Places to Visit in Croatia: 12 Destinations Compared

Croatia repays a two-or-three-base trip rather than a tour, and the 12 destinations below cover every version of it: the walled coast at Dubrovnik, the Roman core at Split, the islands off both, the waterfall parks inland, Istria in the northwest and Slavonia in the east. Zagreb to Dubrovnik is about 600 km (372.8 mi) by road and Istria to Dubrovnik is longer still, so picking two or three places and staying put saves a week of driving. This page says what each destination is for, how long it holds up and which airport it belongs to, then points at the detailed guide for each.

The 12 destinations at a glance

The table below sets each of the 12 destinations against what it is good for, how many days it holds and the airport you would fly into. Days are for the place itself, before day trips.

1. Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is the walled city on Croatia’s southern tip and the country’s single most photographed place, which is both the reason to go and the reason to plan around the crowds. Dubrovnik’s old town is small enough to cross in fifteen minutes, so the circuit of the city walls, Fort Lovrijenac, the Rector’s Palace and the cable car fill two days comfortably.

Cruise arrivals set the rhythm of the day here. Walking the walls at opening time or in the last two hours before closing avoids the worst of it, and the city caps how many cruise ships may dock on a single day. Lokrum island is a 15-minute boat ride and empties out by late afternoon. The full guide to Dubrovnik covers the walls, the museums and the day trips to Cavtat and the Elaphiti islands.

2. Split

Split is Dalmatia’s largest city and its transport hub, built inside and around a Roman emperor’s retirement palace. Split treats Diocletian’s Palace as a neighbourhood rather than a monument: its walls contain shops, flats, bars and the cathedral, so the old town and the ruins are the same thing.

The city earns two or three days on its own and doubles as the base for everything else in central Dalmatia. Ferries leave the Riva for Hvar, Brač, Vis and Šolta, Klis Fortress is half an hour inland by city bus, and Trogir is 30 minutes west. Marjan hill gives the view back over the roofs. There is more on the palace, the beaches and the ferry port in the guide to Split.

3. Hvar

Hvar is the island most people mean when they say they want to stay on a Croatian island, and it splits cleanly into two trips. Hvar Town is the harbour with the Spanish fortress above it and the bars that give the island its reputation; Stari Grad, Jelsa and the Stari Grad Plain on the other side are agricultural, quiet and UNESCO-listed.

Getting there depends on whether you bring a car. Foot passengers take a catamaran from Split to Hvar Town in about an hour, run by Jadrolinija, Krilo and TP Line; cars go to Stari Grad on the slower car ferry, which takes about 110 minutes. Catamarans do run in winter, but the first departure can be as late as 14:00 in the low season, so an island that is an hour away in July can cost you a whole day in January.

4. Korčula

Korčula is the quieter walled town, laid out like a fish skeleton so that every street catches the breeze and none of them catch the afternoon sun. Korčula is a smaller, calmer Dubrovnik that takes two days, plus a third if you cross to the Pelješac peninsula.

Pelješac is the reason a lot of visitors come. The peninsula’s Dingač and Postup vineyards grow Plavac Mali on slopes steep enough to be worked by hand, and the Pelješac bridge, opened in 2022, means you can now drive from Dubrovnik to Korčula’s ferry without crossing into Bosnia and Herzegovina at Neum.

5. Zadar

Zadar gives you a Roman forum, a walled peninsula and two of the most unusual public artworks in Europe for noticeably less than Split or Dubrovnik charge. Zadar’s Sea Organ plays chords driven by the swell, and the Greeting to the Sun beside it lights up from the same waterfront at dusk.

Two days is enough for the peninsula. Zadar also sits at the middle of the coast, within reach of Plitvice Lakes, Krka, Paklenica’s hiking and the Kornati archipelago, which makes it a sensible base if you want national parks rather than beach bars.

6. Šibenik

Šibenik is the coast’s under-visited cathedral town and the closest base to Krka National Park. Šibenik’s St James’s Cathedral is UNESCO-listed and structurally unusual: it is built entirely of interlocking stone slabs, with no brick or timber anywhere in the structure, dome included.

Four fortresses ring the town, two of them restored as venues. St Michael’s Fortress hosts open-air concerts above the harbour, and the St Nicholas Fortress sits on an island at the mouth of the channel. Krka’s waterfalls are 20 minutes away at Skradin, and swimming at Skradinski buk has been banned since 2021, so plan on walking rather than bathing.

7. Plitvice Lakes

Plitvice Lakes is the inland day that almost every Croatia itinerary includes, and its entrance fee swings by a factor of four across the year. Plitvice charges an adult €10 (about $12, £9) from November to March, €23 (about $27, £20) in April, May and October, and €40 (about $47, £35) from June to September.

