Beautiful coastline, crystal clear seas, magnificent landscapes, historic sites, vibrant cities, welcoming people and a well-maintained and signposted road system all combine to make Croatia pretty much the perfect destination for a road trip.

If, like us, you want to experience as much variety as possible in a week-long visit to this r-shaped, central European country, its relatively compact size - it’s roughly a quarter of the size of the UK - and those easily drivable roads (albeit along some pretty precipitous stretches, but more of that later) make that comfortably possible.

Of course, there are any number of routes, destinations and stop-offs along the way that you could choose, but should you be in search of a combination of history, scenery, activity, relaxation and stimulation, head to these five fabulous places.

1. Fabulous starting spot: Dubrovnik

The Old Town of Dubrovnik has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979. The current city dates from 1292 when the port was rebuilt following a fire. A maze of picturesque, steep, twisting, narrow alleys stretch out from the wide main street lined with late-Renaissance houses. The town, which is home to 1577 residents, is encircled by a double line of 16th century city walls and a walk along their 1940 metres, exploring the towers and fortresses built within them, is a not-to-be-missed highlight. The views afforded from their lofty vantage points (they reach a maximum height of 25 metres) across the city and the coastline are fantastic.

Views of the Old Town of Dubrovnik from the city walls

Top Dubrovnik tips:

If you’re visiting at a busy or especially hot time, go early in the morning when the streets, squares and alleyways are quieter and cooler.

Oh, and take a swimsuit with you. You can swim off a couple of places including one of the jetties in the old port.

Although it’s possible to walk through part of the town on the flat, there are a LOT of steps, both within the town and along the city walls, many of them quite steep and well worn.

There are three entry points to the city wall walk. The ticket, which you can buy at any of the entrances costs 35 euros.

You can comfortably see round the whole town in one day. We chose to stay overnight and split our wandering round into two chunks, with time spent relaxing at our hotel inbetween.

There are lots of places to eat and drink, and to buy the ice creams that are a Croatian favourite. We can heartily recommend the ones at Peppino’s Gelato Garden

Port 22 Lounge and Bistro, just outside the old city, with a large terrace overlooking the port, is a great spot for a tasty dinner with an unbeatable view.

2. Fabulous island destination: Hvar

With more than 1000 islands (only 49 of which are permanently inhabited), the Croatian archipelago is the largest in the Adriatic. One of the most popular islands is Hvar, a narrow strip of land (it’s only 10km at its widest point) with steep hillsides covered in pine forests, vineyards, olive groves, fruit orchards and lavender fields, a buzzing main town dominated by an ancient fort, a couple of smaller coastal towns and a plethora of pretty (mostly pebbly) beaches and coves.

The ferries from the mainland dock at two points at either end of the island. We chose to take the one from Drvenik to the eastern tip of the island so that we could drive pretty much its full length of 65km to our hotel just outside the port of Stari Grad on the north western coast. The drive along the winding coastal road from Dubrovnik was spectacular, and the island views didn’t disappoint either, as the even more winding road snaked its way up and down the at times alarmingly precipitous hillsides.

Looking across the island from the top of one of the steep hills towards the town of Stari Grad. Can you spot the road snaking up the hillside? That’s the mainland in the far distance, with another island between

There’s plenty you can do on and from Hvar, including day-long boat trips to nearby islands and sights like the spectacular Blue Cave, wine tours and tastings, visits to the lavender fields and olive groves, water sports and exploring the towns and beaches. As you might gather, although we could have ticked off a fair number of those things during our two and a half days on the island, what we actually mostly did was lie in the sun and swim in the gloriously clear sea.

Our sunbathing & swimming spot on Hvar. You can see why we didn’t want to move!

We did manage to rouse ourselves long enough to take out the unusual wooden bikes that the hotel provided (and which I can report are VERY heavy to ride)

The unusual wooden bikes available to borrow from our hotel

and to eat out in both Hvar and Stari Grad. We had a specially delicious dinner at Luviji Rooftop a family run restaurant at the top of their traditional house just off the entrance to the main square in Hvar.

Top Hvar tips:

If you’re driving its best to book your ferry tickets in advance. We got on the ferry to the island without booking first without any problem, but the ferry off the island that we wanted to take was fully booked and had been for several days. There’s no problem if you’re a foot passenger.

The ferry from Drvenik on the mainland, to Sucuraj on Hvar takes just 35 mins. There are frequent crossings during high season but slightly fewer at other times. See the timetable HERE The ferries to Split are less frequent and get busier (see above). See those times HERE

Although restaurants in Hvar do get very full so booking is advised, we did manage to get a table in one of the busy ones around the buzzy port without any trouble and only a 10 minute wait, which we happily spent people-watching

Some of the roads on Hvar are narrow, with steep drops on one side and little or no safety barriers especially along the old route across the island from Stari Grad to Hvar. The newer road is more direct, somewhat less steep and includes several tunnel sections. There is no lighting on the roads at night once you get away from the towns.

