Makarska is a Must

Golden hour shining on Makarska 

On my ferry ride back from Hvar Island a local Croatian gave me a few tips of places to go. One of them was Makarska. I'm so happy Sarah & I stopped in to Makarska for one night (May 14th-15th, 2013) - was better than nothing! One night would be enough if you're short on time, but do try to swing by to see a different side of Croatia.

Makarska is a really beautiful small city off the tourist path, which was a nice break. There is a very stunning 5km beach that is backed by stunning mountains...it's really difficult to find a legit beach in Croatia, so this spot was quite the haven. As we came early in the season and during the week we pretty much had it to ourselves. Makarska even has cute little restaurants on the beach. I believe you can also hike up the mountain range if you'd like. There's also scuba diving here - Sarah & I went for on shore dive, it was freezing cold though so I wouldn't recommend diving in Croatia. At least not in this area.

Here are a couple addition tips for a visit in Makarska:

Konoba Karlalaga - Must try restaurant...local, fresh seafood. They don't have a menu only serve what is freshly caught that day. Best meal in my 2 weeks in Croatia.

Scenic View - Walk out to the land mass across from the town where the St Peter Statue is...gorgeous at sunset because of the golden light on the city. They also have Love Locks here that you can put on the fence. Really sweet!

This is dinner at Konobo Karlaga - so much fun. Learning to communicate through hand gestures and laughter!

The beach that we dove a few km South of Makarska.

Split & Hvar Island, Croatia

View of Split from Marjan Hill

Here goes my catch up on my trip from last year. I'm taking it way back to May 9th - 14th of 2013 when Adrienne, Kristi and I ditched the rental car & met up with more friends from the Scottie & Em's wedding to come in Dubrovnik in Split. 

Here were our highlights from Split:

Hotel/Hostel - Try to stay within the palace walls. It's pretty awesome, or stay very close to it. We stayed at a hostel called Diocletian's Palace as it was only 10 euro each a night and was in the heart of it all: 

Walking tour - Even if you don't stay at Diocletian's Hostel ask if you can join there walking tour. I learned a lot and actually really liked it. Our guide was a university student studying history and was really awesome. 

Restuaurant Jugo - If you are like me and enjoy going where the locals go then get out of the touristy area to try Restaurant Jugo. It was probably a 20 - 30 minute walk, but had a nice patio with view of the local harbor. 

Marjan Hill - great view of the city.

Solta Island - If you want peace and quite this is the place. We were the only tourists on this island...we took a bus to one of the beaches, posted up on a rock slab, had a picnic, read and took a dip in the water. Very chill.

Trogir - If you have lots of time you could check out Trogir for a 1/2 day. Is close to Split airport, I didn't have time to go.

By night you can listen to live music around Diocletian's Palace

All the locals sat on the pier drinking and socializing. Very relaxing. 

Within Diocletian's Palace

Pre-wedding reunion - Me, Sarah, Kat, Alex, Em, Scott, Steve & Jessie

Solta Island - we layed on these nice flat rocks all day!

Solta Island

Hvar Island

Hvar Town is where the party is at during the high season. Lots of bachelor parties and electronic music festivals go down during the summer time. Kristi, Adrienne and I were a bit early for all that in May, but still had a lovely time. 

Hvar actually doesn't really have any nice beaches, we took a boat to another island for the day which was nice. Only like 30 of us on the beach during low season but high season this small beach could get packed up to 400 people! crazy right?

Where to stay -  Apartments or hostels seem to be the way to go on this fancy pants gorgeous island. We stayed in an apartment on the Hvar Town side - http://www.hvarbooking.com/

Rina is the one who was managing their family apartments and was really sweet. Her mom even met us at the bus when we got off at 11pm. The apartment was a great deal and in the heart of it all.

Restaurant Bepo - out of the tourist area, but a nice walk along the water to get here. They have an outdoor patio right on the water and the fish I had here was UHmazing (see photo below!). Much better prices than many other restaurants. Pizza looked awesome too.

The adorable alley super close to our apartment

View from the castle/ruin thing at the top of Hvar. Worth the climb!

Waterfalls Galore!

View from the above Plitvice National Park. WHOA, right?

The next part of our roadtrip through Croatia brought us in land to the gorgeous countryside, forests & mountain landscapes. I knew it was supposed to be beautiful, but some of these sites were unreal!

Plitvice National Park

Plitvice (pronounced Plit - vitz - ka) was our first stop. This national park is quite touristy, but stunning and a must see if you are in Croatia. Definitely dedicate a full day to this park and make sure to see both the upper and lower part. I've never seen anything like it #UNREAL.

A few tips: If you are into trekking feel free to explore off of the wooden paths. It was really nice!

Take note that ou can't swim in the falls here, but if you do have time stop by Krka National park (below) - it's another beaut! Also if you want to stay near the Park there were actually tons of apartment/room signs as we drove close so it'd be really easy to do.

Here are a few of the hundreds of photos (Adrienne can attest to this) that I took. I'm pretty sure I could have spent days in this park.

Necessary "couples" photo by the waterfall :-)

After our glorious day of wandering through gazillions of waterfalls, Adrienne and I headed to Zadar to re-unite with another travel buddy/ex-roomie of mine Kristi!! The 3 of us stayed at a hostel for the night, grabbed some dinner and checked out Zadar by night.

Zadar was pretty great, similar to pula and split. They have this natural musical organ that is supposed to make sweet music when the tide is up. Unfortuanately we went when the tide was out so didn't hear antyhing, but had fun playing on the colorful interactive art installation (photos below).

Our new buddy!

Wild poppies along the roadside. I loved them!

Krka National Park

Kristi, Adrienne and I hit the road early to have some solid time exploring Krka National Park. If you can go to both then definitely do, but I would skip Krka over Plitvice. Krka is gorgeous too and it's nice because there is a swimming area here! We spent a few hours meandering through the falls and taking a dip at the beach area. Krka is definitely a gem and only an hour or so from Split by car.

Blue dragonflys!