The summer price has an escape hatch. Entering after 16:00 between June and August brings the adult ticket down to €25 (about $29, £22), and the lakes are emptier then in any case. Tickets are timed and sell out in high summer, so book on the park’s own site rather than at the gate. The 16 terraced lakes stay open in winter, when the boardwalks ice over and the waterfalls partly freeze.

8. Rovinj

Rovinj is Istria’s postcard: a Venetian harbour town on a former island, with the church of St Euphemia on top and the old town falling away from it in stacked ochre houses. Rovinj takes two or three days to cover, counting the Zlatni Rt forest park south of the town and the islands offshore.

Istria is also where Croatian food gets most interesting. Truffles from the Motovun forest, Istrian olive oils that take international awards every year, and the Malvazija and Teran wines from the interior all sit within an hour’s drive. The guide to Rovinj covers the old town, the beaches and the inland hill towns.

9. Pula

Pula anchors the southern tip of Istria around a Roman amphitheatre that still works as a venue. Pula’s arena is the only surviving Roman amphitheatre with all four side towers intact, and it has hosted the Pula Film Festival every summer since 1954.

Two days covers the Roman circuit and the coast. The Brijuni islands, a national park and Tito’s former summer residence, run by boat from Fažana just north of the city, and the Cape Kamenjak nature park at the peninsula’s tip is where Istria’s swimming coves are. Pula’s airport puts you within 40 minutes of Rovinj.

10. Rijeka and Opatija

Rijeka is Croatia’s main cargo port and its least touristy big city, and Opatija next door is the Habsburg seaside resort that the Austrian court built for itself. Rijeka and Opatija make sense as one base: Rijeka for the Korzo, Trsat Castle and the industrial-heritage museums, Opatija for the Lungomare coastal promenade and the belle-époque hotels.

February is when Rijeka is worth a trip in its own right. The Rijeka Carnival is the largest in Croatia and one of the biggest in Europe, with a masked parade that closes the city centre. The wider calendar of festivals in Croatia fills this region through the summer, and Krk, Cres and Lošinj are all reachable from here without a long drive.

11. Zagreb

Zagreb is the capital and the only Croatian city that is better in winter than in summer, because the Advent market programme runs across the whole centre from late November to early January. Zagreb’s Upper Town, cathedral, Museum of Broken Relationships and Mirogoj cemetery fill three days without touching a beach.

The city is also the gateway to continental Croatia. Medvedgrad sits on the mountain above it, Trakošćan and Veliki Tabor are day trips north through Hrvatsko zagorje, Samobor is 40 minutes west and Plitvice is two hours south. Museums, neighbourhoods and the Advent programme are covered in the guide to Zagreb.

12. Osijek

Osijek is the largest city in Slavonia, the flat farming region in the east that almost no foreign itinerary reaches. Osijek’s Tvrđa, an 18th-century Baroque fortress quarter on the Drava, has survived largely intact and is full of student bars rather than souvenir shops.

Prices here are a fraction of the coast’s. Kopački rit nature park, one of Europe’s larger inland wetlands, is 20 minutes north on the Danube floodplain, and the Baranja wine road runs through it. Slavonian food is the heaviest and most paprika-driven in the country, which is a genuine change from Dalmatian fish.

Six Croatian towns worth a stop rather than a trip

Six more places appear on Croatian destination lists and deserve an honest ranking: each is worth an hour or an afternoon on the way somewhere, not a base. They are listed below in the order you are most likely to pass them.

1. Varaždin. Baroque squares and a Baroque music festival each September, an hour north of Zagreb. Its Stari grad castle is currently closed to visitors for renovation.
2. Karlovac. A Renaissance star-fort town at the meeting of four rivers, on the Zagreb to coast road, with Dubovac castle above it and a €3 ticket.
3. Vukovar. The Danube town with the water tower left deliberately shell-damaged as a memorial, and the Vučedol Culture Museum below it. A serious half-day rather than a sightseeing stop.
4. Slavonski Brod. A star-shaped Habsburg fortress on the Sava, free to walk, on the motorway between Zagreb and Osijek.
5. Sisak. Roman Siscia and a triangular fortress at the confluence of the Kupa and the Sava, an hour southeast of Zagreb.
6. Vinkovci. Roman Cibalae, birthplace of the emperors Valentinian I and Valens, with a municipal museum covering 8,000 years of settlement.

How to get around Croatia

Pick your transport by region, because the coast and the interior work differently. Buses beat trains almost everywhere in Croatia, ferries are the only way onto most islands, and a car is what makes Istria, Hrvatsko zagorje and the national parks workable.

Long-distance buses run between every city pair that matters, operated by Arriva, FlixBus and Čazmatrans, and they are faster than the equivalent train on most routes. Rail is useful for Zagreb to Rijeka, Zagreb to Osijek and the international links to Ljubljana, Vienna and Budapest, and those, along with the coach routes, come up in one search on Omio. There is more detail on tickets and stations in the guide to public transportation in Croatia.

