Walking Croatia: Islands & Mountains

Croatia is beautiful! Gorgeous hiking trails, beautiful blue ocean, and mouth-watering food! The itinerary is planned perfectly, allowing you to grasp Croatia's natural beauty, cuisine and of cause, the lovely hiking trails!

Croatia was lovely and I would definitely recommend the country and this tour. Good walks and then a dip in the sea/pool to look forward to.

This is an excellent exposure to a lovely country. There is a healthy amount of exertion with beautiful scenery and challenging but not killer hikes. There is enough time to explore a number of the coastal towns, but each could use a full day or two on its own. The island of Brach was such a treat with it’s sleepy, but beautiful resort feel to it. Croatia was a wonderful country with friendly people, exceptionally clean cities and countryside and gorgeous scenery. I had a feel that we were visiting sunny seaside resorts from 60 years ago. I mean that in the best way, as the country does not (yet) have over the top big high rise hotels, with the fast paced scenes and crush of tourists. Lot of families enjoying the waterfront and great walks along promenades overlooking the beach. I loved the exertion of the hikes, but also loved the times to simply relax and wonder through the towns and along the beach. Also I was shocked by the amount of the populace that spoke really good English. If you like a good deal of exertion in a clean, friendly, beautiful country that still has a relatively understated tourist feel this is a great tour. (There are tourists, but in late May it was not a crush of humanity by any means)

Great way to see lots of Croatia in a short space of time. The tour takes you along the coast from Dubrovnik in the South to Zadar in the North via islands, waterfalls and beautiful beaches. It's quite a fast paced tour but Exodus has got the itinerary down to a fine art and the schedule is well thought out and works well.

Really enjoyed the variety in this trip. There was a walk every day plus the chance to visit the historic parts of Dubrovnik, Split and Zadar. Most days there was an opportunity to swim in the sea. Some of our group opted out of the hardest walks, which gave them time to have a relaxing day by the sea.

The previous reviews say it all, a great way to experience Croatia. I had already visited Dubrovnik and Split so for me the mountain hikes were what I enjoyed most especially those in the Paklenica National Park. On the Thursday hike we stopped at a mountain hut for delicious bean soup. Vegetarian choices in restaurants were available and the home cooking at the restaurant on the second evening in Bol was delicious!

A fine mix of culture- Dubrovnik and Split, with daily walks. Brac was a sample of Dalmatia's islands and Bol was both a quiet characterful resort, and ferry port. The long linking distances were made in a comfortable mini bus and the travel linked first rate scenic highlights. The northern Krka National Park with its superb waterfalls; and the sharp, bare fluted limestones mixed with rich pine and beech forests of the Paklenica National Park made a memorable finale. Our guide was excellent and the choice of restaurants for the evening meal together was generally much appreciated.

Good walking, good food and accommodation, good leader, convivial group. Sight seeing was considered to be a little rushed (so we booked a few extra days in Dubrovnik, Split and Zadar on our own)

I highly recommend this tour if you want to see the Dalmatian Coast and Croatia’s mountainous terrain. I have never visited Croatia so I was eager to see the big cities-Dubrovnik and Split-but I also wanted to hike in Croatia’s National Parks. With this tour, I could do both plus write about them for my blog (www.femalesolotrek.com). It was a writer’s dream. Our guide was Mario, a native who taught us so much about his country, the war and the Croats. He was high energy and great fun. I would definitely do a tour with Mario in the future. I think it is a great decision by Exodus to stay at a seaside Dubrovnik hotel for the first two nights because it features wonderful walks to view the Adriatic Sea (plus friendly cats). There was also a great restaurant for our first night out (order the black risotto with cuttlefish) plus the local grocery store to purchase food for lunches during our hiking days. I highly recommend that your group pay the extra fee for a walking tour of Old Town Dubrovnik to learn about its history. I also chose to pay to walk the fortress walk. It took about 90 minutes. It was an incredible experience. If you are a cat lover, you will cherish all the time to play with the street cats in Dubrovnik. They are so friendly. In quick succession over the next seven days, we visited the Island of Brac, Split, Krka National Park (the waterfalls), Starigrad Paklenica and National Park Paklenica. I loved each location but the stay in Brac was particularly memorable. We had an old fashioned Croatian dinner featuring roasted meats and potatoes. I also loved the goulash served at a mountaintop restaurant/inn. It was a great treat after climbing all morning on Thursday. You don’t visit Zadar as part of the tour. But the group flight departs from Zadar airport so you can make your own tour on the last day. Our group had several people who chose to take a van back to Split to fly home.

The first part of the week is a whistle-stop tour of some of Croatia's top spots (Dubrovnik old town, Bol on the island of Brac, Split, Skradinski buk waterfalls), with a walk each day and quite a bit of travelling. The remainder of the week is at one base, with longer, mountain walks in Paklenica National Park and a final few hours in Zadar before the plane home. Our Croatian guide was brilliant and gave us loads of insights into the history of the area, how the mountain people lived as well as taking us to an authentic Croatian restaurant, a mountain refuge and visits to local houses where we sampled local produce.