Single Female + Croatia

Can anyone suggest a way for me to get around Croatia for 2 weeks in August? And any must-see/ do places/ activities along the way. I like hiking, beaching, photography, snorkelling, swimming, eating, shopping.... all the usual stuff. I probably won't be able to hire a car (only been driving in the UK since Dec 05) so public transport is my main option.

What are trains/ buses like? I will probably fly into and out of Rijeka.

cheers

kitty

I went to Croatia last month. Buses are an easy, comfortable and affordable way to travel along the coast. Great views too. On ferries the views are even better, but they take more time. Buses might not be practical to get to inland national parks though.

Bus travel is very easy. Just go to the bus station, buy a ticket and get on the next bus. Be aware that if there are only a limited number of buses a day on a given route, they usually leave either early morning (7-9 am), around noon, or in the evening. So if you get to the bus station mid morning, you can be stuck there until 2pm. If you have a large bag, you must store in the hold and pay an extra fee to the driver (up to 10 kuna). Even long distance buses tend to stop in every little village - they don't use the main highways.

Hi Kitty

Most of what Dikkiedik says has covered your question, but there's one thing I disagree with - and that is about the national parks. Buses are the only way of getting to the parks by public transport, and are absolutely fine to do this with. To get to Krka National Park, best is to get to Sibenik, then take the bus to Skradin (which looks a nice little town to stay in), and the national park boat leaves from there. To get to Plitvice Lakes National Park, you can catch buses from Split, Zadar and Sibenik, amongst others (not sure what the northern routes are).

As Dikkiedik says, ferries are a nicer way to travel, but they are much slower than buses, and the ferry timetables are fairly infrequent compared to bus schedules. I would just add that if you can buy the ticket in advance (i.e. the day before), then do so, as the buses might fill up in August. There are some sites where you can check the schedules on the internet - Split for example has a good site.

Just a word of warning about travelling on a public holiday or Sunday - there are a lot less buses than on other days. Another word of warning if you get off at a rest stop - watch the bus driver carefully, to make sure you get back on the bus in time. We stopped at a restaurant in Bosnia on the way back to Dubrovnik, and our bus driver left quite a few people behind there.

For some info on places to go, have a look at a reply I gave to another post.

Happy travels!
Sue

I must admit I didn't actually go to a national park. I considered going to Plitvice from Zadar as a day trip, and didn't do it because using the public bus seemed impractical (e.g. buses might be full and not stop to take passengers in Plitvice) and organized day trips cost 60 euros (not including park entrance). I don't doubt it's possible to get to the parks by bus, and indeed, it's probably the only way if you don't have a car.