Zagreb
We landed in Zagreb at 12:30 and took a taxi in to town to drop our bags at the apartment and eat some lunch. The 3 bedroom apartment at City Wellness was huge and comfortable. We walked toward the main square in Lower Town looking for food. We ended up at Pivnica Mali Medo (on restaurant row) and it was not bad. A good variety of pasta, meat, and beer. After lunch we walked down by the cathedral, which is still under construction from the earthquake of 2020. We walked through the main square to get some ice cream. We walked south through the city park a bit and then headed back to the apartment for a little rest. We stopped in an Asian market Liana spotted and bought a couple drinks. Around 7pm I headed out to eat some meat at a traditional Croatian restaurant and everyone else went to an Asian noodle place. I went to Gostionica Ficlek and they went to Torikaya Ramen Bar. I got Faširanci, spiced meat fritters, and Gemišt to drink, which is wine white mixed with sparkling water. It is a common drink for the area. I also got some cherry strudel, and strudel is widely consumed in Croatia. We met up after eating and walked to Sisters Ice Cream for some blueberry lemon mint goodness.
The next day we had no exact plans except to sleep in and walk some more areas. We headed west to the city park and walked north through it all. There are fountains, dancing guides, gazebos, and flowers. We made it up to the Dolac Market and walked that for a while. We bought some cheese and fruits to snack on. We then started a small walking loop from Rick Steves. We walked through the Oktogon building and then found the beginning of the Grounded Solar System art installation. First is the sun, which is fenced off for construction and possibly to have it cleaned due to graffiti. We ended up next to an Italian restaurant that looked good and people were hungry, so we stopped there for lunch. Al Dente was also ok, and they cut my pizza with scissors! After lunch, we found Mercury and and Earth on the art installation. We then walked toward the funicular and took it up to the Upper Town. We walked by St Marks church which is blocked off by fencing. But, you can still enjoy it's beautiful roof. We then walked down through the Stone Gate, which houses inside a Mother Mary Shrine. We then stopped for ice cream and a drink on the restaurant strip. We also found the Mars part of the art installation. Kacey and the kids were tired so they went to the apartment while I went to the Zagreb City Museum. It was interesting to learn more about how the city came to be, and the Yugoslav wars. For dinner the kids had pizza and I went to Rougemarin for a steak. The next morning we walked to pick up our rental car and loaded up to leave by 10am for our drive.
Rovinj
The drive had a considerable amount of traffic until about the Karlovac area, where the road split to heard south. We continued straight toward Rijeka and then through the mountains and tunnels to Rovinj. This area used to belong to Italy (among other dynasties in the past) and feels like you are transported back to Italy. It is a dual language town and the food is still heavy Italian. We arrived at our apartment around 3pm and it was a great place. We were a 5-10 minute walk to the old town. We headed in and Liana and I walked around a bit while the others ate some food. There was a wedding going on at the cathedral so no entry. The view seemed like it would have been great from the bell tower. We walked around the north harbor and the little market that is there. We met up and bought some food for breakfast and went to the apartment to relax a bit. We walked in for dinner and ended up at La Fondiaria. We got gnocchi and local fuzi pasta with black truffles. We found really good ice cream after at Ombra lab. After dinner the sunset was really nice to watch at the north harbor. We hung out taking pictures at night at the south harbor.
Istria: Motovun, Završje, Grožnjan, and Buje
Today we planned to drive around the hill towns of Istria. We started first in Motovun. We had great views of the town on the drive in. We really liked this town, and it is the bigger of the towns we visited for the day. There was a great ramparts walk with a lot of great views. Also, some really good food with a view. There was also a little free outdoor museum that talks about the importance of the forests in the area. I also tried a limoncello spritz walking around. We ate a good lunch at Montana Gallery. We got the traditional pljukanci rolled pasta with black truffles.
On our drive to Zavrsje, we drove through Oprtalj. We drove in from the south, but on the north side of town is a really nice view of the town, so while we didn't stop in this tiny town, we did stop for a view on the way out. We then arrived in Zavrsje, which is a mostly abandoned, little town. We saw cats and a donkey, but no people. There were castle ruins and a church that is boarded up with a bell tower that is leaning. There are no services in town.
We next drove toward Grožnjan, which is a town that was nearly abandoned at one time, but now has been taken over by artists. We heard music being played, lots of paintings out for sale, and Kacey found a shop where the guy makes these little stone house things (hard to describe). We also got a little ice cream and a coke on the hot day. There were also some metal art of ships in a plaza.
