If you want to do Croatia right, then hop on a sailboat and see the best Croatia has to offer! The coastline is beautiful to view from the water, you get to stop off and explore, and the sunsets were some of the most spectacular you will ever see!
Honestly, with our recent travel itinerary and sightseeing, we were looking forward to just some down time, and what better way to do it than to hop aboard a catamaran and sail the Dalmatian coast for a couple of weeks.
Now before we get started with the sailing. Let’s talk about Split! We arrived in Split and spent two nights before boarding our vessel. We stayed at Hotel Luxe which was walking distance to the main part of the city. We didn’t have a formal tour but instead spent our time just walking around the old part of the city (inside the walls) and enjoying the boardwalk.
Now let’s talk about the best part of this leg of our trip, the sailing! But before we could get to that we had a few things to take care of. This year long trip has included a pretty extensive travel agenda, which included scuba diving with our own equipment, so we had a lot of excess luggage that we wouldn’t need on the sailboat. The marina offered storage and at 3 Euro per bag, per day, and that seemed better than lugging all the excess baggage onboard our sailboat.
The boat itself was perfect! It was a 2019 42’ foot catamaran named La Perla. It had a masters cabin on one side and two additional cabins on the other. The catamaran provided the perfect amount of indoor and outdoor space for us along with a full kitchen. We pre-ordered some essentials from the grocery store like water, etc. and had it delivered directly to the boat. The marina had a small grocery store where we were able to stock up for the first few days of our trip. The only downside to shopping the day of departure at the marina is that everyone else was doing the same thing! We were patient and got some of the perishable items we wanted and then headed to board the boat and meet our skipper!.
We embarked from Split with plans to sail to Dubrovnik in the first week then turn around and head back for the second week. We were happy to welcome Emily, Pete’s daughter to join us for the first week.
Now for the best part of this trip! The waters are crystal blue and the Dalmatian coastline is absolutely spectacular! It is unlike any coastline we have seen anywhere by far, and right now I can confidently say, my favorite in the world. Especially enjoying it from a boat. Now while there are some sandy beaches, those are few and far between. Most of what you will see is beautiful rocky beaches and cliffs and every island and bay is unique in its own way.
Some nights we pulled into a marina and ate at a local restaurant. And the tip here is that many of these little towns or villages will let you dock for free if you eat at their establishment and your skipper should be able to help you book these in advance and believe me, you need a reservation because dock or body space is limited! And we had some amazing meals in these little villages.
Other times our skpper planned for us to anchor in what he called “lonely bays”. These were quiet spots that were protected from the wind and the water was almost as flat as glass.
But regardless of where we stopped we thoroughly enjoyed our time!
Our Skipper “Mate” was AMAZING and you can bet we have saved his information because if and when we return to Croatia to sail again, he will be our skipper of choice! He was super knowledgeable about sailing and the area, and just an overall really nice guy! He cooked for us on more than one occasion and during our second week he even did some spear fishing and caught dinner not once but twice!
These two weeks were unforgettable and went by in the blink of an eye. What we most enjoyed was being on the water and to be able to enjoy the amazing coastlines. Instead of listing all the islands and each swim stop I thought it was easiest to give you a visual. While we stopped at the major islands you may be familiar with, Brac – Mrčara – Vis – Korčula – Hvar – Stari Grad – Milna, we also stopped at many other smaller places along the way. We spent the night at a different island each night and had one (and sometimes two) swim stops each day. Here is a gps map that I recorded to outline our route. (Note: I forgot on a few occasions to start the app but it gives you on overall view of our route)
Pete got to show off a little at the Red Rocks of Hvar Island by diving off the cliffs and we had a dolphin escort on our way back to the marina which was the perfect way to end our trip!
NOTES and/or things we learned along the way about sailing:
- Sailing is a lot of fun but also can be a lot of work and having an awesome skipper is key!
- There are a lot of local rules and etiquette to sailing in Croatia and having an awesome skipper is key! (Especially since we don’t speak Croatian!)
- By the way, did I mention having an amazing skipper is Key???? Shout out to Mate! He really made this trip unforgettable!
- Don’t pack too much – just take a small bottle of detergent to wash out your clothes – especially if you are on the boat for longer than a week.
- Book a boat with a generator and water maker – this allows you more options when looking for a place to stop for the night.
The Modern Nomads 
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