TE Croatia Return 2024
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Crossing over from Italy our first stop was Pula in Croatia. Here we met Jane and Carla who would cruise with us down to Zadar. From Pula we took a short cruise over to the Briljuni National Park where Tito maintained his summer home. A beautiful island with a golf course, zoo and some guest accommodations.
With an early start we proceeded south to the cute little town of Osor. We needed to arrive for the 9am draw bridge opening. While we made the bridge opening as Osor, we were not so lucky at Mali. With the bridge closed till 5 pm, we decided to go around the bottom of Losing Island to visit Mali. Mali is one more of the many pleasant ports in the Croatian Islands.
Our next stop was Rab, with time to spare we decided to circumnavigate the island. The west side is boring, but the east side is well protected by the neighboring island of Dolin. ACI has a nice marina in the city, the hilly park being the main attraction here. Continuing south, we took a side trip up the Zavratinca gorge before stopping at Nin for lunch on route to Zadar. Nin is a small island only accessible by tender. Zadar is one of the major cities in Croatia and one of the charter boat capitals with over 500 boats available. Jane and Carla left us here and continued their travel adventure thru Europe. Although we could not watch the US Presidential debate, we did read the disastrous results in the am.
Kristi and Gabrielle joined us in Zadar and cruised with us to Split. First stop was Rogoznica, known primarily for its great marina and promenade around the well protected bay. Stari Grad on the island of Hvar was the next stop. Fell in love with this port and used it a base to explore the island. Hvar city is very well known as it can accommodate cruise ships, but not a place for recreational boaters.
From Stari Grad, we headed back up to Trogir. This is a walled city that we visited several time. Around the corner is Split, another principal city that we underestimated on our first visit. Sadly Kristi and Gabrielle left us in Split. However, a few days later Steve and Tiffany joined us for a cruise down to Dubrovnik.
Leaving Split we stopped at Supetar on the island of Brac, lots of swimming in the relatively warm waters. The lovely walled city of Korcula was our next stop. The city is a great walk around the wall and is ringed with restaurants and gift shops. Here we rented a car and took a nice tour of the island. We even stumbled across the monument to Main Caparin, the pioneer vintner of the Posip wines.
On our way to Dubrovnik we stopped again at Gastro Mare marina and restaurant. Once again a wonderful five course meal and good friendship. From here we were able to tender to Ston, the crazy walled city that’s missing the city.
Dubrovnik is so well known there is not much to say except ‘where did they get all the stones?’ Here we spent our last days with Steve and Tiffany, we are always sad to see our guest leave us but know they will continue their adventure.
It was now late September and the weather was changing to cooler and windier. Two stops in Montenegro at Kotor and Bar and then a long run past Albania to arrive back at Corfu. Here we met with the team and reviewed the works to be carried out over the winter.
By now we had decided to come back to the Adriatic for one more summer. As that would include the west coast of Italy, we decide to go explore this next area before the summer travels ended.
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