pegtrav

We will be in Croatia in May. Planning on driving to Plitvice and then to Split. Should we turn in the car in Split and take the ferry to Hvar and then a ferry to Dubrovnik? Or would it be better or take the car on the ferries? We want to spend 2 days on Hvar. I think the ferry to Dubrovnik only goes twice a week but I can't figure out which days it goes. Help, please!

treplow

Unless you plan to continue from Dubrovnic to Kator, etc. , I would get rid of the car. The car would be a nuisance in Hvar; this is a "walking town". Dubrovnic has excellent public bus service from the outlaying areas to the old town, and - again - the old town is strictly for pedestrians.

Can't help you much with the ferry service, I travelled along the coast on a small cruise ship (now out of business). But did you check <http://www.croatiatraveller.com/Transport/FerriesinCroatia.htm>

The Jadrolinija ferries were all over the place, and they are big.

pegtrav

Thanks for your help, Treplow. I would be glad to do without a car on Hvar and intended to turn it in when we got to Dubrovnik. I looked at croatiatraveller and at the Jadrolinija websites but they say the 2011 schedule is not available yet. Can this be possible? Are the car ferries the only ones that go from Hvar to Dubrovnik?

Dubrovniktravelady

Jadrolinija ferry travels from Split to Dubrovnik on Tuesday & Saturday, departing at 0700 arriving at 1830. If you still have your car, the drive would only take you 3 to 4 hours. There's no reason to pay for the car ferry and then turn it in at Dubrovnik. If you plan on using the ferry, return the car in Split.
More often than not, I have found some of the information on Croatian traveller to be outdated. Things change here quickly and often and our ferry system can cancel very quickly due to weather and high winds. There is information on the coastal ferry for May on the website, however it is not easy to located. Here is the exact site:
http://www.jadrolinija.hr/pdfs/K%C3%...%20%202011.pdf

pegtrav

Thank you so much for this information. I don't think we want to spend a whole day on the ferry so we'll try to drive. Should we take the car with us to Hvar? Or should we turn in the car in Split, go to Hvar,then go back to Split, get another car and drive from there? We really appreciate your help as I hadn't been able to find these schedules anywhere!

Judy

We took a car to Hvar.
We were traveling in the opposite direction. We picked up the car after a stay in Dubrovnik, drove to Trogir, ferried with car to Hvar (and did enjoy driving around the island one day), ferried back to Split, drove to Plitvice, then Rovinj before returning the car in Zagreb. It was not a problem and we enjoyed the flexibility of having a car.

nukesafe

There is the alternative of returning from Hvar to Split on the fast catamaran ferry and taking the bus down to Dubrovnik. I don't know how the ferry schedule matches the bus schedule, but the bus takes only about four hours or so from Split to Dubrovnik, and they run frequently. The buses are modern and inexpensive.

It was a lovely trip along the winding mountain road when we did it, with small villages and the incredibly blue ocean below you. In the bus, you don't have to worry about driving, and can concentrate on the views.

pegtrav

Judy, we are doing the same trip in reverse although we are starting in Slovenia. We will get the car in Rovinj. Since the car ferry only goes twice a week, we won't be able to take it to Hvar. How was the drive between Split and Dubrovnik? I guess we have to decide whether to get another car and drive to Dubrovnik after Hvar or take the bus as nukesafe did.

nukesafe

If you do decide on the bus, I discuss the ride in an old trip report from a few years ago. http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-report.cfm

I warn you that the report is a long one, and the bus part is toward the end. Since we did not use a car, we took the opportunity to ride the bus in a few hops down the coast, stopping at places that interested us; Omis, and Makarkska.

mbloggs

We did this trip a couple of years ago. We didn't have a car and caught buses and ferries all the way down the coast from Rovinj to Dubrovnik. You're right about the ferry timetables - they don't publish them till just the last moment. Keep looking at Jadrolinea's website and they will finally appear. Last year's timetable should give you an idea. We were there in June and they were running regularly ie we had no trouble getting where we wanted when we wanted. We caught a ferry from Hvar to Korcula and spent a night there, which was lovely. It's a tiny island where Marco Polo was born and is very, very pretty. Then we caught a ferry to Dubrovnik. It was a beautiful trip down the coast, with lovely scenery, and we preferred it to the somewhat ratty buses. Don't hold me to this but I think they were pretty much daily ferries. There was no need for a car in either Hvar or Dubrovnik - a waste of money I would say. Here are a couple of great places we stayed in. If you do go the one in Dubrovnik, the owner will cook you one of the best meals you've ever had in your life with a day's notice. Also, be sure to get into the city to walk the walls at 8am before the hordes from half a dozen tourist ships are bussed in and the whole place turns into Disneyland.

Dubrovnik
Bokum guesthouse
+385 20357 290
http://www.bokun-guesthouse.com/index.htm
email: [email protected]

Hvar
Apartmani Barcot Hvar
hanibala lucica3. 21450 hvar
Hvar
http://www.hvar-apartmani.net/apartments.html

pegtrav

Thanks for all the replies and information. I have one more question. How bad is the drive from Hvar town to Sucuraj? Is the road bad/dangerous or is it just a long drive? It looks as if the best way to get from Hvar to Dubrovnik is drive to Sucuraj, take the ferry to Drvenik and drive on to Dubrovnik.