Happy Friday everybody! As many of you know, at the beginning of September I set off on my first European adventure alongside my family. We spent a couple of weeks travelling multiple different areas of Croatia, and ended our time away with a weekend in Italy. We had the most amazing time in our travels, so I figured it needed to be shared!
We began our journey by flying from Toronto to Zagreb, which is Croatia's capital (and largest) city. After renting our car from the Zagreb airport, we set off on our first adventure. After about a two and a half hour drive, we made it Selce, which is the most adorable, little Croatian village. The entire Selce coastline is made up of beautiful waterfront and pebble beaches. There is a boardwalk that also runs through majority of the village, which is full of stunning waterfront shops and restaurants/patios (if you're a seafood fan like me - you'll be in heaven!). Everywhere you look in Selce, you truly are promised a spectacular view consisting of vibrant, unique buildings overlooking the blue Adriatic Sea. After meeting locals of the village, we quickly learned that Selce was where many Croatians own their vacation/summer homes. When we came across another Canadian family visiting, we learned that in other words, Selce can be looked at as Croatian's "cottage country". After hearing this, it was no surprise that Selce was my entire family's favourite spot of the trip - just imagine Muskoka-living, except on the remarkable Adriatic Sea! Pretty awesome. We spent about four days of our trip in Selce, including beach days, shopping, boat touring and more. My family and I all agreed we would have loved to have had even more time here.
After our time in Selce, our next stop was the well-known Croatian destination, Split - with a quick pit-stop on our way. We were so glad we made this pit-stop because we were able to explore the most jaw-dropping park any of us had ever seen, the Krka National Park. This park was made up of a series of seven breathtaking waterfalls - we truly had never seen anything like it. It completely looked like something off of a postcard. We were able to hop right into the lake beneath the falls, which was a super cool experience. The park also consisted of beautiful walking paths and nature hikes, which we loved. If you're in the Split area of Croatia, this national park is a must! It's less than an hour from the city, with a super pretty drive.
After our day at the Krka National Park, we ended up in Split, which is the second largest city following Zagreb. What I loved about Split was that during the day, you could spend your time sunbathing on the beautiful beach overlooking more views of the Adriatic Sea. However after hours in the sun, you could head into the actual core of the city, which consisted of amazing shopping, high-end restaurants, and a completely different vibe. It truly felt as if Split was made up of two holiday destinations combined into one! It had the best of both worlds. Being one of the largest cities in Croatia, Split was evidently much busier than Selce. There were lots of tourists, however it still wasn't difficult to get around by any means. Split is an awesome destination for those of you who are looking for that warm, beach destination, but still like the idea of being in a city with nightlife and a little bit of "hustle and bustle". While in Split, we also did a day trip that consisted of island hopping, which took us to the islands of Hvar, Vis and Bisevo. All three islands had very different, unique sights to see, such as the famous Blue Caves in Bisevo or the colourful shoreline of Vis. The islands didn't disappoint in the slightest!
Following our few days in Split, we were off to our last Croatian destination - Dubrovnik. This is a southern city in Croatia that fronts the Adriatic Sea as well. Dubrovnik is known for it's distinct "Old Town" that is encircled with massive stone walls. If you are somebody who is intrigued by the history of cities, including historic buildings, churches, etc. Dubrovnik is sure to amaze you. It's also a very popular tourist spot, which resulted in being significantly busier than Selce. The number one thing we wanted to do while in Dubrovnik was "walk the walls", which we had previously heard was a must. It took almost two hours to walk these medieval walls that looped around the entire city. The sights along the whole route were amazing! It was definitely a cool experience that I'd recommend to anybody visiting the Dubrovnik area.
To finish off our travels, we figured a weekend trip to Italy would be the cherry on top of an incredible holiday! Venice, Italy was about a five hour drive from where we were in Croatia. On our drive to Italy, we passed through two other countries on route - Bosnia and Slovenia. Even though we only saw these countries through the car windows, it was still fascinating to take in the sights, and it definitely helped make the car ride go by super quick. After arriving in Italy, we began our weekend with dinner, that of course consisted of a "Spritz Veneziano", which is known as an "Aperol Spritz" to us Canadians. Call me crazy - but they definitely are 1000x better in Venice than Toronto, whether or not they're made up of the same stuff! Paired with that, we ordered all of the pizza and pasta we could get our hands on - how could we not?! If you're not familiar with Venice, it's Italy's northern capital thats built up of more than 100 small islands. The coolest part is that there's absolutely zero roads and cars, just canals and boats that wind throughout the city. Every canal is full of gondola rides with serenades playing the classic, authentic Italian songs, just as you'd picture! Although Venice was the only spot in Italy we had time to visit, we truly felt like we got the full Italian experience just from visiting that one destination. Our weekend trip to Italy was the perfect way to end our trip!
I hope you enjoyed reading about my little European adventure! Feel free to message me with any additional questions about the trip - I'd be more than happy to give additional recommendations and suggestions.
Thanks for reading!
-Miss Maddie
Comments