somewhere with a nice beach, but also not too quiet. with a nice town nearby.

anyone been.

I’m going to Mali Losinj in the summer.
I like Split a lot. Dubrovnik is a bit livelier.

ton, get yourself on a boat to Mljet and Korkula

Absolutely stunning.

Mali losinj is nice. Recommend croyak.com for an activity.

Only been to Dubrovnik. The old city is stunning. Shame it was shelled during the Balkans war. I thought the people were friendly and prices cheap. Might get more popular when Game of Thrones tours head through it though.

Being on the adriatic, all beaches are pebble (IFAIK).
I’ve been to rijeka; very touristey, full of germans.I think that a lot of northern Croatia is. Not bad things, just so you know what to expect.
We go to Bol on Brac now. Very chilled out, not a huge amount there. It’s where the croatians go on their hols. A few italians, very few brits. You won’t get a fry up. Hvar is more of a party island, but still nowhere near any of spain. Never been to Korcula, supposed to be nice though.
If you fancy Bol, let me know and I can put you in contact with someone providing self catering apartments.
Also been to split and zagreb. Both nice for cities.

Split is great, Dubrovnik too, but the latter gets heaving in tourist season. The islands are nice but can be quiet…check out Zadar.

Can’t help but we’re sailing for a week out of Split in August. Looking forward to it tremendously 🙂

Mljet is busy and expensive imo.

Korcula is nice – and driveable from Dubrovnik – but maybe not the greatest beaches.

If you are flying to Split then Vis is really nice. One main sandy beach – pretty quiet, and others around the island that are small and really pretty. You’ll need a bike (yeah!) or a moped.

Really though – you need a yacht! It’s a great place for boats.

## Edit – cross post with sharkbait but he has the right idea!

sharkbait – Mrs Stoner and I sailed from Split to Dubrovnik and back via Brac, Hvar, Korkula and Mljet for our honeymoon. Really one of the best weeks we’ve ever had.

That does make it, obv, over 10yrs ago, so unsurprising if some of it has got really busy. mores the pity.

split, then the boat to Brac or Hvar for beaches

Sailing the islands is next on my list.
My only problem with Croatia is that the mozzies eat me alive (I very rarely get bitten anywhere else, but coming back from my first two trips to Croatia, I had 20 plus bites on my limbs, and this was still with using the Jungle Spray).
The third time I took a bottle of Avon Skin So Soft of all things and I was fine so worth taking a bottle just in case.

Spent a lot of time in the mid 90s over there.
Can’t help feeling it’ll have changed a bit now.

Still in two minds about ever going back.

Had a week in opatija once. Nice place. Very Italian in parts. Cracking costal walk to a nice cove with a restaurant and couple of bars.

Really one of the best weeks we’ve ever had.

No romance for us… 20 of us (8 adults and 12 kids)! We’ve booked a new 54′ so should be nice.
Did 11 days in Sardinia last year on our friends boat and loved it – I was a little concerned that Croatia may not match it but everything I’ve heard points to it doing so easily. Hoping for nice little beach bars out in the islands as there wasn’t that many off the NE of Sardinia which surprised me.

Don’t disagree with anything above, but I am a MASSIVE fan of Rovinj in Istria.

Very pretty old Venetian town, lovely harbour, some really rather good eating and a lovely stretch of coast. Vineyards and mountains inland if you drive. It’s also a shortish hop on the fast ferry to Venice.

I cannot stress enough how adorable this restaurant is.

We go to Lopar on the Island Rab. Fantastic Sandy Beach perfect for children. Little bit of biking possible but quite limited.

We have also been to Selina near (ish) to Zadar. Stoney beach, great biking (Paklencia National Park), zero night life. I loved it but the children insisted we go back to Rab in future.

Dubrovnik and the islands just off the coast there are very nice. The islands were quiet when I went and an easy boat ride into Dubrovnik. Was mid summer when I was there, pretty warm, mid to high 30s.

Bit of an offpiste suggestion but we also went to the Plitvice national park. There are no seaside beaches but there were plenty of nice spots by rivers. Again, stupidly hot so we spent a lot of time wild swimming and jumping off waterfalls – do an image search on google. Gorgeous place although occasionally you were brought back to reality by the odd mine field warning sign and bullet scarred building as it was a area of intense fighting.

