Amazing trip seeing the highlights of Croatia!!
Croatia | Oct 19 - Oct 29, 2024

Christy
Christy W.
Solon, OH | Reviewed on Nov 05, 2024

We had an absolutely amazing vacation in Croatia! Our travel agent, Antonia ( and her assistant, Sara )were so helpful and truly made our travel so enjoyable and carefree! We wanted to see the highlights of Croatia and Antonia and Sara developed an itinerary where we visited 6 places in Croatia plus a day trip to Montenegro!
The "Trips Plans" app that we downloaded to our phones before we left the states was very helpful. A great way to be able to review our itinerary on a daily basis! And such an added bonus that Antonia and Sara would message us every evening to make sure we were set for the following day!!

We had a wonderful group of guides! A couple in particular that we felt went above and beyond to make our experience special were:
Ivana - our guide at Plitvice Lakes Park - she truly gave us a wonderful tour and she had so much knowledge about the park.
Grgo - we loved our day on the island of Hvar! Our guide, Grgo drove us around the island allowing us to visit many of the small villages on the island and it was a highlight to visit his family owned winery, enjoying the wine along with a home cooked lunch!
Mirna - Our tour guide in Split! She was very knowledgeable on the history of Split and the Diocletian Palace.

Hotel Reviews
Amadria Park Hotel Capital
Zagreb

We were greeted warmly as we arrived to the hotel and this was nice as we were definitely tired from the long flights from the states. Wonderful breakfast the following morning!

Authenticity & Character
Location
Only a short walk into town and the main square in Zagreb with restaurants and shops!
Staff
Ivana at the front desk greeted us with drinks and chocolates when we arrived - Nice touch!!
Cleanliness & Comfort
Bastion Heritage Hotel—Relais & Châteaux
Zadar

A wonderful small boutique hotel with a nice view from our hotel room. The front desk lady ( I don't remember her name though) was very helpful. She provided me with a package of throat lozenges and hot tea as I was feeling the affects of our long travel day to Croatia! She went above and beyond to make us feel welcome to Zadar!

Authenticity & Character
Small Boutique with personal service!
Location
Super close to walk to the Sea Organ for the Sunset and the restaurants and historic sights in Zadar!
Staff
The front desk lady - see above!
Cleanliness & Comfort
Hotel Ambasador
Split

The Hotel Ambassador was truly our favorite hotel. The service was wonderful! And the view from our hotel room was amazing!! We had a wonderful balcony looking out at the Sea where we were able to enjoy a drink with the beautiful view!! Niksa ( a server at breakfast) helped to make our mornings wonderful as we enjoyed the delicious breakfast! The special breakfast items that could be ordered ( not on the buffet) were delicious!

Authenticity & Character
Location
Perfect location to walking to the Palace, many restaurants and the nightlife in Split!!
Staff
See above on my notes about Niksa ( Breakfast server).
Cleanliness & Comfort
Our hotel room had wonderful amentities!! And the rooms were very spacious! Loved our view from our hotel room balcony!!And our king size bed looked out to the Sea!! Beautiful!!
Aminess Korčula Heritage Hotel
Korčula

We loved the small and quaint island of Korcula, but the Aminess Korcula Heritage Hotel is very tired and needs to be renovated! The rooms are extremely small and the bathroom shower is way too small! I would suggest guests are not booked at this hotel until the renovation can be completed!

Authenticity & Character
The hotel needs to be renovated!
Location
Location is great - perfect for walking around the quaint island!
Staff
The front desk staff were very welcoming and although the hotel is tired looking, the staff helped to make our experience at the hotel enjoyable!
Cleanliness & Comfort
The hotel needs to be renovated- bathroom ( shower) is way too small!!
Hotel More
Dubrovnik

Beautiful hotel with wonderful views from our hotel room as well as the Cave Bar! We actually enjoyed not staying in the walled city - It was only a 10 minute Uber ride from our hotel to the walled city. We went to the walled city to walk the walls as well as for dinner one evening when we were in Dubrovnik. The hotel is confusing though to navigate the floors for the hotel rooms, breakfast, etc. It took us a couple days before we understood the layout of the hotel!

Authenticity & Character
Beautiful views
Location
Very convenient and easy to get an uber ride from the hotel to Dubrovnik's walled city.
Staff
The hotel staff could have done a better job of showing us the pool, hot tub and restaurant location. It took us some time to navigate the hotel property.
Cleanliness & Comfort
Hotel rooms were very spacious and the views from our hotel room balcony was wonderful!
Activity Reviews
Private Walking Tour of Plitvice Lakes National Park
Private Walking Tour of Plitvice Lakes National Park
Croatia

We definitely recommend touring the Plitvice Lakes Park - absolutely beautiful!! We really enjoyed having a private guide - Ivana (our tour guide) was very knowledgeable and helped to make our experience so enjoyable. She was able to show us areas and give us information on the park that would have been difficult if we didn't have a guide!

Quality of Experience
Beautiful Park and a great way to begin our vacation in Croatia!!
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Transport
Allan did a great job of driving us from Zagreb to the Plitivice Park.
Gourmet Experience at Local Winery
Gourmet Experience at Local Winery
Croatia

We loved this experience! The staff at the Ante Sladic Winery made our experience very special! We were able to meet the wine makers ( Ante and his grandfather, Yure). We even were able to take photos with both of them! Simon did a wonderful job of guiding us through the wines he was serving with the homemade lunch!

