Roadtrip to Croatia!!! Croatia

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paddypackpacker
paddypackpacker

Hey there!

Looking for some advice from anyone who can help me! This post doesn't necessarily fit into just one category, so i'm posting it in each relevant country's branch, to get the best possible advice.

Planning taking a roadtrip from UK to Croatia this coming September. It will take some planning, so trying to get some advice early on.

There's going to be at least five of us. We have a car, but not sure whether we should just rent a camper for the trip, that's a lot of added expense considering we already have a car. We'll say we're taking the car for now, camping most the way.

So here's the looks of the itinerary:

~ Day 1: Early morning, take Eurotunnel to Calais, drive to Reims. Stay in Reims first night. Take in the town's sights, i know that's it's a very historical town, so there will be plenty to see and maybe a winery in the evening time. And chill out at a campsite with a nice BBQ or something.

~ Day 2: Drive to Interlaken. It's roughly 600km, so figuring about 6.5 - 7 hours driving. We would ideally like to leave Reims early in the morning, to get a good day, where we could maybe stop off along the way. Can anyone recommend a couple places to stop off maybe for lunch or a wander to break up the trip, either in south France or north of Switzerland?!

~ Day 3: Stay another night in Interlaken. Perhaps skydive here....or any recommendations of things to do around the area or in Interlaken?

~ Day 4: Drive to Jesolo (Italy). About a 6 hour drive. So if anyone has recommendations again where to stop off along the way etc. We're also not sure whether to go as far as Jesolo this day. Maybe we should stop off for the night in Verona or even Venice?!

~ Day 5: On to Ljubljana. That's only a three hour drive, so it's taking the stress off, we can take our time and hopefully stop off at some really nice scenic places.

~ Day 6: Now we're not sure where to go in Croatia....I've heard that Medulin/Rovinj/Pula and all around that area is breath-takingly beautiful, but is it very quiet nightlife-wise for five twenty-somethings??? Ideally, we'd like to be somewhere beautiful, where we can take day trips during the day and party party by night for a week to 10 days....what about Pag?!

~ Day 15: Munich. It's about a 7 hour drive...We plan to stay in Munich for four nights, as it's Oktoberfest time and we're all first-timers!

~ Day 19: Antwerp. 7 hour drive again. Stay in Antwerp.

~ Day 20: Return to UK

Now that's just a rough plan really. We're still in the very early stages of planning. But basically looking for advice from anyone in the know, where to stop off, if we are missing out anywhere we really ought to stop off, campsites people can recommend in various stop-offs, things to see anywhere, etc...

We're also looking at budgets. Five people in a car is going to lower petrol costs for us. We're looking at say about 5000km, that's say 10 tank fills, so about €150 per person (roughly). Say €10 for food pp per day - cooking for ourselves on campsites etc. Say €10 pp for campsite per night. (We will be staying in hostels in Croatia, so we're budgeting about €25 per night there. Then other expenditures at €25 per day. So say nearly €1500 each for three weeks, that should be ok...? That probably will be loads, as we're serious budget travellers!

Any tips greatly welcome and thank you in advance! :)

Sorry if i've rambled on a bit here....

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beachjock
beachjock

I did not see anyplace in Croatia that offers the "party party" atmosphere you're looking for. Having said that, I visited Croatia in June, which is very much not high tourist season. Neither is September.

Rovinj is a very beautiful place with a very laid back and romantic nightlife. I was on my own and still loved it there because of the people I met up with. You don't say anything about who your group consists of, but if it's 5 guys you'd better either work on meeting someone during the day or be prepared to spend some quality time with your mates at night. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Pula has some fabulous Roman ruins but is a fairly dull industrial town otherwise. There are some beach resorty type places a short distance out of town that may attract a crowd of revelers in high season, really don't know. And if they happen to be having a rock/pop concert in the old Roman Coliseum, that will attract boatloads of young partiers.

Pag - avoid it at all cost. The north end of the island (where there's no real town) is popular with young people from Zagreb for a beach party weekend, but it's very cheesy, and very few non-Croatians go there. The main town is dreary and dead.

The places in Croatia where you're more likely to have a lot of fun: Split; Hvar; Dubrovnik. And even Zagreb can be surprisingly fun, with crowds of people out in the plazas at night.

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paddypackpacker
paddypackpacker

Thanks for the info beachjock! We're two girls, three guys. (I'm a girl btw!)

I've heard Pag is the next big clubbing destination in Europe....what about Dubrovnik..that's a popular party destination no?! I'd love to go down around that area, but it's an extra day's driving, and i'm not sure that we want to be stuck in the middle of the debauchery and drunkeness all the time, as i said, take it easy by day, sight-seeing etc and then clubbing by night. Maybe we are better off doing the extra day driving to go further down south to Split/Dubrovnik etc...i thought Pula would be a really nice town, as i've read about the roman ruins etc there....

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veta
veta

If you are looking to meet people and go to bars (as opposed to a nightclub scene), I'd go to Zagreb.

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paddypackpacker
paddypackpacker

How long a drive would it be from Zagreb to the coast?!

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beachjock
beachjock

You heard Pag is the next big clubbing destination in Europe? PAG???? If there's even a shred of truth to that it has changed AN AWFUL LOT since I was there 5 years ago. Did you hear that from anyone who's actually been there?

Granted things can change a lot in five years, especially in a country that's still emerging from post-Communism. But I haven't heard anything about great flocks of Europeans heading to Croatia, for the club scene or anything else. And Pag is (was?) off the beaten track and, well, pretty unattractive. Don't get me wrong - I love Croatia. And I'm glad it isn't overrun with tourists (yet). But outside of July and August, when they see a fair amount of German and Italian tourists, there doesn't seem to be much of a crowd at all. It was mid June when I visited, and a lot of the nightclubs were either closed or empty. Even the ferries weren't running full summer schedule yet.

As for Dubrovnik, the bar scene in the old town is great. If there is a club scene it must be out in the new town or suburbs; I didn't bother looking around for that.

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paddypackpacker
paddypackpacker

http://www.find-croatia.com/islands-croatia/pag.html

One of the guys i'm going with was there last year, said it was really good. Pag i mean. Said it wasn't full of the usual sorts crowds that go to mallorca/ibiza etc, but that there were quite a lot of australians/germans/french there...

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alan1972
alan1972

You may have picked up the information about Pag from some posts like this one, but note the key difference that the original poster in that case was travelling in August, not September.

Dubrovnik is a long day's extra drive, but as you're returning the same way that's two days.

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paddypackpacker
paddypackpacker

Yeah, we're deliberating whether to extend the trip by a couple days or not, we're all working, so have to see about holiday time etc. Fingers crossed it can work out!

Alan you photos are absolutely outstanding by the way! Took a sneaky peek there...and love the Balkanology site, will come in quite useful i think! :)

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alan1972
alan1972

Thanks! I'm afraid the site doesn't have any info about clubbing, though ;)

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