Croatia Beach Guide: Clear Water, Rocky Shores and Where to Swim

We’re talking real Croatian beach days, rocky coves, steep hikes, sea urchins, inflatable obstacle courses and a few places we almost turned around (but didn’t). From Dubrovnik to Split, Pag to Lopud, here’s where we swam, lounged, and said “okay, this was totally worth it.” Plus: full moon swims, surprise boat lunches, and how clear water turns you into a snorkel person whether you meant to be or not.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, I'm Lisa. And I'm Erin. And this is the Getaways Podcast. All right, we're still on our summer tips. So today we're talking about Croatia. Lisa's homeland.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

And somewhere, I think I said when we did the ask each other questions a few episodes ago, and I said that that would be my favorite. Like I'd want to go back there for my favorite beaches. I just think that the Croatian beaches are so crazy pretty. And it's it's a choice, right? Because Croatia is mostly rock and not sand.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Which is why Dylan and I is not our favorite.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

But that makes the water so unbelievably clear. There's nothing I love more than going out with to snorkel and like seeing all the fish, even though they're not as colorful. But um, and if there's rock, it's just so much easier to see everything. It's so clear, it's so incredibly beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Which is funny because no matter where we are, Dylan and I like to stay, you know, where we can touch or just pass there. But we'll at least be like, okay, I'm going out for a swim and she'll put, I don't know if where you're from, you have these whole face masks that are snorkel masks, but they come in like pink and aqua. And and so we always look for Lisa's little pink tip sticking out. And we'll be looking around beaches, like looking around, like where is she? And we'll see like the little pink tip almost out of sight. And I'm just like, oh my gosh, I don't know how she swims out that far. I would I and especially in Croatia, like there were beaches we'd go to, and I would be like, Where is she? And like she was far, like far.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

There's nothing better in the world than because you and it's so weird because with that whole mask on, like like Aaron said, I don't know if you they sell them everywhere, but you don't have to like breathe weird. You just breathe normal because it covers your nose and your mouth. And so it's the sound of your breath and the sound of the water and like just beauty. Like it's it's my happy place.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

And the reason I don't like rocks, A, sometimes it it hurts walking from point A to point B until you get in the water, don't you think? Like it hurts your feet. You definitely need watershoes. And um, and B, I think that like octopus and squid hide under the rocks, so I get I get really freaked out. When I go to rock beaches, I have to have a noodle so my feet don't touch, and I look like a pool. So I prefer sand, even though I'm I'm sure things hide under the sand too.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

But and I'm all about looking for those octopus.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Yeah. Um, so yeah, Croatian beaches, we're gonna dive into it, but they are they're very beautiful. Croatia is very underrated, I believe. I think it's starting to pick up. People are starting to discover Croatia. I think a lot. Remember all the cruise ships that they were talking about? Yeah. So we went to Croatia the first one of the first and only time to the beaches um in the summer of 2021. So but living in Italy, we were just coming out of COVID still. Right. And so it was still mass season, a lot of tourist stuff was down. There were still people weren't traveling. I don't know, could people travel into Europe from America? I think they could. Well, I guess Katie did.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Yeah. Yeah, they could. But um, but we were with a friend from that then lived in New York, and um, we went on a morning tour together, and they were telling us how the summer before COVID, there were so many cruise ships that came into the harbor in Dubrovnik that they were trying to limit the number that came in because the city couldn't support that many tourists at one time. So I think I'm not sure where they're at now, but they were just barely letting people in. So we we uh were there at an incredibly empty time.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Which was beautiful. Like it was so nice to like have virtually the city to ourselves. Like the roads weren't the streets weren't crowded. It was it was it was magical, but in a sad way because it was magical because you know of COVID. But yeah, it's they said that the restaurants stopped even letting tourists eat there.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Using the bathroom. Do you remember? Oh, you weren't there. Okay, so but they the tour guide said that there was like a decision made, I mean, informal, but that they were only that restaurants and stores were not gonna let tourists use the bathroom if they would have to use a public bathroom in the like main square in Dubrovnik. And um, and like, can you imagine that there's that? There's like eight cruise ships, and that's the only way you have to go to the bathroom.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

