June 2021 Croatia – To be frank, I didn’t know much about Croatia at all a few months ago. Then my sister-in-law, Allie, mentioned Hvar, one thing led to another, and now we are going for an entire month! We arrived one week ago. Wow.
Why Croatia?
Doug (my brother) and Allie plan on visiting Hvar, a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, known for its beautiful beaches and rugged hills covered with wineries and fields of lavender. Jean and I decided to meet them there for a few days to start our planned Journey to Greece; after all, it seemed pretty close on the Google Maps.
So one morning I settled in with coffee and Google to learn “what else” about Croatia might be interesting. I reviewed a travel blogs for inspiration and plotted what I found in Google Maps “saved places.” About 10 hours later, I had a mess of a map littered with Roman ruins, Venetian Palaces, Austrian Villas, beautiful beaches, and stunning National Parks. Think “Game of Thrones”; HBO filmed much of that program in Croatia. At this point I realized we would need a lot more than a few days in Croatia.
It required a couple of more days to plot out a reasonable route connecting the most interesting places, and voila, a Journey was born. We decided to extend a few additional days to see Mostar and Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, since we were within driving distance. “Christmas in Sarajevo” by The Trans-Siberian Orchestra was ringing in my head as I added that to the plan.
Journey Map
I cleaned up the map, below, which you can view and add as a layer in your own Google Maps. The map outlines cities where we will stay, our planned route, and some historical sites and hikes along the way. Each pin has a short overview and often a link to our planned hike or other adventure. I plan to update the map as we go and tag any “Travel Bytes” we post on the map.
Travel Bytes
To follow along, check out our related Croatia Travel Bytes below!
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Detailed Itinerary
For those interested in a similar trip, I have attached a PDF of our detailed itinerary. Here you will find detailed routes and research about each stop along the way. In planning the trip, I reviewed several travel blogs and found Frank About Croatia and Rick Steve’s Croatia most helpful.
This itinerary, with those blogs, is a great place to get started planning your own Croatia Journey.