Croatia and Slovenia was supposed to be our first European travel adventure as a family of four back in April 2020. But of course, the pandemic started and travels was on pause. Two years on, it was a no brainer for us to rebook it!
So, for our first long haul travel adventure in 2 years we chose Slovenia & Croatia because:
1. We already had a full itinerary prepared from 2020 (And those Lonely Planet books have collected too much dust!)
2. Almost all activities we wanted to do are outdoors
3. Covid-19 numbers in both Slovenia and Croatia are WAY less than what was in our home state
4. Cheap accommodation – average $160/ night
5. Super yummy food – no worries with our sons not eating while travelling
6. Health care services (in case we get sick) are generally good and reliable
7. Cities we are visiting are within reasonable drive of each other
How has family travel change in 2022?
- Flight prices – more on this below!
- Apartments we originally booked back in 2020 have sadly gone out of business
- Some attractions – for example Zagreb 360 observation deck – didn’t survive the pandemic
- For this trip we choose not to fly domestic flights between cities or get on public transport. Instead, we hired a private driver (we found a great one!)
- Slight increase cost of travel insurance. We used Insureandgo
During the trip we based ourselves in 5 cities: Ljubljana, Split, Dubrovnik, Plitvice National Park and Zagreb.
LJUBLJANA
Ljubljana – capital of Slovenia – is a small city with its old town being a pedestrian only zone. It’s very picturesque and a great starting point for our post pandemic trip. Everything was within walking distance. We spent 4 nights here. We had 2 days to explore the old town, bridges, markets and castle area and used the other 2 days for day trips to Lake Bled and Bohinj, and the other day trip to Postojna cave (a massive highlight for our boys especially the train ride deep into the cave), Predjana castle and the city of Piran.
Slovenia completely surprised us. We think it’s one of Europe’s most underrated destinations. There were few tourists and on our last day it snowed in the middle of April!
SPLIT
We stayed 3 nights in the city of Split. It was a long 6 hours drive from Ljubljana and we stopped by halfway in the town called Zadar to have a quick lunch and wander around. Split was busy compared to Ljubljana. Here we saw more tourists and more day trippers from cruise ships. But by the late afternoon, the city is quieter, and we got to enjoy a more peaceful town. Split’s main attraction – the Diocletian’s palace was stunning. We loved soaking the sun at Riva’s waterfront promenade (the weather here is stark contrast to snowing Slovenia!).
While in Split we also did a day trip to Bosnia visiting Mostar, Blagaj and Kravice waterfalls – a short 2.5 hours drive from Split. It’s just amazing how another culture, food and sights can be reached within such short drives in Europe. In Mostar, we loved the Bosnian coffee, wandering the cobble stoned old town, and the famous Mostar bridge (and watch brave guys jumping off it!).
DUBROVNIK
We stayed 4 nights in this most popular Croatia tourist destination. We have never seen a single Games of Thrones episode and we were just shocked as to how many shops and tours are dedicated for it! The old town is compact and the biggest highlight was walking the ancient city walls which took us 2 hours to complete (with a cafe break in between).
We enjoyed Dubrovnik a lot more once day trippers left in the late afternoons or early mornings before they start arriving. So it was crucial we timed ourselves well here. We would be out and about from 8am, and buy a take away lunch to eat at our apartment (to escape the crazy crowd) and back out again in the late afternoon until dinner time.
From here, we also did another day tour to Kotor and Perast in Montenegro – just 2 hours drive away. Kotor has a very charming old town set against the mountains with views to die for.
On the way to Dubrovnik from Split we stopped by in Makarska, a famous port town in the Dalmatian coast. We enjoyed the best views of Biokovo mountain for our lunch.
PLITVICE NATIONAL PARK
Photos of Plitvice waterfalls is the main reason why we wanted to visit Croatia in the first place. We stayed one night at Hotel Plitvice so we were able to do 2 days here to see both the upper and lower lakes. The colours here were just stunning. Even though the weather was cold, overcast and we didn’t get the sunny blue skies, we still enjoyed the hikes. On the plus side, the park was quiet!