I think at the end of the day, it's not that these countries don't want tourists. It's just like the cruise ships have become so big and so many trying to port that when you put thousands of thousands of people in a town that is not even a mile. I mean, it's tiny. It's small, it's it's not sustainable, and it's not, it doesn't work for anybody.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

And we're talking about old the Brovnik.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

The the actual like historical part of it in the middle.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

But you're seeing it with like Venice, you're seeing it with Amsterdam, like it's it's just and I think it's just the cruise ships are just becoming so big. So every they still want the tourists, it it they live on that, but it's be it's becoming overwhelming and it's damaging the city.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Right, it's catch 22, right? Because financially it's great, but it when it starts to wear on your actual city and the the structure and the infrastructure, it it becomes a problem.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

So we took a ferry from Ancana in Italy over to Split, and then we drove down to Dubrovnik for our first stop. We did three weeks Dubrovnik, Split, and Pog Island. And so from Split to Dubrovnik, you have to go through Bosnia and Herzeg. Bosnia and Herzylvania. Yes, and so which is did we have to go through immigration like uh border crossing there? Because Bosnia is not part of the EU.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

It's not part of the Shagan. I think it's part of the EU, but it's not part of the Shagan.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Did we go through?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

I believe we did, because isn't that? Oh yeah, because we wanted to stop. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Yeah, so you have to go through crossing there. And I don't know why. Because I grew up in the 90s, uh, and that was when the war was, right? Yeah. Yeah, I thought I just was like a little nervous to go through there, but there was no reason. It's that we stopped there on the way back and got some really nice like uh pastries.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Well, and it's funny because you you go through Croatia and then you go through a bit of Bosnia. For like 20 minutes. And then you're back in Croatia because the way they divided the land after the war was was so that there was no beaches for the Bosnians. Yeah, so that was part of the negotiation.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

So they kind of have this little pokeout in between Croatia, which the beaches did look beautiful, the few that they had right there. Well, because they're it's the same as Croatia, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Except that you know nobody thinks about it.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Yeah. So so we drove into uh we drove into Dubrovnik, which was just kind of stunning. It's stunning, it's a stunning country. It's beautiful. Dubrovnik is stunning. You probably, if you watch Game of Thrones, you would know Dubrovnik because the majority of it was filmed there.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Right. Um but it's it Dubrovnik as a city is very steep, and it is all built on a cliff or big hill. Yeah. So anywhere you are, you're gonna be stairs are involved. So beware if you're not a stair person or if you have any sort of difficulties walking, um, because you it's unavoidable. And it's really hot in summer.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Oh my god, it's so hot. It's so hot. Well, let's stick, let's go back and stick to beaches since this is our beaches thing, and we'll definitely do a whole podcast about Dubrovnik because there's a lot to talk about. Yeah. But we stayed at an Airbnb that was clearly on a cliff, uh, but had stairs right outside of it that went down to beach level, well, kind of beach level and town level. So, but our view, I'll put our view up. It was fantastic. And we had a hot tub that we didn't use the hot part of it, but we used it as like a cold plunge soaking thing. It was that was a great Airbnb.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

It was, it was. Um, and uh there's a hotel, so we were right up from this hotel called the Excelsior, which is a pretty well-known hotel in Dubrovnik that's right on the sea. And then um, but we were so like up like two flights of stairs from there, but you know, it it was it's easy to get to the water from there, I believe. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

So the the first beach we went to was kind of right next to Old Town. It's the one, it's the one in Dubrovnik that I went to, the only one that I would go to. Right. And it was called, I'm gonna say it with an Italian pronunciation, so because I'm not sure about Croatian, but it's Banye Beach. And it was, it's lovely. And it wasn't even in the heart heat of summer, it was crowded, but it wasn't like overly crowded. Right, right. And it was beautiful, and I really enjoyed it. I went there like three or four times. And Lisa went there. I went there every morning. Every morning, yeah. But then Lisa did find a different beach that she went to.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

