A thousand islands, two Roman cities, and eight national parks.
Which Blue Cave boat actually gets you inside. What the Krka day costs once the entry ticket is in. Whether Plitvice is worth the drive up from Split. Reviews of every tour you can book in Croatia.
The walls, the waterfalls, the islands, one long day at sea.
The four bookings a first Croatian trip gets built around, with what each costs and how long it takes.
01Before the heatCity Walls Early Morning or Sunset Walking TourThe wall circuit runs one way and bakes by ten. This one goes at opening, or again at dusk.
02The waterfall dayKrka Waterfalls Tour, Boat Cruise & SwimmingKrka out of Split, with the boat across the lake and time below the falls.
03The island dayFull-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and DrinksThree of the Elaphiti under sail from Dubrovnik, lunch on deck, nobody watching a ferry timetable.
04The long oneBlue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tourBiševo’s cave, the Vis bays and Hvar in one speedboat run out of Split.
Most of this country is reached by hull, not by road.
Four kinds of day at sea, what it costs to board each one, and which harbour it leaves from.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Blue Cave Small-Group Boat Tour from Dubrovnik
Blue Cave runsBiševo at the right hour, then the Vis bays.
Blue Lagoon daysAnchored swim stops off Drvenik and Šolta, lunch aboard.
Island hoppingHvar, Brač and the Pakleni, or the Elaphiti out of Dubrovnik.
Sea kayakingUnder the Dubrovnik walls, or into the Zrmanja canyon.
All 176 days on the water →
Split for the islands, Dubrovnik for the walls, Zagreb for the lakes.
Six bases, and the day out each one is genuinely good for. Most trips use two of them with a coach or a catamaran in between.
The days out most travellers in Croatia end up booking.
Every Croatian tour we have reviewed →The tours that sell out first through the summer, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Krka Waterfalls Trip with Boat Cruise and Swimming
Travel from Split to Krka National Park by air-conditioned bus, cruise from Skradin to Skradinski Buk, and explore the falls with an English-speaking guide such as Ante, Leo, or Gianna. Afterward, swim or wander in Primošten, with Trogir replacing it outside swimming season.
From · $31
Read our review →
2
Blue Cave Small-Group Boat Tour from Dubrovnik
from $84
3
Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tour
from $45
4
Full-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and Drinks
from $78
5
Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tour
from $111
6
Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tour
from $44
7
Blue Cave, Mamma Mia, Hvar and 5 Island Tour
from $109
8
Epic Game of Thrones Tour + Lokrum & Saver Option
from $25
Dubrovnik: walls at opening, sea by lunchtime.
Everything in Dubrovnik →
Walk the circuit before the cruise ships empty onto the Stradun, then get off the stone: a kayak round Lokrum, the cable car at dusk, or the boat out to the Elaphiti.
Walls first, streets afterwards
Two kilometres of rampart, entered at one of three gates and walked in a single direction. A guide is what turns it from a view into the story of a city that bought its independence for four hundred years.
King’s Landing, street by street
Barely anything was dressed: the Jesuit staircase, Lovrijenac and the harbour walls went on screen as they stand. Most runs finish with the short boat over to Lokrum.
Round Lokrum by kayak
Launch from the beach under Lovrijenac, paddle the seaward face of the walls, then round the island to a cave beach nobody reaches on foot. The sunset run adds a glass of wine on the water.
Eight national parks, and two of them are waterfalls the whole way down.
Plitvice drops sixteen lakes down a limestone staircase; Krka puts a boardwalk out over the falls and lets you swim below them. Both are long days from the coast, and both run on entry tickets.
Split is an emperor’s retirement palace with a town living inside it.
Diocletian built a walled compound to grow old in and nobody ever moved out. Cellars, a peristyle and a cathedral in his mausoleum, then straight out of the Bronze Gate onto the harbour and whatever is sailing.
Every Split day out →
What a day out in Croatia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. The old-town walks and the arena ticket come in under the price of lunch.
Old-town walks, arena and palace tickets, rafting on the Cetina and the short hops out of the harbours.
The full-day standards: Krka and Plitvice with entry, the Elaphiti cruise, the five-island speedboat run.
Private guides, chartered days on deck and the food tours that turn into a whole evening.
Three things that only happen on this coast.
Old towns and clear water exist all round the Mediterranean. A cave the sea lights from underneath, a fictional capital you can walk, and a canyon you cross on a wire do not.
The Blue Cave
On Biševo, a small island beyond Vis, the sea enters a limestone chamber through a submerged opening and the light arrives up through the water instead of down onto it. For a couple of hours the whole room reads silver-blue. Boats go in through a low mouth in turn, a few minutes each, and any real swell shuts it for the day.
- 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
Dubrovnik on screen
The production barely dressed the place. The Jesuit staircase, Lovrijenac fort and the harbour walls went on screen more or less as they stand, which is why guides can walk the real streets holding stills and point at the frame you are standing in. Most runs end on Lokrum, where the throne prop sits in the monastery cloister.
- 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
Rafts and wires in the canyon
Behind Omiš the Cetina cuts a gorge down to the sea, and the town has built a summer around it: rafts through the rapids in the morning, eight cables strung across the canyon in the afternoon, cliff jumps in between. The river runs on rainfall, so the season is roughly April to October and the level decides the day.
- 1Cetina River: Rafting and Cliff Jumping Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,774 reviews
- 2Zipline Experience in Dubrovnik★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,584 reviews
- 3Split/Omiš: Cetina River Rafting with Cliff Jump & Swimming★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,258 reviews
Four Croatian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be sorted over breakfast. These four run on entry caps, sea state and a season that closes, and none of them take any interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Plitvice Lakes Guided Day Tour with TicketsSummer entry runs on timed tickets with a cap on each hour. The early slots, the only quiet ones, go first.
- 02Blue Cave Small-Group Boat Tour from DubrovnikBoats enter the cave in turn through a low mouth, and any swell at all closes it for the day.
- 03City Walls Early Morning or Sunset Walking TourThe circuit is one way on a single ticket, and the last entry falls well before dark.
- 04Cetina River: Rafting and Cliff Jumping TourThe river runs on rainfall. Rafting is roughly April to October, and the water level decides the morning.
The bura ties the boats up. Croatia keeps an answer on shore.
A northeasterly drops off the Velebit in gusts and every skipper on the Adriatic stays in harbour. It also scours the sky clean, which makes it the right day for stone streets, a konoba table and somebody’s cellar.
Dubrovnik, Split, Trogir and Poreč are all UNESCO sites, and you walk every one.
The good version is a guide who can tell you which stones are Roman, which are Venetian and which went up after the shelling stopped. Two hours, first thing, before the limestone starts throwing the heat back at you.
By place — coast, islands and inland
By kind of day — boat, wall, waterfall or table
Zagreb, Plitvice, Zadar, Split, Hvar, Dubrovnik: the run almost everybody does.
The newest Croatian tour reviews.
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Mesmerizing Hvar speed boat tour with optional wine tasting
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Zagreb Walking Food Tour – Sightseeing – Dolac Market Visit
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Private Split: Visit Diocletian Palace & Taste Food at the Market
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3 Island Speedboat Tour with Little Blue Cave & Lagoon
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Blue and Green Cave Speedboat Excursion from Hvar Town
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Ston and Korcula Island Day Trip from Dubrovnik with Wine Tasting
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