The 6 days in Croatia had two main themes to them: lots of old towns and lots of islands.
We had a day in Split, which has a sizable walled palace alongside the coast which now is a normal town that people live in, though one that is heavily geared towards tourism. Some of the small alleyways in the palace were delightful, and the Town museum was quite interesting. I went up the Tower of the St Dominus Cathedral for a good view over the palace and into the bay. Unusually the main bus station and main port is right next to the edge of the palace which is very convenient. Nowadays there is a strip of reclaimed land between the sea and the palace, which is full of restaurants.
A night and a day was certainly enough there though, so we took the 4-hour bus down to Dubrovnik and managed to spend half an hour in Bosnia (1 5 minutes on a bus covering the 10km it takes to get through it and 15 minutes at a service station getting a drink), since the tip of Croatia is separated from the rest of Croatia (though apparently there are plans to build a bridge to connect the two bypassing the bit of Bosnia that takes some of the Croatian coastline).
Dubrovnik is famed, apparently, as the location for Game of Thrones, though really it has the "best" city wall. It really is a beast of a wall. Dubrovnik, of course, also sits on the coast. The part of the wall facing the sea is impressive, though not as thick as the parts facing land. Those are more than 5m thick with massive towers and turrets. They offer great views over the old city within the walls which looks just like it did hundreds of years ago thanks to some excellent restoration work after the Balkan war which damaged it.
Inside the city are some fountains, churches, monasteries, and a very nice little synagogue. With two kids, and in 35 degree heat we didn't really feel in the mood to walk up and down the steep streets too much or visit the various museums and churches. Though mum and I walked up, along and around the famed city walls, Andrea played with the kids down below. I ate the local specialty (Squid stuffed with ham and cheese) at a decent restaurant, and we had a wonderful meal at the somewhat upmarket Zuzori. Always sitting outside, of course, and drinking some excellent wine.
Dubrovnik is built on a hill (with lots of steps - not great for buggies) and along the coast. I managed to go scuba diving (whilst the family spent the afternoon by the pool at the fancy hotel with the scuba club) though there was nothing too impressive to see under the water. We spent a day on a replica ship from the 17th century (aka. A Pirate Ship for Hannah) which was a wonderful experience, with some great live music and good food, as well as lots of time on the local Elafiti islands, including one that had an excellent beach (which you get to on a golf-cart across the island from the port).
We then took the bus back past split to another old town called Trogir. The old part, also surrounded by city walls, is particularly tiny and you can walk through it in just 5 minutes, and around the perimeter in 15 minutes. But it had some incredibly fancy yachts moored alongside it that kept many tourists' attention, a nice fort at one end, and some beautiful little squares and alleyways. The stone buildings—as with the other two cities—were all beautiful.
Not a lot to see in the tiny town to be honest, though we did have some excellent food at Konoba Trs. Trogir comes to life at night when you can barely find a table outside. There are more tourists than there is space for outside seating (or even inside seating) in the many restaurants. We were told the old town basically closes down in the Winter. Unfortunately the prices in Trogir for meals were very high—even higher than the expensive Dubrovnik. And there was clearly a general agreement across the whole town to maintain high prices. To entertain Hannah some more, we rented a speedboat for a day to take us to some more local islands (Drvenik Mali and Veli) which were also very nice with a bit of sand here and there. The sea was a beautiful color and it was nice and cool on the speedboat.
Leah seemed to enjoy herself, particularly the time splashing in the water. Hannah definitely did, playing in the beach for hours and eating countless ice creams. In one memorable moment when she asked for a strawberry ice cream (always strawberry) the man gave her about two scoops. "Too much" said Hannah (probably the first time the man had ever heard a kid say such a think) and despite his promise that she would love it and eat it all, she only managed half of it. She always saw the ice creams, always wanted them, but only ate a small amount of them!
We utilized airbnb a fair amount for accommodation and got some great places, particularly in Trogir. That place, which was actually a small hotel rather than just a regular apartment, even had a paddling pool on their terrace; so we spent a half day playing there in the morning before our flight back. It did the job and was much less messy than going to the nearby beach! Overall we managed to strike a good balance between seeing the history and culture, enjoying the beaches and islands, and entertaining the children. It was a very nice trip and I can see why people rave about Croatia. The beautiful coast and the stunning old towns are worth it.