Quality of Experience
Food
The Homemade lunch served with the Ante Sladic wines was delicious!!
Guides, Drivers and Staff
See above on the guide and wine makers from Ante Sladic Winery!
Transport
Duga was our driver from our hotel in Zadar to Krka National and then onto the Ante Sladic Winery and finally to our hotel in Split! He was a great conversationalist as we drove to the various stops for the day!
Private Walking Tour of Split
Private Walking Tour of Split
Croatia

We had a morning walking tour of Split with a private guide, Mirna, She was very knowledgeable as we walked through the Diocletian Palace ( lots of great information about the history of the Palace and the Roman Emperor Diocletian) and the downtown area of Split. She was also able to give us suggestions of other areas of Split we could tour later in the afternoon ( the Marjan Park with beautiful views of Split).

Quality of Experience
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Hvar Day Trip from Split
Hvar Day Trip from Split
Croatia

Our day on the island of Hvar was one of our favorite days! Grgo, our tour guide met us when we got off the catamaran boat ( coming from Split). We had a wonderful day as he drove us around the island visiting many of the small villages and learning about the history of the island of Hvar. We ended our day enjoying a lunch at the Matkovic Winery ( Grgo's family winery) with a homemade lunch made by his mom and enjoying the wines. We did not spend anytime in the town of Hvar. As Grgo suggested, it was more enjoyable to see the more remote areas of the island!

Quality of Experience
Food
The homemade lunch was delicious!!
Guides, Drivers and Staff
We really enjoyed our Guide, Grgo!
Transport
Private Walking Tour of Dubrovnik
Private Walking Tour of Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik

We had a couple hour tour with a private guide (Ivana) in the walled city in Dubrovnik. It was important to have the tour to learn more about the history of the walled city. So when we returned to walk the walls, we had a better understanding of the history of the city and its amazing walls!!

Quality of Experience
After the couple hour tour of the walled city with Ivana, she walked us to the Cable Car. This was a wonderful experience - taking the cable car to see the beautiful views and enjoy a delicious dinner at the Panorama restaurant. We highly recommend making a reservation at the Panorama restaurant. The food was wonderful and the views spectacular!!
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Our guide, Ivana was very knowledgeable and helpful!!
Transport
Our driver, Peter picked us up at our hotel and drove us to the walled city to meet our guide, Ivana.
Private Lumbarda Wine Tour & Konoba Dinner
Private Lumbarda Wine Tour & Konoba Dinner
Korčula

We really enjoyed our morning time by ourselves on the quaint island of Korcula! In the afternoon, we met our guide, Damir at our hotel and he drove us to the Lumbarda area for a personal winery tasting at a local winery. Since we travelled in late Oct to Croatia, many of the wineries were closed for the season. We enjoyed the small winery tasting and tour but it was our understanding that we would be touring a couple wineries with a pasta dinner at one of them ( that was what was stated on our Trip App). After we visited the one winery, Damir drove us back to Korcula and we had dinner with him. We would have preferred enjoying dinner by ourselves since the 2nd winery was not an option.

Quality of Experience
Food
See above regarding the food and wineries availability
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Damir was a good guide showing us the area of Lumbarda
Transport
Sea Kayak Tour on Korčula
Sea Kayak Tour on Korčula
Korčula

Super fun to be able to go Kayaking in the Sea! We enjoyed our guide, Mislav. He was full of great information and very funny!! During our kayak trip, we stopped at an old island of Vrnik ( with an old limestone quarry). Super cool to see that and learn more about the history of the area!

Quality of Experience
See above!
Guides, Drivers and Staff
See above about our guide, Mislav
Transport
A taxi driver picked us up at our hotel and delivered us back to our hotel after the kayaking
Private Day Trip to Montenegro - Perast & Kotor
Private Day Trip to Montenegro - Perast & Kotor
Dubrovnik

Montenegro was spectacular!! We were so happy that we scheduled a day tour to see the country!! Our guide, Mirjana was wonderful. She was so very knowledgeable -we toured both Perast and Kotor! The small boat trip from Perast to see the "Our Lady of the Rocks" old church was wonderful! After touring Kotor, we had a choice to have lunch in the town of Kotor or take the cable car to the Forza restaurant at the top. We were so happy that we chose taking the cable car and we loved the beautiful views and the lunch from the top!!

Quality of Experience
See above!
Guides, Drivers and Staff
Our guide, Mirjana was wonderful!
Transport
Our driver, Peter did a wonderful job of driving us across the border ( we only had a 45 minute wait getting through the border crossing between Croatia and Montenegro.
Konavle Region Culinary Experience (small group)
Konavle Region Culinary Experience (small group)
Croatia

The cooking class and experience in Konavle at the Kameni Dvori family estate was a wonderful way to spend our last evening in Croatia!! The guides and family members (Nike and Katarina) made the experience of helping to cook our dinner so much fun ( we made homemade bread and pasta)! And we had lots of laughs with the 2 other guests that we met! We even walked through the family farm to pick vegetables and fruits for our dinner!

Quality of Experience
See Above
Food
The food was delicious and it was fun taking part in the preparation and cooking of our meal!
Guides, Drivers and Staff
The Kameni Dvori family members are full of so much love for the area and the farm that they live on!!
Transport
Local specialist: Antonia Šutić Ljuština