We headed to Buje next, not sure if we would get out of the car. We did see a EuroSpar, so we stopped for some water and sunscreen. We parked in Buje and walked in to the old town. We found a scenic lookout and then considered going in the old fortress tower, but the owner was a little off-putting. We headed toward Brtonigla to potentially eat some dinner, as it is known for being a town with good restaurants. We drove for a few minutes and didn't really find what we were looking for, so we drove back to Rovinj to eat dinner at Pizzeria Stari Grad Rovinj, as their pizzas smelled very good the previous night. They were pretty good and we were well positioned for more ice cream after dinner again. Kacey tried Gelateria I Nonni for ice cream and it was also very good (and busy).
The next morning we woke up and made a couple trips in to town to photograph the old town with the rising sun at the north harbor. It was very pretty. We got on the road to Plitvice National Park via Pula.
Pula
We wanted to quick stop in Pula to see the Arena and eat some lunch before the long drive back inland. The arena is a surviving Roman amphitheatre that still has all 4 sides. It is still used for some music concerts! We walked the old town toward the market area for lunch. The market area didn't have as many lunch options as we were hoping, but we made it work. After some ice cream (again, quite hot), we got back on the road for the coastal route toward the park.
We drove toward Novi Vinodolski to make a stop at Cave Beach. Parts of the coastal drive are nice, but some are average driving. Kacey enjoyed sitting at the "beach", eating some snacks, and getting in the water for just a couple minutes. The water was crystal clear, but she was consumed in just enjoying it and didn't take any pictures. We got in for a couple more hours of driving toward Korenica, where our apartment was for the night. We ate at Restaurant TIME next door. I enjoyed my meat platter with mead liqour. I got some baklava for dessert while Kacey took the kids to the grocery for some ice cream.
Plitvice Lakes National Park
This NP is rated as one of Europe's most beautiful parks. It also gets extremely busy. It helps to buy your entry ahead of time online, and it also helps to review their website to see what walking path you may want to take. We had decided on route H, which was a long mix of both paths and a boat trip across the lower lake. You are free to make your own path as some guide books point out. We did end up in a couple queues along the way, but it was manageable. You need plenty of water and snacks for the day, and use the toilet before starting. At the top of upper lakes (after the tram ride), there are not really big views for a while. The side path up to a lookout is worth it (about 10 minutes in). The walk is full of little waterfalls, big waterfalls, crystal clear water, and great views. You can clearly see fish swimming around, and fallen trees 10 feet down. We took the boat north across the lake to the area with some food. We got in line straight away to buy some sandwiches and drinks. The boat line to head back south was unreal in length, but we were walking another small loop and taking the shuttle back. For dinner we went to Šapina. I got some suckling pig and Liana got another pizza. We also got some nutella crepes for dessert.
In the morning I drank coffee on the balcony and enjoyed the sunrise over the mountains. We got packed up for our drive to Dubrovnik via Split.
Split
We were hoping to sit on a beach for a little while and eat some lunch. Parking was insane and after some driving around we snagged a spot on a dead end street that wasn't too far from the old town, but not the beach. We got some lunch in a food court area near the water and train station. Nothing was very good and it took forever. We walked over to the old town and got some ice cream while Nolan and I went up the bell tower. The views were nice. The old town has a lot of Roman ruins, but doesn't take too long to walk around. We got in the car by 2:15 or so for the 3 hours to Dubrovnik.
Dubrovnik
We got in our apartment by 5:30 or so. We had quite the apartment debacle, but we had a place to stay. I dropped everyone off near Buza gate, dropped the car at the airport, and taxied back to the old town to join them for dinner. They had found Nico's and it was good enough. We ate a little ice cream and got back for bed for our early rise the next morning.
Montenegro
We booked a tour of Montenegro and the Bay of Kotor. We got picked up at 7am and started the drive. Within an hour we had crossed the border to leave the EU, which involves an exit out of Croatia, and then a separate entry in Montenegro. By 8:40 we had stopped and were taking our first look at Our Lady of the Rocks Church in the Bay of Kotor. Traffic around the bay backs up, as there is mostly 1 main road that winds all the way around the bay. By 9am we were getting ready to board a little boat for our trip to the church island. This island started off hundreds of years ago as a top of an underwater mountain that rose above the water just a couple meters. Over centuries, people took more and more rocks out to build the island. Now a church stands on the island and the top of the rock is reachable from a small hole behind the altar. By 9:20 we had landed on the island and we explored the tiny island and church for 30 minutes. On our way back we drove around the second island which is where the priest lives. In hindsight we should have walked around Perast more, but we got on the road toward Kotor.
