There are two Croatias. Book both.
One is limestone, salt and a boat leaving at eight. The other is thirty minutes inland and green enough to lose an afternoon in. Every tour in the country, ranked by the people who took it.
Blue Cave, Blue Lagoon, Elaphiti: they are not the same day.
All boat days →
Four names cover most of what leaves the Adriatic quays every morning, and travellers book the wrong one constantly. Here is what each actually is: how far out, how long at sea, how much swimming and what the day costs.
Blue Cave, Vis and the five-island run
Out past Hvar to Biševo for the cave itself, then Stiniva, the Pakleni water and Hvar town on the way home. It is a lot of open sea for one day, and the light in the cave is a late-morning thing.
Blue Lagoon, Šolta and a shipwreck
Short hops out of Split to shallow turquoise water off Drvenik, a wreck to snorkel and a konoba lunch. Less time in transit, more time actually in the sea.
Three car-free islands off Dubrovnik
Koločep, Lopud and Šipan sit half an hour from the Old Town and have almost no cars between them. Lunch is cooked on the boat; the swimming stops are quiet by mid-afternoon.
The six days most Croatian trips are built around.
Two walled cities, two national parks, one cave and the wine that grows between them. Whatever else a Croatian fortnight holds, it usually holds these.
Croatia is a third forest, and nobody books it.
Behind the coast road the limestone opens into river canyons, travertine dams and eight national parks. Plitvice and Krka carry the traffic; the Zrmanja, the Cetina and the Velebit foothills carry almost none.
What Croatia sells more of than anything else.
Every review →The tours more travellers take than any others in the country — and what each one is really giving you for the day.
1
Krka Waterfalls Trip with Boat Cruise and Swimming
Krka Waterfalls day trip from Split with Skradinski Buk boat cruise and guided walk, plus Primošten beach time to swim.
From · $31
Read our review →
2
Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tour
from $45.95
3
Blue Lagoon & 3 Islands Cruise with Lunch from Split
from $78.60
4
The Original Game of Thrones Tour & Lokrum Option
from $26
5
Blue Cave and Hvar Tour – 5 Islands Tour from Split and Trogir
from $120.93
6
Dubrovnik Game of Thrones Tour & Optional Lokrum Island Visit
from $24.19
7
Blue Lagoon Boat Party with DJs, Shots & After Party
from $47
8
Elaphite Island Cruise w/ Drinks & Optional Lunch
from $50
The Old Town has about two good hours, and they are early.
The wall circuit runs one way, takes roughly two hours and has almost no shade — which is why the first ticket of the day and the last are worth more than anything in between. Between them, the water is the honest answer: kayaks under the ramparts, a cave swim, a boat to the islands.
Split is not a stop. It is the base camp.
Diocletian built a retirement palace and the city never moved out of it — bars in the cellars, laundry over Roman arches. It is also the best-placed harbour in the country: Krka before lunch, five islands in a day, Hvar on a catamaran, all of it back by dark.
- 1Krka Waterfalls Trip with Boat Cruise and Swimmingfrom $31
- 2Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tourfrom $45.95
- 3Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tourfrom $111.26
A Croatian day, by price.
Every tour on the site sorted by what it actually costs. Croatia runs on euros now, and the range is wider than the postcards suggest.
Walls, palace walks, wine cellars, a rafting morning on the Cetina — the everyday best of the country.
The standard day out: Krka and back from Split, a three-island cruise, Plitvice with the ticket included.
Speedboats to Biševo, private skippers, sailing days and the whole-island charters worth splitting between four.
Three things you cannot do anywhere else.
Walled cities and clear water exist all over the Mediterranean. A cave that lights itself, a capital that was filmed rather than built, and a river you go down in a raft belong to this coast.
The Cave That Lights Itself
The Modra špilja is a sea cave with a second opening below the waterline. For a couple of hours around the middle of the morning the sun comes through it and the whole chamber turns electric blue from underneath. You go in a few at a time in a small boat, the visit lasts minutes, and the whole thing depends on a calm sea — which is why the trip is sold with a plan B and why the earliest departures out of Split and Hvar are the ones that get in.
- 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
A Capital Nobody Built
Dubrovnik played King’s Landing for eight seasons and the locations are all real streets: the Jesuit stairs are the walk of shame, Lokrum is Qarth, Klis Fortress up behind Split is Meereen. The good guides do it as city history with a television overlay — the Republic of Ragusa was genuinely a scheming maritime state long before anyone wrote it down as fiction.
- 1Epic Game of Thrones Tour + Lokrum & Saver Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 5,995 reviews
- 2The Original Game of Thrones Tour & Lokrum Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 5,064 reviews
- 3Dubrovnik Game of Thrones Tour & Optional Lokrum Island Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,702 reviews
The Canyon Behind the Beach
The Cetina comes out at Omiš between two walls of rock, and twenty minutes upstream it is grade II–III water with cliff-jumping pools and a canyon that stays cool in August. The Zrmanja, further north, is greener and slower and the kayak version suits families. Both are half-day trips from the coast, and both are the cheapest way to feel like you left the beach.
- 1Zrmanja River: Half-Day Guided Kayaking Tour Near Zadar★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,817 reviews
- 2Cetina River: Rafting and Cliff Jumping Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,774 reviews
- 3Split/Omiš: Cetina River Rafting with Cliff Jump & Swimming★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,258 reviews
Inland, the meal is the day out.
A konoba is a stone room with a fire in it, and peka — meat and potatoes under an iron bell buried in embers — takes three hours because that is how long it takes. Add the Dalmatian coast’s own grapes, plavac mali off the Pelješac slopes, and the olive oil that half of Istria runs on, and lunch stops being a break in the itinerary.
Croatia rations these. Book them before you fly.
Most of the coast can be arranged from your apartment the night before. These four cannot: they run on entry quotas, timed tickets, one narrow window of good light, or a boat that only holds twelve.
- 01Plitvice Lakes Guided Day Tour with TicketsEntry is by timed slot with a daily cap, and the summer morning slots are gone weeks ahead. Tours that include the ticket are doing the hard part for you.
- 02Blue Cave Small-Group Boat Tour from DubrovnikBiševo admits small boats a handful at a time in a short mid-morning window. Late arrivals queue offshore and some days do not get in at all.
- 03City Walls Early Morning or Sunset Walking TourOne-way circuit, no shade, and by ten in the morning in July it is a slow-moving line. The first and last entries are the whole difference.
- 04Full-Day Sailing Trip to KornatiSkippered boats are a fixed number of seats per hull. In July and August the good ones out of Split and Trogir are booked out long before the flights fill.
Reachable and back before dinner.
Elaphiti
Hvar
Vis & Biševo
Korčula
Kornati
BrijuniBy town — where you are staying
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