Why is Croatia the “in” cruise destination at the moment?

A few times a week in my job it seems Croatia is the requested destination for anyone wanting to go the med on a cruise. People seem to be a bit sick to death of the usual suspects like Barcelona, Rome (really Civitavecchia for the port….) and Marseille so want to go east and try something a bit different.

Croatia has long been the preserve of German holiday makers and the resorts are definitely popular for that market but going in on a cruise is a whole different ball game and being a large strip of coast with multiple islands offshore the options are endless.

So where shall I start? Perhaps with where i have been would be good.

Dubrovnik, a fantastic place, widely lauded and recognized from Game of thrones. I was there 5 years ago when Game of thrones had only really recently started and the filming location tours had already started. We didn’t do one and frankly just explored the walls by ourselves, the inner walls area is fantastic but it is crowded. We walked a short distance outside of the walls where there is a nice stony beach where I did a bit of snorkeling in the clear water.

So its a relatively small city but there is plenty to see outside the walled area as well. I was travelling with a friend and went up to the top of Srd hill where there were spectacular views down on to the city and the surrounding coast. We had a car so drove to the top but it is reachable by a funicular railway you can get from the city.

Also at the top was a wonderful Napoleonic fort filled with history. This had also been fortified and shelled during the Balkans war in the siege of Dubrovnik by forces from Serbia and Montenegro. There is a museum with Napoleonic history, history from the war in the 90s and lots of bullet holes as reminders of its past. In addition there is also a great cafe on the slopes of the hill where you can have a coffee and admire the beautiful Adriatic sea and the walls of Dubrovnik walled town below. We also went around to Lapad which is a resort area which has a sandy beach at Vila beach as well as some rocky and pebbled beaches. This is where you find the big higher rise type resorts but it is a nice place for a wander an undoubtedly to lounge on the beach during the day.

If you had been to Dubrovnik before the wonders dont end there as you can get across the border to Montenegro, that is if you are not satisfied with a cruise stop there as a lot of itineraries often stop in Kotor.  We also discovered you can do the long trip into Bosnia over to Mostar which it may be possible to do as a cruise shore excursion, as well as Mostar itself Bosnia is covered in incredible mountain scenery on the way. Going here offers the chance to see the famous Mostar bridge which was partially destroyed in the Balkans wars but is now rebuilt, which in some ways symbolises the differences of the people here, one side of the river is Muslim, the other side is Christian but in some ways that it joined back together symbolises reunification.

At a young age I remember seeing video of this being destroyed in the Balkans war and wanted to see it, so we made the drive through the mountains over the border to get here and I can say it was worth it as it is a beautiful bridge and the water running down the river Neretva is sky blue and straight from the mountains. There is a bazaar on one side of the bridge selling all sorts of local things and also selling the local kebabs which are amazing for lunch. There are also some mosques and beautiful churches in the city worth seeing so a trip here is definitely worth it if you are staying longer in Dubrovnik (or Split for that matter) or have been to Dubrovnik already and wanted to see something truly different.

Moving up the coast from here Split is also a wonderful city, it has a bustling marina and waterfront filled with superyachts and nice restaurants. Nestling behind this is Diocletian’s palace, which was a military garrison and palace for the Roman Emperor.

The main part of this is accessible from near the waterfront but the whole complex actually covered 30000sq metres in Roman times  Its worth a walk around to soak in some history.

Outside of that, this area has some stunning beaches and islands offshore like Hvar You may also be able to get to the Krka national park in a day which has amazing waterfalls, I saw some waterfalls on the Bosnia side of the border at Kravice and they are not to be missed, take a dip in the icy water if you can!!

The final place I went to in Croatia was Zadar, this is also a common stop on cruise itineraries and again has some wonderful offshore islands like Ugljan and Pasman. In the city itself the waterfront is again famous, this time for an unusual feature, the promenade has its own sea organ which makes music as the waves go in and out. On the same promenade there is also the monument of the sun, which if you are on a cruise you may not get to see fully operational as works at night but interesting nonetheless and creates a light show at night.

The main drawback with these itineraries on a cruise at present is capacity, Venice has restricted (probably rightly) the size and amount of ships that can go in and out so you dont get the mega ships in this part of the world, maybe a good thing. That said it also does mean that there are fewer itineraries and ships going from this area so it means that cost can sometimes be at a premium. P&O operate out of Malta to go to a lot of these places as do Marella out of Corfu but hopefully in the future more cruises will go out of say Athens for example and make some amazing itineraries around the Adriatic and eastern med and maybe bring the cost down. We shall see.

That all of this is on just one coast plus many more things you can see and do makes it a must do destination at the moment and this blog is just some places in Croatia and Bosnia. Cruise itineraries stop in Montenegro, Albania as well as the Greek island stops in combinations with these mentioned often so it has almost endless possibilities to cruise to in future!