Croatia Travel Guide — Healthy Alibi

If you follow me on Instagram you know I’ve recently traveled to Croatia! I was completely blown away by the beauty of this tiny, ancient country I knew I had to share my experience with all of you! My husband and I traveled to Hvar and Dubrovnik, two very different experiences with each and I will tell you about both.

We went first to the island of Hvar, which is SO much smaller than we had imagined! We had to take a 1 hour ferry there from Split (where we flew into) and stayed at a beautiful hotel called the Adriana Hvar Spa Hotel. The hotel was very nice but had an indoor pool with no outdoor pool so that was a bit disappointing, but didn’t end up mattering at all because each day you actually travel to different beach clubs by taxi boats.

Hvar Beach Clubs

Our favorite beach club in Hvar was called Laganini , which is on an island called Palmiziana about 30 minutes by taxi boat from Hvar. I recommend reserving a bungalow here as they don’t have regular beach chairs to lay on. There is a very small rocky beach right next to the beach club so that was a great way to enter the water. Our bungalow was the closest one to this little beach so it was super convenient for us! I recommend requesting that bungalow if you enjoy going in and out of the ocean. There is a minimum of $400E to reserve a bungalow but all food & drinks can be used for this. I recommend ordering the shrimp & lobster from their food menu- they were both so fresh & delicious definitely my favorite dishes!

Our second favorite beach club in Hvar was Carpe Diem Beach Hvar, which is on an island called Stipanska about 20 minutes by taxi boat. This beach club has beach chairs that you can reserve with no minimum cost. Although there is no beach where you can walk into the ocean, there is a dock and swimming area and the club provides floats that make it easy to hang out in the water. We really enjoyed this beach club because there was a lot more people and more of a vibe if you are with a group where as Laganini was a bit more private and better for couples. My go-to items from the menu were the fruit platter, which was enormous and had the sweetest watermelon and cantaloupe I’ve ever had. I also loved the grilled seafood & salad options. This beach club also turns into a nightclub at night making it a great option if you’re looking for dinner & a night out.

Hvar Restaurants

The food in Hvar was absolutely amazing!! Our favorite restaurants are:

From Hvar we traveled to Dubrovnik which took about 3 hours on a ferry from Hvar. Dubrovnik was a completely different experience than Hvar because the old city was actually built as a fortress to protect against enemies & invaders. We stayed at one of the most luxurious & amazing hotels I have ever stayed at called Villa Dubrovnik. This hotel is definitely a splurge but can’t recommend it enough! It made our experience in this medieval city that much more special.

Our first day in Dubrovnik we hired a tour guide to take us around the old city. Because of how small this city is it only took about 3 hours to see almost every part of it! If you are a history buff like we are I absolutely recommend hiring a tour guide and learning about this insanely cool place. Any tour guide will also know about the locations where Game of Thrones has filmed so don’t be fooled into doing a Game of Thrones tour. This city has so much history and it’s such a shame to do just the GOT tour without learning also about the actual city!!!

Whether or not you are staying at Villa Dubrovnik I recommend going to the hotel for lunch one day. Order a glass of Sancerre & get the fried seafood dish GRILLED or fried if it’s a cheat day! It’s the most phenomenal dish I ate throughout my entire stay in Croatia.

Dubrovnik Restaurants

The food here was absolutely phenomenal! Our favorite restaurants for dinner in Dubrovnik are:

If you’re looking for a night out in Dubrovnik make sure to check out the Culture Club, located in an old fortress in the old city.

Make sure you take time each day to just walk this old city and get a feel for how the Croatian people who live here actually live ☺ All dinner reservations should be between 830-9pm so you can watch the birds hunt during the sunset. It’s really one of the most amazing experiences we’ve ever had watching these crazy creatures!!!

Getting around Dubrovnik is different than Hvar because you are just going to the old city and back to your hotel basically. There are plenty of taxis available but our hotel actually provided a shuttle service by van & by boat so we were able to travel either way. In Hvar there town is actually so small you can walk everywhere you need to go.

Hope these recommendations help all of you and make traveling to Croatia easier and more tempting!! It truly was a magical trip I can’t wait to go back!

XO

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