Ferries are run mainly by Jadrolinija, with Krilo and TP Line adding fast catamarans. Car ferries run year-round on the main routes; most catamaran timetables thin out sharply between November and April, so check the season before you build an island into a winter trip.

A car is worth it for Istria, the Zagorje castles and the parks, and worth avoiding inside Dubrovnik and Split, where parking is scarce and expensive. Comparing the airport desks at Zagreb, Split, Zadar and Dubrovnik before you fly is the cheapest part of the process, and DiscoverCars puts the suppliers side by side. What to expect on the road is covered in the guides to driving in Croatia and to how to rent a car in Croatia.

Three Croatia itineraries that work

Three route shapes cover most Croatia trips of a week to ten days, and each one keeps the driving down. They are ordered by how common they are.

1. South Dalmatia in a week. Fly into Dubrovnik, give it three days, then take the ferry to Korčula for two and Hvar for two, and fly home from Split. No hire car needed at any point.
2. Istria and Kvarner in a week. Fly into Pula, base in Rovinj for three days with a car, spend a day in Pula and on Cape Kamenjak, then move to Opatija or Rijeka for two. Run it in May, June or September.
3. Capital, lakes and coast in ten days. Fly into Zagreb for three days, drive or bus to Plitvice for a night, then Zadar or Šibenik for three with Krka as a day trip, and finish in Split. This is the version that suits a first trip.

Frequently asked questions about visiting Croatia

When is the best time to visit Croatia?

Visit Croatia in late May, June or September if you want the coast without the peak. July and August bring the warmest sea and the full festival calendar, along with the highest prices and the busiest ferries, while October to April shuts down a large share of the island accommodation and thins the catamaran timetables. Zagreb reverses the pattern: its strongest season is Advent, from late November to early January.

Is Croatia expensive?

Croatia is mid-priced by European standards and no longer the bargain it was, with a sharp split between the coast in summer and everywhere else. Dalmatian accommodation in July and August runs close to Italian levels, while Slavonia, Zagreb outside Advent and the whole country in shoulder season cost considerably less. The breakdown by category is in the guide to prices in Croatia.

What currency does Croatia use?

Croatia uses the euro and has done since 1 January 2023, when it replaced the kuna. The kuna stopped being legal tender on 14 January 2023, so any guide that tells you to change money into kuna is describing a country that no longer exists. Croatia joined the Schengen area on the same date, which means days spent there count against the 90 days in any 180 that visa-free visitors get across Schengen as a whole.

Do you need a car to travel around Croatia?

You need a car for Istria, Hrvatsko zagorje and the inland national parks, and you do not need one for a Dalmatian coast-and-islands trip. Buses and ferries connect Dubrovnik, Korčula, Hvar, Split, Šibenik and Zadar well enough that a hire car spends most of its time in a paid car park. Further notes on the road rules and the tolls are in the guide to driving in Croatia.

What should you eat in Croatia?

Eat by region, because Croatian food changes completely between the coast and the interior. Dalmatia does grilled fish, black risotto, pašticada and peka baked under a metal bell; Istria adds truffles, fuži pasta and Istrian olive oil; the continental north does štrukli, Zagreb-style veal and heavier stews; Slavonia does kulen, fiš paprikaš and paprika in everything. The regional dishes are set out in the guide to the best local foods to eat in Croatia.

How many islands does Croatia have?

Croatia has 1,244 islands, islets and rocks along its coast, of which 78 are islands by the official size threshold and only 47 have permanent residents. The figure comes from the Croatian Hydrographic Institute, and the “1,000 islands” or “1,300 islands” you will see quoted are roundings of it. More of this kind of detail is in the facts about Croatia.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

Four decisions make more difference to a Croatian trip than the destination you pick, and they are listed below.

1. Enter Plitvice after 16:00 in June, July or August. The adult ticket falls from €40 to €25, and the boardwalks empty out as the coach parties leave. Book the timed slot on the national park’s own site, because high-summer entries sell out.
2. Check the catamaran season before you commit to an island. Car ferries run all year, but fast catamaran timetables thin out between November and April, and on some routes the first boat of the day does not leave until the afternoon.
3. Fly into the airport nearest your first base, not into Zagreb. Zagreb to Dubrovnik is roughly 600 km (372.8 mi) by road, and Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, Pula, Rijeka and Osijek all take direct European flights in season.
4. Put the car where the buses are not. Istria, Hrvatsko zagorje and the national parks need one; Dubrovnik and Split old towns are pedestrianised, and a car booked for the whole trip will sit in a paid car park for half of it.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the team covers Croatia for independent travellers, from choosing between Dalmatia, Istria and Slavonia to the ferries, hire cars, tours and city guides that turn the choice into an itinerary. We check park prices, ferry seasons and opening dates against the operators themselves, and update this page when they change.