When I travel, I love being able to chat with locals. My favorite Croatian encounter was with a cheesemonger at a rest stop on our drive back to Slovenia. She told us about the beautiful National Parks in the area and about her cheese/honey she was selling. When I asked her if she’d ever been to the states, she replied “No, but I LOVE Miami ~ CSI.”
I’ve been asked for more details about our brief visit to Split:
- Accommodations: Hotel Slavija €156.00 per night for a two bedroom, one bath, a balcony and breakfast for three. There’s also a €1.20 per per person per stay charge. We loved the central location of the hotel and the exceptionally friendly and helpful staff.
- Tour of Diocletian’s Palace (highly recommended) €20 per person. Our tour was approximately two hours and we were the only ones on the tour. There’s a max of 6 people for any of the tours unless you book as a group. Book in advance through the Hotel Slavija (don’t need to stay there). All guides are licensed and Mirjana was fabulous! To book, email info@hotelslavija.hr
- The beaches are rocky ~ water shoes are a must. We didn’t have any and ended up walking in with our flip-flops. Comical!
- We took an afternoon boat trip to Trogir (UNESCO protected) and to Blue Lagoon (a swim/beach area). There are lots of options and also sailboats which would make the trip less bouncy. The tour companies are lined up along the harbor so you can check out which trip will suit you best. The Hotel Slavija staff can also book trips for you.
- Driving to Split from Slovenia was easy although we did get caught in summer traffic on the way there. And keep your passport handy for the border crossing. Tolls could be paid in euros or kunas. We saw license plates from almost every EU countries and even some Non EU countries. My advice is to travel early in the day. It made a big difference on the way back to Slovenia. Once we got to Split, we parked the car and didn’t use it until we left. The hotel is in a pedestrian only area but they provided detailed instructions on where to unload our bags and then where long-term parking was (we chose the bus terminal parking).
- Learn a few phrases in Croatian ~ it goes a long way with the locals. My daughter was so impressed that I spoke only in Croatian on the way out of the pay parking area. It was only FOUR words: Dobar Dan (Hello), Koliko? (How much?) Hvala (Thank You) but it was fun to give the language a try, limited as it was. His response to my “how much?” was “deset” which sounded a lot like diez in Spanish so it was a lucky guess when I handed him 10kn. It was fun to give the language a try and we were all smiles as we left the parking lot (the attendant included).
- Usually, I prefer to recommend rather than warn against but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our dinner at Tavern Favola. Don’t go. It’s tempting because it has a stellar location just outside the palace gates in a lovely courtyard. Unfortunately, the service was awful and the food even worse. With so few opportunities to enjoy the local cuisine, I was kicking myself for not looking up reviews on Tripadvisor or asking the hotel staff for their recommendations. Don’t make our mistake!
- If you have specific questions not covered in the above, please leave a comment or send me a private message through facebook.
Somehow I ended up at your blog (nice blog by the way), and I saw your posts about Croatia. Split is magical, I’ve been there last summer and love that city!
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Thanks for stopping by. Split is a fun town ~ I’m already planning a return visit to Croatia.
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Great great posts on Croatia, vrlo dobro, hvala!!!!! You did make a good choice to go to Dalmatia, it is my favourite region of the country…Split, Trogir and the islands around even driving down to Dubrovnik on Magistrala is an amazing experience. There are a couple of pics on my blog, so feel free to have a look and enjoy if you are still there…Cheers!
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Hvala! Dubrovnik is definitely on the list for our next visit but I’d also like to hike in some of the beautiful national parks and see more of the islands. I’m going to need longer than a week (or three)! Love your photos and writing style ~ I’ll be following along as you brave the upcoming winter. P.S. I looked up vrlo dobro ~ just added it to my croatian vocab. I can certainly use it when tasting all the delicious local treats.
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Molim! I am certainly looking forward to your pictures and comments if you manage to go there! I am not an expert, but you will need, at some point, the words “bog” (ciao), “ajde” (something like okay, sure, we can, i can) and “može” (i can, sure…). Usually, these words are used very often during conversations in a row: “Ajde, može, bog”. It is a crazy language, but I love it. Hvala puno for the kind comments on pictures and writing! And I really need to move to a warmer place sometime in the future…:-). Cheers!
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I saw EXACTLY that cheesemonger! Was she parked at a motorway service between Rijeka/Fiume and Zagreb?
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Yes! Did you get a chance to speak with her? Very nice woman and the smoky cheese was delicious.
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Hello there! Nice helpful post on Croatia. Can you send me your FB details as I much prefer communicating via FB or Twitter My social network details are below Hope your day is sunnier than mine. Just back from a wonderful break staying with a friend in unspoilt Donegal
It was hard to return to the city and leave this behind but hey home is home and back into the swim of city life already!
Sent from my iPad
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Thanks! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/displacedbeachbums1 and twitter is @beachbums.
We’ve been having great weather in the Washington DC area but it’s made for a DRY season. Actually hoping for some much needed rain today.
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