ZAGREB
The capital of Croatia and our last stop before flying home. We spent 2 nights here mainly to just chill before flying back home. Unfortunately a lot of the main sights like the famous St Mark’s church and cathedral, were closed since late 2020 following a big earthquake. When we visited restoration work have yet to be completed.
HOW MUCH WAS THE FLIGHT AND HOW LONG?
Flight prices were slightly more expensive than we originally booked 2 years ago – about $2,000. This was our first time flying with Qatar Airways and we were impressed!
We absolutely had no issues at all, smooth transit and no delays. We found the cabin crew staff to be attentive on both journeys and the economy seats to be somewhat more spacious compared to Singapore Airlines and Emirates. We also loved the food selections. We definitely would re-book in the future with Qatar Airways.
The flight from Perth to Doha was about 12 hours, then we had a 3.5 hours layover at Hamad international airport before continue flying to Zagreb which took another 6 hours. Flights we went on were about 90% full.
HOW DID YOU GET AROUND?
Since we wanted to visit 4 countries, never driven on the right side of the road, need to cross many borders and wanted to minimise Covid risks, we decided to hire a driver.
We come across Mili “Taxi Pajo” from TripAdvisor and he was with us for the entire 2 weeks. Mili was absolutely amazing. He is reliable, drives safely, helpful and very attentive to our boys throughout our two weeks holidays. Thanks to Mili we covered so much ground and had a stress free holiday.
HOW WAS THE JETLAG?
What jetlag? Croatia and Slovenia are only 6 hours behind Perth. For some reason we did not feel a thing when we were there – maybe we were way too excited to be in Europe again! Returning home it took just 3 days for the kids and us to settle back to normal.
WHAT WAS THE WEATHER LIKE?
We visited mid April and the weather in both countries were vastly different! Slovenia being the coldest was about 7 degrees Celsius. One day it even snowed! Much to our surprise and delight. Split and Dubrovnik were the warmest about 15-20 degrees Celsius most days. We were incredibly lucky with the weather with lots of blue skies and sunny days.
HOW MANY LUGGAGES DID WE BRING?
2 luggages, 1 backpack and 1 hand carry – that is it! The hand carry was needed for the flight going there as we needed to store our son’s nappies and winter clothes to wear upon arrival.
This was our most efficient travel packing ever. On the way home, our big luggages weighed just 23.5kg and 21.3kg each!
WAS CROATIA & SLOVENIA CHEAP? HOW ABOUT FOOD AND DRINKS?
Besides the flight tickets, it was cheaper than western Europe countries we previously visited like England, Holland, Belgium, Germany, France or Italy. Our accommodations average just $161 per night. We stayed in apartments throughout except at Plitvice as the hotel was the only option within the national park itself. All our bookings include free cancellations, done via Booking.com
In local restaurants 10 euros gets you a very decent meal. Dubrovnik was by far the busiest and most expensive place we’ve stayed during the 2 weeks. Prices here are about 30% more expensive.
AND HOW ABOUT THE PEOPLE?
People are generally friendly. Most locals speak English really well so language wasn’t an issue at all.
DID YOU FEEL SAFE WITH COVID-19 STILL GOING AROUND?
Surprisingly Yes. It was refreshing to see people getting on with life. For 2 weeks we (almost) forgot about Covid.
Planning this trip we did what we can to minimise any health risks. Majority of the activities we did were outdoors. There weren’t many museums we wanted to visit this time around. For this trip we mainly chose alfresco dining option (or takeaways).
Slovenia was the only country where masks were required to be worn indoors. Once we got to Croatia there were no more mask mandates. Not even at Zagreb airport!
Throughout the trip we kept up our health routine, hygiene and immunity. We stocked up on a LOT of vitamins for us and the kids. We made sure we still east the usual dose of vegetables and fruits everyday, slept well and limit alcohol intake.
It was hard to stay disciplined during the holidays but we knew we needed to keep our immunity up throughout. All four of us made it home – and didn’t get sick!
For other places we have visited, checkout our website’s travel Destinations section. We buy our travel essentials online via Ebay