We arrived in Kotor around 10:40 and were dropped off near the south side of town at the fortress. We had a few hours to walk around and eat some lunch. We walked the ramparts north to the wall. The wall makes its way up the mountain, but we didn't go up there (and it may not be open to the public). We went back down in to town off the wall and found lots of cats! They seemed to have a little cat village area. We walked the streets for a while and looked in a couple shops. We were waiting for some places to open for lunch, and we wanted a place with indoor seating to get away from the smoke and to cool off. We found a place that opened at 12, but it was 11:40. We walked around a bit more and went back and he invited us to come sit inside and wait on the kitchen to open. Kacey walked around a bit more while we cooled off just a bit. This lunch was pretty good, we all had good food at Scala Santa. After lunch we grabbed some ice cream and went to meet our driver. Ivan took us up the mountain to crossover to Tivat next. On the way up, he stopped at a fantastic viewpoint of Kotor.
Our next and final stop was Tivat. This area is known as the russian playground, as they don't need a visa to enter here and the area caters to the rich. Lots of large boats and yachts and fancy stores. We walked around town for 20 or 30 minutes, and it was pretty dead in the middle of the day. We bought some cold drinks and walked along the water, trying to stay out of the sun. We loaded up to catch a ferry across the bay to significantly shorten our drive home. The ferries run constantly so we didn't even really wait, they were loading when we pulled up. The crossing only takes 10 minutes or so, and we talked about muscle cars while waiting. There are no services on the boat since it is so short, so we just sat in the van AC.
The ride back was similar. Traffic exiting the boat, and a longer line to go through both security checkpoints this time. But by 5 we had crossed back in to the EU.
Dubrovnik
We got to our apartment around 6 and Kacey, Liana, and I decided to walk to Uvala Lapad Beach to get in for a bit. It was a great sunset spot and while the beach is pebbles, wearing flip-flops made it just fine. It was a great cool-off. We decided to eat dinner in Lapad, even though we were restricted with things being open due to the holiday of the Assumption of Mother Mary. It was already late and we would have to deal with more taxis instead of a 7 minute walk. We passed our apartment owner on the way out and he reiterated Pizzeria Scala, so we went there. Soon after we were seated it started to fill up. The pizzas were good.
The next day we had to pack everything up to store in the owners space upstairs, as we were moving close to the airport that night. We headed out around 9:30 to taxi to the old town. Our plan was to do the ramparts first before the heat got out of control. We started around 10am from Ploce Gate going counter clockwise (the direction they make everyone go). This is probably the better views of the town from here as you are higher up looking down. By 10:30 we were near Pile Gate. This stretch did offer one drink spot, but we didn't stop. The next part heads toward the water and is downhill a bit and offers a nice view of the Stradun, the largest street that runs through town. It is then back uphill just a bit to walk along the water. By about 10:50 we reached a drink bar with nice views of the ocean, so we stopped for some drinks and their bathroom. After an almost 30 minute break we started walking the last bit of the wall. This part had more water views, and views of the harbor. By 11:45 we were headed down to Stradun and started looking for some lunch. We found Dundo Maroje and it was close, had appealing food, and had indoor seating (again, it was quite hot).
For the rest of afternoon we were just going to stroll around with no real agenda. We followed Rick Steves guide a bit, but Nolan wasn't feeling well so we slowed down. We walked through St. Blaise’s Church and The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. We peeked in the Rector's Palace but didn't go in for a tour. We read about the bell tower and Orlando's Column. History in the town is interesting through earthquakes and wars, including the 1990s. We went to Peppino’s for some ice cream to cool off. We got some water from Onofrio's fountain, it was nice and cold! We initially were thinking to stay in town until early dinner, but people were getting hot and tired from a long week. So we headed to grab our bags and then taxi out to the airport for our apartment there (for a 6am flight the next morning). We got to our apartment by around 5. It was a new apartment and the owner showed us the small pool that was complete enough to start using. We walked next door to Domestico to eat some dinner, and grabbed a couple pastries from the grocery next door.
Summary
We tried to see a lot in a week, which required a lot of driving. It was absolutely doable, though. And there are plenty of apartments available for families. We knew this going in, but August is quite hot there. We kept a lot of water around and made sure our apartments had AC. The tour of Montenegro was nice because we had already driven a lot, when leaving the EU our driver used a different road, cell data doesn't work outside the EU, he knew all the spots to go, we didn't have to park, he knew the history, and rental cars works different outside the EU. These are all things you could tackle with time to plan, but we planned this trip last minute. Plitvice Lakes Park requires entry time tickets booked online in advance; an early start here is essential. And with better planning, you can create your own route that goes against the crowds. But, with our ~9:30 start on the 'H' route, there were crowds and a couple queues, but they were manageable.
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