What an experience this was! It may have been a pricey thing to do however it was 100% worth and then some. This boat tour was something that I was very excited to go on and is one of the best things that I’ve ever done whilst travelling. It may have been thanks to everything falling into place but I guess that is just destiny The variety of the experiences, the people that I met and the way that the days were structured, made it all worth the money paid. Add in the running of the boat, the food that was served up and the information to us from the guide as we went from place to place, it all round brilliant.
The basic principle of this tour is you board the boat at the first port, which for me was Split, before you head to a variety of locations along the Croatian coast as well as a few of the spectacular islands that are on offer in the Adriatic Sea before returning back to land at your final stop, which on this tour was Dubrovnik. As you hop in and out of a few locations, your nominated guide will not only give you a breakdown about the place and the history about it but give you an itinerary of things you can do whilst there, usually guiding one of these activities themselves. The tour itself makes sure that the experiences that you have are varied, from crazy night outs to wholesome evenings of good food and drinks in scenic locations.
The Boat
The first thing I think people are going to want to know about is the boat itself. Quite sizeable, everything is spread across three decks, with two up and one down, along with the added deck on top to allow you to have a roof terrace. Starting at the bottom and working our way up, the one deck below is the home to sleeping quarters, which are all cabins with two bunks in them and an ensuite. The cabins were definitely tight, especially for two guys my build and your luggage but you can make it work. The ones below have a port hole for ventilation and open up internally to the boat. From experience, the lack of air conditioning in the cabins was probably my only downside and the solitary fan, though it did help, still wasn’t really up to the task of the summer sun in the Adriatic! Things certainly got warm!
Moving up to the first deck, this is the main hub on board. To the rear, there are sleeping quarters again for people but this time they open out on to the deck, giving slightly more ventilation for those sleeping in there, with my cabin being located here.
A picture of said cabin can be found to the right. The main attraction on this deck though as the bar and lounge/dining area as the central hub. This is where in the day food was served, which was us was breakfast and lunch that was included in the price, a place you were able to kick back and relax in the shade and then in the evening, where the party would start once the bar was open!
The second deck again hosted the final set of cabins, with the same layout, was the location of the bridge, where the captain drove the boat from, and had the open areas to relax in, with an open plan sundeck to chill out on and catch some rays whilst aft (the rear in sailing lingo) of the boat was a shade terrace with a set of tables and comfy seating. Finally, the third deck was just the ability for you climb the stairs to have another area to catch some rays or if you were me, jump off the top of the boat during the bay stops but more on that later.
Moving up to the first deck, this is the main hub on board. To the rear, there are sleeping quarters again for people but this time they open out on to the deck, giving slightly more ventilation for those sleeping in there, with my cabin being located here.
Now the scene is set for where I was living for the next week or so, the only thing left to do is get on with the show!
Omis – Saturday, 12 Aug
We embarked, set our bags down in the cabins that we’d been allocated and then all convened on sun deck ready to meet and greet each other and who we’d be spending the next week on board with. The first thing that I noticed was that this mainly an Aussie crowd and that’s because, as I found out later, that the company Busabout is an Aussie company! The second that I noticed is that we had a quite an eclectic mix of people. We had couples, pairs of best friends, a few “holiday away with the girls” breaks away of varying ages and then those like me, flying solo.
Formalities over, it was time to set sail and head south to the port town of Omis, this being our first stop. From what I recall, we were wanting to get there as soon as possible as the weather wasn’t looking great for later in the day.As good as one of these trips can be, there’s always that chance that a little rocking and rolling on board could bring about a touch of sea sickness. Thankfully this wasn’t the case and left the majority of us sitting on the sun deck on the second deck of the boat, facing where we were going. It may have been a little breezy heading into the wind but the sun was just about burning through making sure it was still pleasant to sit here, top up the tan and take some more time to meet and greet those we’d just embarked on this journey with.
Once we arrived in Omis, like we would be for every spot that we were going to, our guide gave us two options on what we could do there whilst also giving the background of Omis. Option one was to head off into the town and do our own thing or head up with him to the fortress to check out the view from the top, paying a small fee of 15 kuna (roughly £1.75, €2, $2.35) to enter. Wanting to make the most of the weather and the time that we had here, myself and few others headed down to the beach which was a 10 minute walk away from the boat to relax, soak up some of the sunshine and really get to know some others.
Leaving the others behind, I headed back to meet those that were heading up to the fortress on the top of the hill. As we warned, this was a decent little hike up to the top, taking roughly 45 minutes and climbing steeply up to 262m but once at the top the views were definitely worth it! From up here, you could see the bay below it all its glory as well as rolling hills and valleys behind us. You can now see how such numbers disadvantage wouldn’t matter when you have such a good location to defend and this is based up by a historic story of those with Omis seeking refuge in this fortress and then defending it and themselves against a significant numbers disadvantage.
As the sunset behind the hills to the west, we enjoyed our dinner on board and the drinks started flowing ahead of our first night out. As we’d noticed, several of the other boats from both Busabout and other companies were in port, and we soon found out that their itineraries were very similar if not the same to ours, bringing variation to the people that you mingle with on the other boats. From what I recall, there were between 15-20 boats of 25-30 people meandering around the Adriatic all at the same time. The evening wasn’t anything too extravagant, with it being a small hut on the beach, selling drinks and bringing the party tunes. A very good warm up for us all and set the tone for the nights that were due to come!
