Our inaugural tour to Croatia was this past October. Once we announced the cruise back last February, we sold it out in about 4 days. We only wanted to take this "preview" tour with about 6 people, but because of the demand, we wound up taking 13 travelers. Of those, 7 were solo travelers (and all women), 2 couples, and two women sharing a cabin. The other half of the ship was a group of Canadian travelers. We lucked out! They were marvelous traveling companions.
Here are photos of our tour.
What we liked about our cruise:
People: The Croatian people are friendly, talkative, and welcoming.
Natural Beauty: The landscape of the Dalmatian Coast is stunning. Our cruise ship hugged the coastline the entire trip. The stunning and rugged mountains reached right out of the sea.
Weather: It was certainly warm enough to swim off the boat every day and believe me, we did. Passengers had no trouble finding a "quiet" space on the sun deck to relax and take in the sun. The nights were cool and refreshing. October is the end of the high season, so the cool temperatures kept the massively large crowds that invade Croatia during the summer.
Itinerary: Split is an ancient city of wonder. We spent two nights and had a guided tour. We easily cruised to Trstenik, Mljet, Dubrovnik, Korčula, Hvar, Bol. Each city was wonderful in its own way.
Ship: We were on the Admiral, a 19-cabin ship built in 2015. Cabins were plentiful in size and clean as clean can be. the food was good, especially breakfast. The crew went all-out to make us feel comfortable and welcome. There was never any problem in finding a lounge chair and I can tell you no one felt crowded at all. A small ship cruise like this one is completely different from those large ship cruises you may have gone on. It's a more private and enjoyable experience being on a small ship.
Meals: We liked that we did not have every meal on the ship. There was an opportunity to go out several times for lunch and dinner in the various ports of call. It really added variety to the cruise.
In general, we really liked going from location to location, without having to unpack our bags. It was a different experience for us since we are usually walking about 6 or 7 miles when in Paris or Italy. It was certainly not the case here, although there was an opportunity to see and do a lot.
What I would do differently:
Most of the people who went on our cruise chose to spend some time independently in Croatia before or after the trip. So when we run our tour in 2018, we have added on a 3-day tour of Zagreb and the Lakes District.
I was concerned about sharing the ship with another group I did not know. What if they were smokers? What if there were young children? We have also solved that concern in 2018 since we have chartered the entire ship. It will be a non-smoking cruise with no one under 25 years of age permitted.
To see the details of our 2018 Croatia small group tour, click HERE.