+1 on Plitvice. There are calcium deposits in the water which sticks to the roots etc and makes the water a deep turquise blue. Stunning.

Your going to wish you had a bike

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/34786380
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/34786465
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/34788681

Don’t go it’s awful! 😉

Especially not to Rovinj, there’s no sandy beach so you won’t like it.

off to Dubrovnik in August, staying in Mlini a village halfway between Dubrovnik and Cavtat
Looking forward to it, its a break abroad which we havent had for a few years so will enjoy it regardless

We really like Rab and Cres, Krik was a bit rowdy though. Definetly sandy beaches on Rab.

Plitvice lakes- not sure if they’ve now cleared it, but there used to be signs saying something like ‘Don’t step off the path – Mines’!!!!

Dubrovnik is nice for a few days but like some others we have dine the boat tour, which included days / nights including Korcula, Cavtat, Miljet National Park and others. Lovely country and friendly people.

We are going North this year for a change to Rovinj…..BigDummy can you give anymore tips? Thanks.

Have a look at the Makarska Riviera, not too quiet, sandy beaches, more europeans than Brits

Rovinj. Very, very nice. Went there in 2013. No sandy beaches but lots of flat rocks to relax/swim from. Really nice bars/restaurants (cheap) and the old town is quite special. Flew into Pula with ryanair and transferred north to Rovinj.

Croatia is amazing. Did a roadtrip a couple years back, visited 19 countries, Croatia was my favourite!

The further south you go, the better it gets.

Cavtat is a nice little town. It’s near Dubrovnik airport so most hotels will pick you up for free. I dropped off a hire car there once and the guy closed the office and drove me back to my hotel.. 🙂
You can get boat trips to some neighbouring islands. We had booked a stay on Kolocep which is really nice with a part sandy beach but really quiet. The boat tour dropped us off one day and picked us up three days later. Croatian people are cool… 8)

We’re going back to Hvar this year for the third time, we love it there..

Just been there for two weeks. First week stayed at Valamar club hotel north of Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik itself didn’t have much going for it; it’s hot, lots of traffic, very busy with tourists. Dubrovnik old city is architecturally interesting but can be done in a day: walk the city walls, have some ice-cream, get the cable car to the fort, look at the museum while up there (probably the second most interesting aspect of the whole town and its hidden away where no-one knows it’s there). Down in the old city, we got the semi-submarine which wasn’t as great as it sounded. The seafloor is quite bare so there aren’t many fish to look at. If you’re a GoT fan you might get extremely excited to see the film sets around the old city and maybe have your wallet cleared out with guided tours.

The beaches are mostly quite stoney, but a lot of concrete has been poured in-between the rocks, creating intimate little perches for people to fry themselves. We had an 18 month old with us, so these areas were pretty much inaccessible. Water was reasonably warm, more-so in the evening.

Second week we stayed at Hotel Croatia in Cavtat. Totally different experience, so much nicer than Dubrovnik. It’s a lovely little fishing harbour within a sheltered bay. There is however only one ‘beach’, about 30 metres long, over near the western end of the harbour. The town is under the flight path but the planes are infrequent and you get used to them after a couple of days. Note that the hotel Croatia didn’t do free airport pick-ups/drop-offs. It was 120 kuna one-way for the taxi, or catch the bus from the village centre for 20 kuna each…

We did the Elephati islands tour but that was fairly dull and most the time was just sitting on a boat chugging along.

So I’d recommend go to a small fishing village, or book out a boat and potter along the Adriatic coast. Or if you’ve got a spare £100,000, hire out a super-yacht for a week…

Zadar is a great place with an eclectic mix. Spent ages sat by the sea organ. We spent a few days there after some time around the Kornati Islands, which was ace for beaches and snorkeling.

Whats Trogir like? Wer’e going there in September.

Dunno, but we’re picking our boat up from there at the end of August so could let you know 🙂

Anyone been further east to osijek or vukovar? I’m wondering what it’s like away from the tourist areas?