The coast is the country. Everything good leaves from a quay.
Which Blue Cave boat gets there before the queue. What the Elaphiti lunch cruise really includes. Whether Krka beats Plitvice when you have one free day out of Split. Reviews of every tour you can book in Croatia.
01Krka, out of SplitKrka Waterfalls Trip with Boat Cruise and Swimmingfrom $31
02Vis and the Blue CaveBlue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tourfrom $111
03The Elaphiti, off DubrovnikFull-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and Drinksfrom $78
04Plitvice, inlandPlitvice Lakes National Park Guided Tourfrom $78
05Pula, in IstriaArena Entrance Ticketfrom $11
Dalmatia, Istria and one inland capital.
A palace with a city living inside it, walls you can walk the whole way round, a Roman arena still standing in Istria, and the lakes that make the drive inland worth it. Six places to sleep, and the best days out from each.
Speedboat, wooden cruiser or sea kayak. Pick your hull.
Almost every famous thing in Croatia is easier to reach by sea than by road. Four kinds of day afloat, what it costs to board each one, and which port it sails from.
The days out more travellers book than any other in Croatia.
Every Croatian tour we have reviewed →Waterfalls, a cave that turns the sea silver, an island lunch and two hours inside a Roman palace. These carry more travellers than anything else on the coast.
1
Krka Waterfalls Trip with Boat Cruise and Swimming
Review of the Krka Waterfalls trip from Split with river cruise, guided park walk, free time, and swimming in Primošten.
From · $31
Read our review →
2
Blue Cave Small-Group Boat Tour from Dubrovnik
from $84
3
Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tour
from $45
4
Full-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and Drinks
from $78
5
Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tour
from $111
6
Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tour
from $44
7
Blue Cave, Mamma Mia, Hvar and 5 Island Tour
from $109
8
Epic Game of Thrones Tour + Lokrum & Saver Option
from $25
Krka you swim near. Plitvice you walk above.
The two big park days leave from different coasts and answer different questions. Krka is an easy run inland from Split with a boat ride and a river town at the end. Plitvice is further, higher, cooler, and built entirely of boardwalk. Cetina adds the third option: a raft.
- 1Krka Waterfalls Trip with Boat Cruise and Swimmingfrom $31
- 2Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tourfrom $45
- 3Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tourfrom $44
Diocletian built a retirement palace. People still live in it.
Split’s old town is not a museum quarter, it is a Roman palace with laundry hanging in the light wells. Dubrovnik’s answer is the walls: an hour and a half of circuit, best at opening or at dusk. Both walk better with somebody who knows which door leads where.
What a day out in Croatia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by price. The coast has a reputation for getting expensive, and the cheap end quietly disagrees.
Old-town walks, arena tickets, the Krka run and the short hops out of Split.
The full-day standards: five-island speedboats, Elaphiti lunch cruises, Plitvice by coach.
Private skippers, chartered days on a boat of your own, and the long drives to Mostar.
Three things that happen in Croatia and nowhere else.
Coastlines and old towns are everywhere in the Mediterranean. A cave lit from below by its own seabed, a Roman emperor’s palace with cafés in it, and sixteen lakes falling into each other are not.
The Blue Cave
A hole in the limestone on the seaward side of Biševo, small enough that boats duck to get in. Sunlight comes through a second underwater opening and reflects off the pale floor, so the water lights the cave rather than the other way round. It works between roughly ten and noon, closes whenever the swell is up, and the tender queue outside is the reason the early departures cost more.
- 1Blue Cave Small-Group Boat Tour from Dubrovnik★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 9,360 reviews
- 2Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 7,150 reviews
- 3Blue Cave, Mamma Mia, Hvar and 5 Island Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 6,320 reviews
Diocletian’s Palace
A Roman emperor built himself a fortified retirement compound here in the fourth century, and the town never left. The cellars underneath held the emperor’s storerooms and now hold market stalls; the peristyle is a café; the cathedral is his mausoleum with a bell tower bolted on. It is the only Roman palace on earth you have to walk through to buy bread.
- 1Old Town and Diocletian Palace Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 4,727 reviews
- 2Walking Tour of Split and Diocletian’s Palace★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,588 reviews
- 3Split & Diocletian’s Palace Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,125 reviews
The Plitvice Lakes
Sixteen terraced lakes, each spilling into the next over travertine dams that the water itself keeps building. The route is boardwalk the whole way, laid inches above the surface, so the fish move under your feet. Entry is capped by the hour and the upper lakes freeze the walkways shut in winter — this is a booking that decides your day rather than fits into it.
- 1Plitvice Lakes Guided Day Tour with Tickets★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 3,148 reviews
- 2Plitvice Lakes National Park Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,002 reviews
- 3Plitvice & Rastoke Guided Day Trip with Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,955 reviews
Four Croatian days that will not wait for you.
Most of this coast can be sorted over a beer the night before. These four run on entry caps, cave light, boat timetables and a wind that answers to nobody.
- 01Blue Cave Small-Group Boat Tour from DubrovnikThe cave only lights up around the middle of the morning, and the tenders go in one at a time. Late boats queue; rough seas cancel outright.
- 02Plitvice Lakes Guided Day Tour with TicketsEntry is capped per hour and the summer slots go weeks ahead. Turning up at the gate in August is how people end up driving back.
- 03Full-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and DrinksOne lunch cruise a day per boat, and the good ones sell their whole season. There is no second sailing to fall back on.
- 04Epic Game of Thrones Tour + Lokrum & Saver OptionThese run in small groups on fixed departures, and Dubrovnik’s old town caps how many can stand in a lane at once.
The wind decides, and the answer is inland.
The bura comes down off the Velebit in gusts and shuts the island boats without much warning — most common between October and April, but it happens in August too. Nobody refunds a ruined afternoon, so have a landward plan: cellars on the Pelješac wine road, truffles in Istria, a konoba lunch, the museums in Zagreb.
By place — coast, islands and the interior
By kind of day — boat, wall, waterfall or table
Zagreb down to Dubrovnik: the route almost everybody drives first.
Just reviewed along this coast.
More recent Croatian reviews →
Explore with an Art Historian – Private Walking Tour
Read our review →
Luxury Day tour to Mostar and Kravice waterfalls
Read our review →