Weddingbee Blog

We took off for Croatia starting in Zagreb, and heading to Riejka, visiting Pula, Porec, Rovinj, Opatija and Krk. Read Part 1 here!

We headed inland for the Plitvice Lakes National Parks, and then south to Zadar. Catch up on Part 2 here!

We left Zadar early the next morning, and drove south down the Croatian coast to Split. We returned our car in Split, as we planned to take boats for the remainder or our travel! Split is a gorgeous and very unique city. It was built up as a palace for a Roman ruler who was looking to retire, and it has very much been preserved. The main attraction of the city is Diocletian’s Palace, and people have been living there consistently since the ruler himself built it and retired there! It is unbelievable. We could have explored the palace all day - try to imagine something much more like a walled and very organized city, as a opposed to a castle, and that’s what this was.

We climbed to the top of a belfry tower for a beautiful panoramic view of the city and the water.

See me there on the right? It is said that if you rub this statue’s toe, you are certain to return to Split. I’m going back, baby!

This sphinx was from 5 BCE! (I think I lined up pretty well, eh?)

What I liked about it is how it is still being lived in, so you can imagine what life was like when it was originally built. Just in case you have trouble, though, they prepare a skit that happens several times throughout the day. Oh my, it’s Diocletian himself!

Part of the Palace - an example of the stone work, and intricate housing patterns.

The basement halls - the preserved underground of the palace - a huge maze of rooms all underneath the main palace, nearly perfectly preserved!

Beautiful main square in the palace at night.

We had planned to spend two days in Split, but when we arrived, we learned that the ferry to Dubrovnik only goes twice a week. We quickly changed our plans, which was luckily okay with both of our hotels, and wound up spending only the one day. We definitely could have used more time here!

Bright and early - I mean EARLY, we packed up and headed out for our 9 hour ferry ride from Split to Dubrovnik.

Our ferry!

We opted for a cabin because it was not that much more expensive, and it would give us a place to leave our luggage for the whole day, and potentially sleep, if we wanted to.

We spent most of this day at sea, but we got to see a few islands when we made stops, and we read and just relaxed on the open, and very beautiful, water.

Dubrovnik is unbelievably gorgeous. Here is our hotel from the opposite, right overlooking the water. Because we had changed our plans, we wound up with 3 nights at this hotel and ample time to explore both the city and the beach!

The hotel room was spacious and clean.

I can’t say I minded three nights of this view from our balcony!

We spent the first afternoon at the hotel, swimming in the sea and lounging. We stayed at one our hotel’s restaurants for dinner and had a smorgasbord of Mediterranean flare for dinner. It was delicious (and a welcome change from the daily pizza we were getting used to!)

After dinner at the restaurant

We spent the whole next day exploring the city of Dubrovnik. The picture above is the fountain in the main square when you enter the old city. If you look closely, you’ll see that in each square is a different face, they were pretty funny!

We walked around all day, going in and out of churches and museums and I may or may not have taken a little rest here…

I loved the banister and the way it was held up!

In the afternoon, after the sun had begun setting, we did the iconic city walls tour. The whole old city is encircled with walls that have been used throughout history to protect the city. You can walk the 2.2 km and see the city from all different views. It was well worth the two hours.

Walking the city walls

View of the city from the far side of the city walls

View of the city - stunningly beautiful

We stayed in Dubrovnik for dinner before walking back to our hotel. We explored the city the next day as well, and spent the afternoon at the beach by our hotel.

On our final day, we had to fly back to Zagreb, so we spent the morning by the beach. The sea is salty and clear and warm, and wonderful to swim in.

We lounged in this cabana, shielded from the hot hot sun!

At the edge of the water, right before we showered and headed back to Zagreb.

One of the things that we might have done differently is book our flights into Zagreb and out of Dubrovnik. Because we flew in and out of Zagreb, we basically lost half a day, had dinner in Zagreb and then flew back to NY through Zurich. It was actually okay, but if I was going to change anything, that would be it. I have a small confession - we booked our tickets in April, and we planned our itinerary ONE WEEK before we left. All in all, we got pretty lucky!

My mom picked us up at the airport, and took us back to her house so we could pick up our cat (and do laundry for free, hurray!). She surprised me with a little birthday celebration, which was a great way to wrap up our wonderful honeymoon experience!

Mama Hermit Crab and me

Mr. HC and me, coming back to reality

Our honeymoon was absolutely amazing - we had a great mix of seeing historical monuments, modern cities, natural beauty and even a little time to relax and enjoy our first two weeks of being husband and wife. I would recommend this trip to almost anyone. It’s so funny, before we left, people asked us why we were going there. Even when we arrived, the hotel personnel asked us why we were visiting! There does not seem to be a lot of American tourism to Croatia, and I can’t understand why. I have been dying to go there for so long, and I had gotten Mr. HC excited about it, too. If you want to read more about how we came to this decision, find it here!

We both were incredibly happy with our decision, and would even love to go back in years to come. Like I said, I would recommend every single one of our hotels to anyone visiting, and I would be happy to share more tips - please PM me if you want any more info on visiting Croatia!