Croacia, walls, islands and lakes.

Which Croatia to choose?

Croatia has three trips that are quite unlike each other. With a week, choose one; with ten days, you can combine two.

• Dalmatia, for stone cities and islands. It is the coast between Zadar and Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is the walled city of the south, with almost two kilometres of walls that you walk along the top. Split lives inside the palace that Diocletian built around the year 300 and is the ferry port. Hvar is the island of lavender, vineyards and the Stari Grad plain. It is what almost everyone looks for on a first visit.
• Istria, for a road trip. The northern peninsula: Venetian harbours such as Rovinj and Poreč, the Roman amphitheatre at Pula and, inland, hill villages and truffle woods. It works very well for families, camping or cycling, and is reached by road from Italy.
• Lika, for fresh water. The mountainous interior, with the Plitvice Lakes: sixteen terraced turquoise lakes that you tour on wooden boardwalks. It is a stop of one or two nights between Zagreb and the coast.

Three combinations that work: Split, Hvar and Dubrovnik in a week, without a car, by catamaran and bus; Plitvice and Dalmatia in ten days, flying to Zagreb and returning from Dubrovnik or Split; Istria and Plitvice by car, in a week.

How do you get there from Spain?

By plane. To Dubrovnik, Iberia flies direct from Madrid and Vueling from Barcelona; to Split, the same airlines in season; to Zagreb, Croatia Airlines from Madrid and Barcelona and Ryanair from Málaga, Alicante and other airports. Outside summer there are fewer flights and sometimes a stopover is needed. For Istria, the airport is Pula, usually with a stopover; many travellers fly to Venice or Trieste and continue by car.

If you are going to combine areas, fly into one city and return from another: entering via Zagreb and leaving via Dubrovnik saves you retracing the whole route.

By car. From Spain you cross France and Italy, with motorway tolls, and from Trieste a short stretch of Slovenia. On its motorways you need the e-vignette, which costs €16 for a week and is bought on the official DARS website. In summer, Jadrolinija also links Italy and Croatia by ferry: Ancona with Split and Zadar, and Bari with Dubrovnik. In winter these lines are suspended.

How do you get around Croatia?

By car you can reach everything, and for Istria and the interior it is almost essential. The motorways are tolled, such as the A1 from Zagreb to Split. Since 2022 the toll-free Pelješac Bridge lets you reach Dubrovnik without passing through the Neum corridor, in Bosnia. You cannot enter the old towns: Split and Dubrovnik are pedestrianised and in Dubrovnik, from April to October, there are traffic restrictions around the centre.

Without a car, the coast is easy to get around by scheduled bus between cities and by boat to the islands. From Split port leave the Jadrolinija car ferries to Brač, Hvar and Vis, and the passenger catamarans of Jadrolinija and Krilo, which drop you at the quay of Hvar town. In July and August buy your ticket on the website before going to the port, especially if you have a car. The buses between Zagreb and Zadar or Split stop at both entrances of Plitvice.

When to go and how much it costs

May, June, September and October. In July and August Dubrovnik and Split fill up mid-morning with cruise passengers, the island boats are full and coastal prices soar. In September the sea is still warm, and in October the Plitvice forest changes colour. From November to March the coast is quiet and cheap, but there are fewer boats and many hotels, campsites and restaurants close.

Croatia has used the euro since 1 January 2023 and is in Schengen: you travel with your ID card, with no passport control or currency exchange. It is not cheap on the coast in summer. Some 2026 reference prices: the Dubrovnik walls are around €40; Plitvice costs €40 from June to September, €23 in April, May and October and €10 in winter; the Substructures of Diocletian's Palace, €10. The Split to Hvar catamaran starts from about €8.50.