Explore beautiful historic Croatia, the gem of the Balkans.
My personal list of handy Croatia travel tips. All first hand knowledge - written during my travels in Croatia.
All the tips have been categorised into sections. Just click on each tab to fully open and start reading.
LOCAL TRANSPORT
- If travelling between towns by bus, the drivers will charge 7 Kuna per bag to put in luggage hold. It seems to be standard practice in some Balkan countries. Therefore, always keep some Kuna change in your pocket to give to the driver.
- No need to pre-book bus tickets in advance, even in high season. Therefore I always bought my tickets at the bus station at least 40 minutes before departure.
- If travelling across the border to/from Montenegro, add an extra 1-2 hours to the travelling time. This is the average time delay you’ll experience at the border controls. It takes time because everyone has to get off the bus and open their luggage/suitcases for inspection.
MONEY MATTERS
- Croatia does not accept Euro as payment. They still use their own currency – Kuna. I only found about a handful of places that did accept Euro cash in Dubrovnik – I guess it’s because they are so close to the Montenegro border. {Possibly moving to the Euro in 2021}
- Credit cards are widely accepted every where and by every business.
Croatia travel tips - by city
DUBROVNIK
- If you’re staying in accommodation north of the main street of Placa (Stradun), you will encounter steep stairs all the way up to the city walls. So if you’re legs are too tired, an easier less tiring way to reach your accommodation is walk out of Pile Gate and turn right to follow the road outside the city walls. Eventually you arrive at the northern gate called Buza. This walk is a gradual upward slope which is easier for your legs to handle. Then you can walk down the appropriate street to your accommodation (instead of walking up!).
- The streets south of Placa (Stradun) are generally flat with a gradual climb as you get closer to the city walls. Look for accommodation in this area if you want to avoid many steps.
- To avoid the mass cruise ship tourists (up to 3 cruise ships dock a day), visit Dubrovnik outside of the high season months, for example, June or September. You will find prices to be cheaper then too.
- GLUTEN FREE EATING: finally a Balkan country that understands what gluten free is! I found it easiest to Google for GF restaurants in the city and chose from those options as not all restaurants offer GF food. Nishta restaurant is an excellent vegan restaurant with GF options.
Only the largest supermarket inside the walls, in Gundalic Square, do they have a small GF section.
Gluten free in Croatian is ‘bez glutena’
ZAGREB
- Highly recommend the free city walking tour with Free Spirit Walking Tours. The guides are funny and passionate about their city and so they tell you lots of interesting things about the city and the history.
- Croatian Airlines run an airport bus from the main bus station to the airport every 30 minutes.
- GLUTEN FREE EATING: I found that all the supermarkets in town had a small GF section. May have to go to a couple of supermarkets to find everything you want.
The GF restaurants that I tried and loved their tasty food include 50 Burger Bar & Champagne (GF burger and fries), Bio Bio store (mini market plus coffee/smoothie bar), Vis a Vis (totally GF coffee and cake), Melt (totally GF brunches, lunch and icecream) and Zrno Bio Bistro (a little further out of the centre but offer yummy organic and vegan foods with GF options).