I did, and it was not easy. It was on the other side of like a little bit further away from Old Town. I mean, that probably took me like 45 minutes to get there. Yeah, to just to get there. Yeah. Um, and then lots of stairs down, but it was Plaza Beach and it was amazing, like super, super beautiful, super clean. I think I was the only one there because I tend to exercise and then I want to go for a swim. So it was probably on the early side in the morning, um, which I just love because you've almost always have the place to yourself and it's just you and the sound of the water. But yeah, highly, highly recommend if you are are in for the trek.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

And and Lisa in the morning doesn't take her phone. So we don't have video, and I it the it was very stair-heavy. So I didn't well, I I'm on vacation. So that I don't have video, but if you YouTube it, you will find so many videos of people that go to it and they're like, oh my god, look at these stairs. And then getting down's the easy part, but then you gotta get back up. So they're just look it up. It is funny to watch these videos. And then we we went to two other beaches. We did. Well, we took the boat ride. Yeah, we'll save the magic for last on this one. Yeah, we took a boat ride and which was really nice.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

It was beautiful, yeah. And it was just us, um, and it wasn't expensive. It wasn't expensive at all. But so we we went explored a lot of areas, but then um the place that our boat driver took us for lunch was do you want to say it?

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Low Pund Island. And the beach was called Sunge. It's S-U with a little no with the S with the little little V on top of it, U N J beach. And it's an island, and there's no cars on this island.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

And you can get to the beach by boat only, and it's one of the few sandy beaches. And when I say sandy, I mean it was like the finest, whitest sand. That like to stick all over. Yeah, but it was so beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

But so it was really nice. I wanted to to take pictures, so I thought I would just swim with my phone above my head, so I couldn't do I didn't do that. So we don't have any video or pictures from there.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

We had a great lunch there though, too. Remember, they had that like really cute hut restaurant where we had lunch, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

And not crowded in the heat of the summer, the heart of the summer, it was not crowded, and the beach was pretty big.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

So definitely get a boat because I think it was just like less than$200 for like six hours. Yeah. For all of us. Yeah. Um, okay, and then the most magical beach of Croatia, in my opinion. I love it. I love it. I've got pictures up. I've got I've put stuff up on Instagram before. It's called I'll let the Croatian tell us.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

When she says that, I'm like two generations out, so don't expect anything. Um Pajaka? Pajaka?

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Yeah, P-A-S-J-A-C with a little mark A beach. And it is stunning. But what I will say is you have to park way up a cliff and it's what was like 30 minutes?

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

It's like a 30-minute like hike along a cliffside. Your sister would have hated it. Hike along a cliffside with stairs, like rock stairs, so they're not, they're just not even, or that it's it's kind of scary going down.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Well, okay, so two things. I I have a bad hip, and so I get very nervous on going down things and like losing my footing. And so I was just like gra- you remember this, like grabbing onto like men all the way down. There was some at the very bottom, it gets really steep, and I was sliding, and some man just stopped and like caught me.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Yeah. And at the at the very bottom, the steps sometimes are like three feet high. Yeah, you're you're bouldering basically.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Yeah, I couldn't even do it. But the the thing is, is that for most of the walk down or climb down, you can't see what you're going to. No. So it's like, is this really worth it? Like, is this if I kill myself, is this really worth it?

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Well, and I'm afraid of heights. Like, I was nervous the whole part going down until we got around that one corner.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

And yeah, like, oh. And then it's like, okay, yeah, that's worth it. I could, I could kill myself for this. This is this is stunning.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

And I will say, and I don't say this often about going up and down stairs and cliffs, but going down felt a lot longer than going back up to me. And usually it's the opposite because I'm usually like, oh, it's a lot of stairs. But it it felt like an eternity to get there. But once you get there, it is a slice of heaven. A slice of heaven. And that's the beach that Lisa like just disappeared. Like, where'd she go? But yeah, so it is it was a stunning beach. Yeah. All right, so we move on to split.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

