Has anyone been to Hungary and Croatia

[cilantromapuche]

We are going at the end of June (flying into Budapest) and then driving to Croatia. Not sure yet where to and having a hard time wrapping my head around this trip.
Anyone been?

Lake Plitvice National Park is for sure and then along the coast.

[ged]

Yes, a few times, on separate trips. But believe it or not, skipped Plitvice NP each time. Gorgeous area. Tons to see. A couple of quick thoughts:

1. Budapest. A bit more gritty and a bit tougher to love, but we stayed 5 nights (longer than most people would) and really enjoyed it. Was traveling with my then 5 yo DD and we had a kids travel book with us called "Benjamin in Budapest." Not sure if its still in print. Excellent food. DUCK FAT. yum. Did the baths. Spend time on both sides.

2. Croatia. Huge and long country. Islands are lovely. Dubrovnik back in the day was amazing. Not sure what its like now. Split is also a cute town, despite it being less touristed (more of a major cityt than tourist site)...we spent time there along the coast and enjoyed it, though it may not be the #1 destination for a 1st time visitor. On one trip we took the ferry over to Rovinj from Venice, and explored the the peninsula. Was not expecting to see a roman amphitheater in Pula.

3. Seriously consider some time in Slovenia. May be my favorite country over there. Love Ljubljana.


Where are you flying out from? Lots of options when you factor in the ferry. Explore the map and see what you catches your eye. Nearby, I loved visiting Trieste and Muggia (IT).

[SASM]

Just chiming in to say that I am super jealous! My great grandmother is from Makarska...I've wanted to there since my childhood.

[cilantromapuche]

Just chiming in to say that I am super jealous! My great grandmother is from Makarska...I've wanted to there since my childhood.

My grandparents were from Hungary and we want to show the kids!

[cilantromapuche]

[

Seriously consider some time in Slovenia. May be my favorite country over there. Love Ljubljana.

What makes you love Slovenia so much! Would love to hear more!

Where are you flying out from? Lots of options when you factor in the ferry. Explore the map and see what you catches your eye. Nearby, I loved visiting Trieste and Muggia (IT).[/QUOTE]

We are flying out of Budapest as well. I did see that Venice is only 3 hours from Pula. Venice just put some tourist limits so not sure if it's worth going over for if we can't see the best parts.

[american_mama]

My family went to Croatia for a week in 2013 while living in Germany. We loved it. It was hugely on the rise as a tourist destination then, and the tourist infrastructure was very good on the coast.... good roads, good signage, lots of English spoken really well, very knowledgeable and worldly local population. Our tour guide in Split said the country had always looked to Italy for trends, intonation of Croatian, food, etc. and the country felt way more European to me than eastern European. We went to Prague earlier in our stay, whcih is also hugely touristed, but it felt more eastern European than Croatia.

The ice cream, pasta and savory pastries in bakeries were very good. The weather was hot with very strong sun when we went in July.

Most of the beaches in Croatia are pebble beaches, not sand. The water is clear, but rocky underneath. Definitely bring water shoes, whcih are also sold by vendors and stores on the beach. I was skeptical, but brought what we had and one pair was too thin so we bought another pair there. We were so much happier wearing them.

We took the train into Zagreb, rented a car and drove to Lake Plitvice. The Zagreb area and the interior is more economically depressed, less touristed and suffered more during the war. It felt pretty eastern European from our few hours there. Lake Plitvice is a very big park and was very nice - it got just a tad repetitive, I have to say, but I still recommend it. We ate at the restaurant there, whcih was kind of disappointing. Umm.... sadly, I really don't remember this as much as I should.

We stayed in an Air BnB in Trogir, which we really liked. Lots of beaches of different types, a gorgeous and small old town, a local market, very walkable. We went into Split for a day and it seemed like quite a busy place, very touristed, definitely on the international visitor radar. We toured the Diocletian Palace with a private guide, whcih was a splurge but we were short on time. It's a city in a city. Ate at a wonderful restaurant where we had risotta rice with black sauce made from cuttlefish ink... turns your lips black.... which my husband and then 8 year old just adored. We'd never had it before.

We then drove down to Dubrovnik along a road that is a lot like the Pacific Coast Highway in California. Long, twisty, overlooking seaside cliffs. Need to be a confident driver. We stopped at what I think was my favorite beach in Croatia called Brela with blue flag beaches for very clear, unpolluted water. The beaches are little coves there, not one unbroken stretch, with curving lines of cedar trees, which is an unusual sight (to me) at the beach. There are enough vendors for convenience , with most of the restaurants clustered at one end to not crowd out the nature (and the food was good). FRom the beach (and for several miles on the road), you can see the large island of Brac where stone for the US Capitol was quarried.

In Dubrovnik, we kind of slowed down because it seemed so busy compared to where we had been. We missed the chance to walk on the city walls, whcih I sorely regret. I believe a night tour is cooler. We took a ferry to Lopud island, which has a sand beach that was lovely and a just-right size, but just a tad boring. I understand that the next island on the ferry route offered snorkeling in caves, which would have been cool. If we'd timed it better, we could have done a morning ferry to Lopud, spent hours there, later afternoon/early evening ferry back, then night tour of the Dubrovnik walls.

We got to the ferry terminal on the city bus. It was not hard. THere is a really big grocery store by the ferry terminal if you want to buy supplies, picnic items, etc.

One more thing - because it is such a long country, we did not arrive and depart from the same city. Doing so would have wasted a lot of time re-tracing our route. We took the train into Zagreb, got a rental car, used it until we got to Dubrovnik where we returned it, then we used public transport. Then we took a cab to the airport and flew out of Dubrovnik. I am really glad we did this to use all our time for sightseeing rather than backtracking.

I went to Budapest as a student back in 1992. I liked it but don't remember much. The river is wide and the difference between the two sides of the city big. The city felt kind of formal, as I recall.

[ged]

Slovenia is often referred to as a "mini-Europe" because of it's variety of geographical characteristics. I don't know if I can pinpoint what I love so much about it, but perhaps it's because I feel it's somewhat of a hidden gem. Here it is, in the middle of so many amazing countries, yet it's usually bypassed while traveling from here to there. I've been to SLO (Slovenia) probably 3+ times, and I always enjoy it. The college town of Ljubljana is really lovely, though small. Bridges, rivers, awesome markets, etc. And the people we met there were fantastic. The cream cake served @ Lake Bled is very popular. I think I just like smaller/less touristed towns, like Ljubljana, Trieste, etc., in general.