of the monastery. The scenery of the Buna River and the monastery floating ontop with the looming cliffside just seemed out of a painting to me! 

For those who are adventurous, there is a hike to the top of the mountain to see  the Blagaj Castle. 

Mostar

A bustling city that’s located in between some of the most picturesque mountains. We stayed in Kriva Cuprija, a UNESCO heritage site just steps from the Crooked Bridge and “wow” is an understatement for the views. Everyone was extremely friendly and helpful! 

The famous bridge Stari Most connects the two parts of the city together, and oftentimes you can spot the bridge divers jumping from the top, into the waters below. While walking over the bridge, be sure to wear shoes with some traction. The surface of the bridge is extremely steep and slippery. The storefronts were lined with so many great handicrafts. If you’re looking for tea/ coffee sets, rugs, jewelry, silk, or spices, Mostar has it all!

We had lunch on the other side of the bridge at Urban- Taste of Orient. Most restaurants on the other side of the bridge all have rooftop views of Stari Most, and it’s so breathtaking where you can forget to eat! The food was amazing so it was actually hard to forget eating. We had cevapi (of course), dolmas, and a fresh tomato salad. 

We went to the Koski-Mehmed Pasha Mosque right after, since it was right next door. We climbed to the top of the Minoret for the absolutely amazing view of the whole city of Mostar. The climb to the top is not for the weak-hearted and for those who do not like cramped spaces, but the view made it worth it! 

The most somber part of Mostar was learning more about the horrific crimes that have happened in Bosnia during the Serb-Croat War in Bosnia. I had never known much about the history of Bosnia other than there was a huge war. The Museum of War and Genocide is must when visiting. Learning about stories and the pain that the country and people have gone through really did play an important role for our trip. A constant reminder that history will unfortunately keep repeating itself, and as humanity we need to know about these stories to prevent it. 

To further appreciate everything Mostar has to offer, we found a local coffee shop that was nestled in between the Stari Grad. The small coffee shop had enough seating for 10 people and the most beautiful views along with the best turkish coffee and baklava I’ve had! 

Dinner was back at the hotel in Kriva Cuprija. We ordered the Grilled Chicken and potatoes, cooked in a traditional bell and my gosh! The chicken was fall off the bone tender! It was one of the best meals we had on the trip! 

After dinner, we finished up with some coffee of course, and then tuned into a few locals singing and dancing to folk songs at a bar next door. 

Day 5: Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is a two hour drive from Mostar, and the drive was scenic and nothing short of boring. If you are planning on driving, it’s important to note not to pull over on the side of the road in certain areas of Bosnia since there are still uncovered mines in the area. 

The entrance to Dubrovnik is gorgeous and straight from a dream! The mountains are all cascading and in the distance you see a beautiful port and the blue Adriatic Sea. 

Parking is a nightmare in Dubrovnik, there are plenty of private lots, but you need to call ahead to reserve it weeks in advance. And the larger lots are only located outside of the city walls. Luckily our Airbnb was near one of the larger public garages. Remember, the price is STEEP for parking in Dubrovnik. 

Personally, I loved staying outside of the city walls for the views, but it was also quite a trek to walk down the gates to the old city center. 

Upon walking through the gate, we immediately got some lunch - octopus salad and pizza! 

I highly recommend getting the Dubrovnik Pass to gain access to almost all of the touristy things and public transportation for the price of one. We used the pass to go to the City Walls and the Rector’s Palace. 

The Rector’s Palace was filled with so much of the rich history of the families in Dubrovnik. We learned about living habits and the culture of the olden days. The Rector’s Palace was located right on the main level of the city- with a lot of the other huge royal palaces and churches - the famous Kings Landing from Game of Thrones. 

In the evening we had some classic Croatian Cuisine at Heritage of Dubrovnik where we tried some local oysters and Pasticada (another traditional dish). While this wasn’t our favorite dish, since it was just personally too heavy in the heat of the summer, it was still quite good! 

We roamed around having fun and getting lost going up the different stairs. We tried more drinks at other bars, and I felt that the nightlife was way better in Dubrovnik than in Split! 

Day 6: Dubrovnik

We woke up early to make it to the City Walls before the crowd got too big. The walk around the walls takes about 2 hours, but there are several exit points, and small cafes along the way if you do get tired.

The views were extraordinary. I was honestly so obsessed with the sights. The views of  Lovrjenac Fortress and Lapad were stunning as you can see below.

A great advice would be to go to Buza Bar right when it opens and remember to bring cash since it’s cash-only! Buza Bar is notoriously famous for people jumping from the cliff into the Adriatic Sea. While I’m too much of a scaredy cat to jump from that height, I did just fine jumping down from the ladder into the sea like a lot of others. The water is great especially in the summer heat! 

Since we were ahead of the crowds for lunch, we went to Barba, well-known for the seafood burgers. It does live up to the hype indeed! We wanted to try the tuna burger, but unfortunately it was all sold out already, so we got the shrimp burgers. When I tell you, I dream about that burger too often now! Highly recommend making that stop! 

It being our last day of the trip, we decided to go to Port 22 outside of the city wall for some pre-dinner drinks and views to take in Dubrovnik one last time. 

We ended the night at Kenoba Kenova right nearby Port 22. The restaurant has all of the views of Dubrovnik through the walls, and the restaurant was a foodie's dream with delicious traditional food!

What a wonderful way to end the vacation. Will I be back to Croatia and Bosnia? Absolutely, there’s still so much I have left to see!