Makarska – Sunday, 13 Aug
As I woke for breakfast, we had already set sail and were on the way to our next stop or Makarka, which is situated on the mainland of Croatia, south down the coast from Split and Omis. There are a few things on offer here, with the most common reason for this being a very popular tourist destination is down to the lovely blue water beach that dominates the area and stretches the length of the town that sits amongst the hills, with great pastel coloured town situated behind it. The town offered a fair few good shots as you wandered round as well as all the attractions of any good seaside tourist location. Another reason for us heading here was to prepare for a fancy dress evening later on in the trip. Alongside all this though, the main reason would be for the nightlife which is concentrates around a certain cave but I’ll get on to that soon.
Not really sure why but after spending the day in the sun and surrounded by water as we headed here, the first thing that most of us did was head to the beach and get in the sea? Clearly, can’t resist a good beach! Thankfully I didn’t spend too long here before taking a wander around the town, grabbing some ice cream and nice cool drink to refresh myself as I went. It was pleasant little town to enjoy but unfortunately, our guide didn’t really give us too much of a low down about it apart from the main attraction for this tour. One thing we did find out was that it has a great pirate fancy dress shop, which came in use for fancy dress night we’d been warned by. The early evening was then spent having dinner in one fo the local hotels as the sunset leaving another delightful view to take in.
It was during this dinner that I became very thankful for the people that I was sharing the boat with. Why’s that you ask? Well, they were for a start a lot more mature and this definitely showed when we went out for dinner. As we sat down in the Hotel Osejava and make out orders, one of the other boats headed into dining area and one of them was definitely worse for wear, being literally dragged in by two others and plonked at the table, “sitting” head on the table and making quite the scene. Apart from the annoyance and embarrassment brought by the other boat, really showing themselves up, it was a very pleasant evening with our boat and the food that was served up was definitely worth the effort of heading across the bay for. Serving up a variety of expected seafood dishes and some with a little Italian influence, I would recommend dining out here as it’s reasonably priced for what’s on offer.
Now for the main event! The true reason why we had come here! Deep Makarska AKA The Rave Cave! As you can imagine, this was exactly what it sounds like: a nightclub in a cave. This does open up on to the beach, with an outside area made out of the rocks in the cliff face.
This was such a great night! The cave itself makes for very good acoustics, whilst it is lit up by a multi coloured array running the length of the cave and bar running down the right hand side, with shelves for drinks nicely carved into rock of the cave. Add into the mix numerous other boats being here with us, the atmosphere was amazing and I had a really amazing night! I enjoyed it so much that I didn’t realise the time and before I knew it, the sun was rising, the boat was leaving in only a couple of hours and as much as I didn’t want to leave, I didn’t fancy being left behind!
Stari Grad – Monday, 14 Aug
After the late night of partying until the early hours of the morning, it was surprising that I managed to get up in time for breakfast. It turned out that this was going to be my routine for much of this trip, as you’ll find out, where I’ll only get a couple of hours of sleep, jump into breakfast with 5-10 minutes to go (as it ran from 0830-0900), before getting back into bed for another hour or two and then that would set me up for the day.
Unlike the day before, this morning was going to be the first of bay stops that we have between locations, which tended to last for a couple of hours. This gave us the opportunity to enjoy the sun and sea by as we anchored in a natural bay near one of the islands, usually giving some beautiful views. Once given the thumbs up, we could jump into the sea and either cool off if you’ve been tanning up or if you were me, revitalise myself and wake myself up. Of course, this was done alongside a good old cup of tea! Even better for us was that the boat had an array of inflatables to enjoy!
Before you knew it, the time was up and we needed to weigh anchor head to the next location, which was going to be bring about a very different experience compared to the night before. We were heading into the town of Stari Grad, which sits on the island of Hvar and has a very rustic feel to it. This is because it’s not really changed that much since it as built by the Roman, keeping many of the old features and buildings. This is where I took some time to myself to simply wander around the town, taking it all in and seeing many of things that were described by our guide. It was a lovely, picturesque port town.
The evening’s entertainment, as I said before, was a very different one to the night before. Tonight we were going out for dinner but this was a very rural affair. Though we had to pay extra to do this, it was worth it. We were heading up into the hills to go to one of the farms on the island, where we would be served a meal that was created completely from produce grown or nurtured on the lands surrounding the main building, including the wine that most enjoyed. With a starter of bread, olive oils and butter, the main consisted of potatoes, Mediterranean vegetables and lamb which had been slowly cooked throughout the afternoon and served up in a big wok styled pan. Not only was the dinner great but we had the perfect view over Starigrad as the sun set in the distance, giving some absolutely stunning shots! Luckily for you, I’ve showcased some of these. All in all this was such a good evening of good food, good views and great company!
Once we returned to the boat, a few of us headed out to see what the night culture was like here, which only consisted of a couple of small pubs/bars on the waterfront giving opportunity to just enjoy the company of this eon the boat, the other boats that were in with us and meet one of two of the locals. For once it was an “early” night and oh boy, was it needed for what was coming up! You’ll have to read part two for that though.
That pretty much wraps up Starigrad and the fantastic first half of this trip! It’s been wild, interesting and full of plenty of awesome experiences. Firstly I hope that this has caught your eye to try out one of these experiences, whether it be in Croatia or one of their many other tours that are hosted around the world. Secondly, I hope it’s only enticed you more to read on about this adventure as I tell you the story about my time in Hvar, Korcula, Mjilet and Dubrovnik.
Don’t worry, as well as this series covering Croatia, there’s plenty of other locations that you can read about from around the world on my blog. Just head up to the top of the page, click the travel tab and browse the selection of locations I’ve already covered. That’s if one of the suggested posts in and around this blog hasn’t already caught your eye! The other thing that I can recommend is that you hit the social media buttons below and follow me, allowing you to see when I announce my next blog posts. Why would you want to leave it down to chance again that you come across one of my posts?
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