Our trip to Croatia started out as more of a practical one: we needed to stretch our visas in the Czech Republic out by a few more weeks, so we needed to leave the Schengen zone (separate from the EU). Although Croatia was recently accepted into the EU, it is not yet a part of the Schengen zone, and it isn’t too far away from Prague, so it seemed like the perfect excuse to add another country to our list.
Of course, the more I learned about Croatia the more it became a destination in its own right. The whole time, I couldn’t believe that our “visa” trip had taken us to this incredible, gorgeous country right on the sparkly Mediterranean. Oh Europe, how I miss thee!
The first stop on our Croatian itinerary was a small village about an hour away from Dubrovnik, and about fifteen minutes away from the airport. We originally planned to head straight into Dubrovnik but it was either booked or too expensive for how late we were planning (as usual) so we looked a bit outside.
After a very stressful few weeks packing up our life in Prague–and an initial rough start to Cavtat–I absolutely fell in love with the little town. We stayed right in the old town, up a steep, skinny alley lined with flowers, and every day we’d hike about five minutes down to the main promenade. The promenade of Cavtat is what Mediterranean dreams are made of: palm trees, seafood restaurants, ice cream galore, mega-yachts, casual beach bars and a few places to swim.
The word mega-yacht should warn you that Cavtat is not a cheap stopover, however! Of course, nothing felt cheap after living in Prague for a year–especially the food prices, yikes!–but we still had some delicious, reasonably priced meals there. And the ice cream was always cheap and always a win!
The only downside of Cavtat–and our time in the region, in general–was that it was ridiculously hot the whole time we were there. I always rolled my eyes when people complained of how hot somewhere was, but after traveling through Croatia, I can say that the heat really can be unbearable and makes it difficult to get out and do my favorite thing: explore.
Luckily, we had a plethora of Radlers, Croatian wine (!!), cocktails, swim breaks and an air-conditioned room to help us cope.
I can feel you not feeling sorry for me through the computer screen, I mean, look at this view.
Despite that, Cavtat was the ultimate place to begin our Croatian/Montenegrin tour. We purposefully planned a few quieter days, and with the heat and stress of the former weeks (not to mention the beginning stages of our farewell to Prague which was devastating), I’m so glad we did. We took a boat up to Dubrovnik for a half-day or so, we explored a few different coves and went swimming, we tried new foods and so much Croatian wine, we found a delightful bakery where I could get my daily iced coffee fix, we wandered the promenade almost every night with an ice cream cone in hand, and we made sure to watch every sunset. Not a bad introduction to Croatia, at all!
So what would you do? Stay closer to Dubrovnik, or “settle for” this adorable suburb?!
Linking up with Travel Tuesday.
