Country Roads of Croatia

Your first hours in Croatia begin in Zagreb, where you can settle in or make your way along Strossmayer Promenade beneath a canopy of rustling chestnut branches, high above the city. You might pause beside the bronze figure of poet Antun Gustav Matoš, seated on a bench where he once read his newspaper and sipped coffee. Over dinner with your Travel Director, you taste Croatian wine and exchange stories across the table.

With your Local Specialist, you'll cross Zagreb from the grand boulevards of Lower Town to the old lanes above, passing the Art Pavilion and the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The funicular hums along its 66-meter track near St Mark’s Church, its heraldic roof patterned like embroidery against the sky. You’ll continue past Lotrščak Tower and descend into the chapel, where flickering candlelight casts long shadows against the worn stone. Your afternoon is free to relax or join an Optional Experience to Kumrovec, where Tito’s birthplace stands among the timber houses and cottage gardens of the Old Village Museum.

• Zagreb City Tour
• Zagreb Funicular Ride to Gornji Grad

Venture into Slovenia to visit the world-famous Postojna Caves. Step aboard the cave train and descend into a subterranean world of stunning stalactites, stalagmites, columns and curtains. Marvel at the five-meter tall Brilliant, the cave's most beautiful stalagmite. Return to Croatia to your hotel on the Opatija Riviera

• Postojna Caves Visit

Across Istria’s heart-shaped peninsula, you’ll reach Pula and stand beneath the first-century Arena, its pale limestone arches opening towards the harbor. As your Local Specialist recounts the gladiatorial contests once held here, you look across the vast oval and up through tier upon tier of stone. In Rovinj, you’ll weave through narrow cobbled lanes between pastel façades, carved doorways and wrought-iron balconies, catching glimpses of blue water between the houses. The scent of coffee drifts from sidewalk cafes as you pass small shops and follow the lanes towards the harbor, where the old town climbs above the Adriatic in a sweep of warm color.

• Pula Arena Visit

Along Croatia’s Adriatic coast, you watch rocky islands scatter across the sea before the road winds inland towards the forests of Plitviče. Follow your Local Specialist beside glassy lakes as cascades spill over travertine ledges, their steady rush carrying through the beech and fir. You’ll learn how researchers monitor the park’s habitats and the species that depend on them. Later spend time with the women of the Tara Community Center, watching colored thread pass through cloth as one of your hosts shares how traditional handicrafts create work, independence and companionship within the community.

• Learn about the Tara community at Plitvice National Park
• Learn about Habitat Conservation at Plitvice National Park

You’ll leave Plitviče’s green woodland and follow the Adriatic, its turquoise water stretching beyond smooth pebble shores and rocky islets. In Zadar, you’ll pass Roman ruins and the market before reaching the waterfront, where each wave sends air through the Sea Organ’s hidden pipes and releases a low, resonant chorus from the steps. Silver-green olive groves line the road to Trogir, founded by the Greeks in the 3rd century BCE. You pause at the cathedral before Master Radovan’s carved portal, alive with lions, saints and mythical creatures, then admire the Renaissance elegance of Čipiko Palace. Continue to historic Solin, once the Roman city of Salona. Perhaps choose tonight’s Optional Experience and dine in a traditional konoba, where aromas reach the table before the first plate arrives.

Deep beneath Split’s old streets, you’ll enter the vaulted cellars of Diocletian’s Palace, limestone arches fading into the glimmering half-light as your Local Specialist recounts the emperor’s rule. Above ground, you’ll follow narrow lanes into arcaded squares, passing the Peristyle’s red granite columns before reaching St Duje’s, built within Diocletian’s former mausoleum, and the Golden Gate once reserved for the emperor and his family. Split’s waterfront recedes beyond the ferry rail as your island-hopping begins across the Adriatic. On Hvar, steep inland ridges rise beyond the harbor and, in early summer, lavender perfumes the country roads. You’ll spend two nights on this famously sunny island among dry-stone terraces, mountain peaks and old villages.