If you don’t have a car, taxis on the island are plentiful, you can hire scooters or quad bikes, and there are buses between the towns, but they aren’t terribly frequent.

3. Fabulous coastal city: Split

Having arrived at one end of Hvar, we left from the other. The ferry journey to Split is a longer one, taking a little over two hours. Arriving into Split, the country’s second largest city after Zagreb, from the sea, you’re greeted by the view of its elegant palm tree lined, sea-edge walkway and the boats moored in its attractive harbour.

If, like us, you’re only going to be in the city for a few hours, head straight to the old town and spend your time wandering round its tangle of cobbled streets, many lined with attractive shops and restaurants, beautiful squares (ditto), ancient buildings and sites.

And then make your way to one of the city’s beaches and while away another hour or so swimming and relaxing on the sand, pebbles or terraces depending which of the five different possibilities you choose.

Top Split tips:

If you’re in a car, parking around the beaches at busy times can be tricky to find. Bacvice, also known as Bace, is the one closest to the city centre. It’s the biggest of Split’s beach and has a sandy shoreline. Znjan beach is on the eastern end of the city and has the most available parking.

However busy the old town gets (and it does get very busy) it is possible to find quiet alleyways away from the crowds.

4. Fabulous national park: Plitvice Lakes

The next stop on our itinerary took us north and inland to the country’s oldest and largest national park, yet another UNESCO National Heritage site that provided, for me, the most gloriously spectacular scenery of our trip. The main attraction of the park, which covers an area of nearly 300km, the majority of it heavily wooded, are a series of 16 impossibly turquoise blue lakes of various sizes that tumble into one another via a series of waterfalls and gushing cascades, along the floor of a steep sided gorge.

Understandably, the area is very carefully and protectively managed and visitors make their way around the breath-taking landscape via a series of paths, tracks and cleverly constructed wooden walkways that, at times cross over and through some of the gushing waterways as well as around and above the network of lakes.

Views of Plitvice Lakes National Park (no publicity pics - those were all shot by me)

Top Plitvice tips

There are two entrances to the park, each involves quite a long walk from the car park to get into the park itself. There are a couple of hotels just inside the park if you prefer to avoid that. But you can’t avoid walking around once you’re inside and although we saw plenty of parents pushing buggies, this isn’t a wheelchair friendly place to visit.

Once inside the park, there are eight clearly marked, easy-to-follow routes around the lakes which take anything from 2 to 8 hours to complete at a comfortably leisurely pace with plenty of pit stops and seating spots to drink in the extraordinarily beautiful scenery, and four hiking trails.

Your entrance ticket - which can be bought when you arrive, but ideally you should book on-line in advance HERE covers all the time you spend in the park, so once you arrive you can stay as long as you want. . Prices vary depending on the season (the park is open all year round).

There are toilets and places to get surprisingly good quality fast food and drink inside the park, so you don’t need to carry provisions with you.

5. Fabulous capital city: Zagreb

Our final destination was the Croatian capital. This is essentially a city of two halves. The wide boulevards, elegant parks, and neo-baroque and art deco buildings of the Lower Town, and the steep cobblestoned streets and red roofed houses of the Upper Town. The two areas adjoin each other and are easily walkable, but there is a short funicular railway line that also connects them.

One of the elegant parks in Zagreb Lower Town

The older Upper Town is where you’ll find the city’s bustling fruit and vegetable market (open in the mornings only) and many of the city’s beautiful old churches, including its twin-spired cathedral. Sadly all of these buildings are currently closed because they are still being painstakingly repaired after the earthquake that struck the area in 2020. (You can, however, marvel at the remarkable scaffolding rig that encases the spires of the cathedral.)

The remarkable scaffolding rig around the towers of Zagreb’s cathedral

This is also where you’ll find one of the more unusual and memorable museums you’ll ever see. The Museum of Broken Relationships displays donated items from relationships that have come to an end for all manner of different reasons, each with their story attached. The exhibits and their accompanying stories are constantly being changed, but always range from the hilarious (the copy of I Can Make You Thin given to a woman by her, unsurprisingly ex-fiance) to the poignant (a film canister filled with the ashes of a woman’s husband who asked her to distribute them to friends around the world so he could be ‘blown to all the ends of the earth’ when he died), to the heartbreaking (the wedding dress of a donor whose husband-to-be was killed in a terrorist incident at the airport where he worked just weeks before their wedding).

Top Zagreb tips

A day is plenty of time to take in the sights of both the Lower and Upper Town.

Details of the opening hours and ticket prices for The Museum of Broken Relationships are HERE

For a taste of old-style Zagreb, consider having a bite to eat or a cup of coffee on the expansive terrace, or in the elegant restaurant of the art-deco Esplanade Hotel, which opened its doors in 1925.