We had that Airbnb. It was on a little island off a split, kind of like a peninsula.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Yeah. And it was on the sand. Like you walked out, it was a huge yard, and then you walked out and you were at the water.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Yeah. Um and when she says sand, she means rocks.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Oh yeah. Um, but and that beach was, you know, it's funny too, that you were talking about um octopus and stuff being under, but that beach is full of the sea urchin. Yeah, like everywhere. So you have to be so careful where you walk. You have to wear shoes in that water. Well, and still be careful because you don't want to kill any of them. But it's um, yeah, it's really, really heavy sea life there.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

But totally worth it when you have a beach right outside your back door.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah. And there was lots of places to walk the dog there. Like we would go on total hiking adventure. Forests. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was a really, really diverse island and and a lot to see. And um, and then some mornings I would go, I'd walk wrecks for like an hour or something, be all crazy hot because it was ridiculously hot, even super early in the morning, and then go around the corner. There was a a bay, and I would swim along the whole it's called Hidden Bay. Yeah, I would swim back to our house from there, and it was amazing. I mean, there's it's so quiet and beautiful, and and no crowds there.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

No, no crowds, because it's just a row of houses, basically. Yeah, and again, a lot of mountain, like we were on the bottom because we were beachside, but everything was built up into mountains there. It's very mountainous. Yeah. That no crowds, like nobody was out by our little beach. We would drag our sun loungers from our backyard out to like the sand, the rocks out there, and just sit out there and swim. Katie and Lisa would sit out there and read in their inflatables.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Yeah. And Rex swam there.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Rex swam there a lot. He loved it there. Yeah. And then because we were on kind of a little peninsula island, if we walked out and went to the right and walked for a while, we got to this beach called um Copacob Coca Copacabana Beach. That's where that that big inflatable land was. Yeah, yeah. And Katie and Dylan, like well, Katie, for as long as she could because she's a grown-up, but they played on that inflatable for hours.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Yeah. So for for people who don't know what we're talking about, it's like a big obstacle course, bounce house, climbing thing that's inflatable and in the middle of the sea. Yeah. And so you go out there and it's slippery as can be getting on and off. But um, but you know, it's you jump in the water, you jump in the house, you climb on things. It's like the best entertainment for kids. And um, and you can get life jackets when you buy your tickets. Um, but yeah, I mean it's just fantastic for kids from I would say like six or seven up.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Yeah, that one you could swim to. There's some that are so far out in the sea that they have to take you by boat or jet ski to get to. Yeah, I don't go to them, so they used to make me nervous because I'd be like, okay, bye, Dylan. Have fun in the middle of the sea.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Well, I used to do it with them until I broke my toe on that one.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Yeah. Tons of restaurants over there on the sea, tons of gelato places, souvenir shops. It's like just it's a little beach community. Yeah. And it it's beautiful. Yeah. It's beautiful. And then what the only because we had those beaches just right outside our house, we didn't really explore much, but we did drive over to the other side of the little island we were on to uh Tan Tananye. Is that how you say it? Tananye beach. Sure. It was like a little cove. It was about a 20-minute drive from our house. I don't have any clear, like memorable memories. I don't have any.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

It was nice. Yeah, we certainly didn't go anywhere that we didn't like the whole time we were there. So yeah, so Split is beautiful. It's also like just there's so many little islands in Croatia that you could explore and find amazing beaches that, you know, are indescribably beautiful. And and but we definitely, we definitely recommend Split and the place we went next.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Yes. So we wanted to do something a little further north and someplace that we didn't know. And for some reason we landed on Pog Island and we booked this really great Airbnb, also basically right on the sand. Right. Um, but it was um uh apartment building, so we were on the top floor. We had this great terrace, but what we didn't realize when we booked it that Pog Island is like the destination for EDM festivals in the summer. And like, so it was there were so many festivals when we were there.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Yeah, there was a lot of a lot of partying happening, but it didn't interfere with anything that we were doing. Like it wasn't like it was loud or you know, there wasn't crazy crowds or anything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Um I because I think we're out when everybody else is sleepy.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Right. That's why I do early morning swims.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Um, but the the the island, there's one little road that you can take from the mainland like over a bridge is how we got there. And then we took a boat back, a ferry.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