• Split to Hvar Ferry
• Split City Tour
• Visit Emperor Diocletian's Palace in Split
• Hvar Orientation

A full day in Hvar Town is yours to spend following smooth marble lanes between honey-colored buildings, small boutiques and the polished yachts of its elegant marina. Climb to the Venetian Fortress, where you rest your hands on the old battlements as the Pakleni Islands stretch in a broken chain across the blue below. At the waterfront, you might order fresh seafood while white masts stand in slender lines against the horizon and boats rock at their moorings. Or seek out the island’s quiet coves, secluded beaches and stone villages. Choose an Optional Experience to Stari Grad and Vrboska, traveling across the UNESCO-listed Stari Grad Plain and crossing small bridges over Vrboska’s narrow channel. In a local wine cellar, you’ll taste Hvar wine with local specialties as your host talks you through each pairing.

From the ferry deck, you hear the low thrum of the engines as the mainland falls away and Korčula’s long, wooded outline lies low in the distance. Once ashore, you’ll follow the southern road above secluded bays, where pale shingle lines the coves and sheltered water mirrors the deep green of the trees. At the hotel, you’ll join your fellow travelers for dinner on your first evening on Korčula.

• Ferry from Hvar to Mainland

Among Korčula’s herringbone lanes, you’ll move between carved balconies and weathered doorways, with views towards the Pelješac mainland across the channel. St Mark’s Square suddenly opens around the cathedral, its Gothic and Romanesque portal worked into a lace of carved stone as your Local Specialist shares legends of the island. You’ll remain within the Old Town’s close-knit streets for the Town Museum inside Gabrielis Palace, the Bishop’s Palace treasury and the Town Hall, before pausing at the ruins traditionally linked to Marco Polo’s birthplace. Later, follow whichever lane catches your eye, step inside a church where candle wax may scent the still air or look up at decorated palace fronts as a bell sounds above the roofs.

• Korcula City Tour

Weather permitting, your boat slips into Mali Ston Bay, where oyster lines disappear beneath the dark water and Croatian brandy leaves fruit, spice and heat on your tongue. At the shellfish farm, a local oyster farmer lifts the day’s harvest from the bay and explains how oysters are cultivated in these sheltered waters. You’ll then gather for a Sea-to-Table tasting with a glass of wine at the water’s edge. Later, Dubrovnik’s walls rise above the coast. Inside the 16th-century bastions, your Local Specialist guides you through the Old Town as water pours into the carved basin of Onofrio’s Fountain. Beyond it, you’ll pass the baroque curves of Saint Blaise’s Church and the cathedral before entering the Franciscan Monastery’s arcaded cloister, where the city noise falls to a hush. At Hotel Dubrovnik Palace, you can end the day on a terrace above the Adriatic, with the Elafiti Islands resting on the horizon as the last light fades across the water.

• Cruise to Ston Village by Private Boat
• Dubrovnik City Tour
• Meet an Oyster Farmer in Ston

With a free day in Dubrovnik, you can stay close to the city or choose an Optional Experience along Montenegro’s coast to Kotor. The road curls beside the bay before you’ll enter Kotor’s walled Old Town, the mountains towering behind a tangle of terracotta roofs. Within the walls, small squares appear between palace fronts and Romanesque churches, while cats doze beside bowls left at street corners. You might photograph St Tryphon’s Cathedral, then turn towards the water to take in the rooftops, bay and mountains in one sweeping view as you hear how Kotor earned UNESCO World Heritage status. Back in Dubrovnik, the evening is entirely your own. Perhaps begin at a wine bar before choosing a sidewalk cafe, where lantern light pools across the table and the old walls glow beyond the awning.

At leisure, you might cool off beside the pool, browse Dubrovnik’s market stalls or follow Cavtat’s curved harbor past small boats tugging gently at their ropes. Weather permitting, you’ll board an evening cruise around Dubrovnik Bay. The engine hums beneath the deck as you glide across the bay, Dubrovnik’s terracotta rooftops and pale stone walls stretching along the water’s edge. Over dinner, you’ll taste local specialties with your fellow travelers while Dubrovnik shimmers beyond the rail.

• Dubrovnik Cruise
• Dubrovnik Dinner

After breakfast, it’s time to say goodbye as your Croatian tour comes to an end.