Highlights of Croatia: Zagreb to Dubrovnik - 15 days

Croatia | Sep 17 - Oct 1, 2019

This was altogether an amazing trip. All hotel accommodations were excellent and well-situated for our needs and stays were well-allocated. Katja met us in Ljublijana and made sure we understood the tip itinerary and provided us with maps, catamaran tickets, etc. Sedja was an excellent guide for Zagreb, providing us with thorough details of the city to fully enjoy all the city had to offer. After picking up our car, we drove to Ljubljana where we met Katja. We had chosen to do the food tour with Tjasa who provided us with a range of restaurants to truly appreciate the cuisine of Slovenia. We would have liked more time in the city, a real highlight of our trip, and probably should have arranged for a city tour to fully appreciate all that the city had to offer. (Next time!!).

Our next stop, Lake Bled, was memorable for the hike to Vintgar Gorge. Also enjoyed an excellent dinner at Penzion Berc. After an exciting drive over the Vrsic Pass, we stopped to hike although that was a challenge given the tremendous crowds on a beautiful autumn weekend. We were unable to park at switchback "24", but found nice hiking at "22".

On to Kobarid where we had an absolutely amazing dinner with paired wines at Hiso Franco. Truly a great experience and not nearly as expensive as such a fine dinner would cost in the States or in Europe for that matter.

Then on to Rovinj, stopping at the incredible Skocjan Caves, an awesome experience. The hotel Monte Mjulini was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, we had rainy weather, but with good rain gear, we enjoyed the town. (The dinner at this hotel was disappointing but the champagne breakfast made up for that experience.) Would love to return to this hotel in the future.

Our next stop was the hilltowns but we could only stop at Groznan as the weather really caved before getting to Motovan. In torrential rains, we drove to Plitvice Lakes National Park but were blessed with very good weather the next day for our walks in the park. We started out very early and had the park almost to ourselves the first two hours. What a gorgeous park this is, another highlight!! After 5 hours of hiking, we set out for Split, Loved our hotel in the middle of the town!! Although crowded during the day, we got up early to take our snapshots of this most interesting town with quite some history!! We perhaps should have taken a guide, but here and there, we listened to other presentations for a few minutes, enabling us to view interesting places.

After giving up our car, we took the catamaran to Hvar, also a lovely town. As we had ample time, we took the bus to Stari Grad in addition to our most enjoyable 11/12 mile hike (and swims!!) on the coast to Milna (as suggested). We also visited the Huljic Winery where we had an excellent dinner but were somewhat disappointed in not seeing the winery itself. We did, however, understand that we were there at harvest time with little time for tourists. By the way, each and every wine in both Slovenia and Croatia were absolutely incredible!! As was the food!!

After our catamaran trip to Dubrovnik, we were introduced to the city by Ivo, our guide, who gave us a thorough orientation to the city including its history. Excellent guide!!

So sadly our trip came to an end. Each day was highly varied and exciting. Miha did an excellent job of outlining our trips. His communication with us was excellent in planning the details of the trip. Couldn't have wished for more. The itinerary gave us lots of choices!!

The only disappointing experience of the trip was with the SIXT rental company. We had to insist that the agent in Zagreb show us exactly where our car was (would not have found it without her!!). The agent in Split was very rude when we had difficulty locating the parking lot which was not at the same place as the office. It would be helpful in the future if we had the address of the parking lot rather than the office in Split.

Thanks, again, for such a wonderful trip. I have recommended Kimkim to many other travelers.

This message is from both Leslie Dublinske and myself, Eva Wetten