And Pog has a lot. I feel like it has so much more than split to actually do. Yes. Because there's there's markets, there's that um that whole area, the harbor where you can rent boats. A glass bottom boat, they've got a submarine that goes out. And the one that we were gonna do with Katie, but the well that I was gonna do with Katie, but the weather was bad. The um the super speed boat. Oh, yeah. You remember that? Yeah. Where it's like it it almost goes underwater, yeah, but the top is open with you. Like, I don't know how to describe it, except it's like it goes insanely fast and it kind of Of shoots under the water at times and jumps up.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Pog Island is definitely like a tourist beach attraction island. Yeah. They've got all of it. They've got tons of restaurants around. The town is cute. Yeah. It's the food is great.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Yeah. The food in general in Croatia is great. So so you and it's very familiar. So you're you're not you're not gonna feel like you don't know what to order because it's it's the same. It's kind of a mix of Italian and a little bit of French and a little like a little bit of Turkish. Like I feel like it's but it's all stuff that's that's really nice. Um but there were also like lots of places to walk. Like we took wrecks on long, long walks along the perimeter of the island and could stop and swim anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

And they have almost like dunes on out there that have like like wood forestry. They're just it's it was really cool. It was cool.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Yeah, it's uh you know the the music festivals, like I said, didn't bother us at all, but it it's kind of a nice balance of there being a lot of stuff to do and there being just natural nature stuff to do too.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Yeah, you know, and I don't have a lot of the names of the beaches because there's just it's all beach because it's a small island, but we walked to this beach called Planjica. Plan. I don't know. Every night we would walk there with Rex. Uh-huh. Um, we never swam there though, did we? He did. He did. Yeah. And then um we went to the main beach is called Babe Beach, and that's where they had inflatables, an inflatable thing. When we did that there, Dylan did.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

And services, like there's a few restaurants there, there's bathrooms there. Um there's a big parking lot.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

It was nice. And then we went to this other beach. I don't know what it was called, like Plaza Prinic. I don't know. We drove to the other side.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

We'll put the names on the website.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

And then we happened to be there for a full moon. So Katie and I went for our full moon swim. Creepy. But so yeah, Pog Island is I I I I had never heard of it, but I would say go.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Yeah. No, I mean, I think that if I had to pick one of these beaches for or one of these areas for the entire vacation, I think I would choose Pog just because there's so much to do. As much as I love the other two, especially Dubrovnik, like I think that that kind of you get a little bit of everything and a it's a true resorty feel.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

It's a true beach. You're beaching it all the time. Yeah. I know why we went there because we wanted to go, and I don't know if this is how you say it, but KRK. So I don't know how you would say it. We were trying to go there, but there was nothing available, remember? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Well, isn't that because um we wanted to copy um Neil Patrick Hill? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

We we saw his video and we were like, we want to go there. But I I just don't think you can go wrong with Croatian beaches.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

Yeah, and definitely we have so much more to talk about about Croatia in general. Yeah. That that will be coming up. But but okay, so my tips for Croatian summer bring watershoes. Yes, and plenty of sunscreen because it gets hot. And so if you're a person that needs a hat or whatever, like prepare for center of the sun heat. Rent a car. Yep. And be prepared for hiking.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Yeah. Cause there's it's a lot to get up and down to the beaches.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Yeah. And and I will say that a lot of the watershoes have like pretty serious traction on the bottom. So that's what I used. I don't know that it was the that I had the best ones, but it might be worth investing a little bit into your watershoes to make sure that you're you feel good and safe and comfortable when you're when you're doing these hikes and then go into the water.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

And I will say we don't do this, but our friend Katie scuba dives and she went scuba diving in Croatia and thought it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Yeah.

unknown 23:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

So go to Croatia.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

And if you don't want to scuba dive, get one of my masks because I'm telling you, it's the best thing ever.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

I'll put it up on the website because I don't, I don't know if they have it in America specifically, but they are fantastic. And you can buy them all over Europe. All right, guys. Well, thanks for listening. Yes, thanks. And we will don't forget to like, subscribe, and review us. We'll be back next week with some more summer fun. And check out our website, www.thetawayswithaZ.com. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.