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Regarding kayak tours I can recommend Hvar-adventure company from Hvar. I took a sea-kayak
day tour few years ago with them. It was great. Now they have also tours starting from Split.

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1) You could visit Trogir and/or salona for a day.

Not done the rest.

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Kayak tour idea (a fair hike mind you) - Ciovo island (Okrug Donji) to Drvenik Mali (can be organised in Trogir).

Activity idea from Split - rafting or even better canoe along the Cetina. Can be organised from Split. Tend to pick up early am and return mid-afternoon.

A closer option to Split than Plitvice - Krk Waterfalls - a new walkway is receiving splendid reviews - indeed it was on tonight's news.

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Hi

Back from os and thought I'd post a summary of the Croatia bit of my trip given people gave me their time to answer questions. Many thanks for that btw! Just re-read my post now I've finished and its rather long sorry, but hopefully someone might find some of the info useful.

Overall we had a great time, the places we visited were beautiful and it was such a relaxing trip.

Our 3 nights in Split were good. Obviously we wandered around Diocletians palace (sorry if my spelling is shoddy there) and got our bearings, just did self guided walk rather than an organised tour. Wandered up to the park on the hill, its called Marjan or something like that. Lovely wooded area though we took a wrong turn and ended up basically walking right around the entire park, turning into a bit of an epic hike 15km hike or so! Still was nice though, would be great for a run through it or a bike ride around.

Ended up taking advice here and going to Krk Waterfalls rather than longer trip to Plitvice. Decided easiest way was to get on a day trip we organised through a tour company based near the middle of the palace called Travel49. Was a good tour because it didn't involve a guide or anything - it was literally just transfers and park entry etc. Minivan driver takes you to the boat which takes you to the Waterfall, and they tell you where to meet the driver 4 hours later. We found this to be plenty of time to swim, wander round the waterfalls, check out the village, and still have time for a beer before the bus back.I was really glad I didn't try to drive there myself as it was a fair way to navigate yourself and the roads are pretty busy around Split.

Anyway, headed to Vis for 3 nights. Stayed in Vis Town (in Luka), as we couldn't be bothered getting to Komiza with our packs and then having to get back again for the ferry when we were leaving. Easy to sort out accom, heaps of people offering it when we got off the ferry. Luka was very nice to stay in and easy to get around and convenient that the ferries pulled up there. Definitely I'd recommend hiring a scooter in Vis. Its very easy driving around and really you wouldn't see the best bits of the place without one. With a scooter we were able to independently check out the lovely beaches on the southern side, check out Komiza, and also some of the old army stuff like submarine parking bay and bunkers etc. Wish I had brought a torch though! We hired the scooter through Navigator, near where we were staying, the guy (think his name was Mario) was awesomely helpful with tips on what we should take a look at. Only drag with Vis was that it was too windy to visit the blue cave, but we had a good time anyway.

As predicted, we were heading from Vis to Hvar on a day the direct ferry didn't operate, so we went the long way via Split. Still was easily achievable, especially because we took catamarans both directions whereas we'd taken the crazy slow car ferry initially to Vis. Catamaran to Hvar was especially good also because it took us right to Hvar Town, whereas I understand that the car ferry docks somewhere else. Hvar was great, it was probably my girlfriend's favourite place. We took a water taxi across to the islands one of the days, and just lay around swimming, reading, buying the odd beer from a kiosk to drink while i read etc. Also in Hvar Town we had a few drinks at the Hula Hula Bar, which is pretty cool due to its location. Hvar Town is very trendy and has a ridiculously high proportion of good looking people.

Caught daily ferry to Korcula, I forget what the ferry company is called but it was easy enough to organise just by asking at a travel agency. 2 nights in Korcula, it is a pretty old town with interesting fish bone design. We didn't get out of the town to see anything else, and 2 days was plenty for Kocula I felt. If I was staying there longer I'd definitely have wanted to get out of the town to check out wineries or what else there is.

We were keen to head to Mljet. It wasn't a day when the ferry came through, but the previous day we had organised a transfer on a tour boat that was taking people on a daytrip from Korcula to Mljet. They dropped us at Pomena, right on the np entry. Although Pomena isn't a big place, we found a great apartment by just showing up - I imagine it could be harder though during peak season. Mljet was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. Absolutely beautiful - think green trees, aqua blue lakes, lovely ocean. We rock hopped for as while to find nice secluded spots by the ocean to spend the day on ocean-side rocks under shady trees. Most people seem to head to Mljet just as a day trip, so staying 2 nights was a treat, and I could have stayed so much longer! To see a bit more we hired bikes at the bridge between the 2 lakes in the np, and also did the odd walk. Also checked out the island monastry on the lake, given the np entry ticket includes free boat transfer over to it. There looked to be a lot of people going on scuba diving trips, but we've never dived so didn't look into it.

Lastly Dubrovnik. Ferry from Mljet to Dubrovnik left from Polace rather than Pomena, but we easily organised a van transfer through the one hotel in Pomena. It was easy to arrange despite us not staying at the hotel. Dubrovnik was a lot busier than everywhere else we visited. We were there 4 nights, staying in the old town. We walked the city walls, looked around the old town, took the cable car up to the top of the mountain. Very interesting city, though we also found it to be much hotter, especially given it is all marble/stone and even in June the cruise ship crowds were a bit stifling in the daytime. It was nicer in the early morning and at night when it was a bit cooler and less crowded, and we spent a few early evenings at the Buza 1 bar, which is built on the ocean rocks outside the wall -very cool place to grab a drink and have a swim. We liked Buza 1 more than Buza 2 because we wanted to swim as well and it is closer to the water - no way were we going to jump from the cliff at Buza 2! On two of the days, to get away from the heat and crowds a bit we took the ferry across to Lokrum, very nice over there to laze around on the rocks doing our pattern of reading, swimming and the odd beer from a kiosk.

So there you go, that's my summary, hope it's useful.

Edited by: randomperson

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Thanks for getting back to us. Glad you enjoyed it.